Made any travel mistakes lately?

[cove]

Jurahn it can get even better when "Officer Martinez" escorts one of you off to a private room when the question of why the new passport comes with other queries. Just think of him being the officer with the rubber gloves and you will be fine. Now the pair of you are separated one gets thru and picks up all the bags and waits down at the baggage carousel and then waits and waits.....shortly into the wait time you realize you might be standing down there for quite a while and there are no places to sit. Of course you are thinking "Welcome to America".

 

[Jurahn]

Jurahn it can get even better when "Officer Martinez" escorts one of you off to a private room when the question of why the new passport comes with other queries. Just think of him being the officer with the rubber gloves and you will be fine. Now the pair of you are separated one gets thru and picks up all the bags and waits down at the baggage carousel and then waits and waits.....shortly into the wait time you realize you might be standing down there for quite a while and there are no places to sit. Of course you are thinking "Welcome to America".

Well that sounds just delightful (not). I'm travelling on my own this time so at least Mr J won't have to play the "waiting game".

 

[cove]

Well Jurahn that eliminates a problem for you. Just relax and think of finally getting thru the queues as that is what will happen. Just don't have an onwards flight booking that has a tight connection. Of course Officer Martinez probably does not even exist so you will be fine.

 

[Mal]

Jurahn it can get even better when "Officer Martinez" escorts one of you off to a private room when the question of why the new passport comes with other queries. Just think of him being the officer with the rubber gloves and you will be fine. Now the pair of you are separated one gets thru and picks up all the bags and waits down at the baggage carousel and then waits and waits.....shortly into the wait time you realize you might be standing down there for quite a while and there are no places to sit. Of course you are thinking "Welcome to America".

Not fun at all.


For my latest travel mistake, expecting I would wake up in time to head to LHR for a horribly early flight, after a big and late night out pre-Christmas catchup was optimistic! Needless to say, I'm still in London!

 

[JessicaTam]

Not fun at all.


For my latest travel mistake, expecting I would wake up in time to head to LHR for a horribly early flight, after a big and late night out pre-Christmas catchup was optimistic! Needless to say, I'm still in London!

Bugger. So no sneak peek photos of that lounge then?

 

[Mal]

Bugger. So no sneak peek photos of that lounge then?

Not from me today sadly!

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I was booking our HNL accommodation for last month through Hotwire as I was giving the mystery hotel thing a go. Comparing rates I noticed that some HNL properties had a resort fee as it would have a total AUD amount for the accommodation then directly underneath tell you eg "a resort fee of US2.00 per night applies so USD80.00 is paid to the hotel direct."

The hot rate I was looking at definitely didn't say anything about resort fees so I assumed there wasn't one or if there was that it was included in the taxes and charges which were approx AUD140.00 which was a lot more that the Hawaii state tax on nightly room rates.

I took print outs of all our accommodation bookings and brought on the trip with us. Our hot rate hotel in HNL which is a mystery hotel turned out to be the Coconut Waikiki Hotel which was revealed upon payment which is at the time of booking and non-refundable. When we checked in to the hotel they mentioned the resort fee but when I told them there was no mention of any resort fee having to be paid direct and they agreed that it must be already included in the charges and I thought that was the end of it.

When we went to checkout of the hotel 4 days later a different staff member was on reception so was insisting that we had to pay US80.00 in resort fees (4 nights @ $20.00). While SO was discussing that with reception I was calling Hotwire on Skype in the lobby and when I got on to someone in the call center they were no help and just kept repeating a scripted response of "you agreed to the terms and conditions at the time you booked." Yes I ticked the T&C's box that said there may be additional fees and charges payable direct to the hotel however it is Hotwire's duty to fully disclose what the amount is that is to be paid direct, particularly when we're talking about resort fees which are not insignificant. It's not like you can double check first direct with the property when you are booking a mystery hotel.

If Hotwire can display the resort fees for some hotels they should display it for all hotels so consumers can accurately compare rates and make an informed decision about which property to choose. I was still on the phone to them getting nowhere when SO came up and said "they've agreed not to charge us so let's go before they change their mind." We still had to drop our rental car off at Thrifty before getting the shuttle bus from the depot to the airport terminal.

I mentioned to SO in the car "wow, someone was looking after us" and it was then he mentioned that while at reception finalising the account he noticed an envelope on the front counter awaiting collection with his mother's name on it. She passed away in 2003 so I never got to meet her but I'm sure it was some kind of devine intervention.

So the long and the short of it, I would still use Hotwire again but would be extremely cautious in using them in a city like LAS or HNL where resort fees apply. If I did use them I would probably only choose an option where it specifically mentioned the actual amount of the resort fee to be paid direct and would not book one that didn't disclose this nor assume (again) that there wasn't one just because it wasn't mentioned.

 

[Jay Cee]

OK, I thought that I would do the right thing by myself and stick to my dislike for Airbus. Booked a flight to HKG, codeshare VA/SQ. 1st flight BNE>MEL pick up B773ER to SIN then B772 to HKG. Plans of mice & men, something had to go wrong. SQ decided that, since I was flying & their (unknown) my aversion to Air-bus they have decided to change out the B773ER for an A388. They were going to get rid of this A388 flight but have decided to keep it, most probably due to pressure from you Melbournites.

