Made any travel mistakes lately?

[SYD]

I made a stupid little travel mistake today but thought I had made a really big one.

We were out getting food, across the road from our accommodation when I realised I couldn't find my wallet which I was convinced I had brought with me. After much running around and pestering Security people I went back to our flat and found it on the bedside table.

I am much happier being thought slightly stupid and forgetful than have to go through all the effort of cancelling cards etc.

If it’s any consolation(?) a set of house keys went missing in a hotel room in the US and someone (not me) got very angry and thought house keeping had taken them. Why?

Turned the place upside down and no keys.

6mths later a jingle sound from a backpack and they were still there between a pocket and the inner lining!

The lesson, at the airport take the opportunity to view the Xray image to see if there any missing items!

To this day when asked “Do you know where my keys are?”…..

 

[TheRealTMA]

If it’s any consolation(?) a set of house keys went missing in a hotel room in the US and someone (not me) got very angry and thought house keeping had taken them. Why?

Turned the place upside down and no keys.

6mths later a jingle sound from a backpack and they were still there between a pocket and the inner lining!

The lesson, at the airport take the opportunity to view the Xray image to see if there any missing items!

To this day when asked “Do you know where my keys are?”…..

IMHO You need to adopt a system for always storing keys, wallet, money, devices, chargers in defined places or defined pockets in your luggage.

 

[Flyfrequently]

IMHO You need to adopt a system for always storing keys, wallet, money, devices, chargers in defined places or defined pockets in your luggage.

And counting the number of bags before heading off @TheRealTMA
@Seat0B does this also I believe

 

[SYD]

IMHO You need to adopt a system for always storing keys, wallet, money, devices, chargers in defined places or defined pockets in your luggage.

I do!

To be fair to SYD+1, somehow the inner lining of the backpack “key section” tore and gobbled the keys…

 

[RooFlyer]

Visiting Malta in June and want to visit the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum near Valetta. I knew there were limited tickets available at set times during the day and booking early was essential. Reviewing the trip (includes a cruise, land tour and bits of France) and I noticed I hadn't booked the hypogeum!

Jumped online, chose the date - ONE ticket left, so I bought it.

Ooops - wrong day. I could go that day, but am getting the fast ferry back from Gozo in the morning and it would be tricky.

Went back online and selected the next, correct day and again got the last ticket AND this time noticed there was a seniors discount of almost 50%. So, two mistakes.

I've contacted Heritage Malta to see if they will cancel the initial 35 euro ticket and give me a refund!

 

[ellen10]

Not really a travel mistake, but an oops.
Our good friends, just finished a river cruise in Amsterdam. I encouraged them to visit Paris.
We looked at flights and then the fast trains. Trains are nice I say. So we booked the train.

Just got a message from them, finally arriving in Paris. 5 train trips later. It seems there was track work, fast trains not operating and a train strike the next day in Belgium, all resulted in chaos.
They said very stressful, as each train connection was very tight and not speaking the local language and with luggage to move from trains and platforms made the trip not the relaxing journey we had envisaged.
At least they got to Paris!

 

[Denali]

If it’s any consolation(?) a set of house keys went missing in a hotel room in the US and someone (not me) got very angry and thought house keeping had taken them. Why?

Turned the place upside down and no keys.

6mths later a jingle sound from a backpack and they were still there between a pocket and the inner lining!

The lesson, at the airport take the opportunity to view the Xray image to see if there any missing items!

To this day when asked “Do you know where my keys are?”…..

IMHO You need to adopt a system for always storing keys, wallet, money, devices, chargers in defined places or defined pockets in your luggage.

I dont know how guys manage all their stuff without a handbag. I did buy Mr Denali a sling bag (to wear at the front because of pick pocket'ers) to stop the "touch every pocket, freak out about missing something, not communicate this to my wife who I eventually tell and she starts looking and finds it". He agrees it helps but doesnt like to use it so that annoys me more

 

[SYD]

I dont know how guys manage all their stuff without a handbag. I did buy Mr Denali a sling bag (to wear at the front because of pick pocket'ers) to stop the "touch every pocket, freak out about missing something, not communicate this to my wife who I eventually tell and she starts looking and finds it". He agrees it helps but doesnt like to use it so that annoys me more

Except when travelling, I don’t take house keys out with me - leave them somewhere safe.

But I always find it weird not having keys in my pocket when travelling….

 

[Flyfrequently]

Not really a travel mistake, but an oops.
Our good friends, just finished a river cruise in Amsterdam. I encouraged them to visit Paris.
We looked at flights and then the fast trains. Trains are nice I say. So we booked the train.

