Made any travel mistakes lately?

[p--and--t]

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?

Can be a lot cheaper. My recent flight on SG was way cheaper through OTA than booking direct on SG website. No idea why this is the case - but that's what happened.

 

[QF_Flyer]

Pre-covid had the same problem. SWMBO and I arrived at the airport to check in and SWMBO had her expired passport, rather than her shiny new one. Return (expensive) taxi trip to extreme Sydney northern suburbs and totally missed the QF F lounge as a consequence. Me keeping my cool and saying nothing was a sensible move.

I keep OH’s passport with mine, she leaves me to deal with it for this reason. And I always check about ten thousand times before and during the journey to the airport, because I’m terrified of this happening
Good effort on keeping your cool!

 

[QF_Flyer]

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

Indeed, I keep a UK run USD Amex Platinum ICC just for travel insurance for this reason (USD$550 per year). It’s paid for itself in 3x car rental CDW claims over the years, and works out cheaper than actually buying an insurance policy.

These cards were available to anyone excluding US/EU/SG residents, but Amex stopped accepting applications sometime recently.

 

[stm1sydney]

Pre-covid had the same problem. SWMBO and I arrived at the airport to check in and SWMBO had her expired passport, rather than her shiny new one. Return (expensive) taxi trip to extreme Sydney northern suburbs and totally missed the QF F lounge as a consequence. Me keeping my cool and saying nothing was a sensible move.

Cut off a corner of the cover page of the old passport immediately!

 

[Flyfrequently]

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

May I ask where and the airline @Flashback ?

 

[SydneySwan]

May I ask where and the airline @Flashback ?

My money is on Ryanair.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

My money is on Ryanair.

Indeed. But I actually thought it was more than that!! I thought it was like £55 for airport checkin!!

 

[kpc]

Mistake that would have cost $$$. After a week in Egypt, had to tip our driver and guide.....did the mental calculations and withdrew Egyptian pounds for the tips....just prior to handing the money over, I checked my bank acct to see how much AUD equivalent it was....I was shocked to see it was AUD700 ...it seems in my mental calculations, I got mixed up with a decimal point I had to then exchange the left over Egyptian pounds at the airport at a shocking rate!

 

[Flashback]

May I ask where and the airline @Flashback ?

Ryanair @ ORK

 

[burmans]

Indeed. But I actually thought it was more than that!! I thought it was like £55 for airport checkin!!

Must admit I continue to be surprised about people who are surprised by Ryanair, understand with the newbies who are their bread and butter and populate the complaints in product review forums etc. but less hard to understand with seasoned flyers.

Had a friend who was thinking of flying Ryanair last year where routing was much better than alternatives but my advice was pay for booking seats, bags, checkin etc in advance and make sure you read and complied with all conditions. Checkin was the weird one, particularly the need to have a printed copy of checkin. Because they were unsure of ability to get a printed copy in Italy (wisely as it turned out) they checked in 2 months early!

 

[Flashback]

Must admit I continue to be surprised about people who are surprised by Ryanair, understand with the newbies who are their bread and butter and populate the complaints in product review forums etc. but less hard to understand with seasoned flyers.

Had a friend who was thinking of flying Ryanair last year where routing was much better than alternatives but my advice was pay for booking seats, bags, checkin etc in advance and make sure you read and complied with all conditions. Checkin was the weird one, particularly the need to have a printed copy of checkin. Because they were unsure of ability to get a printed copy in Italy (wisely as it turned out) they checked in 2 months early!

Not so much anymore, if the app won't issue you a BP (because they need to do a visa check) you show that at the counter and they'll print the BP for no charge.

Not sure if this was directed at me or not - I'm a seasoned traveller and a seasoned FR traveller. The spanner in the works here is that because ORK is usually so quiet and its only a 10 minute drive from my friend's place; they check in on arrival using the app thing had the timings all messed up At least now I know - needs to be T-2 rather than T-1.

 

[burmans]

Not so much anymore, if the app won't issue you a BP (because they need to do a visa check) you show that at the counter and they'll print the BP for no charge.

Not sure if this was directed at me or not - I'm a seasoned traveller and a seasoned FR traveller. The spanner in the works here is that because ORK is usually so quiet and its only a 10 minute drive from my friend's place; they check in on arrival using the app thing had the timings all messed up At least now I know - needs to be T-2 rather than T-1.

Not aimed at you, a general comment as I’ve seen a few comments in recent times about LCC’s.

 

[Flashback]

Not aimed at you, a general comment as I’ve seen a few comments in recent times about LCC’s.

If there's one thing I think this thread points out very well.... is it doesn't matter how much we think we know, there is always learning to be done!

 

[cove]

Yes @Flashback and the good news is the Covid era kept me off those hard train seats for about 3 years.
Haven't done a Jetstar nor Easyjet flight for several years so I haven't had to winge about getting treated poorly.
No one is an orphan when it comes to making a travel mistake or two.
My worst one was realizing my heart medication was running short by two days so I cut the tablets in half and made it home ok.

 

[Pushka]

Cut off a corner of the cover page of the old passport immediately!

That's what they do in the Post Office on renewal.

 

[JohnK]

If there's one thing I think this thread points out very well.... is it doesn't matter how much we think we know, there is always learning to be done!

Well I saw something the other day that I don't think I have ever seen.

Scoot checkin opened 2h45m before departure. I'm not sure why they left it that late when majority of passengers were there around 5h before departure.

Boarding started around 30 minutes before scheduled departure and they were still checking people in. We were waiting inside aircraft and I think the last people to board had completed checkin after scheduled departure and then rushed to board.

This is Scoot but they use Menzies staff right? Awful.

I guess you could say you get what you pay for but considering that Qantas was asking for $2200 per person return in economy and SQ were asking between $1900-$2200 per person return in economy then I'd say I got a bargain at $1300 per person return in economy with 2 Scoot flights and 2 SQ flights instead of 1 Scoot flight and 3 SQ flights.

The past week has been a little stressful but now we're here we're enjoying our holiday and can laugh about the experience. And if mainline carriers continue to charge these ridiculous airfares I need to find ways to save money and make mistakes along the way.

 

[Easy Tiger]

there is always learning to be done!

100%

 

[Flyfrequently]

That's what they do in the Post Office on renewal.

Just had our passports renewed @Pushka , corners are still intact on old ones - maybe because we had 8 months left and could still use them?

Very impressed with the new R passport and more impressed with lodging renewal at PO 20 March, issued 22 March, arrived 24 March!

 

[Pushka]

Just had our passports renewed @Pushka , corners are still intact on old ones - maybe because we had 8 months left and could still use them?

Very impressed with the new R passport and more impressed with lodging renewal at PO 20 March, issued 22 March, arrived 24 March!

Weird. Ours were still valid but the bottom snipped off.

 

[Flyfrequently]

Weird. Ours were still valid but the bottom snipped off.

I just checked, all intact!
As you say weird