JohnK
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That list looks a lot smaller than I had imagined.
Never to be forgotten.
Hmmm....
Worse stress levels
- Thread starter eric2011
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Unwanted seat changes are always frustrating.
I'm a pretty easy-going traveller and don't mind going with the flow, but I've had some experiences over past few years that definitely stressed me out. One experience was a 1 hour flight that turned into 3 hours on a plane and about 13 hours on a bus, which arrived at my destination at 5am (about 19 hours late) - with a wedding I'd travelled all the way to Brazil for to get to that day.
Another time that comes to mind was the first time I flew Ryanair - I didn't realise I was supposed to have my passport sighted by the ticket office and almost got denied boarding. :shock:
I'm a pretty easy-going traveller and don't mind going with the flow, but I've had some experiences over past few years that definitely stressed me out. One experience was a 1 hour flight that turned into 3 hours on a plane and about 13 hours on a bus, which arrived at my destination at 5am (about 19 hours late) - with a wedding I'd travelled all the way to Brazil for to get to that day.
Another time that comes to mind was the first time I flew Ryanair - I didn't realise I was supposed to have my passport sighted by the ticket office and almost got denied boarding. :shock:
TiredOldFlyer
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Homer
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Flying VA from LAX-SYD with Marge, the kids, and Marge's mum... It's late at night, we're all a bit "tired an emotional" and we arrive at the gate where Marge's mum declares that she can't find her passport. She says she gave it to me but I don't have it. So leaving Marge and the kids at the gate I march my mother-in-law back to The Loft where we conduct a search of where we were sitting but no passport materialises. On the way back to the gate I give her a lecture about taking care of her things and the seriousness of the situation and tell her that she is likely to be stranded here. She never liked me and there's little chance she ever will after this.
Once back at the gate, the very helpful, very kind VA supervisor says they will board us all and then advise Canberra en-route so they can resolve it in SYD. She says "if we tell them now we will have to deny boarding, so we'll tell them once we're underway". She then asks to see all the remaining passports and boarding passes and, as I reach into my back pocket to grab mine, I feel an extra one... Of course it's the mother-in-law's passport. I had it all along, but didn't realise I had it. For the briefest of moments I think about leaving it in my pocket and then disposing of it on the aircraft, but that thought only lasts half-a-second. So I produce the document and begin my "night of the long apologies".
Once back at the gate, the very helpful, very kind VA supervisor says they will board us all and then advise Canberra en-route so they can resolve it in SYD. She says "if we tell them now we will have to deny boarding, so we'll tell them once we're underway". She then asks to see all the remaining passports and boarding passes and, as I reach into my back pocket to grab mine, I feel an extra one... Of course it's the mother-in-law's passport. I had it all along, but didn't realise I had it. For the briefest of moments I think about leaving it in my pocket and then disposing of it on the aircraft, but that thought only lasts half-a-second. So I produce the document and begin my "night of the long apologies".
seritonin
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Running around like a headless chooks with limited Spanish trying to get someone behind any desk in the Madrid train station to print a new booking confirmation for fast train to Barcelona with 15 mins to spare before boarding because the booking code from Eurail.com is apparently not to be accepted! Missed the train, 150 euros later for new tickets and all good! I learnt to print every bookings I made from now on and book directly on Renfe!
ozbeachbabe
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Background to the story: Originally booked a trip in April for two of us on the following tickets:
a) JQ J MEL/BKK & was then going to book onward ticket to BCN via EH as we were going to return via USA
b) JQ Y BNE/HNL as we realised would have more time to do a KUPP or two on the way to Europe via the AP
c) AA F HNL/AUA KUPP
d) AA F AUA/OGG KUPP
e) AA F OGG/SKB KUPP
f) AA Y SKB/BCN Partner award QF points
g) QF Y BCN/BNE Classic award QF points
Stress out #1
A couple of weeks after bookings paid SO's company puts him on a 5 week course starting the day after we were due to depart so we decided to just do HNL & Caribbean in March together then I would go solo to the conference in BCN as planned in April on a separate trip.
It only cost about AUD29.00pp to moved the JQ flight BNE/HNL from Apr to Mar as we'd paid the plus bundle so relatively painless. We were able to move the MEL/BKK flight from Apr to Oct for zero adcoll as the same Star Class fare was available and we'd paid the plus bundle to allow changes. Easy.
