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When travel or packing is your assignment and you need expert input, Susan Foster is the person to contact. Check through our instant press materials if your deadline is tomorrow (or today), or interview Susan for a quote if your time permits.

Susan Foster as a Media Resource

Susan Foster, author, packing expert, and spokesperson, is media savvy and available to help you.

Newspapers and Magazines:

Do you need background information for your next travel or packing article? Is your deadline is near and your article lacking in quotes or expert commentary? Travel writers, columnists, and editors appreciate Susan Foster as a resource for her usable quotes, clear travel tips, and straightforward information. Contact Susan for a personal interview.

Radio:

Susan Foster has entertained listeners on hundreds of radio shows and appears on many stations around the country as a repeat guest. Her engaging personality and solid information mean that listeners enjoy AND learn. Susan is the perfect guest -- prepared, professional, and interesting. Contact Susan to be a guest on your show.

Spokesperson:

Are you looking for the perfect talent for your media campaign? Susan Foster represented Dodge Grand Caravan as “packing and travel expert” for Strat@comm in the November 2007 Dodge VANtastic Holiday Voyage Challenges. Susan’s role included personal appearances and a satellite media tour.

Other opportunities include representing Johnson & Johnson o.b. Products for Edelman as "packing expert". Her experience representing many major companies in the home sewing market and current involvement in the travel industry make Susan Foster the ideal "step right in" spokesperson for your product.

Susan is available to appear as talent in Radio Media Tours, or Satellite Media Tours.

Susan's areas of expertise include:

• Health and beauty products

• Fashion, clothing, and home sewing

• Packing for travel

• Travel: travel safety and security; travel goods

• Women's products and issues

Media clips and references available upon request

Contact Susan Foster: Susan@smartpacking.com
Smart Travel Press PO Box 25514 Portland, OR 97298
503.452.9384 phone
503.452.7558 fax

To request more information about Smart Packing for Today's Traveler or to arrange for an interview with Susan Foster, contact Kate Bandos at KSB Promotions at 800.304.3260; kate@ksbpromotions.com Contact Susan at 503.452.9384; susan@smartpacking.com.

Anti-Spam Policy

In absence of any other policy, Smart Packing for Today's Traveler has adopted the Anti-Spam and privacy policy of it's hosting provider, Coolersites.

Spam is absolutely prohibited by Coolersites clients. CoolerSites and all sites on the CoolerServer Platform (CSP) support ONLY permission-based email marketing practices using the CSP or affiliated partner sites. In this regard, Coolersites has implemented some of the strictest policies in the email industry and supporting procedures that:

Help prevent the ByInviteOnly system from being used for the purpose of unsolicited email campaigns.
Encourage permission-based marketing.
Respond to all complaints suggesting the CSP or affiliated partner sites have been used as a vehicle to send unsolicited email.

Coolersites actively monitors import lists and outgoing emails for suspiciously large intended or actual broadcasts. Any customer found to be using the CSP or affiliated partner sites for Spam is subject to being permanently barred from ever using CSP or affiliated partner sites systems.

Spam is unsolicited commercial email, junk mail or bulk mail that has not been requested by the recipient. In addition to wasting valuable resources and time, it is intrusive, irrelevant and often offensive, Typically, spam emails do not contain an option to unsubscribe from the mailing list. Spam is the opposite of permission-based emails ---- those that are anticipated, personal, relevant and often associated with a "pre-existing business or personal relationship."

Preventing Unsolicited Emails Via the CSP or affiliated partner sites system

Users of the CSP or affiliated partner sites must abide by a strictly enforced End User License Agreement. Under this agreement, the user promises to not abuse the CSP or affiliated partner sites system or to send spam. User specifically agrees not to send unsolicited bulk email, for commercial or non-commercial purposes (unsolicited bulk email is defined as email sent to more than 10 individuals without their permission). The agreement also includes such provisions as:

User agrees not to post, upload or otherwise transmit:

any content related to inappropriate subject matters;
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any content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;
any content that you do not have a right to post and transmit under any law or contractual/fiduciary relationships;
any content, such that such posting, uploading, or transmission constitutes the infringement of any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any party;
any materials that contain software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;
any materials which imposes an unreasonable large load on our infrastructure;
any content that is harmful to minors;
content that intentionally or unintentionally violates any applicable local, state, national or international law, including, but not limited to, regulations promulgated by the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission, any rules of national or other securities exchange, including without limitation, the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange or the NASDAQ, and any regulations having the force of law;
content that is misleading or impersonates any person or entity or falsely states or otherwise misrepresents your affiliation with a person or entity;
content with manipulated, or forged identifiers;
content promoting harm or providing instructional information about illegal activities;

