Made any travel mistakes lately?

[Ade]

check me in at the counter for €55.

55 Euros to check in at the counter? Did I read this correctly? 55 Euros?!?!?!

 

[Flashback]

55 Euros to check in at the counter? Did I read this correctly? 55 Euros?!?!?!

Yes indeed, welcome to LCC land.

 

[Lynda2475]

LCC wise Ive only ever flown Jetstar (domestic award only), SouthWest (domestic but they include checked bags on all ticket types) and Vueling(international BCN to SPU) and Ive always done OLCI within 15 minutes of it opening, cause didnt want to get bumped.

 

[Quickstatus]

55 Euros?!?!?!

Yes but that came with a serendipitous exit row seat and empty middle seat (though that might have been also available if OLCI didn't close). I wonder if the €55 increases the exit row seat probability?

 

[justinbrett]

I booked a flight via Expedia once over a decade ago before all the major airlines had online booking portals, but now that one can book direct what is the advantage of using a OTA?

OTAs are useful when combining airlines - eg my next trip is SYD-HNL-LAS on QF & HA. Can't book that with either airline (QF would send me via LAX, HA would book me on their metal out of SYD).

Even some QF/AA trips have to be done this way. I remember flying to CUN and QF actually told me to book through a TA as it would be much cheaper than either QF or AA (and it was).

Normally I book direct but there are some cases where TAs are required.

Often they are cheaper. You can also get cashback from some of them.

And you do get Expedia points which can be used for hotel discounts

 

[Flashback]

Yes but that came with a serendipitous exit row seat and empty middle seat (though that might have been also available if OLCI didn't close). I wonder if the €55 increases the exit row seat probability?

There were empty middles and aisles throughout, so would have been put in one of those. Even if OLCI you still need to pay to choose a seat if you don't want the randomly allocated one.

 

[Lynda2475]

Maybe I've been lucky but never had a problem finding cheap AA flight DFW-CUN directly with AA (from LAX is always expensive but i avoid LAX wherever possible)

 

[SydneySwan]

Except it seems perhaps not because they book the most restrictve class without inclusions and by the time you add them back in, it is the same price as booking direct.

Sometimes that is true for LCCs but is generally not the case for the proper airlines.

 

[stm1sydney]

Here's another glitch I never knew existed.

Booked wife/daughter on Webjet trip to Thailand with 2 Scoot flights but SQ flight numbers on all 4 flights so an SQ itinerary.

Booked identical flights for me on Expedia.

Didn't think too much about seat selection as you have to pay for seats on Scoot. Our first Scoot flight SYD-SIN is tomorrow night. Go to check in online. No go. OLCI not offered.

Go to my booking and try to pay for seats for tomorrow's flight only but it hangs. Have to choose seats for SYD-SIN and CNX-SIN. For crying out loud. Why force me to pay for seats on each flight? LCC for a reason. Spent $26 on my seats to ensure no middle seat and left wife/daughter without allocated seats. Think we'll spend the flight apart.

Now for fun tomorrow night with golf clubs. This is an SQ booking so I should get 25kgs + 15kgs Virgin Gold allowance.

Sometimes this can get way too difficult.

Gawd, you always fly with your golf clubs and cheap-cough your way around and then still whinge and complain. Give it a rest.

 

[justinbrett]

Maybe I've been lucky but never had a problem finding cheap AA flight DFW-CUN directly with AA (from LAX is always expensive but i avoid LAX wherever possible)

We booked SYD-CUN on one PNR. It was cheaper than QF to US and AA to CUN.

Didn't stay in the US at all, straight through.

 

[JohnK]

Is part of the problem wrt OLCI because you booked via 3rd party instead of directly with Scoot of Singapore Airlines?

I booked a flight via Expedia once over a decade ago before all the major airlines had online booking portals, but now that one can book direct what is the advantage of using a OTA?

It would appear that Scoot does not offer OLCI ex-SYD.

