Made any travel mistakes lately?

[JessicaTam]

Have you been there recently to confirm?

No, so it is an unverified claim!

 

[Dr Bob]

Not me, my son a corporate lawyer decided to come home for Xmas so booked EK full flex economy and try for gold upgrade. He booked so he would lob in Mel around the same time as daughter coming from London on SQ on 18th Dec. He sent me itinerary to file as he does. Casually looked at itinerary the other day and noticed he had booked the 17th NOV. When I told him to check the date his initial reply was "no worries dad I'll hang in Melbourne for the day" I eventually got him to read the ticket date back to me so the penny dropped.
So around $500 later all fixed but he is still coming on the 17th so will hang in Mel and have to get back out to Tulla the next evening where I'll pick him up with daughter. I thought lawyers were good at reading fine print

 

[camperdown9]

Kind of depends what you mean by mistakes.
(Maybe I am strange but I never care about the money its more about the waste of time/leave)
San Diego - We booked a package from the UK with flight to SAN and 7 nights at the Hotel Del Coronado. When we got to the hotel the first room we were allocated had a strange smell. So we went to reception and were moved to a newer part of the hotel. The room could of been anywhere, It was very ordinary and felt like a motel room. My husband who thinks that all travel is a waste of money went in a mood and stayed in that mood till we were at the airport on the way home. We went to Old Town San Diego and it felt a bit trashy. On another day I went shopping and couldn't really find anything to buy. I mean it wasn't really San Diego's fault it just wasn't for us. Our mistake was not saying this doesn't work lets go to Vegas or someplace else, rather than spending a week wishing we were at home.

Buzios - We had a few days leave left and managed to find some very cheap flights from London via Madrid to Rio. We went to Rio expecting to get robbed, but weren't. We had a great time and loved it. A friend had said if you go to Rio you must go to Buzios. So a driver picked us up and took us to Buzios. When we got we both were aware within a few minutes that we were going to hate this place. There was nothing really wrong with it, it just was a bit basic/rustic. But rather than ask to be taken back to Rio we stayed and hated every minute.

Brandon, Florida - We booked a package with flights and a villa for 7 nights in Brandon Florida. We wanted just a nice house with a pool, a hire car and the plan was to spend a week just sitting in the sun, a bit of shopping the odd meal out. Just a week away. The reality was we didn't get the hire car we had booked. The villa was a house in very residential area. The pool was always in the shade. The teenage boy who lived next door kept coming and looking in the back windows of the house. He always said hello but it was a bit creepy. There was a local convenience store with bars on the windows and bars around the cash register. I grew up in Belfast in the 1970's and 80's and we never had that. We went to Washington for a day we had something to do there and looking back at it we should of just stayed there longer.

These are a few of what I would consider my travel mistakes.

Alex

 

[VPS]

Just booked a seniors railcard for the UK - saw a code to give me 16 quid off - put the code in but forgot to press apply - the language afterwards was not good

 

[mrsterryn]

Just booked a seniors railcard for the UK - saw a code to give me 16 quid off - put the code in but forgot to press apply - the language afterwards was not good

Is that the oyster card or something different? Lol I will get the seniors next trip (23 or 24)

 

[VPS]

Is that the oyster card or something different? Lol I will get the seniors next trip (23 or 24)

Senior Railcard | Buy the Senior Citizen (60+) Railcard for £30 | Trainline

Buy a digital Senior Railcard online with us for £30 & save 1/3 on UK rail travel with a Senior Railcard discount. Aged 60 or over? The Senior Citizen Railcard is for you.

www.thetrainline.com

you get 30% of fares

you then add that to your Oyster card to get cheaper tickets in London

 

[Warks]

Booked some flights last week. Mrs Warks started booking accommodation. After she booked one city I checked the date we were leaving that city and found it was a day earlier than I'd thought. So we have to either try and change the flight out, at great expense, or lose the night's accommodation if we can't change that. As we are cheapskates we usually book flights that brook no changes. And I think the accommodation is likely to do the same. I think I'll have more luck with the hotel although it's booked through a third party so maybe not. Cheaper airlines have zero sympathy in this area I've found. So rock, meet hard place...

 

[MikeG]

Does booking Qantas count?

 

[Telemachus]

Senior Railcard | Buy the Senior Citizen (60+) Railcard for £30 | Trainline

Buy a digital Senior Railcard online with us for £30 & save 1/3 on UK rail travel with a Senior Railcard discount. Aged 60 or over? The Senior Citizen Railcard is for you.

www.thetrainline.com

you get 30% of fares

you then add that to your Oyster card to get cheaper tickets in London

Not sure about that last bit regarding Oyster but I could be wrong. AFAIK the Senior Railcard is for National Rail services only and can’t be linked to an Oyster card. You can still use the Senior Railcard in London to get the 30% discount on overground train fares but not if you use an Oyster and not on other transport (tube, bus) irrespective of whether you use an Oyster or other payment method. The 60+ Oyster card is a different animal: it's only available to people with a residential address in a London borough, and it permits free travel.

