Made any travel mistakes lately?

[RAM]

Had a similar but different experience with Google Maps for near airport hotels at Gatwick. Luckily I decided to ring the hotel to confirm my suspicions that GM was wrong.

Turns out GM were correct. The hotel despite being directly over the road from the airport terminal end had no pedestrian access anywhere - you could not physically (safely) go for a walk anywhere from that hotel. No footpaths anywhere. Fences blocking the way immediately adjacent to both sides of the hotel and the (level) start of a motorway on-ramp in front. So even to drive to the terminal required a several km detour onto the motorway, off again, on again in the reverse direction and 2nd exit vs 3rd exit at the roundabout.

BTW - never stayed there. Preferred Premier Inn a pedestrian crossing away from the terminal for normally GBP 39/night (if booked far enough in advance) sleeping up to 4.

 

[Matt_01]

Since Covid has disrupted my seemingly simple routine I am on a mistake roll. The latest mistake one, having commuted to MEL (and other eastern seaboard cities) for the past 10+ years I tended to follow eastern seaboard time and the VIC public holiday schedule. This year the Anzac Day holiday differs across states and after MrsM informed me this evening they are not the I came to the realisation I am flying from a state with with a public holiday to work in a state work in another without the public holiday. I may now have to enforce my own MEL Cup holiday from SA to claw back a day.

This leads me to mistake number two - "lets go to PER for the June long weekend, Queens Birthday". To my surprise I thought I had struck gold last weekend when I found and booked upgradable flights for Mrs and MissM with QF to PER and 3 VA (WP) upgrades back to ADL at the government kick back rates and over the long weekend. As I looked up 'the Google' the realisation of mistake one came into play, I happened to notice that the PER long weekend holiday is 7 Jun 21 and a week ahead of Queen's Birthday 14 Jun 21. At the time of booking I did not bother to check this I thought QB was a national holiday. After a quick family discussion we will still head to PER as planned.

 

[Seat0B]

Since Covid has disrupted my seemingly simple routine I am on a mistake roll. The latest mistake one, having commuted to MEL (and other eastern seaboard cities) for the past 10+ years I tended to follow eastern seaboard time and the VIC public holiday schedule. This year the Anzac Day holiday differs across states and after MrsM informed me this evening they are not the I came to the realisation I am flying from a state with with a public holiday to work in a state work in another without the public holiday. I may now have to enforce my own MEL Cup holiday from SA to claw back a day.

This leads me to mistake number two - "lets go to PER for the June long weekend, Queens Birthday". To my surprise I thought I had struck gold last weekend when I found and booked upgradable flights for Mrs and MissM with QF to PER and 3 VA (WP) upgrades back to ADL at the government kick back rates and over the long weekend. As I looked up 'the Google' the realisation of mistake one came into play, I happened to notice that the PER long weekend holiday is 7 Jun 21 and a week ahead of Queen's Birthday 14 Jun 21. At the time of booking I did not bother to check this I thought QB was a national holiday. After a quick family discussion we will still head to PER as planned.

You obviously love danger travel, going to WA !

 

[Flashback]

You obviously love danger travel, going to WA !

Yes, just as well it's not this bank holiday long weekend.......

 

[JohnM]

Since Covid has disrupted my seemingly simple routine I am on a mistake roll. The latest mistake one, having commuted to MEL (and other eastern seaboard cities) for the past 10+ years I tended to follow eastern seaboard time and the VIC public holiday schedule. This year the Anzac Day holiday differs across states and after MrsM informed me this evening they are not the I came to the realisation I am flying from a state with with a public holiday to work in a state work in another without the public holiday. I may now have to enforce my own MEL Cup holiday from SA to claw back a day.

