Weary traveller or just silly mistakes

[parsonstrish]

I'm in the middle of my current o/s trip and in US. I was wondering if it is just me, who whilst not as much as a frequent traveller as many on this site, still isn't a brand newbie re. travel.

Boy, have I made a couple of doozies, first was walking away from check in at okc leaving my carry-on at floor in front of check-in, only to hear 'miss, miss'. I put it down to getting to check-in plenty of time, but due to not enough check-in staff, watching the time and cut-off period, finally hearing anyone for flts. to dfw or ohare to finally get to check-in, was slightly stressed.

The other doozie was yesterday departing phl to ord. I got to a/port 3 hrs. in advance, sat in lounge, went to gate on my boarding pass, waiting for boarding. Agent gets on mike and says plane not going and to line up for options. I'm thinking oh my gosh (or something to that effect). I had changed my flt. from 30th to 27th due to hurricane sandy re. concern I would miss my evening connection on 30th to lhr. So I'm standing in line, saw the details on board behind agent, didn't quite make sense to me as it was saying original dep. time was 12:30, then changed to 2pm. My flt. not scheduled to 14:30. Still didn't pick up my error. Lady went past who had been served saying she was going home, as options didn't suit her. I'm in line abt. 15 min's and finally the light bulb went off, well really exploded, I look at my boarding pass, wrong flt. I ran down 3 gates to 'my' flt. and boarding so all good. I've never ever not checked the gate printed on boarding pass to departure board close to actual departure time.

I know I'm stressed with this 'sandy', have missed part of my visit with friends in pa., went through althea in '71 so don't do storms of any size well.

Am I on my own, I know better when travelling, please tell me I'm not on my own.

 

[Mal]

All part of travelling. Relish the mistakes that actually get you there on time.. they make great travel stories.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using AustFreqFly

 

[RWJ777]

The prospect of a hurricane or mega storm would make anyone stressed! I've left passports in a hotel safe -- only to have the porter run after the cab as we were driving away -- and didn't notice that a dull-eyed girl at Gare du Nord Paris reserved my seats for the same day on the wrong month. All very stressful at the time but provides for terrific enjoyment in hindsight. A tip I always follow: be conscious of your belongings and gates, and check / double-check. I number my luggage and count it off in my head as I leave cabs etc. Have fun!

 

[Fantic125]

You're certainly no orphan.

I accidently left my wallet on the roof of a rental car in Stuttgart and wandered around Stuttgart for 2 hours before I realised. Thankfully the rental car was black and parked in a dark corner of an underground carpark as it was still there when I returned.

I've also had my wallet fall out of my jacket pocket on the train from Seoul to Daejeon, and didn't realise until after the train had continued on to Busan. I notified Korea Rail and it was returned to me that afternoon, all money and cards intact!

 

[Anna]

Once when travelling SYD - YVR last century, there were 2 flights departing almost at the same time, different airlines. I lined up to board the flight of the wrong airline!

Also once tried to check in at LHR for a flight to BOM without a visa for India ..... I was so lucky that they allowed me to change the flight until 24 hours later so I could go to the High Commission and get a visa.

 

[Boris spatsky]

We all do it - normally when jet lagged.

Left my passport with Virgin America check in guy at LAX. He brought it to the plane

And then recently left my iPad on QF 737 on final leg flight of a month away. I had been awake for about 28 hours so was feeling it

 

[swiftey75]

Lady in front of me this morning was lined up for the 6am QF505 BNE-SYD, gets to the gate for the BP to beep - she should have been lined up for the QF605 BNE-MEL. Obviously not a morning person. I thought I was looking the worst for 4 hours sleep, but it made me feel that little bit better.

 

[Blinky]

Not quite the same, but during a time of ridiculous travel around Australia, with several flights a week, I really, truly mistook where I was. I was driving home on a familiar route, thinking "where's the turn off to the Gold Coast?". And I hadn't had a drink.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

pt certainly not on your own - anybody who has done any amount of flying has made similar if not worse 'boo boos'.