Stress out #2
Looking at Tripit and realising that AA had some schedule changes on all 3 of our KUPP pnrs & thinking that this could be our get out of jail free card ie being allowed to change FOC from Apr to Mar without the US200.00 pp change fee (KUPPs are non-refundable). I then ask SO if he received any emails from AA about the changes & hearing him say he had and clicked on the accept button (without consulting me first!!!).
Thinking we'd blown our chances I called up & after a couple of obligatory HUACA scenarios when they wouldn't change I ended up putting two new bookings on hold as it was easier to say "this is the pnr we had, this is the new pnr we want" etc. Turned out SO accepting changes had no bearing on being able to change and by a sheer stroke of luck the OGG/SKB booking we no longer needed had a sked change over 180 mins so was eligible for a full refund back to the cc. The other time changes on the other pnrs were 121-180 mins.
Stress out #3
Although the AUA/OGG ticket for Apr was exchanged and used as payment of AUA/HNL in March when the the CSR had to get authority from the resolution desk for the HNL/AUA to do the same thing, it was a different supervisor who said that the Apr ticket couldn't be exchanged and the only thing they could do was issue a voucher to be used within 12 months that has to be mailed to a US address!
Yes a paper mco type voucher sent snail mail which then has to be mailed back to AA when you want to redeem it (not the electronic voucher option as seen on the AA website as a form of payment). So I had to call a friend who was going to Memphis in March to ask for her uncle's address then call AA back with the details. In the meantime we had to purchase a new HNL/AUA ticket for Mar. Call AA back later to give AA the US address & the CSR listens to how ridiculous the scenario is & says "you know what, I'm just going to go right ahead and refund these tickets back to the credit card our system is so antiquated". Amen to that! She didn't even have to go off to the resolution desk to do that either.
Not a stress out
Call up QF to refund the two classic fares SKB/BCN and request refund of taxes which were in USD plus had to divide SO off my pnr & request refund of his Classic award BCN/BNE and refund of taxes which were in GBP. Was told points should come back in about 5 days and taxes in about 2 weeks. One month later still no points or taxes refunded so call up freq flyer service centre who transferred to someone else who looks after the foreign currency refunds as there's apparently an extra step involved in refunding GBP or USD taxes. These kinds of awards must go into a tardis until the pax calls up to chase. Points refunded back into the account within the hour and taxes refunded about 5 days later. Always ask to be transferred to this 'other' department within ff if you want refunds actioned.
a) JQ J MEL/BKK & was then going to book onward ticket to BCN via EH as we were going to return via USA
b) JQ Y BNE/HNL as we realised would have more time to do a KUPP or two on the way to Europe via the AP
c) AA F HNL/AUA KUPP
d) AA F AUA/OGG KUPP
e) AA F OGG/SKB KUPP
f) AA Y SKB/BCN Partner award QF points
g) QF Y BCN/BNE Classic award QF points
Stress out #1
A couple of weeks after bookings paid SO's company puts him on a 5 week course starting the day after we were due to depart so we decided to just do HNL & Caribbean in March together then I would go solo to the conference in BCN as planned in April on a separate trip.
It only cost about AUD29.00pp to moved the JQ flight BNE/HNL from Apr to Mar as we'd paid the plus bundle so relatively painless. We were able to move the MEL/BKK flight from Apr to Oct for zero adcoll as the same Star Class fare was available and we'd paid the plus bundle to allow changes. Easy.
Stress out #2
Looking at Tripit and realising that AA had some schedule changes on all 3 of our KUPP pnrs & thinking that this could be our get out of jail free card ie being allowed to change FOC from Apr to Mar without the US200.00 pp change fee (KUPPs are non-refundable). I then ask SO if he received any emails from AA about the changes & hearing him say he had and clicked on the accept button (without consulting me first!!!).
Thinking we'd blown our chances I called up & after a couple of obligatory HUACA scenarios when they wouldn't change I ended up putting two new bookings on hold as it was easier to say "this is the pnr we had, this is the new pnr we want" etc. Turned out SO accepting changes had no bearing on being able to change and by a sheer stroke of luck the OGG/SKB booking we no longer needed had a sked change over 180 mins so was eligible for a full refund back to the cc. The other time changes on the other pnrs were 121-180 mins.
Stress out #3
Although the AUA/OGG ticket for Apr was exchanged and used as payment of AUA/HNL in March when the the CSR had to get authority from the resolution desk for the HNL/AUA to do the same thing, it was a different supervisor who said that the Apr ticket couldn't be exchanged and the only thing they could do was issue a voucher to be used within 12 months that has to be mailed to a US address!
