Travel Shopping
Saturday, April 26th, 2008A friend in Israel just had a baby, and I’m shopping for a gift. I could have bought a gift when I was there earlier this month, but I decided to send one from America instead. I actually started my shopping on the airplane home, though.
In the past gifts for kids were mostly souvenirs from my travels. But what about hostess gifts, thank you gifts, and various other gifts–such as new-baby gifts–for those abroad? Especially after the fact?
Online shopping is great for that because it deals with the issues of shipping, customs and excise taxes, etc. And there are all sorts of e-commerce stores that can accommodate you. But I realized that a good place to start is sometimes with the airlines. Not only do they have those duty-free catalogs onboard, but nowadays they all seem to have online stores as well.
I wasn’t sure about Israeli gift protocols, so I was able to ask my flight attendant on the way home what she thought of some of the items in the catalog. We pretty much agreed that an adorable little pendant would be fine for a girl.
Well, of course my friends just had a boy, and I don’t see anything in online airline catalogs that I think would be appropriate, so I’m going to go back to Plan A, which is to get something tastefully tacky-touristy from Florida in a onesies–something with palm trees, or a flamingo wearing shades, maybe.
But the episode keeps reminding me that I keep forgetting to shop those online airline shops–you get miles for doing it too!
–Mary Hunt, editor, eFlyer