Occasionally OTAs can offer some routings not offered booking direct with airline.

And OTAs can occasionally also offer savings over booking direct with airline.

 

[Stealthflyer]

Yes indeed, welcome to LCC land.

The fees are quite extraordinary. I snaffled a £10 VCE-STN FR flight earlier this year. By the time I added a suitcase and the option to wear clothes on board I paid AU$75 (can’t remember the exact price in pounds).

 

[JohnK]

The good news is that Scoot has not cancelled our SYD-SIN flight in a few hours.

They have only retimed the flight from 21:45 to 06:10 tomorrow morning.

Not likely to make the connection to BKK so need to head to SYD airport now to try and sort out connecting flight and then what do we do? Wait at the airport until checkin tomorrow morning?

This simulation is getting way too predictable.

 

[Flashback]

The good news is that Scoot has not cancelled our SYD-SIN flight in a few hours.

They have only retimed the flight from 21:45 to 06:10 tomorrow morning.

Not likely to make the connection to BKK so need to head to SYD airport now to try and sort out connecting flight and then what do we do? Wait at the airport until checkin tomorrow morning?

This simulation is getting way too predictable.

Travel insurance (if it was booked as separate tickets).

 

[Lost Redditor]

I made a costly mistake. In Feb I booked three seats with BA in economy SYD-LHR-OSL. Then I started learning more about rewards flights to see if I could upgrade a flight. Turns out there were business rewards seats available for our entire journey (except SYD-SIN). So I spent a few hundred thousand Qantas points and scored SIN-HEL-OSL in J. And then OSL-HEL-SEA-LAX-SYD also in J.

So I called to cancel BA and it incurred a fee of $1138 + losing $250 in "foreign fee" as I didn't know I was paying directly to UK when calling the Aus number. I know, that's on me, but I couldn't believe they charged me more than 13% of the $8700 to cancel 3 months out

So I lost over $1400 by holding some BA seats for 2 weeks.

However I have learned an absolute ton about rewards bookings the various alternative routes that QANTAS does not advertise. Even became an ExpertFlyer.com nerd with a bunch of automated alerts set up.

Now I need to find out what travel insurance to get and I'm sure I'll make another mistake there

 

[JohnK]

Travel insurance (if it was booked as separate tickets).

SYD-SIN-BKK//CNX-SIN-BNE is all one itinerary but booked through Webjet and Expedia.

Scoot flight has now been retimed to 4:00pm tomorrow. We will definitely miss connection in SIN to BKK. We may also lose 1 nights accommodation in Pattaya tomorrow night, need to check cancellation policy.

Scoot at SYD airport will not touch the Webjet and Expedia bookings for onward flights.

I'm on the phone to Expedia now and it doesn't look to be too easy to change onward connection. And even if Expedia changes then I need to call Webjet and get them to make same change.

It's probably best to wait until getting to SIN tomorrow night to fix onward connection but what's to say we'll get to SIN tomorrow night.

Now waiting to see if Scoot will put us up in hotel tonight as we're from BNE and have nowhere to stay.

If it's not meant to be then it won't be....

 

[Hvr]

The good news is that Scoot has not cancelled our SYD-SIN flight in a few hours.

Yet.

 

[JohnK]

Yet.

Yeh of little faith.

 

[SydneySwan]

Travel insurance (if it was booked as separate tickets).

Missed connections caused by the airlines are a very problematic claim on Aussie insurance policies. I believe that UK policies provide better coverage.

 

[JohnK]

And here is another reason against booking with OTAs.

On the phone to Expedia for close to an hour and they're not aware of ~18 hour delay to Scoot flight. Any changes will incur a change fee.

Scoot won't touch booking. This means that we will not know of onward SIN-BKK flight until we get to SIN tomorrow night, assuming Scoot won't cancel flight.

And a forced overnight in SIN.

This is stress.

Scoot has offered a refund of this portion of the trip as Scoot credit voucher. LOL.