With regard to email campaigns, all users of CSP or affiliated partner sites must also accept that an unsubscribe option will be automatically appended to every email sent to more than 100 people via the CSP or affiliated partner sites. This is mandatory. When the unsubscribe option is requested by an email recipient, the CSP or affiliated partner sites system automatically suppresses emails to that email address in future campaigns. This suppression feature is also mandatory.

In the event that a CSP system User violates any one of our usage rules on the CSP or affiliated partner sites, or for any other reason deemed appropriate by Coolersites or affiliated partner sites, Coolersites reserves the right to suspend or terminate, without notice, access to the CSP or affiliated partner sites system User's account and all related data. We rely on feedback from various governmental and industry sources, a network of the leading ISP's in the world and millions of email recipients to assist in our policing against spam. If you send an email out through the CSP or affiliated partner sites that generates a spam complaint, you will be responsible for providing an opt-in record for the complaint at issue. Any spam complaints that are not successfully appealed are assessed a $75 fine. Additional fines may be assesed by affiliate partner sites

Permission-Based Marketing

The CSP and/or affiliated partner sites offers frees tools to encourage system Users to create and manage "opt-in" (and double opt-in) lists of contacts. By building and using an "opt-in" (and double opt-in) lists, system Users can be certain that they are sending emails to recipients that have expressly given their permission to do so.

Recommended Action --- Unsolicited Email Complaints

If a complaint is received by Coolersites regarding alleged unsolicited emails being sent from our system tools, an immediate investigation is undertaken.

Warning -- The system User is notified that an unsolicited email complaint has been lodged against them and a demand is issued to "show proof" that the complainant opted in to the User's list. The User is reminded of the terms they accepted in the End User License Agreement (including possible legal ramifications if the user has is guilty of spamming). In addition, the complainant's email address is automatically tagged as "unsubscribed" if the complainant did unsubscribe--so no further emails are sent to the complainant. The User is also required to manually remove the complainant's email address from their contact list if the complainant did not unsubscribe.

Termination---If Coolersites or affiliated partner sites have ANY reason to believe the User, despite the warnings, is or will continue to send unsolicited bulk email to more than 10 individuals without their permission, or any complainant who has previously unsubscribed, the User's ByInviteOnly account privileges are subject to immediate termination.

Think You've Been Spammed?

Immediately unsubscribe using the "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of the email.
Forward the unsolicited email to Abuse@Coolersites.com and provide any other information that you believe may help us in our investigation.

Coolersites and Coolersites partners take permission marketing very seriously. Thank you for reviewing our Anti-Spam Policy.

Many spam complaints are registered with anti-spam agencies. We fully support the efforts of agencies working to responsibly curtail the sending of unsolicited commercial email. However, if an individual opted-in to receive an email and then falsely and/or maliciously files a spam complaint against Coolersites or affiliated partner sites, we will cooperate fully with appropriate agencies to ban the user from further use of anti-spam software and community.

This policy was last updated: November 9, 2004. We reserve the right to modify this policy at any time.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Anti-Spam Policy, Our Privacy Statement, Coolersites, or WebApplica, Inc., developer of the CoolerServer Platform and Internet Marketing Application (IMA®) please contact us directly at: (612) 235-4363 or email abuse@coolersites.com

"We think SMART PACKING is great and so do our customers. We all love those clear illustrations!" John McManus, founder & president, Magellan's

"SMART PACKING is the most thorough book we've found on packing. We recommend few products, but this one is exceptional." Colleen Birch Maile, editor-in-chief, SkyWest Magazine

"We all need this! SMART PACKING makes packing the right things simple. It's thoroughly researched, easy to read, and absolutely complete - just like my WHERE TO FIND IT, BUY IT, EAT IT IN NEW YORK." Gerry Frank, author, (nearly one million copies in print)

"You can't get through the challenge of today's travel without SMART PACKING! This book carries my highest recommendation." Jane DeGrow, The Travel Queen Show, Michigan Talk Radio Network

"Susan Foster is the Packing Diva — I can't recommend her book strongly enough! Even an old hand at travel can learn new tricks and Susan has covered every one in her beautifully illustrated book." Linda Cofffman, publisher, CruiseDiva.com

10 Smart Travel Tips for Families

Insure Your Airport Experiences Are Quick and Easy

A very busy summer air travel season is forecast, as rising gas prices send many families to their destinations by plane this year. Full flights are anticipated, making planning ahead essential. Packing expert Susan Foster, author of Smart Packing for Today's Traveler (www.smartpacking.com), offers these ten tips for smart family travel.