Correction: Apologies @VPS, you’re right and the Senior Railcard can be linked to an Oyster. I have just looked further into this and, according to the TfL site, it can only be done by first registering your Oyster card with TfL and then approaching a staff member at a London underground or overground station. And the 30% off fares for which you can pay by Oyster only applies at off-peak times. Wish I had known this when I was in London recently….

 

[camperdown9]

Not sure about that last bit regarding Oyster but I could be wrong. AFAIK the Senior Railcard is for National Rail services only and can’t be linked to an Oyster card. You can still use the Senior Railcard in London to get the 30% discount on overground train fares but not if you use an Oyster and not on other transport (tube, bus) irrespective of whether you use an Oyster or other payment method. The 60+ Oyster card is a different animal: it's only available to people with a residential address in a London borough, and it permits free travel.

Correction: Apologies @VPS, you’re right and the Senior Railcard can be linked to an Oyster. I have just looked further into this and, according to the TfL site, it can only be done by first registering your Oyster card with TfL and then approaching a staff member at a London underground or overground station. And the 30% off fares for which you can pay by Oyster only applies at off-peak times. Wish I had known this when I was in London recently….

As far as I know few if any London Underground stations have ticket offices anymore. To link your Oyster card you might be better to go to a larger main rail station.

 

[Flashback]

As far as I know few if any London Underground stations have ticket offices anymore. To link your Oyster card you might be better to go to a larger main rail station.

And even the main line rail stations are reducing ticket office footprints, too....

 

[JohnK]

Late last night I was going to say 17 hour overnight transits in airport but it's been quite easy.

Went for walk from SIN T3 KrisFlyer lounge to T1 and all the way to the end of E concourse and back again.

Had 3 hours sleep.

Had breakfast.

Had shower and change clothes.

Now lunch before flight and 3 bloody Mary's before flight.

Saved $400+ with long connection and $100-$200 accommodation.

Use the money wisely on buying some things for my new house....

 

[jellybelly]

Not my mistake, but my hubby asked me to collect him from airport after a long haul flight. Waited and waited, no sign of him and eventually all passengers seemed to have come through. Found someone to ask who kindly looked up passenger lists and advised with a very solemn face that he is booked on tomorrow’s flight.

 

[Brissy1]

Not my mistake, but my hubby asked me to collect him from airport after a long haul flight. Waited and waited, no sign of him and eventually all passengers seemed to have come through. Found someone to ask who kindly looked up passenger lists and advised with a very solemn face that he is booked on tomorrow’s flight.

International date line can be a pain hey. You could ask him to go the long way round for simplification!

 

[gaz0303]

Arrived in NZ and didn’t have international roaming enabled (corporate phone controllers mistake). Arrived at Wellington at midnight with no taxi booking, so had to wait 20 minutes for a taxi, and finally arrived at the Mecure Central Wellington to find note on door saying ‘For after hours access please call…’. I just banged the door hard and luckily security showed up.

 

[cove]

Tried to book a Christmas present for SIL on my Ipad to get to Sydney for New Year. The express system has me flying so I won't use my Ipad again. Called 131313 and it is being fixed. No real wait time to get South Africa.
I just hope they don't switch planes off the A330 into the 737.

 

[Mattg]

I'm visiting Kuwait in January and just applied for an e-visa.

As soon as I submitted the application, I realised that the visa is only valid for 30 days from issuance so will expire before I get there.

I can't see any way to cancel my application now so I guess I'll have to apply for another visa closer to the date of travel.

 

[henrus]

As soon as I submitted the application, I realised that the visa is only valid for 30 days from issuance so will expire before I get there.

It seems odd they didn't ask for a date of entry on the visa?

 

[Mattg]

It seems odd they didn't ask for a date of entry on the visa?

That's what I was thinking. I assumed they would ask for the expected entry date but after entering a bunch of other details it just submitted the application.

It's my fault though for not reading the instructions properly before I started. In the fine print it does say that it's valid for 30 days from the date of issuance.

 

[Sprucegoose]

I'm visiting Kuwait in January and just applied for an e-visa.

As soon as I submitted the application, I realised that the visa is only valid for 30 days from issuance so will expire before I get there.

I can't see any way to cancel my application now so I guess I'll have to apply for another visa closer to the date of travel.

Yep, no one reads past point 3...

Contact the Embassy between 1030-1430 on 02-62867777 to test their kindness to strangers.

Foreign Embassies and Consulates in Australia - Protocol

protocol.dfat.gov.au