God I could not list my near misses - once on SIN with a friend I relied on him to check dep gate for SIN-LAX flt - you guessed it - completely opposite end of terminal when we arrived at gate 15 mins before departure time - had to burn that carpet to make gate.

Left ticket wallet on rear seat of taxi in SIN one day - taxi was regular taxi which waits at Hilton almost every morn at 6am - doorman knew the driver and has phone number so he called him and got him to return.

Left a very important package in rear boot of taxi in SIN then it drove off. Taxi queue guy called cab co who radioed taxi to tell him return - still took him best part of an hour to come back - just caught flt.

Left iPhone in taxi in Beijing 3 mths ago - Chinese security guy in bar I was in called my Chinese number and lo and behold taxi driver heard ring and answered - phone fell down beside seat - he returned ir 3 hours later.

They are just the tip of the iceberg - whatever you do please do not ask Cruiserette about the time I got us to the old SHA terminal 5 hours early - just misread the itinerary - any body can make a mistake - gotta tell you - the old SHA terminal was not a place you wanted to spend more than like 15mins in - she has never let me forget it.

Just the joys of travel - every o/s trip should be an adventure not a drag - a little bit of an adrenalin rush just adds to the experience IMHO.

 

[kpc]

My most recent gaffe....we arrived at Victoria Falls airport in Zimbabwe...obtained visa, cleared immigration and customs, then arrived in the arrival hall to throngs of relatives, touts, taxi drivers etc.; we then realised we had not collected our checked luggage...explained to customs and security what we had done, so we "reversed" our way back in to collect luggage, and then went through security and customs again! My only defence, VFA is so small that if you blinked, you will miss the luggage collection area...literally a small door with a small trolley with all the pax luggage.

 

[amaroo]

My first Virgin Blue flight I was forced to take (work booking) not long after they started. I was totally not ready for the piece of scrap paper they gave me as a BP......I threw it away on the walk between the gate & plane door.......had to go back & pick it out of the bin:shock::evil:

After an enjoyable stay in BKK we arrived at the airport to find that we had left two bags in the room.....had to pay for a hotel car to drive them out to us.

 

[Aussie_flyer]

my last international trip I left my laptop at security, forgot to repack it in my bag. i proceeded through passport control and into the Air NZ lounge before I realised. Had to run back to passport control who called security and asked if they had it. They did! It was brought back airside for me right away. lucky

 

[sergeyvzn]

A couple of years ago partner and I were flying to Tahiti via Auckland. Auckland to HKG to London boarding next to ours. I'm walking to the gate, the BP checked, all good, partner somewhere behind me (not too far). I'm almost entering the plane, getting angry that partner not there (always late, you know...) then see an agent running towards me, eyes rolling out, mouth foaming. You guessed right - wrong gate, wrong plane, silly me, smart partner - saw me going to London and just in time told the agent

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Oh jeez I forgot the laptop one. Arriving into MIA from POP on Sept 19 this year left laptop at security. Realised I did not have it when I got to hotel room in LAS that night - d'oh.

Did not even know what make it was - sent SMS to tech whizz kid who lives across street from me - Tom you know that laptop you bought me - what make and model was it?

Onto MIA lost property next morn - left my silver Asus computer at screening - what is your name Sir - Mr Cruiser Elite - YES Mr Elite - we have your computer here - you need to arrange delivery to your hotel with FedEx - no other carrier can collect from MIA.

OK onto FedEx - arranged and paid for 'Priority Overnight' - guaranteed delivery to UPS Store in Flamingo Hotel by 10am next morn Sept 22 - good thing guaranteed delivery on 22nd cause on 23rd flying back to MEL - cost to deliver to Flamingo $130.

No delivery on 22nd - next scheduled delivery Mon 24th - WTF.

Long story short - has to arrange UPS to send to Australia from LAX - cost $317 - arrived back in my office Oct 2 - computer done more travelling than I have.

