Made any travel mistakes lately?

[LovemyCC]

Gotta say that I love reading this thread. Arent we all human.

First mistake was on my first trip to US, when AUD$1=US$0.45. It sucks when you can only afford half the stuff.

Landing in Washington DC at 8pm. Waiting for my uncle to pick me up at airport. He finishes work at 10pm but I didnt know he lived in regional Virginia, which was another 3 hour drive! So sat at airport waiting for 1am lift. This is the time before global roaming and smart phone games. Worse torture waiting with nothing to do! Hopefully I learnt from my mistakes

 

[The Flying Brick]

If walking to to the Novotel at Brisbane 'Airport' one should allow allow an hour to get there.
Seriously, this is a cruel joke to play on unsuspecting guests who have booked in thinking that the hotel is just across the road from the Int. departures gate - It's an even longer walk than that between Dom and Int. at Brisbane, even worse in the heat or the the frequent heavy rain.
it is not in the airport by any stretch of the imagination, rather. On the road to the city where there are plenty of better, cheaper and far more comfortable alternatives.

 

[boomy]

This year February and March have the same dates & days (until the 28th). I accidentally booked my return BNE-MEL for 7th March and only noticed that when I checked in at BNE and they couldn't find my booking. To my surprise, the staff at the J lounge told me not to worry about it as happens a lot this month and they have to change many tickets every day!

 

[ronicat]

Booked flights and tickets to a concert months ago on a good but inflexible rate. Notified last week that concert date has now been changed. Very expensive to change inflexible flights a week out! Luck the accommodation was flexible.

 

[cove]

Currently you can lose Hilton and Qantas points through leaving the account inactive for about 18 months.
Some of our friends and their families just leave their points sitting like they are in a bank account. If it is Qantas points just get each family member a Woolworths Everyday Rewards card and spend a minimum of $31 on it inside the 18 month period to gain a further 18 months.

 

[benlight]

I was detained by immigration officers at SIN for about an hour back in 2011. I was doing a SIN-CMB-SIN same day turnaround, and to make things easier I left my luggage in storage at SIN. Boarding passes for my onwards flight were issued at CMB and on arriving in SIN I checked my luggage in and received another set of onward boarding passes. When going through immigration, the officer noticed I had two boarding passes for the same flight, and not accepting my explanation he summoned other officers to escort me into a room for questioning. Supposedly it was a big no-no for CX to have issued me with duplicate boarding passes, and they were also suspicious as to why I was doing a same day turnaround from Sri Lanka -- but they eventually let me go.

I still made my flight, but I've never felt comfortable when transiting through SIN ever since. And I make sure never to be in possession of duplicate boarding passes.

 

[sjd]

Had a hideously delayed flight from DAD to SGN in October last year on VietJet (do not use them they do not have enough planes to fly their schedules on a daily basis, but that is not he travel mistake I wish to share, read on). Arrived in to SGN after midnight and completely forgot to check that the taxi we got into was from one of the reputable companies. The dodgy meter was very interesting and calibrated specifically for the length of the drive from the airport to district 1. The fare seemed fine until we got to central Ho Chi Minh City at which point the rate per km sky-rocketed. The total quadrupled with a few streets! In the end I did not pay him the full fare he tried to claim. Got in to the hotel and the very nice front desk guy pointed out that we'd had an unlicensed car. I told him I'd figured that out already. He then organised a very nice car at a very reasonable rate to take us back to the airport 6 hours later for our next flight. Bugger all sleep due to the aforementioned cheap airline and its lack of enough planes, but a very pleasant drive at the going rate back to airport the next morning.

 

[markis10]

If walking to to the Novotel at Brisbane 'Airport' one should allow allow an hour to get there.
Seriously, this is a cruel joke to play on unsuspecting guests who have booked in thinking that the hotel is just across the road from the Int. departures gate - It's an even longer walk than that between Dom and Int. at Brisbane, even worse in the heat or the the frequent heavy rain.
it is not in the airport by any stretch of the imagination, rather. On the road to the city where there are plenty of better, cheaper and far more comfortable alternatives.

Its within the airport boundry, just like the new Oaks in MEL, and actually sits on ground where the old runway was for Eagle Farm, there is also a shuttle bus on offer. Plenty of properties exist in various cities where they have airport in the name but are not even on the airport property.