Yes a paper mco type voucher sent snail mail which then has to be mailed back to AA when you want to redeem it (not the electronic voucher option as seen on the AA website as a form of payment). So I had to call a friend who was going to Memphis in March to ask for her uncle's address then call AA back with the details. In the meantime we had to purchase a new HNL/AUA ticket for Mar. Call AA back later to give AA the US address & the CSR listens to how ridiculous the scenario is & says "you know what, I'm just going to go right ahead and refund these tickets back to the credit card our system is so antiquated". Amen to that! She didn't even have to go off to the resolution desk to do that either.
Not a stress out
Call up QF to refund the two classic fares SKB/BCN and request refund of taxes which were in USD plus had to divide SO off my pnr & request refund of his Classic award BCN/BNE and refund of taxes which were in GBP. Was told points should come back in about 5 days and taxes in about 2 weeks. One month later still no points or taxes refunded so call up freq flyer service centre who transferred to someone else who looks after the foreign currency refunds as there's apparently an extra step involved in refunding GBP or USD taxes. These kinds of awards must go into a tardis until the pax calls up to chase. Points refunded back into the account within the hour and taxes refunded about 5 days later. Always ask to be transferred to this 'other' department within ff if you want refunds actioned.
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Worst one for me was having my wallet fall out of my coat pocket on the train from Seoul to Daejeon, and not realising until I had left the train and arrived at the company I was visiting. The wallet had all my cards and cash.
I had only just arrived into Korea that morning, and was staying in Daejeon for 2 days before heading on to Guangzhou and Taipei. My contact at the company I was visiting called Korea Rail and explained what happened, and my wallet was found when they cleaned the train at Busan. It was returned that afternoon to the company, money and cards intact. I now ensure whenever I travel I have back-up cards and cash separate to my wallet.
2nd worst was arriving in Brazil for a one week audit of the company's manufacturing plant, and having my laptop die within the 1st hour of arrival.
The IT guys weren't able to do anything with it, so they gave me a replacement for the week. The only problem was the keyboard, operating system and all the applications (including, Word, Excel, etc) were all in Portuguese, and they didn't have any English licences to be able to change it. It took a little while to get used to, but by the end of the week my understanding of Portuguese had increased dramatically.
Then to top it off, the night before I was meant to depart, the ceiling in the hotel room leaked filling my packed suitcase (including dead computer) with rain water......
I had only just arrived into Korea that morning, and was staying in Daejeon for 2 days before heading on to Guangzhou and Taipei. My contact at the company I was visiting called Korea Rail and explained what happened, and my wallet was found when they cleaned the train at Busan. It was returned that afternoon to the company, money and cards intact. I now ensure whenever I travel I have back-up cards and cash separate to my wallet.
2nd worst was arriving in Brazil for a one week audit of the company's manufacturing plant, and having my laptop die within the 1st hour of arrival.
The IT guys weren't able to do anything with it, so they gave me a replacement for the week. The only problem was the keyboard, operating system and all the applications (including, Word, Excel, etc) were all in Portuguese, and they didn't have any English licences to be able to change it. It took a little while to get used to, but by the end of the week my understanding of Portuguese had increased dramatically.
Then to top it off, the night before I was meant to depart, the ceiling in the hotel room leaked filling my packed suitcase (including dead computer) with rain water......
11sjw
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One incident, 2007 travelling with a 10 month old to Mauritius for 2.5 weeks of golf resort type holiday. We'd booked a car to the airport and I confirmed two days before that we would have a car with a baby seat. Given our flight departed at some ungodly hour (2:50am from memory) I could feel myself getting a little wound up close to midnight worrying that it wouldn't go well.
Car shows up and the seat is in there but not fitted at all to the car. Closer investigation shows that it is missing the pieces required to attach it to the car. 2nd car shows up circa 1220 and between them they can't generate a correctly fitted seat. After blowing my top at these guys my solution is that the drivers follow me in one car whilst i drive us in my wife's car and they drive it home and my Mother will grab the keys out of the mailbox the next day.
Given the nature of the situation the starry vision starts just after we arrive at the airport. A full on migraine ensues and I spend the 8 hour flight heaving myself senseless. First two days at the resort written off.
It gets better, eventually I get back into the golf and win a 2nd place on one of the Fri arvo comps with a 38 point round.
