Travel experts remind travelers that before every flight, there’s a little something you should pack that costs almost nothing but can save you a lot of trouble during your journey. That little something is a pen.
According to a report by the website “Travel + Leisure,” travel advisor Georgia Fowkes from the travel operator “Altezza Travel” recently experienced this situation firsthand during her visit to Tanzania.
“I arrived in Dar es Salaam on a night flight, and the immigration hall was crowded and chaotic. As we all streamed out of the hall, by the time I reached the counter, all the pens were gone – out of ink, disappeared, even the pens chained to the counters were missing,” Fowkes said. “I stood there in line, just like everyone else without a pen, waiting to borrow one. It was definitely not the most pleasant travel experience for me.”
Fowkes’s experience is not isolated. Many countries still use paper customs and immigration forms that travelers need to fill out before entry. The process of finding a pen can be stressful, especially at large international airports with a high volume of people coming in and out daily.
“People assume that there will be pens at immigration. Maybe there are, but with hundreds of passengers rushing towards the counters at the same time, those pens quickly disappear,” Fowkes said. She added that arriving at a destination late at night brings even more challenges. If you land at 2 am, there might not be many people around to borrow a pen from.
Now, Fowkes always carries her own pen with her and always brings an extra one in case someone else needs it. “At 35,000 feet in the air, if you pull out a spare pen from your pocket, people will look at you in surprise as if you’ve just invented fire,” Fowkes said. “In that moment, a pen becomes a social currency.”
As for the type of pen to bring, she always opts for a basic non-metallic pen. Fancy metal pens or fountain pens can sometimes cause trouble at airport security. Additionally, you should choose basic ink colors rather than bright and flashy ones.
“I only use cheap plastic pens, with blue or black ink – using any other color, you might be asked to rewrite the entire form,” she said.
Apart from filling out immigration forms, there are many other times during travel when a pen can come in handy. Erin Carey, founder and director of travel PR firm “Roam Generation,” explains that she always carries a pen with her in case her phone runs out of battery.
“If your phone dies, and you need to jot down an address or phone number, or you meet someone you want to connect with later and need to write down their email address, what do you do?” Carey asked. “Maybe you need to write something in the local language for a taxi driver, or if you lose your luggage and need to fill out forms, etc.”
Many unexpected things can happen during travel, and having a pen on hand can help you be better prepared for any situation.