Made any travel mistakes lately?

[Cruiser Elite]

rayray first paragraph hilarious - we all get a little too clever occasionally - second not so funny - sorry to hear about your wife's bad luck - it'll mend and you can head down that path again soon.

 

[Buzzard]

Around 5:00pm one day last week I received an automated SMS from a country motel noting we had not yet checked in.
Oops, forgot to cancel the booking.
Luckily we are regulars at this place and know the owner so I rang her and explained my embarrassment. All good, booking cancelled. Loyalty pays.

 

[Tallfont]

OK, so here is my big mistake this week. Like a lot of us I book a lot of flights online and very rarely make any mistakes. This week was a bit different!

Went on the BA website to book an Edinburgh to London City flight for me and Mrs Tallfont in August this year. Went through all the options and times for the date in August. Then got distracted and had to leave the booking for 15-20 minutes.
When I returned to the booking I started over again and got to the payment section, thought that there was a bit of a difference in price from before. Anyway, I needed the flight so proceeded with the booking.
Hit the payment button and as I did it I noticed that the date was today's date
Surely I couldn't have been that stupid! Anyway the email came in soon after and, yes, I had just booked the flights in 12 hours time. Major panic!

Got on the phone to BA's Australian contact number. After around a 30 minute wait I managed to talk to someone and explain what I had done. Initial answer was that we will just refund the CC used to pay for it as it's within 24 hours of making the reservation. Great, everyone's a winner! It then turned out that as there were less than 24 hours before the flight they had a problem and couldn't refund.
End result was they rebooked us on to the flight I wanted in August, waived the change fee and any other charges. Whilst I would have paid more than if I had originally booked the flight I was soooooo glad not to lose the whole lot!

 

[wholesaler]

Ok to be clear, this wasn’t our mistake, but this could happen to others.

Client had 2 cars bookings with a major. One was one way, then 12 hours after dropping off 1st car, had another return booking. Booking this way was much cheaper than booking as one.

Flights changed so the 12 hour gap disappeared. 1st booking flight arrival put back to later, so we changed the 2nd booking for them, so the drop off of 1st & pick up of 2nd at same time.

So, when they arrived at depot to drop off 1st car to then pick up 2nd car, the car rental rep said, stay in your car, just give us your voucher & be on your way. No more paperwork or queues.

Good customer service you’d think.

NO !!!

The 2nd voucher was never processed, so the client got a rude shock when he got his credit card statement, basically saying the 1st car was X number of days late & charged some high rate for late days.

Tried to sort it out with rental car co., which you’d think would take minutes. Weeks later, they still wanted to argue about why the extra days shouldn’t be charged.

BTW- the extra days charged were at about double the rate, he had paid us.

Eventually someone with some common sense, refunded client & was all apologetic.

 

[deejo77]

After agonising on this for a day I rang VA and explained my stupidity but also queried how they could accept two bookings on the same flight. No issues at all and one flight was cancelled and refunded at no cost to me.

Still shaking my head about how I did this, but anyway the only real cost was my embarrassment.

We have two males in our house same name - I am thankful that I can book the same flights even with the same name

 

[Flashback]

We have two males in our house same name - I am thankful that I can book the same flights even with the same name

Sounds a little dodgy to me. Is one jnr and one snr?

 

[deejo77]

Sounds a little dodgy to me. Is one jnr and one snr?

Family traditions - yes different generations - it’s fun if the organisations you are talking to don’t have DOB recorded. Which one do you want.....

 

[straitman]

Family traditions - yes different generations - it’s fun if the organisations you are talking to don’t have DOB recorded. Which one do you want.....

In our case it was obvious as it was International and our passport numbers were recorded in the bookings.

 

[flychrisfly]

My QFF membership year ends 31 March. I knew I wanted to book some F flights SYD-LHR-SYD for May this year and was waiting/hoping for a DSC offer before booking. I received a 50% bonus SC offer from Qantas at the end of last year but didn't even think to use it for these flights - with 'only' 50% bonus I still would have retained Platinum but instead I held out for the DSC promo and ended up paying over $3000 more for the privilege and having to fly one day earlier (or paying another $3000 for a higher fare class) and losing half a day's pay.

 

[Flashback]

Talking about mistakes I have a question. If someone ever took a loan for travel? My wife found a good deal but right now I do not have so much money to pay for the tickets. I lend my all saving for parents, they will give back in a few months. So I was thinking if someone ever took a loan for travel? What is the interest rate? I do not want to make a mistake and overpay. Also, thinking about credit card or line of credit? If someone will share experience would be great.

