Biggest Travel Regret?

[atreides]

1. No Concorde
2. GW Life
3. Not finding AFF sooner

 

[ashleyn]

Not flying J nearly enough.

 

[muliama]

Planning our first One World RTW 1st class (so cheap in those days) the TA advised that BA was offering free upgrades on the Concorde. We knocked it back because we figured out the flight was so quick, our champagne consumption would be a lot less than the normal 747 flight. Shhheeeeeeet

 

[juzdownunder]

Not travelling more before the kids arrived. I now have 3 aged 8 down to 3, and it's so hard/expensive to fly anywhere as a family. I recently priced a Disneyland trip and it came back as something like $14k for flight/accom/park fees etc. For a week!

I've taken a few opportunities as they've presented themselves....missus used to work for Ansett and we flew MEL-KUL-VIE the year before they collapsed...for $300 return (each). AND after being offloaded in KUL due to more senior staff getting on-board, we ended up flying in the coughpit of the Lauda 777 from KUL - VIE. More fun in hindsight...at the time no food/drink/entertainment or reclining seats for 10 hours....but still a great experience.

Also used points to upgrade from business to first class for MEL-LAX a few years back on the Qantas A380. Definitely one bucket list item I got to cross off. I'd talked about flying long-haul first class for years.

 

[juzdownunder]

...BA was offering free upgrades on the Concorde. We knocked it back because we figured out the flight was so quick, our champagne consumption would be a lot less than the normal 747 flight. Shhheeeeeeet

You knocked back the Concorde for more free champagne? That's hilarious!

 

[kevfran]

Flying Emirates in 2009 Athens via Dubai to Brisbane. Flight left Athens 10pm arr Dubai 4.30am next day flying cattle class. Tried sleeping in Term3 at Dubai Int while waiting for Brisbane connection at 10.30am, but kept awake thanks to the PA system going non stop from 6.30am. Next time it'll be a stop over.

 

[Paddy55]

Planning our first One World RTW 1st class (so cheap in those days) the TA advised that BA was offering free upgrades on the Concorde. We knocked it back because we figured out the flight was so quick, our champagne consumption would be a lot less than the normal 747 flight. Shhheeeeeeet

I feel your pain

 

[juzdownunder]

Flying Emirates in 2009 Athens via Dubai to Brisbane. Flight left Athens 10pm arr Dubai 4.30am next day flying cattle class. Tried sleeping in Term3 at Dubai Int while waiting for Brisbane connection at 10.30am, but kept awake thanks to the PA system going non stop from 6.30am. Next time it'll be a stop over.

That reminds me of a trip where I had both a big regret and a big win....in the early 2000's I made a last minute decision (about 2 weeks in advance) to use QFF points to fly the gf and I to Bali from MEL to meet friends over there.

Someone tipped me off beforehand that even though the MEL-DPS flight was all economy class, it was on a 747, so the upper deck would be business class seating...so we requested upper deck seats and got them. All the comfort of J without the better food. However, on the way back i'd booked via Darwin to save some points...midnight flight out of Bali, didn't get the upper deck request, and a 7 hour layover from about 6am, no Q club access..man that was awful.

 

[kppies]

Entering the US as a 20 year-old "illegal alien". My US college contacts had assured me that the renewal paperwork for my student visa was adequate - wrong! I got detained, fingerprinted, fined, had my work visa cancelled and had to attend a tribunal hearing 3 weeks later. To add insult to injury, had to return to Melbourne to get a new visa when they could have let me back in on a travel visa and travel 20km to Canada for the official renewal stamp.

This was all pre 9/11 too. Would hate to think what would happen now. I never trust anyone to do my visa paperwork nowdays!

 

[danunder1]

Going for a Saturday afternoon walk along the beach in Dar es Salaam, watching people getting married every 100 yards or so, with impromptu singing, dancing, 2 piece bands etc. Magic, eh? But wasn't noticing the sun rapidly going down. Got lost in part of what I'd known was referred to as the "dark continent". But dark, because there're no bloody street lights. Fear only equalled by that experienced in late night cabs from the outskirts of both Lagos and Nairobi. Never, ever had any issues at all in Africa, but that doesn't mean one can't be terrified from time to time.