Car shows up and the seat is in there but not fitted at all to the car. Closer investigation shows that it is missing the pieces required to attach it to the car. 2nd car shows up circa 1220 and between them they can't generate a correctly fitted seat. After blowing my top at these guys my solution is that the drivers follow me in one car whilst i drive us in my wife's car and they drive it home and my Mother will grab the keys out of the mailbox the next day.
Given the nature of the situation the starry vision starts just after we arrive at the airport. A full on migraine ensues and I spend the 8 hour flight heaving myself senseless. First two days at the resort written off.
It gets better, eventually I get back into the golf and win a 2nd place on one of the Fri arvo comps with a 38 point round.
whatmeworry
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People who don't join the end of the queue, but sneak into the middle and then have the audacity to ask people in front of them if they can go in front of them.
Milefest
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The most recent Friday in Brisbane during the storm. Left home at 3:30pm to catch the airtrain to my 6:30pm flight then the storm came crashing down. Arrived in the city to catch the train in and all the lines were suspended. I accounted for the storm leaving 3 hours for my flight, so no worries. It was about 4:30 by now and no cars were moving. I tried calling all of the cab companies and their lines were full. By about 5:30 I managed to find a friend to get me a lift to the airport just as my phone ran out of battery. We got out of the city and just when I thought we were in the clear we arrive at the airport link tunnel with no one moving, apparently there had been an accident. We were stuck in the tunnel for about 45 minutes and I arrive at the airport at 6:30pm thinking I missed my flight. Was relieved to find out that it was delayed by an hour or so.. probably had one of the best cheese and crackers of my life on that flight.
JohnK
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You managed to get to airport by 6:30pm?
I hired a car at ~5:15pm and went via Kingsford Smith Drive and then turned back and went via Sandgate Road. I pulled the plug at ~7:15pm as I wasn't anywhere near the airport and had enough at that stage. Perhaps I should have gone via tunnel.
Very stressful.
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Scenario 1
Flying from Sydney -> Hong Kong (Qantas) connecting with Dragon Air from Hong Kong to Nanjing. Landed in Nanjing Immigration and went to the APEC lane and handed over my passport and newly replaced APEC card. This current passport is nearly 2 years old and has just on 30 separate entries into China under the APEC card via Beijing, Nanjing, Wuhan and Shenzhen. The Chinese Immigration official said "excuse me sir but where is you Chinese Visa". I said I have my new replacement APEC card and he said "sorry Sir but it isn't endorsed with China". To cut a long story short I spent the night in a hotel room near Nanjing airport accompanied by a Chinese Immigration Official and was then deported on the first Dragon Air flight back to Hong Kong the next morning having had to cancel various customer meetings scheduled for the day.
The background to the story was that I had lost my APEC card and requested a new replacement card ("old card"). This replacement was re-issued by the APEC team in Brisbane. At the same time I was renewing my APEC card ("new card"). The APEC team explained to me that you can only have approvals for China and Indonesia on one card with the approvals for China and Indonesia being "transferred" from the old card onto the new APEC card. As my new APEC card wasn't active and it hadn't been sent to me I was still operating on the old card. Before I boarded the flight in Sydney and again in Hong Kong I failed to look at the old APEC Card to see if the China endorsement was on it. The check in staff in Sydney and again in Hong Kong didn't check either. The net result was a waste of a trip to Nanjing from Hong Kong and a bunch of meetings having to be rescheduled. I've since been to China on a number of occasions on my new APEC Card.
Upon returning to Hong Kong I contacted the APEC team in Brisbane who tracked down what had happened and they sent me my new APEC card complete with endorsements for China and Indonesia as well as the 14 other countries. The lesson learned is always check your travel documentation no matter how many times you visit a particular country.
