You have enough on your mind planning and producing your project, the smoother your trip, the more you can focus on the project and not on the logistics of travel.
After spending years traveling for small productions, I’ve picked up a few tricks to make traveling easier and some warnings.
1. Baggage Media Rate
Nearly every airline offer’s a ‘media rate’, which is a special baggage rate for the press, media and production people. Usually it’s $50/bag with the weight max extended to 100lbs - so no overweight charges! They also sometimes come with insurance depending on the airline.
How you get it:
All airlines ask you to present identification saying you are a media crew or press. Good news, you can make your own ID. Just create and print out your own press/media badge with your information. Customize it to fit your profession.
(Here’s a template to use: https://www.photopea.com/#iyfBXOPpB
Then head to staples and print it on something glossy, or get a lanyard to really make it look legit.
When you arrive at the airport go to the customer service line for your airline. The kiosk’s generally never have media rate option, so going straight to an agent is best option. Let them know you have checked bags that are under ‘media rate’.
Warning: Nearly every airline agent has never heard of media rate. I’ve had some airports that I’ve spent 45 mins in line while they are on the phone with corporate trying to figure out how to enter it in the computer. So give yourself a little bit more time to go through. I usually have the airline policy webpage up on my phone so I can show it to them if needed.
Also, Jetblue has just started needing prior request media rate, so you’ll need to go to their website and submit proof of your ID and tell them how many bags you have.
Check out more info on airline policies on this blog post by fstoppers.
2. Secure Bags and Cases
Your heart skips a beat when you see it - the dreaded TSA bag check tag. I’ve learned the hard way, don’t overload your bag. I find generally TSA will go through at least one case maybe 1 out of 4 trips. When you pack your case, you should be able to quickly rummage thru everything and put it back and close without too much hassle. If you have the case packed perfectly tight and one item or cord out of place the case can’t close - then they ain’t gonna close your case cuz. Multiple times I’ve watched my cases come out out the baggage belt unlatched and open.
Besides trying not to overpack, my two ways to prevent this - use lots of small bags to keep loose accessories in. And bind your larges corders together or place in a bag.
3. Complimentary Breakfast
Alright lets get to the important stuff - the food. Nearly always these days I look for hotels that have breakfast. Generally I like the complimentary buffet style breakfast over hotel-restaurant as it cuts down on your receipts, and there’s no ordering if you want to be quick in the morning or don’t need a full meal. Plus, if you have a crew everyone can get their breakfast whenever they want.
The other reason why this is a game changer is you don’t risk getting lost trying to find coffee/breakfast in the morning on your way to the location. All it takes is having GPS tell you the coffee shop is only 1/4 mile away, only to find that during rush-hour it’s a 25minute roundabout trip or it’s the only place open and there’s 20 people in line when you walk in and you arrive late to your shoot you just flew 6 hours for *true story*.
TIP - Best way to find which hotels offer them is go on travel sites like tripadvisor.com, and under the search there should be an option for ‘breakfast included’. Or search ‘breakfast’ in the reviews to get people’s feedback.
4. Take photos of receipts
Save yourself the hassle after you get back home, take photos of all receipts on-the-go throughout the trip. The easiest way to do this is using the dropbox app, just add with the + sign and select “Scan Document”, then have it save to your clients folder. Now at the end of the trip you have folder of all your receipts ready to go.
There’s also services like shoeboxed.com that makes this process even easier and even automatically breaks things into categories and gives you detailed summary if you travel a lot and need to submit receipts each time.
5. Upgrade your seats
Oh the anxiety, you are Group 8, full plane, and they just announced overhead is full and now you have to check your pelican case with $30,000 worth of gear in it.
Yes the extra leg room is nice, but the biggest reason why to just go ahead and charge the upgrade is - to get your gear on the plane! Time after time I got stuck unloading my hard pelican case into my backpack as best I could and holding a few extra lenses so that I could gate check it. I always felt guilty doing the extra $50+ for upgrade, but having your gear damaged or lost from gate checking (has happen to me) is far worse and cause bigger problems. Plus the extra leg room will allow you to bring a larger backpack for more gear or personal.
#6 - If I squeeze in one more it’s: TSA PreCheck. Yes the government now has better finger print scans of you, but there’s nothing like walking through security in 5 mins and getting to keep your shoes on.
Happy traveling and stay safe out there!
Eh, one more #7 - You can bring as many nips as you want on the plane, just put in quart bag!
