If I’m Running at the Airport, You Should Be Too

When an ordinary flight turns into an airport lockdown, Jimmy learns a travel safety lesson the hard way... and it’s one he’ll never forget.

This episode takes you from airplane aisle seats to foreign street corners, with real stories and practical travel tips. Ever wonder which seat gives you the best shot in an emergency? Or why you should always check the child-lock in your rideshare? From choosing what do about cash to outsmarting pickpockets, we cover both the smart and surprising habits that can make traveling a whole lot safer, and keep your travel anxiety to a minimum.

Because the truth is, travel safety isn’t about being paranoid... it’s about being prepared. A few smart choices can keep an amazing trip from turning into your best worst story to tell. So let us help you make sure that the only thing you bring back from vacay is a good memory.

Life Safety Associates specializes in emergency response training for corporate ERT Teams. We help businesses create competent and confident first responders who are ready to handle unexpected emergencies. For more information you find us @lifesafetyassoc or email@lifesafety.com.

Chapters

• 0:46 Podcast Introduction
• 1:22 Airplane Safety and Seating Strategy
• 5:05 Airport Security Awareness
• 10:52 Rideshare Safety Tips
• 14:28 Money and Document Security
• 20:22 Hotel Room and Public Safety
• 24:52 Situational Awareness While Traveling

Transcript

Jimmy: 0:23

What's happening? It's another Life and Safety Podcast with me, jimmy, and your girl, meg, hello, and today we're going to talk about a little personal safety stuff while you're traveling. One of my favorite things to do in the world is to travel. If you ask my family, they'd probably disagree, because I always look so sour when I travel. It's just because I'm on eye alert. I'm the sheepdog, I'm always looking around, yeah, so let's talk about some safety things. So let's talk about, first and foremost, airplane safety. So lots of conversations about where to sit, you know, as far as comfort goes, and as far as comfort goes, it's really it's up to you. Like, I actually like to sit in the aisle.

Megan: 1:20

I'm a window seat girl all the way.

Jimmy: 1:22

Yeah, I'll sit in the window. If I'm by myself, obviously, if I'm leaning against it, things like that. But if it by myself, obviously I can lean against it, things like that. But if it's a floor flight, I'd rather sit in the aisle. I'm one of those people that hates to bother other people. So if I'm on a long flight and I'm sitting in the aisle seat, I can just go to the aisle, whereas if I'm sitting in the middle and I have to bug people to get up especially if I'm flying to Europe or something like that, can you move? I gotta go, peep. I don't know, it's weird for me.

Megan: 1:54

Yeah.

Jimmy: 1:55

I'll just stop drinking water like two hours before I go on the plane and not drink anything water which is not healthy.

Megan: 2:00

No, that's very unhealthy.

Jimmy: 2:02

Yeah, so there's definitely things like that, but I like to sit Personally. There's a stat that I think it's 80% of the people survive the plane crash, but nobody survives after the plane crash. You know either the smoke inhalation, the cold, the water, whatever you land in or on. So I always like to sit personally just right behind the wings or on the wings. I also think it's a little bit more comfortable there, especially in turbulence. And then, if heaven forbid, if something were to happen, I'm close to those overhead and overwing exits, and then I'm usually close to the exits to the back too. And remember, always count forward and backward. Yeah, you know the rows, the lights are supposed to come on, but who knows? Who knows what happens. I'm going to count the rows.

Megan: 3:04

Do you like being in the exit row, if you can, or do you not like being in the exit row, if you can, or do you?

Jimmy: 3:09

not like being in the exit, it depends. So if I can get, like some planes have like the really long extra stretch out area, it was a short flight and I'm not like watching my phone or something like that but yeah, I definitely want to do that, um, but if it's like a longer flight, I don't want to be there because it's harder to like pull out my tray and get my phone and or get my laptop or my iPad or whatever and watching TV on or the screen or whatever I'm doing. So I don't. So there's different things to that. Also, like I don't. So a couple years about ago I would say I'd always wanted to be there because I didn't want to trust anybody else to open the door.

Megan: 3:58

That's sort of what I figured I'm going to be honest.

Jimmy: 4:00

Yeah, that's how it used to be, and now I'm kind of like they're going to open the door and they're going to get ran over. So one way or another, the door's going to be opened. Yeah, so that's definitely was the control thing for me, and it just didn't allow for me to travel with a clear head, because I'm so excited and I'm like on guard, so I had to like walk away from that a little bit more for me interesting, interesting yeah, um, another thing like airport security and just only going through security.