I'd take a slightly cautious view and say if you can't afford it from the outright (regardless of reason), then you probably shouldn't. Credit cards are not great as the rate of interest can be high unless you start to shift onto low rate cards using balance transfer etc.

There's always the chance you may not get the money back from your parents for example, and then you're stuck with a bit of a pickle. I think think most lenders wouldn't be keen on lending money for travel and those that will, are likely to be shonky.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Talking about mistakes I have a question. If someone ever took a loan for travel? My wife found a good deal but right now I do not have so much money to pay for the tickets. I lend my all saving for parents, they will give back in a few months. So I was thinking if someone ever took a loan for travel? What is the interest rate? I do not want to make a mistake and overpay. Also, thinking about credit card or line of credit? If someone will share experience would be great.

You might have options such as after pay - where the total cost is spread across several months. Many websites now have this option, but make sure if comes interest free! (you don't want one of the ones where they add a whole heap of fees or interest)

 

[ethernet]

I avoided a taxi scam at SGN Airport. Never pay more than 200K to District 1. Went to taxi rank - yes the correct one at the far far end with steel handrails, and got into a taxi, checking it was a taxi with meter and photo id - not the private hire scam. I noticed the meter was not on an insisted METER METER but the driver lost English and looked like he was rebooting. Now outside the airport the iphone said 600K. I said no, and said this will be reported, and fumbled with my phone to take pictures - but did not in case he went loco. I said 200K (160-200k is the expected range) and that's what I paid.

I have now learnt to take a numberplate photo before I get in and when I sit down as the numberplate is not visible inside. Vn is suffering a huge tourist downturn, particularly easy to cheat .jp tourists. I also mention the driver stopped in a seedy deserted location and talked on his phone at length. I suspect he was getting into trouble by the mob as I was not budging.

I was told by the hotel that reporting him would be ineffective - had his number and credentials, but I think they were fake.

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

I avoided a taxi scam at SGN Airport. Never pay more than 200K to District 1. Went to taxi rank - yes the correct one at the far far end with steel handrails, and got into a taxi, checking it was a taxi with meter and photo id - not the private hire scam. I noticed the meter was not on an insisted METER METER but the driver lost English and looked like he was rebooting. Now outside the airport the iphone said 600K. I said no, and said this will be reported, and fumbled with my phone to take pictures - but did not in case he went loco. I said 200K (160-200k is the expected range) and that's what I paid.

I have now learnt to take a numberplate photo before I get in and when I sit down as the numberplate is not visible inside. Vn is suffering a huge tourist downturn, particularly easy to cheat .jp tourists. I also mention the driver stopped in a seedy deserted location and talked on his phone at length. I suspect he was getting into trouble by the mob as I was not budging.

I was told by the hotel that reporting him would be ineffective - had his number and credentials, but I think they were fake.

I‘ve had some success using Grab (an Uber clone) in SGN.
You avoid the scammers, and the fare is lower - approx VND 100k from the Opera House area to airport.

 

[Ausbt]

I guess there may not be much activity in this thread for a while. Anyway - guilty as charged: I can't believe I made this one but it happened. I had a booking.com reservation in MEL for the Grand Prix. It was an apartment in South Mel and oddly, the pictures changed a month or two out from the booking. The original pictures had been a typical two-bedder enough for myself and two mates on our annual F1 trip. Now booking.com displayed a very odd image, which I've attached below.

Naturally I sent a query saying "what's this all about" to which I got no replay. I decided to keep it, just putting it down to a mistake. After all, it was GP weekend and alternate prices were now sky-high. So, on to the day of check-in (this was also the same day that they announced the cancellation of the race ). As per booking.com instructions, I called the number to arrange check in. They advised "we will call you back in an hour". Ok fine.

Two hours go by. I get a text message, verbatim: "I am so sorry about that, this apartment the air conditioner and entrance door was broken by last guest today. we consider your safety, please cancel this booking, we will full refund for you~"

Now, I wasn't thinking straight. The race was cancelled. I had the option of flying MEL-SYD the next day. Suddenly my brain thought "oh, this is good, I'll get a refund anyway, burn a night's accom somewhere else and go home". Can you see the mistake coming? I couldn't.

After a few more text messages clarifying that they wanted me to initiate the cancellation, I logged onto booking.com and did exactly that. Then I booked one night elsewhere and my return flight. Doh!