Scenario 2
During the Icelandic Volcano I was in London for various customer meetings having been in Lisbon for the previous few days. It was Thursday morning and on a train to Ipswich for customer meetings and contacted by the Qantas Platinum desk. "Mr Gibbs where are you?". On a non stop train to Ipswich I said. They informed me the airspace around the UK was being shut down from early afternoon and the last Qantas flight was leaving at lunch time and if I wanted to get back to Sydney I needed to get back to the airport in a hurry. The outcome was I did my customer meetings in Ipswich and headed back into London only to find no accommodation available with the only room being 550GBP per night at the Sheraton Heathrow for one night then the Sheraton in Knightsbridge for 600GBP per night thereafter. After many calls between Qantas and myself my Thursday evening LHR-BKK-SYD flight was transferred to a EZE-SYD flight for the following Wednesday. The only challenge was I had to get myself from London to Buenos Aires with travel out of London being booked solid. After doing some research I found the northern most airport open in Europe was Madrid so I booked a Madrid - Buenos Aires flight (900 Euro in Economy) on Iberia for the Tuesday morning. Flights from Madrid to Sydney via Dubai on Emirates were over 12,000 Euro one way on Emirates. Getting to Madrid was a little harder. The trains from Paris to Madrid were booked solid so I managed to get a self drive car rental from Europe Car for 450 Euro one way from Paris to Madrid and a 200 GBP seat on Eurostar for the Monday morning from Kings Cross St Pancras to Paris. The 13+hr drive from Paris to Madrid was tough with no GPS and just a Blackberry which was running out of charge fast. Eventually got home to Sydney on the Thursday morning after being on the road for 100+ hrs from London to Sydney via Paris, Madrid and Buenos Aires. Qantas were great and covered all my out of pocket expenses with travel insurance picking up the rest.
Flying from Sydney -> Hong Kong (Qantas) connecting with Dragon Air from Hong Kong to Nanjing. Landed in Nanjing Immigration and went to the APEC lane and handed over my passport and newly replaced APEC card. This current passport is nearly 2 years old and has just on 30 separate entries into China under the APEC card via Beijing, Nanjing, Wuhan and Shenzhen. The Chinese Immigration official said "excuse me sir but where is you Chinese Visa". I said I have my new replacement APEC card and he said "sorry Sir but it isn't endorsed with China". To cut a long story short I spent the night in a hotel room near Nanjing airport accompanied by a Chinese Immigration Official and was then deported on the first Dragon Air flight back to Hong Kong the next morning having had to cancel various customer meetings scheduled for the day.
The background to the story was that I had lost my APEC card and requested a new replacement card ("old card"). This replacement was re-issued by the APEC team in Brisbane. At the same time I was renewing my APEC card ("new card"). The APEC team explained to me that you can only have approvals for China and Indonesia on one card with the approvals for China and Indonesia being "transferred" from the old card onto the new APEC card. As my new APEC card wasn't active and it hadn't been sent to me I was still operating on the old card. Before I boarded the flight in Sydney and again in Hong Kong I failed to look at the old APEC Card to see if the China endorsement was on it. The check in staff in Sydney and again in Hong Kong didn't check either. The net result was a waste of a trip to Nanjing from Hong Kong and a bunch of meetings having to be rescheduled. I've since been to China on a number of occasions on my new APEC Card.
Upon returning to Hong Kong I contacted the APEC team in Brisbane who tracked down what had happened and they sent me my new APEC card complete with endorsements for China and Indonesia as well as the 14 other countries. The lesson learned is always check your travel documentation no matter how many times you visit a particular country.
Scenario 2
During the Icelandic Volcano I was in London for various customer meetings having been in Lisbon for the previous few days. It was Thursday morning and on a train to Ipswich for customer meetings and contacted by the Qantas Platinum desk. "Mr Gibbs where are you?". On a non stop train to Ipswich I said. They informed me the airspace around the UK was being shut down from early afternoon and the last Qantas flight was leaving at lunch time and if I wanted to get back to Sydney I needed to get back to the airport in a hurry. The outcome was I did my customer meetings in Ipswich and headed back into London only to find no accommodation available with the only room being 550GBP per night at the Sheraton Heathrow for one night then the Sheraton in Knightsbridge for 600GBP per night thereafter. After many calls between Qantas and myself my Thursday evening LHR-BKK-SYD flight was transferred to a EZE-SYD flight for the following Wednesday. The only challenge was I had to get myself from London to Buenos Aires with travel out of London being booked solid. After doing some research I found the northern most airport open in Europe was Madrid so I booked a Madrid - Buenos Aires flight (900 Euro in Economy) on Iberia for the Tuesday morning. Flights from Madrid to Sydney via Dubai on Emirates were over 12,000 Euro one way on Emirates. Getting to Madrid was a little harder. The trains from Paris to Madrid were booked solid so I managed to get a self drive car rental from Europe Car for 450 Euro one way from Paris to Madrid and a 200 GBP seat on Eurostar for the Monday morning from Kings Cross St Pancras to Paris. The 13+hr drive from Paris to Madrid was tough with no GPS and just a Blackberry which was running out of charge fast. Eventually got home to Sydney on the Thursday morning after being on the road for 100+ hrs from London to Sydney via Paris, Madrid and Buenos Aires. Qantas were great and covered all my out of pocket expenses with travel insurance picking up the rest.