Jimmy: 4:42

It's different for everybody. But you know, be prepared as you can and then just be aware of everybody else. I think I've told this story on those podcasts before and I'm sorry if you haven't heard it. We had a client in San Diego. We were flying back and forth for every month and really cool. And I was just landing from San Diego, walking through the southwest terminal here in San Jose and at the time before the new part of the terminal was built. So it was very congested and we got I think it was the farthest gate I could get to before we could exit. So I was walking and a person who was late for their flight ran through security and ran down the um tramway, down the airway airwalk I don't know why they thought that that would work yeah.

Jimmy: 5:37

So the alarm went off and it was really interesting because I thought it was an evacuation fire alarm. Apparently there's a different sound. I went for the exits and the people that like do the like, the porters with like the wheelchairs and things like that, the assistant people came out of nowhere and the electric carts actually blocked the exit. Oh my gosh, yeah, and that kind of ran out of the way. I was like what are you doing? It kind of freaked me out and then all of the the doors shut so they couldn't leave the terminal and I was like, okay, and it's here to say when you leave, you have to go through these sliding glass doors and those locked down because they wanted to keep the person contained, they wanted to find that person. And I was like uh-oh, yeah. So I walked back away from everybody Because in my mind, if something bad was going to happen, it's going to happen where people are congregating, big groups of people.

Megan: 6:42

Yeah, absolutely.

Jimmy: 6:43

And I ended up where I was standing. I ended up standing next to the ATF bomb agent that ran the airport and his team was, like, in charge of the bomb squad and everything else.

Megan: 6:56

Cool.

Jimmy: 6:57

And the bomb dog was there and I was like, oh, if you're standing here, it must be safe. That was what I'm thinking, fair enough. And then this lady in this very nice business suit, who ended up being the manager of the Southwest Airlines, was standing there and they were managing the terminal and the airport thing and all the security staff ended up being there and I was kind of like I'm going to ear hustle this a little bit. So I kind of got a little closer and I was listening to them to make these decisions. I was like cool, cool, cool, I'm safe.

Jimmy: 7:30

And then I was like and then the bomb guy walked up. He goes can I help you with anything? I'm like no, sir, I just figured if you guys were standing here it was safe. I was just honest with him. And he's like what do you mean? I said well, if something was bad that happened, it was going to happen over there. That's pretty smart. He's like that's cool. And I was like have a good night. I was like yes, so you know, he would say he would have been running. I would have been running too. Oh yeah.

Megan: 8:06

I mean you have the sticker. If I'm running, you should be running too. Yeah.

Jimmy: 8:13

So I was watching them and doing that. So that's kind of like, you know, my head on a swivel watching people, you know, just being aware of my surroundings. And people get cranky when they travel. Yeah, you know, they don't sleep well, they're not eating well, they're not hydrated, they're missing their flights, they're stressed. There's lots of life happening in travel, so I like to just to kind of stay by myself, stay secluded a little bit and just kind of watch people, kind of keep everybody, you know, away from me. You know, manage my goods, make sure I don't leave anything around like that. So it's some good airport stuff. Obviously, you know where all the exits are, the AEDs.

Jimmy: 9:00

I used to tell a story this happened early in my career in life safety when the AEDs were really starting to become prevalent. There was an AED that was beeping in the San Francisco airport and I was like I was flying to Dallas and I was trying to tell the CSA people that the thing was beeping and I walked through like the secure area and I didn't know I was supposed to, wasn't aware of where I was supposed to be walking and like they really yelled at me it was not good, not the business, not the business. I almost got arrested for just trying to tell them that their AD was beeping and they needed new pads because it was expired. Oh, that's so funny. Yeah, I always look at where the AEDs are at too and what's in there, me too.

Jimmy: 9:43

Yeah, I was looking in the case, because in the case in San Diego, for instance, their airport has a bunch of stop-the-bleed stuff oh cool, so they have their tourniquet kits and things like that. We a bunch of stop the bleed stuff, oh cool, so they're like their tourniquet kits and things like that. So, um, we were in germany, they had them, and I've seen them definitely in other airports. I can't think of any of them or something. I definitely remember those two airports for sure having them. And then you know when you land anywhere, ride share services, you know just some basic ride share. You know Uber, lyft, whatever you're using stuff always make sure you have you know. You check the person's picture, the car and the license plate.

