Her husband does not have to be incapacitated for them to have been in serious trouble.

From what I understood, her husband had one credit card with him. Do you know what the limit on that particular card is and how close it is to being maxed out? I don't.

Okay, when I travel I have at least four credit cards with me: My HHonors Amex, my American Visa, my Israeli Visa, and my German MasterCard. Unless I am in Israel or the Euro Zone, I try to put all my charges on my Amex. My American Visa (which has a much larger limit than my Amex) is for use only where Amex is not accepted.

In the past three weeks, I have:

1. Spent a week in the States and put my Biz Class ticket, my hotel, my car rental, and 90% of all other charges on my Amex.

2. Bought a r/t ticket to Italy for an upcoming trip and put that on my Amex.

3. Bought another r/t ticket to the States, also putting it on my Amex.

The only reason that my Amex is not maxed out is that I have made two advance payments during this period. Still, it only has $1500 left on it right now.

Now, let's assume that I am married and am traveling. I have that Amex in my wallet. My wife has the others in her bag. The bag is stolen, along with my computer.

Without access to that computer, I would not be able to make a transfer to my Amex so I would be stuck with the $1500 limit. I am now faced with the possibility of paying major change fees to Delta for my wife and myself (or worse -- being forced to buy new tickets at walk up prices); paying for a hotel until we can get things straightened out; renting a car to drive to a consulate to get a new passport; paying the passport fees; purchasing a prescription medicine to replace one which was stolen; paying for meals for the two of us.

Could I do all of that on the remaining $1500 available on my Amex? Maybe -- maybe not. At best, it would be a close call.

Would I be apt to be suffering from what RobertS975 calls "fuss and angst"? You bet I would!