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I managed to get to the airport very easily on Friday evening. I had allowed about 90 mins for what would normally be a 30 mins drive. It too 30 mins - heading south on the Gateway Arterial from Redcliffe. So had to kill about an hour waiting for my daughter's flight to arrive. Flight arrived about 8:30pm (20 mins late), hand luggage only, and we still did not get back home until midnight! So 30 mins to the airport at 7pm, and over 3 hours back home leaving 8:45pm. But I have heard much worse stories of people caught up on the traffic chaos. A friend left my house about 2:45pm heading to the Sunshine Coast and at 6:30pm posted a pic on facebook showing him in a car park waiting to enter the Bruce Highway at Deception Bay (no more than 15km from my house). He finally got home about the same time as I arrived back from the airport.You managed to get to airport by 6:30pm?
I hired a car at ~5:15pm and went via Kingsford Smith Drive and then turned back and went via Sandgate Road. I pulled the plug at ~7:15pm as I wasn't anywhere near the airport and had enough at that stage. Perhaps I should have gone via tunnel.
Very stressful.
ozbeachbabe
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It is the responsibility of the checkin agent in SYD to ensure you've got either a hard visa in your passport for China or an APEC Card endorsed with "CHN" on the reverse. If you don't have either of those it's a no-go situation. The accepting airline will cop a fine of $5,000.00 for boarding a pax with incorrect documentation.
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That would just about do it for me.
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When air Canada couldn't put our 5th bag on a local flight to an international connection and they wanted me to wait for the next flight to collect the bag. No you do your job properly in the first place.
JohnK
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ozbeachbabe
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.....but wait there's more.
On checking in with AA in HNL or our flight to Aruba the CSA asked for our onward ticket. We should have really had a printed copy but we referred to the Tripit app and gave her the flight details and AA pnr of our return flights back to HNL but looking at the eticket she said "it's showing that the ticket has been refunded." I knew immediately at that point that not only did we not have valid tickets but we no longer had any confirmed flights out of Aruba.
This was the situation I mentioned upthread about the ticket originally issued for travel in April being used in exchange for the March flights which was apparently a done deal, or so I thought at the time.
Apparently the refund had only been done two days prior and someone called Marion had something to do with it. I know that the AA CSR I spoke to at the time was Cathy so it's possible Marion was the supervisor she spoke to at the resolution desk that was meant to re-issue the ticket not refund it.
I'd have to say that at that moment I wasn't so much stressed but angry at myself for not double checking the booking although even if I had checked the booking at the time it would have been confirmed and ticketed. In hindsight I should have double checked the booking the day prior just to make sure all was in order as far easier to sort out from your hotel room than at the airport.
The CSA was very apologetic saying she couldn't check us through to Aruba unless we had onward tickets but she could check us as far as Miami while we got our tickets sorted out but we'd need to collect our bags in MIA then recheck them in. As we had just over an hour between flights in MIA it wouldn've been cutting it too fine to pick up our bags then recheck them before baggage close off.
As far as I was concerned the only option was to get it sorted in HNL so we could be checked all the way to Aruba. We didn't have our phone with a US sim in it and HNL airport doesn't offer free wi-fi so that ruled out using Skype or Viber. The CSA suggested we could go through to the Admirals Club and get it sorted there. I forget the exact words but I was thinking that the Lounge AAngels might be able to work their magic so she gave me some kind of dummy boarding pass that would get me through TSA the the AC was airside.
I had to leave SO behind at checkin with our checked luggage as it was too big to go through the x-ray machine so we couldn't take it through the screening point.
On arrival at AC I explained my dilemma and the lounge angel asked if checkin was working on it all the while I'm thinking to myself "well I had hoped you would be able to do something." She hastily looked up who had issued the dummy boarding pass calls them to make sure she was wasn't expected to do anyting and finds out she's off the hook so scrawls the phone number of the Exec Plat desk on a bit of paper, hands it to me and points me in the direction of the phone booths within the lounge.