Megan: 10:46

Mm-hmm.

Jimmy: 10:47

And if one of them's off, it's all off. Yeah, and don't let them fool you. Mm-hmm, yeah, so that's a big one. And then another big one is make sure I mean you can, or you can't, just type in where you're going on your phone. You're almost always in the service. Nowadays in the world, depending on what your carrier is and how you do that. Lots of ways to do it. There's VPNs, there's, you know, reach out to your contractor, your carrier, and say, hey, I'm going to Europe or where I'm going, you know, just let them know for how long and they'll give you a price. You know, it's not that hard to get data anymore. So run your maps with them. So run your maps with them and if their app is telling you to go a certain way versus a different way, question it Like, hey, this doesn't feel this way, why not that way? You know, can I see where you're taking me? And then you can always, on all of the Uber left apps, you can always watch that map, but always cross-check it and run simultaneous maps.

Jimmy: 11:57

That's a good one yeah, and then another good one is to um, obviously have some spare batteries. You know, um, lithium batteries are really hard to travel with right now, you know, not really hard to travel with I shouldn't say it like that, that, but it's frowned upon to carry especially check them, to have them. So I definitely recommend that you do have a battery, or maybe, when you land someplace, buy a battery. I usually have a bunch, so I'll buy them in the airport and they come charged, yeah, so then I can charge my phone or whatever it is. I always have that extra thing just in case.

Jimmy: 12:43

Um, so also another thing when you get into the um shared drive service, check their child safety lock. Oh yeah, make sure it's not engaged, you know, make sure it's an unlocked version. There's usually a sticker or there's some kind of print that's on the other side of the lock to make sure it's there, and that way you can't, it's harder for them to lock you in the car, you know, um, so, and if they do lock it in car, it's just kind of an active shooter event, right, if you can't run, tell them to pull over, demand that they pull over, and then obviously, if you have to, you got to fight and can't get out of the car. Yeah.

Megan: 13:27

And then a good sort of tip alongside, that is, know the um emergency services numbers in the area you're going to, know the emergency services numbers in the area you're going to, so, like, if you're traveling to a different country, make sure you know, like the emergency numbers for that country, or how to like get in touch with your local embassy. And like, if the worst were to happen, what would you do and be prepared so that you're not like stuck trying to look it up on your phone, like oh wait, but what number should I call? For this scenario on my phone, like you know, yeah, yeah.

Jimmy: 14:00

So let's, let's talk about some cash and then document security on that goes. So cash don't like. So I like to travel with cash already, so I don't have to try to, you know, exchange cash, yeah, um, so go to your local bank and tell them, hey, I'd like to get, you know, a hundred dollars in euros if you're going to europe or whatever you're going in. Um, you know, in a lot of companies, a lot of countries, will take the dollar. The dollar usually doesn't not play anywhere, but it's still good to have their money. And but don't flash it around yeah that's a good one.

Jimmy: 14:39

So when you're, if you have to go to an atm, go to an atm inside of a hotel lobby, go into one that's locked like a bank lock so you have like badging kind of a thing. Or go to a teller. If you can Not to like visibly, go there. A lot of there's. I just read a news article actually, where people are standing around ATMs and watching you or retorting how you're typing in your PIN number and then stealing your wallet or whatever later. So I was like that seems like a lot of work. Yeah, whatever later. So I was like that seems like a lot of work. So if you are at the ATM, make sure you use the windows. They're not always in great shape, but there's a glass that's around there and there's a review mirrors Watch over your shoulders and if you see somebody walking up and you're like you don't feel comfortable and just pull money out, just hit the cancel thing and then pull the card out and just get really angry like why don't?

Jimmy: 15:38

I have any money. What the hell is this machine? Kind of throw a fit and like, draw attention to yourself because that's going to keep that person like, oh, maybe I don't want to mess with that person, they don't have any money. And now there's people looking at us, you know um that's good tip.

Megan: 15:54

I hadn't even thought of that.

