Travelling is one of the most exciting life journeys especially unique flight memories either solo or with family and friends. Navigating in some airports can be challenging for first-time travellers from accessibility, language barrier, communication, getting foods and so on. Local Guides from Bangladesh, England, The Gambia, Greece, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Ukraine and many more…… to share their airports and flights experience and some key travels tips to help others learn how to navigate flawlessly as especially as Local Guide.Photo Album: Airports and Flights Tips Meetup
The meetup took place on Friday 29th May 2020 which was also on my birthday, I couldn’t have celebrated it any better than with all the incredible local guides who joined to make the day very special by singing for me and sharing their travel knowledge. I was deeply honoured to have them on that day as I really wanted to celebrate it with Local Guides after having the birthday meetup declined about 2-3 times.
We started with a short introduction to welcome attendees, our first discussions were around how to review airports and add photos by sharing Googler
@AriMar post on How to write helpful reviews at airports
2, Managing bookings: Online booking is very convenient but having a bank card available or other online payments options available, online securities, in some countries makes it difficult to use. Local Guides share how they book their tickets and some are more comfortable with booking from travel agents. In addition, we discussed things we have learned through flight bookings, trying miles programs, transit, luggage, visa, checking flights status and transport-related.
3, Navigating in airports: travelling through airports you have never been or as a first-time traveller sometimes comes with a lot of unprecedented challenges which can really affect your travel experience. Accessibility was the inception of the topic as its global call to action for inclusion and flawless movement. We later talked aboutthings to do in airports, duty-free zones short debate, exploring airport food and drinks courts, wifi zones plus tips, toilets to finding your gate on departure and existing airport on arrival to transport links.
4, Best/fun Airport Experience/Top Airports: We were supposed to do airport virtual tours but my internet was so bad as I had a lot of friends over for dinner on my birthday and were connected to the wifi and we just had to skip that part to our airports’ experiences. Attendees shared some very exciting and funny experience which got us laughing so hard at some point, also some were very touching and inspiring. @MSulaiman did a short airport quiz which was very interactive and fun.
5, Tips for travellers: It’s always a different experience in a foreign country and not knowing some basics can be frustrating, Local Guides shared tips about their airports including silent/military airports also traffic congestion in some cities. Some past connect live attendees also joined to the conversation to share tips.
Some takeaways from the meetup:
1, Be respectful and always comply at airports. AVOID TROUBLES WITH SECURITIES!!!
- Always take wheelchair assistance for elderly travellers or if you any have accessibility challenges, available in almost all airports. Makes communication and navigation a lot easier. @KashifMisidia
3, Be very mindful when transiting with more luggage as it can be very stressful. @Mayford
4, Have your sim on roaming for airports Wifi OPT – One-time Password or look for the nearest café such as Starbucks to get connected. If your transit is longer and have limited airport connection time use your friends number to get the OTP. Myself
5, Pray and stay calm when the is a turbulence/reports & be sure to check the weather and have at least an extra cloth for unexpected weather. @travelbyjp
6, Share feedback with the airport as soon as you noticed something wrong. Nill made feedback some years back about travellers drinking water from the wrong place and wrote to them which got replaced with a water dispenser. @user_not_found
7, Try airport foods, it’s very tasty and local sometimes @ChinonsoOnukwugha
8, If you have gears (Cameras/Lens) take them out and present them politely. Nick Byroglou
8, Arrive early so you can have the opportunity to explore the airport @Globe_trotter_Ish
9, Don’t go digital 100% and keep documents in your carry-on bag in case you will be asked
10, Look for assistance desk or use sign language if you have a communication barrier
11, Don’t relax too much with checking your flights status.
12, Signup for miles programs, it has a lot of benefits especially for frequent travellers
To all the amazing Local Guides that joined! Thank you so much for joining and your invaluable support in making the meetup a success by sharing and making my day memorable and exciting. If I forgot to add anything important or missed something from the discussion please add below.
@JaneBurunina I can’t thank you enough for your efforts and amazing contributions. @Shrut19 you’re awesome, thanks for the lovely pictures.
It’s one of My Favorite Virtual Meet-Up topics 
You did it!
we did and felt your presence too in spirit throughout the meetup. It was really fun and informative, I got overwhelmed and forgot to record also my internet was bad. Thanks for your pleasant comment, indeed I believe a lot of travellers can learn something out of this. 