 

[themaiz]

Biggest regret: Flying Finland to Oz via BKK and HKG. At BKK boarded a 767 in J and asked if there was any chance of a coughpit landing into Kai Tak. Figured it was likely to be my last ever flight into the old airport, and no harm asking. Before takeoff, CSR came back to tell me "Captain says yes, and we will take you up later in the flight". Yippee!!! Then... about 20 mins into the flight I was visited by (in succession) the CSR, then the FO and then the captain who all came past to personally apologise for the impending bad weather which meant they had to undo the request. Hope you understand. I was on a front left window, so I figured I'd still get a great view of the airport as we came in. Then - double whammy - I fell asleep and missed the whole approach. Woke up as the wheels hit the deck. Bah!

Best non-regret: several 747 coughpit landings into LAX, BNE and SYD, a recent coughpit sit-and-photo op in a (stationary) A380 - with embarrassing pilot's hat!, the experience of being grounded in LA during the 2011 QF dispute... but mostly I don't regret doing a heap of expensive side-trips on a bus tour of Europe. The guide's advice was right: in 15 years you'll forget that you paid $50 to ride on the Gondola, but you'll remember that you rode on the Gondola.

 

[danunder1]

Ummmm...also eating seafood in Jakarta, sashimi in Karachi, and Macca's (twice!!) in Dubai. Gardia once, just crook as..., the other times. Nuff said.

 

[aspace]

I regret returning home early from backpacking in Europe in the late 80's for a close friends wedding...she's divorced now.

Re: the concorde - I will never forget being right next to it whilst on a transit bus in CDG Paris. The bus taking us from our plane to the arrival gate, when we had to stop on the tarmac for a concorde to be towed across our path. It was late May 03, only a few months after they had been grounded so this plane was obviously on it's way to a retirement hangar. The whole bus went silent watching the plane and I'm sure everyone was just a little sad for the people who had died in the accident and also that this enormous bird would never take off again. Regret not taking a photo but was before I had an iphone and too tired to think quickly.

 

[danunder1]

Oh..and just remembered. Was living in Dubai and daughter was living at and pulling beers at the Crown 'n Scepter in Shepherds Bush, when I won two super special stage-side seats to a Stones' concert in Paris. Had more than enough points for both of us to go, but v short notice, and thought she wouldn't be interested (not being our era etc). Little did I know... Biiiiig regret.

 

[amaroo]

Lugging two bottles of Dom Perignon (purchased at the door) throughout Europe & Asia in the very early 90's only to come home a few years later to see the house broken into & the Dom gone.

Buy it, drink it. Has been my motto ever since!

 

[JohnK]

Then of course seemingly without warning Ansett collapses and my points are frozen and then worthless. Hundreds of thousands of them wiped out overnight.

Reading your story has got me thinking if I am making a mistake.

I have close to 700,000 QFF points and have vowed not to use them again until I reach 1,000,000 QFF points and then find the time to travel round the world a few times.

Everytime I see a thread about Qantas doing this or Qantas doing that reminds me of what happened to people when Ansett went under....

 

[IainF]

Biggest regret - Flying Jetstar & other LCC for work & pleasure. Never again. Has always been awful & not once have I come of a flight thinking "that was worth saving $200"
Biggest NON regret - Upgrading flights to J or F, rooms to suites & cafes to restaurants. Xmas dinner at Gordon Ramsay Los Angeles & Bouchon Beverly Hills for Boxing Day remain as highlights.

 

[gab]

Just read thru the thread & added a couple of things to my to do list(Which I have renamed "in 15 years you'll forget that you paid $50 to ride on the Gondola, but you'll remember that you rode on the Gondola".) Thanks poster.

Couple of non regrets doing a J class trip Per - Lhr with Ansett points 6 months before the end. F class trip same route in the late '70s, because we were nice to the check in chick.

Regrets, from the F trip, not declaring the true age of camera lenses & then finding out from Customs the build date is in the serial No!

 

[RSD]

Biggest regret would be spending more than 20 years roaming the globe and seeing so many amazing sights without having that someone special to share the travel experience with.

 

[themaiz]

Gab, welcome to the AFF.

Further thoughts:
* non-regret: treating myself to Golden Wing Life Membership for $500 when it was first offered. Bargain.
* non-regret: listening to Mrs TheMaiz when she told me to dump all our AN points on a trip to the US... tarnished somewhat by awful service in J on UA
* regret: giving AN $1000 for GW spouse membership "on special", just a year or so before the end. Seemed like such a clever idea at the time...