Jimmy: 15:56

Yeah, so that's a big one. That's a good one. If you're not in the hotel lobby, even if you are in a hotel lobby or in something like that, you know, just try to pay by your credit card. Yeah, that's a big one. Now, document I always carry at least two copies of my driver's license and my passport when I travel, just in case something happens to those. At least I have a copy that I can show people like, hey, this is me, this is what's happening. Or if somebody like sometimes some of the older hotels will still do this, they'll especially in Europe they'll ask for, like your ID, to make copies of it so they can prove to the tourist and stuff like that. So just give them the copy and sometimes they'll take that. So that way then you're not having to like watch your id or your passport go away yeah you know, um, so that's a big one.

Jimmy: 17:05

uh, we talked about not flashing your money around. Make sure you know you kind of keep it and if you know how much you're going to spend, you know if you're like, oh my, my cow is going to cost 20 euros, make sure you put like all fold like 22 euros in my wallet and stand it up. So I just reach in, I just grab that stood up part, I already know how much it's going to cost. Or if I know we're going to go eat and I know it's going to cost, you know, 100 euro, or maybe you know you know 100 euro, or maybe you know, maybe I'll put like four things of 25 euro stacks like folds and I'll keep them to stand up on my wallet so I can just squeeze my wallet and pull it out so not to show all of the water yeah, that's a good one um, so there's some document, money, things.

Jimmy: 17:52

I, I, you know a lot of people talk about using the safe in hotels and I think they are safe for the most part. It's just you got to use them. Don't be afraid to use it. If it's bigger, higher cost or you can't fit in there, ask the hotel. The hotels will tell you whatever you want to hear, because they want to keep your money. So just be careful. Like a lot of times, they will have safe deposit boxes and use those if you can. Um, you know, I think I've told the story on the podcast again and again. I'm sorry if I'm repeating myself, but I, my, um, my bike got stolen out of the hotel lobby on the 4th of July because they said that they were going to keep me and they asked me actually where they put it in this hallway, and the hallway opened up to an alley that all of the kitchen staff and employees would leave and walk in and out, of, so anybody can just walk into this alley, from the alley into kitchen and up to where all the luggage and stuff was.

Megan: 18:58

Oh my gosh.

Jimmy: 18:59

So my bike got stolen and there was no cameras there. There was just cameras on the From the lobby, like near the door, and I said that doesn't make any sense. Oh my gosh, now that you say that it doesn't, so that's crazy, very eye-opening, yeah, and fun fact in California, I think it's only. I think they're only Like their insurance, they're only obligated to pay like $450 or $250, because it varies by state, and I think maybe Hawaii was $450, maybe California was $250 or something like that, just because I was talking to a lady that did this stuff. You have the internet, you search it for me. But, yeah, so that you know, like, where you're going, what you're getting, you have the internet, you search it for me.

Megan: 19:52

But yeah, search it for yourself so that you know where you're going, what you're getting yourself into.

Jimmy: 19:56

Yeah, so on the back of your door in the hotel. So hotel safety is going to be your emergency evacuation map and it's also going to be your insurance it's going to tell you how much they're liable for. Yeah, so if you leave something in your room and somebody takes it, that's all they have to pay you. They might pay you more if it's because of good customer service, but that's all they have to pay you is what's on the back. Yeah, so if you have a $1,000 laptop and they stole it, or my $1,000 mountain bike got stolen and they gave me $250, I believe it was that's they gave me 250 bucks, I believe it was that's so rough, that sucks horribly so there's lots of ways to lock elevator or excuse me, not elevator but hotel room doors.

Jimmy: 20:45

you know, if you're by yourself and you know whatever makes you feel comfortable, I think you should do it. I use all of the locks on the doors regardless. I'm seeing people put like a chair in front of the door. I've seen people there's hacks like use like a hanger, things like that, anything to wake you up. I've seen people put glasses like the actual drinking glass on the handle so when it opens up, the glass will fall and break. That's a good one. The only thing I don't like about that one is if you have to run out of the door, you're not running through the glass also, just like the bad person.

Jimmy: 21:30

Oh yeah, and you're probably barefoot because you just got out of bed, yeah, so I think it definitely works. I'm not saying not to use it, I'm just saying Keep in mind, keep in mind, keep in mind Again. Count the doors when you the door frames on your exits, know which way you're going.

Jimmy: 21:47

Yeah on your exit to know which way you're going, yeah, towards and backwards, towards the elevator, because that's where usually we're in the center of the hotels. Are there's staircases there and count the stairwell doors to the stairwell? Excuse me, so that way you know if it's smoky or something like that, you can get out and then out and about. Don't take your backpack and lean it next to you. Put it always in front of you, like between your legs, so like if you're leaning at a guardrail, so like, let's say, like one of the last places I, me and my family went, we were in Paris and I like to carry.