This leads me to mistake number two - "lets go to PER for the June long weekend, Queens Birthday". To my surprise I thought I had struck gold last weekend when I found and booked upgradable flights for Mrs and MissM with QF to PER and 3 VA (WP) upgrades back to ADL at the government kick back rates and over the long weekend. As I looked up 'the Google' the realisation of mistake one came into play, I happened to notice that the PER long weekend holiday is 7 Jun 21 and a week ahead of Queen's Birthday 14 Jun 21. At the time of booking I did not bother to check this I thought QB was a national holiday. After a quick family discussion we will still head to PER as planned.

The WA June long weekend is for what was called Foundation Day, but now called WA Day. WA celebrates the Queen's Birthday on either the last Monday in September or the first Monday in October (proclaimed by the Governor).

Of course, the Queen's actual birthday is 21 April, so the whole lot are wrong.

 

[Flashback]

The WA June long weekend is for what was called Foundation Day, but now called WA Day. WA celebrates the Queen's Birthday on either the last Monday in September or the first Monday in October (proclaimed by the Governor).

Of course, the Queen's actual birthday is 21 April, so the whole lot are wrong.

You can now call it the COVID day long weekend

 

[Prof Henry]

{Quoting AisleSeat in today's AFF Community Roundup} "Checklist! Passport, tickets, wallet, phone, keys. Everything else you can buy when you're there. I think it's a nice positive mindset to have when you're about to start a journey; not sweating the small stuff. That said, it has not been foolproof."
I've always adopted the same principle (and, in fact, as long as you remember the phone, you can even forget the tickets for most flights now).

I do the self pat-down before I close the front door (because I might have forgotten the keys!) and, before an international flight a few years ago, I left with the confidence that my checklist had been completed. After only 2ks, I repeated the pat-down, and the passport pocket didn't "feel right": yep, I'd picked up my wife's (in those days, slimmer) passport instead of my bulky (max-pages) one.
Time to return home and fix the problem and get to airport for check-in, told the check-in attendant (the "embarrassment-shared is embarrassment-reduced approach") how laughed and let me know it is "terribly common."

My wife, who is a triple passport-holder has been known to set off without the 'appropriate' passport

Minor change to pre-departure checklist: "Correct passport, wallet, phone, keys"

 

[SYD]

On our first trip in over a year requiring a passport my partner and I were looking forward to replenishing the DF spirits stocks having resorted to paying retail for some essentials...

Anyway, we were pleasantly surprised to hear that contrary to their website, SYD arrivals DF and pre-orders were open. So we grabbed five bottles (one to take with us and four to collect on return). Much better than trying to pack bottles in luggage coming home.

Sitting on the plane(!) my partner is looking at the receipt and realises:
a. We we’re only charged 4x bottles
b. We apparently took 3x bottles with us, and
c. We have 1x bottle waiting for collection

Expecting a bit of a discussion at the collection point, we were pleasantly surprise and relieved to be handed *the* four bottles we left for collection (in case you ever wondered if you get the same bottles back).

PS
Norfolk Island was entirely out of tonic water - we had considered taking some with us....

 

[sinophile888]

PS
Norfolk Island was entirely out of tonic water - we had considered taking some with us....

That would not do. I only drink tonic water, and water.

 

[SYD]

That would not do. I only drink tonic water, and water.

I saw a four pack at the petrol station on the last day...

 

[QF_Flyer]

PS
Norfolk Island was entirely out of tonic water - we had considered taking some with us....

Entirely OT but I, too have recently been to NLK (over the weekend just gone) and noted the same shortages of a whole variety of grocery items...and the bond store was looking pretty threadbare too...assume this is a COVID related situation? /OT

 

[Carrots]

Recent mistakes.....

I booked a flight, and it was with QF.

 

[Townsend]

I hope this is not a recent mistake! On Monday booked and paid for two RTW J class Finnair Qantas tickets. Before Mr Frydenberg bought down his budget.

I am desperate!

