A travel expert who flies 150,000 miles a year shares the one item he always packs, even though he's rarely used it

It’s probably tucked away in a drawer, stashed in your desk or nightstand, beneath chargers, stray cords, and pieces of paper you don’t think you’re supposed to throw out but probably will never need again.

You probably haven’t thought about it since you put it there.

But Zach Griff’s old phone is in his carry-on backpack.

Griff, a travel expert and author of the travel newsletter From the Tray Table, estimates that he flies an average of 150,000 miles a year.

And for the past 11 years, he said, he’s carried his retired cellphone with him around the world.

Your old phone won’t take up much space in your carry-on, and if something happens to your current one, it may be the most important item you pack. “Your phone is the one thing you need to stay connected,” Griff told Business Insider. “And the last thing I need when I’m traveling is to try to find a new phone.” Griff said he came to this realization in 2015 while on a safari in the Serengeti with his wife, Jill.

They were staying at a remote lodge when Jill cracked her phone and damaged the camera.

In the presence of elephants, giraffes, and lions, Jill couldn’t snap a single picture.

Right about now, you may be thinking, “Why not just bring a camera?” I say go for it, but it won’t fit as easily in your carry-on.

And it won’t help you if your phone gets lost or breaks. “That was the time when I was like, ‘From now on, I’m bringing a spare phone every single time,'” Griff said about the safari trip.

In over a decade of travel, Griff has only used his backup phone as a replacement once. “We were in Paris, and I was walking near the Eiffel Tower, taking pictures at one of the overlooks,” Griff said. “It was so crowded, I was worried about pickpockets, so I was fumbling things around, and then it happened.” While attempting to slide it back in his pocket, Griff dropped his phone on the ground.

A crack ran across the top of the screen, disabling Face ID, but the phone was otherwise functioning just fine, he said.

He decided to switch to the backup phone anyway to make the rest of his trip easier.

So far, Griff hasn’t needed his backup phone to maintain contact while traveling.

But if he ever does, he won’t stay disconnected for long.