Jimmy: 22:32

I carry a crossbody, you know, like everybody carried crossbodies in Europe, so they didn't fill out a place. Or like a fanny pack and that's where, like, all of our things were, like my wallet and my epi pen and my passport were all in those and everybody carried their own, plus I. I had a travel wallet, like underneath my shirt, you know. So we can, if I needed more money or something like that, I had that which is harder to spill, and but your backpack, carry it in front of you, like on your front, especially in big crowds. That way you're not blocking people and any people A lot of people overseas will just appreciate that anyways. But also that way you're not walking people and any people, a lot of people overseas will just appreciate that anyways. But also that way you can see trying to be trying to grab you. Yeah, let me can like just open up a zipper in the back. You know, that's another reason why I like those zippers at the top or in the middle, because it's harder to get to if somebody's trying to open it.

Megan: 23:35

By that he means, like if you have some sort of zipper thing and there's two zippers, you don't just put them both to the side, you have them meet in the center or the middle or the top of the zipper channel.

Jimmy: 23:44

Next time you see one of us ask because the zipper's probably like that. I'm actually looking at a case right now that the zippers are like that. I think I've got everybody to do it now.

Megan: 23:57

Oh yeah, I'm broken. I get really stressed out if my zippers aren't in the center now after working here.

Jimmy: 24:08

So when you go to restaurants or cafes, when you're traveling, don't take your backpack and stick it in a chair High likelihood of forgetting it, High likelihood of somebody walking by and taking it. Don't put your wallet or your phone on the table, especially if you're on the patio. Somebody walk by and grab it. Walk by and grab it. You know, I, For instance, like what I do is like with my phone, because I always have like the large phones because of my big hands.

Jimmy: 24:40

So I always keep them, Because I can't keep them in my pocket when I sit down, because I bend phones all the time when I sit in them. Oh my gosh, I think my phone's bent right now. Actually, that's crazy. I'm a large human, I can't help it. So I take them and I take it out of my pocket and I sit on it, so I actually raise my leg and the chair so I'll feel it, I embrace her and everything else. When I stand up, it'll fall or it'll be there and I'll just know it's there. I'll do the same thing with my keys, or it'll be there and I'll just know it's there. I'll do the same thing with my keys so that way I don't forget them. I don't have them up on the table so people can just grab them and run or whatever. It is Fascinating, so I do that with my backpack. I always leave it next to my foot. It's annoying because you take it all the time, but at least I know where it's at.

Megan: 25:25

Yeah, fair enough.

Jimmy: 25:26

And if somebody walks by and tries to grab it, then it's going to be pretty obvious what's going on there, mm-hmm. So that's some basic stuff you can think about. Out and about Never play card games, you know, like the Avengers, three-card money, things like that. It's fun to watch the crowds they always give these. There's almost always some nefarious actions going on inside the crowd too. Don't be stuck. Don't argue with the street vendors. Yeah yeah, say no thank you and keep walking. Yeah yeah, I think those are pretty good ones. Good place to start. You got anything to add that I haven't touched on?

Megan: 26:12

No, that was good.

Jimmy: 26:15

Yeah, another thing is too. I mean not just because of the political climate we live in now, but it's just a good idea. You know, there's lots of websites out there that will tell you like what the safety and security things are going on right now around the world out there. That'll tell you like what the safety and security things are going on right now around the world. Like right now, a lot of major companies or major cities in europe are actually protesting against tourist. You know, a nice thing to know, yeah, nice thing to know. Like we're, you know, again blessed to be in paris.

Jimmy: 26:47

Um, when october 7th happened and and Gaza and Israel's conflict reignited, they all say oh yeah, and it was very noticeably different in Paris. What I mean by that was there was security at all of the major monuments. But there was like three times the security at all the major monuments the next day and we were on vacation, so we were kind of off social media and we were kind of off the news and we were like what's going on, what's happening? And then on October 8th we actually flew home and we landed in Germany. We had a pretty long layover and the airport we were looking at it going. Oh the news. The first news thing we saw was like holy crap, that's so interesting.

Jimmy: 27:37

All this stuff's happening. Yeah, oh my gosh. So you know, maybe have a good idea before you get there what's going on Other than that? Savile Safe, Speech, dyslexia. Savile Safe and peace.