 

[tuapekastar]

Travelling MEL-SYD-CHC my connection in SYD was tight so I was rushing to make it, dropped my keys into the tray at security and completely forgot to retrieve them on the other side. Upon late night arrival at CHC accommodation we had a few drinks, then at about 2AM I decided to unlock my bag. Penny dropped! I had to get a nearby engineering works to remove the lock (ground it or snipped it, can't recall) the next morning. Despite a number of phone calls, never did see my keys again.

Travelling, especially internationally involves doing lots of things you may not often do, hence you are under constant pressure, and it's not too hard to make some errors. Conversely, if you do happen to travel often then you have a routine, and if that is thrown out of kilter, then things can and do go amiss as well.

PS. It must be something about keys! More recently on a domestic trip I lobbed at the Melbourne QP only to discover I did not have my keys. Luckily they had been handed in at the front desk of the QP so must have dropped them close by.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Travelling, especially internationally involves doing lots of things you may not often do, hence you are under constant pressure, and it's not too hard to make some errors. Conversely, if you do happen to travel often then you have a routine, and if that is thrown out of kilter, then things can and do go amiss as well.

Hmm - interesting - I just thought it was the alcohol that triggered my stupidity sessions.

 

[MatF]

I left a pair of trousers at a hotel in Paris at the start of a trip - early morning departure, and I just plain forgot to get them out of the cupboard.

These trousers then followed us from France down through Italy by various forms of postage for the entire trip, but didn't quite catch up with us, until we were back in Rome (for the second time!) and about to fly out for Hong Kong. I'm pretty sure I paid about double what the trousers were worth in postage. It was the principle

 

[casanovawa]

Hmmm, I'm sure there are plenty more but:

On arriving into Cancun in May i went to an ATM to get some pesos out for bus ticket to town and put my netbook on top of the ATM then walked out through immigration, hop on bus, travel to a different terminal at the airport and while sitting waiting for people to board look at seat next to me and realise no netbook, grabbed my luggage off the bus and had to double time across car parks and side roads back to the right terminal, couldn't talk the guy into letting me go back into arrivals to look for it only for him to talk on his CB and be told a netbook was found and being taken to be rescreened at security area, had to go over there and tell them what pictures were on it before they would give it to me...

Last year was travelling around South America with a friend, had been planning an itinerary months before and put all dates of travels and flight details in a Word document and sent to him, anyway catch a bus from hostel in Rio to airport to catch 10pm flight up to Miami, walk in door to see a flight at 8pm on final call, think it funny that 2 AA flights would be leaving so close together to Miami, only to realise that the time for the flight in the Word doc was from an earlier draft of plans to Lima or Dallas or somewhere and that IS our flight... No hope of getting ot it so then uhmm'd and ah'd about what to do in terms of stay overnight at airport hotel or go back to hostel, as it was a 140k OW award for me i could go to same flight the next night for free, cost him $200 (doh!!) then we took the bus back to hostel to hope they had beds spare... Next night we leave thinking we have plenty of time only to get a freeway crawling!!!! Only made it to airport 1 hour and 10 mins before flight departed, but made it thankfully so we didn't have to do a second walk/bus trip of shame back to hostel!!!

Left a phone in a macca's in Cologne, had arrived on train and thought i would book something when i arrived, didn't realise its the weekend of a BIG regional public holiday and spent 3 hours walking around town lugging my suitcase before i find about the only room available in town... Back at the train station!!!!

Several other heart pounding moments when i thought i'd lost passports, oh there was the time i had my wallet knicked/dropped it in Beunos Aries on the 3rd day of a 2.5 month trip around the world, that was fun trying to cancel all credit cards and then try and get some sent to me, what a shemozzle!!!

But yes, does make for some good stories...

 

[Awesom Andy]

I was in HKG, and as I left the lounge, I was thinking to myself, it's time to go home. And then, there's this flight bound for SYD, and I went to the gate. The only issue is, these days, I'm based in SIN, and that's where my home is now.

 

[Paddy55]

For me it was being tired, not paying attention to packing, and leaving CPAP machine at home... twice in past year

For Mrs Paddy it was arriving in LHR from SYD, and obviously feeling jet lagged, left her passport in the toilets before custom/immigration. She went back after walking 50m and it was still there! :shock: