Travel broadens the mind — apparently — and when you're planning for someone else's business trip, it can also destroy your mind. I am currently trying to pack my boss off to the other side of the world in a few months and am mentally drumming my fingers while she debates about which business class she'd like to travel in. Ah, the pressures of executive life. It must be awful.

The reason I am waiting so impatiently is that I know she will make her decision at the very, very last moment which will mean I have to sling together connecting flights and some semblance of an itinerary and keep my fingers crossed. Nowadays, it is pretty much impossible to misplace one's boss so completely that they don't come back at all, and it's taken all the romance and excitement out of executive travel, if you ask me.

Supporting our colleagues when they are travelling can be very difficult, though it is becoming easier in this age of technological wizardry. However, there is little point in having a BlackBerry connection so that you can send a message to the office saying, "Have arrived in Florence safely. Needed to be in Naples." What we need to ensure as PAs, is that the travelling is as hassle-free as possible and that we think about the trip as if it were us taking it. I don't mean giving your boss a list of the best shoe shops in Milan and ensuring they are equipped with a string bikini, but thinking that if you landed in a deserted airport after a very severely delayed flight, what info would you need? And what are the absolute non-negotiables that your boss needs to have before they wave goodbye?

Passport control

This is your boss's responsibility, not HM Government's, but your posing the key question "Is your passport up-to-date?" can be a trip-saver. Doesn't matter if the passport photo makes your boss look like Dusty Springfield in 1965 and she now looks like Dusty's brother, Tom. That happens to all of us eventually and in a man it would be called 'character'. No, what you need to be focusing on is whether the passport is valid and whether a visa is needed. Pay particular attention to this if your boss is not a British national. Visa requirements need to be investigated as soon as the trip destination is known — some foreign embassies have Byzantine regulations and requirements for travel.

A good right jab

Has your colleague got all the right inoculations for their destination? And how about updating things like tetanus, even if it's not required? Quite a number of us are apparently wandering around with no protection against certain things because we were inoculated in childhood and have assumed that's it for life. Not necessarily so — a booster could be a good idea.

Keep duplicates of everything

Itineraries, tickets, receipts, maps, letters of invitation, travel insurance policies, currency receipts, emails from colleagues to you and your boss, and from you and your boss to everyone involved in the trip at whatever level. If your carefully planned executive itinerary has disappeared up a certain creek and there's no reply from the executive offices abroad, you need a name of someone, anyone, who can help you or put you in touch with someone who can come to the rescue. A key contacts sheet for you and your traveller is vital because you don't want to be ferreting through three feet of emails trying to find a name. Believe me, I speak from experience, you don't want to be doing this.

Crib sheet

A list with all the key emergency info on it (one for you, one for the boss) can be very helpful. For a multi-stop trip, one sheet for each place. Examples of info are telephone number of airline with booking reference number, travel insurance policy number and number for contacting the insurers for claims, appropriate consular number (depending on the nationality of your boss), hotel number and booking reference number, place of worship (times of services very helpful or at least a contact number), key phrases in the local language and the right number to dial for the emergency services plus international dialling codes from the country being visited for the UK, any country where your company has offices and your boss may need to contact someone and the country where their family may be living at present.

Network with your overseas colleagues like crazy

No matter how much detail you and your boss have between you, there's nothing more comforting than knowing that there's someone in the strange city who knows your name and is willing to help you. They can also give you the inside track on all sorts of useful things that you will never get in even the best guide book.

No matter how long you spend on the travel arrangements and how accessible you make yourself during your boss's trip, you cannot control the world and hiccups are bound to happen. The most important thing is that your boss feels he or she can totally rely on the information you have given them, and that you are back at mission control willing and able to help out in an emergency. After all, isn't that what you would want in their position?