Safety Travel Tips

More and more we read about crime and home burglary. We are all saddened and horrified  by the kidnapping of Savannah Guthrie’s mom.  We suggest you Be a nobody, especially when you travel.

Don’t share photos of your trip during the time you are away. Facebook indicates when the photo was taken, uploaded and shared. If you are on vacation, do you really want people to know your home is empty?  Skimming idly through  Facebook just now, I saw a table of cruise passengers and a list of their names by the agent who booked the group… Not smart.

So you still want to post photos?  You can change the date of posted photos. It took me some clicking around on a learning curve.

Here are the exact instructions from Facebook Help Pages.

Go to the correct Facebook page, and find the photo to edit. The dots in the upper right include one for Options.  Select Edit then find date from the menu. Choose a new date and time then click Done.  You cannot make the date later than the actual photo. Currently the earliest date you can choose is January 1, 1905.

PS unwritten courtesy is that you get upfront approvals before tagging friends in any public forum photo. There are personal reasons people want anonymity. I had a client harassed by a neighbor; she asked not to be in trip photos. Another paid her trip in cash to hide it from an ex. A third lost weight and hated the photo. Worst is the lady who did not forewarn us. She covered their face in the photo. The way she did it was the way jewelry store robbers avert their faces; it looked creepy.

Instagram edits on date changes are harder. You need to delete the photo, adjust the date in your phone and reload it. Instagram is mainly used by a younger group so likelihood of older people seeing you is less. Facebook posts also bounce to Instagram if allowed by the Facebook page owner.

Tour companies have written policies about publishing client photos for commercial purposes. If the people look too rested, their hair and make up perfect and they are standing in a perfectly arranged line….these are not real clients but models and/or AI photos. I saw a photo of 3 women on a women’s travel Facebook page.  The comment below was as follows: We are the women in this photo and never traveled with this company; take it off.

Finally if a photographer takes your photo on a trip, that person owns the photo not you. But you also have to give permission ie. a release. Read the small print of your tour company for legal reasons to get out of photos.  Good companies have written photo permission policies.

Don’t put a home address on luggage tags. While you stand at check in, anyone can photo dangling luggage tags. Recently Delta check in staff asked me to add a Delta paper tag to a checked suitcase. I put name and cell phone with the + sign instead of a street address. The agent was fine with a US number. Tour company or cruise baggage tags which include your cabin number or other personal information? You have time to add the tag before meeting your group or cruise and after the flight.

Don’t let anyone see your boarding pass. It contains information that allows strangers to cancel your flight: they only need your last name and Record Locator to get into your flight, miles etc. Once you fly, peel off  baggage tags glued to your checked bags. They also hold information about you.

Don’t share airplane reservations with transfer or limo companies.  666 and 777 companies I use collect data on return rides. 1—Your destination is none of their business. 2—-Your return trip should NOT be booked when you leave home.  Clearly the return trip combined with your destination reveals private information.

Do not share your name and hotel with strangers. I was upgraded to First Class by Air France then seated next to an American businessman. He was in the perfume business, en route to the perfume capital of Grasse. We chatted professionally about business. He asked where I was staying in Paris and I told him Hotel Jolly Lotti.  He asked for my name.  Something clicked in my froggy Nicolas Feuillatte champagne’d brain.  I responded, “I have to finish some paperwork now”. It was dumb to give him the hotel. It would have been dumber to give my name.

OR maybe not?  I might have had Chanel No 5 for life? Because someone is in First Class does not mean they are one of the good team.