 

[mrsterryn]

Ok almost made. For some years now I have Regularly renewed my ESTA. Kinda an automatical type thing. Last week contemplated having a quick trip to USA. However I havnt yet organised travel insurance. Covid test would be needed etc. So with a big sigh and a grump I decided to not try and fly. Now five days later I realised !! I no longer have a current ESTA. A random comment in Facebook forum happen to mention a few things for travel to USA . Which included ESTA. Oh my gosh that would have been so so disappointing and expensive to have done lol the bookings and unable to leave
My contribution this thread and I havnt even travelled OS since early 2020

 

[Lord_Lenny]

Not so much a travel mistake as a travel annoyance. Travelling next week for work for the first time in many years and hadn't noticed that Virgin Australia's Fly Ahead benefit is now only for full fare Economy tickets (for Gold status) so I'll need to pay if I finish up early and want to grab an earlier flight, work will essentially never allow a full fare domestic Y ticket.

Although if this overcrowding situation continues at the airports then I may not get the chance to fly earlier no matter when I get to the airport

 

[Ktan89]

Recently booked a flight with CEBU Pacific MHP (Boracay) - SGN via MNL.
The payment page gave two options for payment: PHP or AUD charges.
At 1.15am I was using google currency conversion instead of Xe.com and based of Google the CEBU AUD was "better". I decided to select AUD payment and used my NAB card.
I ended up paying $70AUD more for my ticket because:
1. Bad conversion rate through CEBU - $50 more
2. NAB charged me international transactions fee still since the payment was processed in Philippines.

Cebu customer service is non existence .. possibly worse than Qantas. If they gave an option for AUD it should be processed through local office/currency right? This is just robbery/scam. They made an additional $50 of me already by offering the AUD conversion..

 

[SydneySwan]

Cebu customer service is non existence .. possibly worse than Qantas. If they gave an option for AUD it should be processed through local office/currency right? This is just robbery/scam. They made an additional $50 of me already by offering the AUD conversion..

No this is just another example of DCC where you are overseas and the vendor kindly presents you with the payment already converted into AUD. Never, ever accept this option.

 

[Scr77]

On Friday had booking from LAX to SLC in first with Delta. Showed up with heaps of time but airport was a zoo with queues out of every door. Luckily Delta First take bags and issue boarding pass at the curb so we avoid the worst of the queues.

We Get inside and through security and it’s like being at the MCG on grand final day. I could not believe my eyes! There are even 50-100m queues to enter the lounges. Still doing our best to avoid Covid, we hide on a mezzanine floor where we can avoid rubbing shoulders with genpop.

We show up at our gate 20min before the flight to find that we were bumped off flight because we weren’t there earlier. Apparently, that’s the way it works. With all flights sold out for the day, we join the standby list and just managed to squash into the last row of economy on the next flight. I’ve never been so happy to be in Y before!

 

[RAM]

Recently booked a flight with CEBU Pacific MHP (Boracay) - SGN via MNL.
The payment page gave two options for payment: PHP or AUD charges.
At 1.15am I was using google currency conversion instead of Xe.com and based of Google the CEBU AUD was "better". I decided to select AUD payment and used my NAB card.
I ended up paying $70AUD more for my ticket because:
1. Bad conversion rate through CEBU - $50 more
2. NAB charged me international transactions fee still since the payment was processed in Philippines.

Cebu customer service is non existence .. possibly worse than Qantas. If they gave an option for AUD it should be processed through local office/currency right? This is just robbery/scam. They made an additional $50 of me already by offering the AUD conversion..

Sounds like it is well past time to apply for one of the totally free zero FX fee (& outrageous spreads that are not fees of course) ccs like 28 Degrees or similar. No points earnt is a small sacrifice for no FX ripoffs.

Worth doing some research...

 

[andye]

Sounds like it is well past time to apply for one of the totally free zero FX fee (& outrageous spreads that are not fees of course) ccs like 28 Degrees or similar. No points earnt is a small sacrifice for no FX ripoffs.

Worth doing some research...

Coles Platinum MC earns Flybuys (hence VA) and has no commission. Not sure how it's FX stacks up