 

[DaveB]

Last August whilst staying in Annecy, tried to duck across the border to visit Geneva for the day without paying the annual Swiss motorway toll of around 45euro from memory. Our Navman and the car GPS kept sending us down a rural road which was closed for roadworks with no detour in place. My stubboness and determination rarely ends in (admitted) defeat but was well and truly snookered on this one.
Pre internet and GPS days, way too many driving faux pas involving distances and finding booked locations. A trip involving english cottage stays often took us well off the beaten track. Trying to find Blacknest Cottage near Owlpen in the Cotswolds was memorable and definitely would have ended in failure if we hadn't already paid for the accommodation.

 

[erkpod]

Flying to the Pacific Northwest of America when they get larger than normal snowfalls - I'm starting to think that was a mistake. Lucky I like the people I went to see...

 

[robd]

... Trying to find Blacknest Cottage near Owlpen in the Cotswolds was memorable and definitely would have ended in failure if we hadn't already paid for the accommodation.

Pretty sure it's near Hogwarts (for future reference).

 

[Sprucegoose]

I never stop making them consequently I never stop learning !!!

Wonderful events mistakes ......

 

[cove]

Until Sunday SQ had always run on time out of LAX so we had never checked changing departure times. The almost 4 hour plane delay had been caused by a storm in Narita making the incoming flight to be very late.
We received a box of chocolates and watched the Winter Olympics in the SQ /Star Alliance lounge and enough time to look at the shops in the Tom Bradley terminal.
The Bulgari watch I looked at had sticker shock so I saved a lot last Sunday and credit card hammering was avoided.

 

[cove]

In London for 2weeks I realized I had 4 days to go and medication for 3 days. I bought a pill cutter for 2 quid from Boots pharmac_ and made 3 days medication into 4 days worth.

 

[Princess Fiona]

In London for 2weeks I realized I had 4 days to go and medication for 3 days. I bought a pill cutter for 2 quid from Boots pharmac_ and made 3 days medication into 4 days worth.

Cheaper than Harley St

 

[bryanjones]

drove the 2 hours to ZRH for a flight and realised i had left my passport at home (first time for everything )

drop wife off, booked another flight, drove the 4 hour round trip and finally boarded. Very frustrating when this happens that the airlines wont allow you to still use your return ticket if you dont board the outbound flight.

on the plus side it did let me try turkish airlines which I found to be excellent, and best economy meal I have ever tasted. And their lounge in IST is epic.

 

[cove]

My Harley Street visit cost 143 pounds and that included pathology to test the infection. I would do that doctor on call again as it resolved the problem that started from a liquid nitrogen spray on two skin cancers near the ankle. I think I was lucky.

 

[JohnK]

In London for 2weeks I realized I had 4 days to go and medication for 3 days. I bought a pill cutter for 2 quid from Boots pharmac_ and made 3 days medication into 4 days worth.

I took my medication with me on my last trip. I keep forgetting to take the medication while I am overseas as I am very relaxed. Or is that lazy?

Just as well the medication is not for serious life threatening conditions.

 

[Virgin Bart]

I've made a couple of decent errors. Back in the late 60's, very soon after marriage, the company I was with sent me overseas to the UK, Europe and the US for 6 weeks. I was too naive to ask if I could take my bride along. While I was away she smashed my car ( actually it was a drunk driver who ran into it). It was many years before we could do some Asian jaunts, but she died before we could get to the Northern Hemisphere.

Very sorry to read that.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

When booking our flights from SJD/xDFW/xLAX/LAS I kind of forgot that we had to clear US Customs in DFW! :shock: Our two most recent sorties to that region had been to SJU where there is nil customs as considered part of the US & Aruba where you pre-clear in Oranjestad.

When I was doing the booking on the AA site (US not AU) I got sidetracked as I was thinking about what lounge we would want to spend more time in - Admirals Club at DFW or AA Flagship Lounge at LAX so decided the latter which meant a 90 minute connection in DFW.

I don't think the penny dropped until we were filling out our US Customs form on the SJD/DFW flight & thought "uh oh". Anyway thankfully there weren't many flights arriving in DFW at that time & we were travelling HLO although I did notice that US Passport holders even with checked bags were still ahead of us. Even if we did have bags they would've been on the carousel so it would only have taken a few seconds to grab them & continue on our way.

90 minutes must still be a legal connection (AA to AA) in DFW though if they display those flights on their website as an option to begin with.

We had to take the DFW Skyrail tram from terminal A to C which had a few stops in between so arrived at the gate 30 mins prior & they hadn't even started boarding (usually starts at least 45 mins prior to departure) so we even had time to grab a latte from Starbucks & were still ready to board when they called group 1.

We got out of jail on that occasion but if we had missed the flights booked on there were still options later on that would've still got us to Vegas that night.