Rajashri Joshi tells you what to do when things start going wrong during your trip.

It was my first meeting abroad. And the person who was to pick me up thought that my flight was scheduled for the evening, whereas I landed in the morning. There I was, in a foreign country for my first official trip, and I was stranded," remembers immigration lawyer Jay Shah, who is associated with Divyakant Mehta & Associates. Luckily, he had done his homework and knew that he could take a tube rail to his destination. The airport information desk was kind enough to help him out. There are a hundred things that can go wrong when you are travelling on work. Here's how to make it right:

» You end up near a noisy passenger
who snores when asleep and is loud when awake. "Keep earplugs or an Ipod handy or look for an empty seat if the flight / train is light," advises Heena Akhtar, COO, TravelPort.

» You could be stranded,
like entrepreneur Farhan Furniturewalla, you could end up getting stranded. "I was in Kuala Lumpur and delayed my return by a day. The next day, I went to the airport to find out that the flight had already left three hours earlier. Apparently, the airline's flights to India changed on alternate days," he recalls. Lesson: always confirm flight timings.

» You could have visa hassles.
"My colleague had to reschedule his flight from Italy once, because the passport number on the visa did not match with the original," says Anupam Mittal, CMD, People Group. He had to get the matter rectified with the concerned authorities. So, check the fine print on all your important travel papers.

» An unprofessional agent can mess up things.
He can forget to confirm your seats or get your immigration check done. Or, he can simply forget to ask you your meal preference and you may end up with a continental meal when you are a strict vegetarian.

» You could be a vegetarian in a strictly non-vegetarian hotel or restaurant.
Ask your business associate where you can get the food of your choice. Eat some sandwiches or carry packaged food.

» You could misplace the letter of proof of your business meeting when you are travelling abroad.
At such times, don't panic. Request the immigration officer to make an international call and ask your office to fax it across or give them the number of the associate in that country.

» You could misplace your passport.
Keep a photocopy and use it wherever required; inform your office and police about it.

» You could end up in a tiff with the immigration officer.
Talk to him properly, never throw your weight. If things get out of hand, contact the Indian Embassy in the country. For that, keep the address and numbers handy.

» Your hotel bookings can go wrong.
While checking into a hotel, you realise that the booking is not for the 10 days that you are there, but for only a single day, show a document that confirms your booking. "The same thing happened to me when I was in UK. I had booked through a sub-agent and he erred. After lot of convincing, the hotel accommodated me and I had to keep changing rooms every few days," recalls Shah.

» Your traveller's cheques could be invalid.
"Traveller's cheques need RBI undertaking. My agent forgot to give me the undertaking and thus, the traveller's cheques were invalid without my original signature on it," says Shah.

» Your credit card could top out.
Use the other one. Or call the office and ask them to make some arrangements. Otherwise, borrow money from your associate. Better to carry some cash and an extra credit card.

» Your wallet could get stolen.
Report it to the local police. Call up the credit card company and get the card blocked. Time to use the document photocopies you made and call up the office.

» You could get lost.
If you cannot find your way back in a strange city, find the nearest police station and seek their help. Always carry your hotel's contact details and ask them to pick you up.

rajashri@mid-day.com