So here we go B738>A388>B772>B772>A330 gets me back to BNE. I will be praying hard on 2 of these flights.

cheers

 

[Genji88]

Was reading up on the green housekeeping policy in another thread here or on FT. Not Applicable for one night stays, & only 2 nights before housekeeping has to come in.
Good way to rack up bonus points for longer stays though.

 

[Sprucegoose]

We picked the slow lane immigration queue at Los Angeles yesterday.When we finally made it to the outside there was the second immigration officer sucking on a cigarette.He saw our queue and vanished leaving one booth open.

Ah yes living the American Dream !!!

 

[Quickstatus]

[Sheepish]

Made 2 identical AA flight bookings 2 weeks apart. Identical itinerary and passenger. Now have to wait for refund of the duplicate booking. AA has to review the refund request. But one of the acceptable excuses was "duplicate booking" in amongst "death in family" "military orders". This must occur frequently enough to make it on to the list.

Luckily detected before day of travel

[/Sheepish]

 

[pyffii]

after over 40 years of travel made a huge mistake today when checking in online on my mobile....thought i hit the no dangerous items tab but no the page hadnt fully loaded and hey presto I had inadvertently recorded carrying dangerous items and couldnt stop the process so no boarding passes can be produced and we have to see checkin staff at the airport ( only have carry on )...hmm think it really is time for a holiday !!!

 

[ozmille]

going with a couple of colleagues and we had to book a hotel last minute, on of the colleagues sends through a link for a cheap hotel rate that I couldn't find anywhere else, she books it and I click the link and book as well (without checking), so we both book the cheap prepaid non refundable rate, when the confirmation email comes through it looks like we booked the wrong dates

lesson learned, never trust anybody else!

 

[fewings85]

leaving Melbourne for Sydney last month with my partner. VA 8am flight. woke around 3am in the hotel, and thought ahh ill sleep another 30 minutes. Woke again it was 7am (had alarms set none woke us!). Needless to say we didn't make that flight, got stung badly at the airport to change flights :\

 

[bismarck]

leaving Melbourne for Sydney last month with my partner. VA 8am flight. woke around 3am in the hotel, and thought ahh ill sleep another 30 minutes. Woke again it was 7am (had alarms set none woke us!). Needless to say we didn't make that flight, got stung badly at the airport to change flights :\

Ouch. That sucks.

I must say though, one of the benefits of having a regular driver who drops me at the airport. He's phoned and woken me a couple of times when I've slept through my alarm in the morning. Still late, but not missing flight late.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

woke around 3am in the hotel, and thought ahh ill sleep another 30 minutes. Woke again it was 7am (had alarms set none woke us!).

Now that's a pain. Just as an aside, I think I must rate as an oddbod. I don't need to set alarms as I seem to have a built in alarm clock. I just tell myself the time I need to awake by and about two minutes before that time, my eyes open and I'm awake! Doesn't really matter what the time might be, so it's not habit. I can change from 6am to 2 am without issue ... all I do is tell myself the required time before I go to sleep.

I can still be late though, usually by getting engrossed in something and losing track of time, and I still do set alarms as I'm still afraid I'll sleep in, even though I don't!

 

[OzEire]

I think I must rate as an oddbod. I don't need to set alarms as I seem to have a built in alarm clock. I just tell myself the time I need to awake by and about two minutes before that time, my eyes open and I'm awake! Doesn't really matter what the time might be, so it's not habit. I can change from 6am to 2 am without issue ... all I do is tell myself the required time before I go to sleep!

I am the same. But i always set an alarm just in case. Most days that i do this I wake and pick up the phone to switch off the alarm, like you it is normally 1-2 mins before the alarm time. Really odd.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

I am the same. But i always set an alarm just in case. Most days that i do this I wake and pick up the phone to switch off the alarm, like you it is normally 1-2 mins before the alarm time. Really odd.

I'm so glad to hear there are others that do that! I don't feel quite so odd now. I often stand waiting for the alarm to ring so I can accept the alarm and go to shower, as I don't want to switch it off in case I forget to set it again for the next morning ... even though I don't need it! Weird. :shock:

 

[mrs.dr.ron]

Now that's a pain. Just as an aside, I think I must rate as an oddbod. I don't need to set alarms as I seem to have a built in alarm clock. I just tell myself the time I need to awake by and about two minutes before that time, my eyes open and I'm awake! Doesn't really matter what the time might be, so it's not habit. I can change from 6am to 2 am without issue ... all I do is tell myself the required time before I go to sleep.

I can still be late though, usually by getting engrossed in something and losing track of time, and I still do set alarms as I'm still afraid I'll sleep in, even though I don't!

I can do that too ! But I always set 2 alarms as well and our car service is booked half an hour before Ron thinks we should leave as well :shock:

 

[JohnK]

Earlier this month decided to go back to Brisbane to work the 3 days between Christmas and New Year. The return airfares for 2 people are almost as much as what I'll earn in those 3 days.

Should have had a 10 day break.