1. Make plane reservations as soon as possible to lock in current inexpensive fares. As fuel prices increase, airfares will also.

2. Select seats when you make the reservation - this is the only way to ensure that you will be seated together. Waiting until you arrive at the airport will scatter each of your family members throughout the plane, or will require asking other passengers to accommodate you by moving seats when they are trying to get settled themselves.

3. Print boarding passes before leaving for the airport. If you have booked online, this option is generally available 24 hours in advance of the flight and will save standing in a check-in line at the airport.

4. Pack light. Many airlines are charging $25 each way for a second checked bag (most still allow one checked bag at no additional charge). Plus they also charge big fees that vary between airlines for checked bags weighing 50 pounds or more. Weigh each bag at home on a bathroom scale before leaving for the airport so you can lighten the load. Also measure each bag before packing as no bag may be over 62” based on linear measurement of length + width + depth. Larger bags may incur a large fee.

5. Take less. Organize what each family member wants to pack far in advance to allow time to wash favorite things and to encourage participation by each person. This minimizes complaints upon arrival, as each was part of the packing decisions. Plan to find a coin-operated laundry half way through the trip so you can pack half as much clothing. Tucking in a self-sealing plastic bag of laundry detergent saves money and hassles.

6. Self-sealing bags of several sizes are the travelers' best friend! Organize clothing by grouping adult’s items: socks in one container, underwear in another. Children’s clothing is easily organized by folding or rolling an entire days outfit together — pants, tee-shirt, underwear and socks — and tucking into a bag. Pop the dirty items back into the bag at the end of the day to isolate soiled clothing from clean.

7. Pack into as few suitcases as possible - the more bags the greater the chance that one will be misplaced or forgotten. Plus, a hefty fee may be charged for additional checked bags. Some airlines now allow only one checked bag plus one carry-on per ticketed passenger (young children who ride on a parent’s lap are NOT considered “ticketed”). Many families pack into community bags of one adult with one child per bag, for a family of four this means two checked bags plus carry-on.

8. Travel with your child’s safety seats and strollers whenever possible. Each airline has a slightly different ruling on traveling with this gear, so call or visit your airline website to check in advance so you won’t have any surprises at the airport.

9. Pack a backpack for each person. Parents can manage children better if they are hands-free, so purses and in-flight necessities are best carried in an adult backpack. Kids fly quieter when entertained, so allow them to choose their toys and to carry them. Smaller children manage better passing through airports, airport security, and aircraft aisles with small backpacks; bigger children can manage small rolling bags that will fit under the seat.

10. Savvy frequent flyer parents advise bringing on the following in your child’s carry-on:

• Gameboys, games and extra batteries and travel-sized games • Books (thin paperbacks are best!) and/or coloring/activity books and crayons • Portable DVD player (however battery length is usually only about 3 hours) • Pajamas and slippers for a long flight (if comfortable, children are more likely to sleep) • Hard candies to suck on, water or juice to combat pressure changes during take off and landing • Anything your child must have such as a favorite blanket or bunny.

Packing light will spare your back and your budget and minimize baggage hassles. Plan ahead, take less, and have a great vacation!

10 Ways to Avoid or Survive Lost Luggage

Do You Know Where Your PJs Are?

10 Ways to Avoid (or Survive) Lost Luggage

More luggage was lost this year than in any year since 1990 – 30 million bags failed to arrive on time, about 10,000 bags per day. Among the reasons: airline budget cuts, greater airport congestion, tight connection times, increased transfers among airlines and stricter security. In defense of the airlines, most bags are delayed – not lost forever – and on average are returned to their owners in 1.3 days or 31 hours after being reported missing. But even 1.3 days without your luggage is enough to cause enormous stress: imagine your delayed luggage missing the sailing of your cruise ship.