Just got a message from them, finally arriving in Paris. 5 train trips later. It seems there was track work, fast trains not operating and a train strike the next day in Belgium, all resulted in chaos.
They said very stressful, as each train connection was very tight and not speaking the local language and with luggage to move from trains and platforms made the trip not the relaxing journey we had envisaged.
At least they got to Paris!

Just plain bad luck sadly @ellen10
They could have also been stymied if flying, by weather, pilot strike, lost baggage - but do understand stressful!

 

[RB001]

This is not my mistake, nor have I made this one, but here goes...

On an outing on the Sydney Metro today - a young family (on an outing of their own) that was sitting opposite alighted at their stop and proceeded on their merry way. A couple of stations later I glanced over at their (still unoccupied) seat and noticed what turned out to be a <hotel branded> cardboard sleeve with 2 keycards inside!
I live in the city, so upon my return a couple of hours later, I headed down to the hotel to hand the keys back in - the family probably wouldn't have noticed until they were about to re-enter the hotel after their day out.
Now this <hotel brand> has several properties in town - how did I know which one to go to?
That required an intensive detective effort on my part - not only was their room number on the cardboard sleeve, but the hotel Wi-Fi code is the street address of said hotel!

Personally, I never leave the room with the key anywhere near the cardboard sleeve, except when I'm on my way downstairs to check out. If on the rare occasion my name is written on there, it comes home with me. Some hotels don't even write the room number on the sleeve anymore.

What concerned me most was the relative nonchalance of the hotel staff. They seemed to think that their ability to deactivate the card protects the guest and their belongings. Of course, this relies on a distracted family from noticing well before they arrive back at the hotel, and calling to report the loss of the keycards. Yes, the onus is largely on the guest to keep the sleeve and the keys separated, but there's nothing to remind them apart from commonsense, which is easily suspended in the busyness of family vacation life.

 

[clifford]

I Just made a bit of a "mistake" with my CommBank "free" travel insurance. At my age, buying travel insurance for a couple of weeks can easily exceed $500, so the CommBank requirement of spending $500+ (in one transaction) on travel with their CC seems to be a good deal. So far so good.

I had planned to spend the required $500+ on hotels/apartments in Italy, 3 nights in Perugia, 2 nights in Brindisi and 2 nights in Bari, via booking.com (where each stay has to be paid for separately). Well, I was finding this to be quite difficult (without going over the top, value wise), so I had to consider Plan B. The problem was that I had to arrange the accommodation around my booked flights LHR-PEG-BDS-BRI-DBV.

The solution that came to me was to change my itinerary to have 4 nights in Brindisi (and none in Bari, which I could visit for a day by local train). And hey presto, a very nice apartment in Brindisi for $550 for 4 nights. Who would have thought it.

As an aside, I wouldn't consider using my CommBank card for purchasing long-haul airfares, as the 3% fee and lack of award points makes it uncompetitive.

 

[Scr77]

I Just made a bit of a "mistake" with my CommBank "free" travel insurance. At my age, buying travel insurance for a couple of weeks can easily exceed $500, so the CommBank requirement of spending $500+ (in one transaction) on travel with their CC seems to be a good deal. So far so good.

I had planned to spend the required $500+ on hotels/apartments in Italy, 3 nights in Perugia, 2 nights in Brindisi and 2 nights in Bari, via booking.com (where each stay has to be paid for separately). Well, I was finding this to be quite difficult (without going over the top, value wise), so I had to consider Plan B. The problem was that I had to arrange the accommodation around my booked flights LHR-PEG-BDS-BRI-DBV.

The solution that came to me was to change my itinerary to have 4 nights in Brindisi (and none in Bari, which I could visit for a day by local train). And hey presto, a very nice apartment in Brindisi for $550 for 4 nights. Who would have thought it.

As an aside, I wouldn't consider using my CommBank card for purchasing long-haul airfares, as the 3% fee and lack of award points makes it uncompetitive.

Hey @clifford

Have you considered moving your card to the CBA Smart or CBA Ultimate awards card?

They have no overseas fees and earn rewards points. IME, CBA doesn’t ask too many questions when moving between products or credit limits.

 

[Myrna]

Last year we visited Turkey, so applied for Turkish visa - paid US$60 each - with our AU passports.
This year we will be in Turkey again. Just about to apply for new Turkish visa, then hubby discovered that UK passports are exempt. We forgot about using our UK passports last year - could have saved us US$120.