Naturally, no refund has been forthcoming. Booking.com are washing their hands of it. My credit card suggests a chargeback won't be possible because I initiated the cancellation! (yeah, well I did, stupidly). And of course the accommodation provider is blocking my calls.

All I had to do was not cancel and things would be a little different. No certainty but gut feeling is these people scammed me.

 

[straitman]

A good one to name and shame IMHO.

 

[Townsend]

A fairly expensive mistake! We were on a rtw ticket and the fifth flight on this ticket was from Oslo to Canberra late March. We were in London on the 13/3 and were told that the borders for Norway would close on 15 March. For some reason we didn’t realise that if we were not in Oslo by the 15th we could not pick up our round the world ticket.

We had to buy two one way tickets from London to Canberra. A very expensive lesson!

 

[Woodie]

This happened a few years ago. For my wife's 50th I took her & our 2 grown up children & their partners to Europe. I like to book everything in advance & booked 6 Eurostar tickets @ 100 GBP each in premier class (about $1000 at the time) from Paris to London. When selecting the date form the drop down calendar, I clicked on the required date & the mouse must have moved up to a week early.

I didn't notice this & paid. I only noticed when I got the confirmation email with the tickets attached. Tickets were non refundable etc. These were useless as I had booked accommodation in Paris & London.

Got on the phone to the UK & explained what happened, the girl said she could see how that could happened, but would have to speak to her supervisor. About 5 mins later she returned & told me that she would fix this up & re-issue the tickets, which she did in about 30mins.

 

[Tiki]

I booked an EK award BNE DXB SAW with QF. I carefully selected flights that gave me an overnight in Dubai so I could shop. When I checked in, they wouldn’t let me collect the bag in DXB but insisted on thru checking it to SAW. So I had to pull out some overnight clothes PLUS I had to carry everything I bought in Dubai on the plane and I had bought some heavy winter clothes for Feb in Turkey. Add to that the Duty Free whisky for my Turkish friend. At least I got it on the plane as carry on. Next time I will book it as a separate ticket, I think its maybe 5000ish QF extra?

 

[Dr Bob]

I booked an EK award BNE DXB SAW with QF. I carefully selected flights that gave me an overnight in Dubai so I could shop. When I checked in, they wouldn’t let me collect the bag in DXB but insisted on thru checking it to SAW. So I had to pull out some overnight clothes PLUS I had to carry everything I bought in Dubai on the plane and I had bought some heavy winter clothes for Feb in Turkey. Add to that the Duty Free whisky for my Turkish friend. At least I got it on the plane as carry on. Next time I will book it as a separate ticket, I think its maybe 5000ish QF extra?

Yes but there would be $100s extra in T&Cs for the DXB SAW ticket

 

[Franky]

I guess there may not be much activity in this thread for a while. Anyway - guilty as charged: I can't believe I made this one but it happened. I had a booking.com reservation in MEL for the Grand Prix. It was an apartment in South Mel and oddly, the pictures changed a month or two out from the booking. The original pictures had been a typical two-bedder enough for myself and two mates on our annual F1 trip. Now booking.com displayed a very odd image, which I've attached below.

Naturally I sent a query saying "what's this all about" to which I got no replay. I decided to keep it, just putting it down to a mistake. After all, it was GP weekend and alternate prices were now sky-high. So, on to the day of check-in (this was also the same day that they announced the cancellation of the race ). As per booking.com instructions, I called the number to arrange check in. They advised "we will call you back in an hour". Ok fine.

Two hours go by. I get a text message, verbatim: "I am so sorry about that, this apartment the air conditioner and entrance door was broken by last guest today. we consider your safety, please cancel this booking, we will full refund for you~"

Now, I wasn't thinking straight. The race was cancelled. I had the option of flying MEL-SYD the next day. Suddenly my brain thought "oh, this is good, I'll get a refund anyway, burn a night's accom somewhere else and go home". Can you see the mistake coming? I couldn't.

After a few more text messages clarifying that they wanted me to initiate the cancellation, I logged onto booking.com and did exactly that. Then I booked one night elsewhere and my return flight. Doh!

Naturally, no refund has been forthcoming. Booking.com are washing their hands of it. My credit card suggests a chargeback won't be possible because I initiated the cancellation! (yeah, well I did, stupidly). And of course the accommodation provider is blocking my calls.

All I had to do was not cancel and things would be a little different. No certainty but gut feeling is these people scammed me.

View attachment 215703

Just like my experience with booking.com, you get absolutely no mercy from them, and as you have found, no communication either.