Susan Foster, author of Smart Packing for Today’s Traveler (www.smartpacking.com) suggests travelers take the following steps to keep this from happening to their bag:

1. Use a sturdy ID tag with a durable strap on each bag. The best tags have a cover hiding your name to protect your privacy; use your business information if possible. Use your cell phone number and/or email address so you can be contacted immediately.

2. Include your identification information inside the bag. This is especially important if the outside tag is lost en route. Place a travel itinerary in an outside pocket or inside on the top so airlines can track you in transit if your bag is delayed or misrouted.

Magellan’s Travel Supplies (www.magellans.com) offers a handy product called Retriever Luggage Tags -- these sturdy vinyl tags invite baggage agents (in eight languages) to remove the itinerary you've placed inside and forward your bag to you while you're traveling, instead of returning the bag to your home address.

3. Mark your luggage in distinctive ways to distinguish your black bag in a sea of black bags. Tie bright ribbons onto the handles, apply stickers or your initials in large, colored stick-on letters on all sides, paint a design or a large X on the top and bottom – then take a digital photo of the bags. Should a bag be misplaced, show the photo to the baggage agent to illustrate the brand, shape, color and distinctive markings so your bag will be easier to identify and recover.

4. Remove any old baggage claim tags from your luggage as they cause confusion.

5. Check your bags as early as possible. Airlines suggest at least 90 minutes in advance (two hours for international travel) but at daily high-traffic times and with seasonal crowding you should add 30 minutes to this time. Last-minute checked bags simply may not make it through security screening and onto your plane.

6. Make sure that your bags have been ticketed to the correct destination and on the correct flight numbers before you leave the luggage check-in area or ticket counter.

If you do find yourself separated from your checked luggage, Foster has more tips for minimizing the inconvenience. Successfully surviving lost luggage is skill that most travelers learn the hard way once, and then create contingency plans for every future trip. When Pati’s luggage found it’s way to Japan for a month while she was traveling to six US cities for speaking engagements, she discovered that she could live quite well with the few things she had in her carry-on. It changed her personal travel packing forever.

7. Always carry medicines and anything that is valuable or not easily replaceable (including your keys) on your person or in a small "never check" carry-on bag. If it would break your heart to lose it, either keep it with you or leave it at home.

8. Travel in clothing you can wear for a day or two in case your bags are delayed, including appropriate shoes. Tuck a change of underwear into your carry-on bag plus a clean shirt so you have an item to wear and one to wash. Pack a swimsuit and/or shorts in your carry-on if headed to a sunny locale.

Ann wore comfortable black pants, a blue tee-shirt, and a blue/black/white-striped shirt with her comfortable walking shoes to fly to Europe for an Adriatic cruise. She arrived on schedule but her luggage did not. At the end of her weeklong, casual cruise she was finally reunited with her luggage as she prepared to fly home. Ann survived by being creative with her few pieces and through the generosity of other cruise passengers. She sums up her new way to travel light – “Borrow clothes! I received many compliments on the cruise for my ingenuity in the face of bad luck.”

Traveling with someone else? Ann recommends cross packing some of your clothing in their bag and some of theirs in your bag. “Rather than have a separate suitcase for each of us, if one bag is delayed at least we’d each have SOME clothes,” Ann suggested.

9. Complete lost-luggage reports at the airport and don't leave without a claim number and contact information so you can check the status of missing bags if one is missing in action. Keep baggage claim tags, tickets and receipts for your purchases, so the airline will be able to research your claim and reimburse you more quickly.

10. Always create a packing list that includes every item in each packed bag and leave a copy at home to retain an accurate record. Most travelers undervalue the contents of a lost bag because they can’t remember everything that was inside. Take a second copy of the packing list with you to check each time you unpack and repack to prevent forgetting items in the rush of departure.

Most importantly, remember it is not the end of the world or the ruin of a trip; it only feels like it at the moment when you are the last person waiting at the luggage carrousel. Pati and Ann were part of the lost luggage statistics but learned valuable travel lessons and became great survivors.

To help travelers avoid other luggage nightmares, Foster offers more great packing tips both in her book, Smart Packing for Today’s Traveler, and on her web site, www.smartpacking.com. Smart travelers plan ahead so that their memories are of the vacation or business deal, not of a travel disaster.

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