I think I had about an hour before baggage close off to get it sorted and I explained to the CSR what happened not knowing what fare we'd have to pay for the new tickets but was convinced it would be down the back end of the bus and the best we could hope for was to get original routing credit. Unbelieveably the CSR went and spoke to the resolution desk who not only reinstated us on the same flights but in the original classes of F HNL/DFW/MIA & J MIA/AUA and honoured the original KUPP fare. I couldn't ticket the booking over the phone so hurriedly rushed back landside to the F checkin who ticketed the booking. We were slugged the USD45.00 pp airport ticketing fee but all things considered we got off lightly.
Once we were checked in there was no time to use the AC so we headed straight for the departure gates. On arrival in DFW we had about three hours to kill in the Centurion Lounge so I selected our seats for the return journey and it was only the short AUA/MIA flight we weren't together so chose 5B & 5F. Miraculously we were able to get the same seats on the MIA/DFW/HNL flights. I certainly wasn't going to ask pax to swap seats but once the guy in 5E realised we were a couple he offered to swap into 5B which was really nice of him.
On checking in with AA in HNL or our flight to Aruba the CSA asked for our onward ticket. We should have really had a printed copy but we referred to the Tripit app and gave her the flight details and AA pnr of our return flights back to HNL but looking at the eticket she said "it's showing that the ticket has been refunded." I knew immediately at that point that not only did we not have valid tickets but we no longer had any confirmed flights out of Aruba.
This was the situation I mentioned upthread about the ticket originally issued for travel in April being used in exchange for the March flights which was apparently a done deal, or so I thought at the time.
Apparently the refund had only been done two days prior and someone called Marion had something to do with it. I know that the AA CSR I spoke to at the time was Cathy so it's possible Marion was the supervisor she spoke to at the resolution desk that was meant to re-issue the ticket not refund it.
I'd have to say that at that moment I wasn't so much stressed but angry at myself for not double checking the booking although even if I had checked the booking at the time it would have been confirmed and ticketed. In hindsight I should have double checked the booking the day prior just to make sure all was in order as far easier to sort out from your hotel room than at the airport.
The CSA was very apologetic saying she couldn't check us through to Aruba unless we had onward tickets but she could check us as far as Miami while we got our tickets sorted out but we'd need to collect our bags in MIA then recheck them in. As we had just over an hour between flights in MIA it wouldn've been cutting it too fine to pick up our bags then recheck them before baggage close off.
As far as I was concerned the only option was to get it sorted in HNL so we could be checked all the way to Aruba. We didn't have our phone with a US sim in it and HNL airport doesn't offer free wi-fi so that ruled out using Skype or Viber. The CSA suggested we could go through to the Admirals Club and get it sorted there. I forget the exact words but I was thinking that the Lounge AAngels might be able to work their magic so she gave me some kind of dummy boarding pass that would get me through TSA the the AC was airside.
I had to leave SO behind at checkin with our checked luggage as it was too big to go through the x-ray machine so we couldn't take it through the screening point.
On arrival at AC I explained my dilemma and the lounge angel asked if checkin was working on it all the while I'm thinking to myself "well I had hoped you would be able to do something." She hastily looked up who had issued the dummy boarding pass calls them to make sure she was wasn't expected to do anyting and finds out she's off the hook so scrawls the phone number of the Exec Plat desk on a bit of paper, hands it to me and points me in the direction of the phone booths within the lounge.
I think I had about an hour before baggage close off to get it sorted and I explained to the CSR what happened not knowing what fare we'd have to pay for the new tickets but was convinced it would be down the back end of the bus and the best we could hope for was to get original routing credit. Unbelieveably the CSR went and spoke to the resolution desk who not only reinstated us on the same flights but in the original classes of F HNL/DFW/MIA & J MIA/AUA and honoured the original KUPP fare. I couldn't ticket the booking over the phone so hurriedly rushed back landside to the F checkin who ticketed the booking. We were slugged the USD45.00 pp airport ticketing fee but all things considered we got off lightly.
Once we were checked in there was no time to use the AC so we headed straight for the departure gates. On arrival in DFW we had about three hours to kill in the Centurion Lounge so I selected our seats for the return journey and it was only the short AUA/MIA flight we weren't together so chose 5B & 5F. Miraculously we were able to get the same seats on the MIA/DFW/HNL flights. I certainly wasn't going to ask pax to swap seats but once the guy in 5E realised we were a couple he offered to swap into 5B which was really nice of him.
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Some years ago when Austrian Airlines was still flying into SYD, my return flight in J from Geneva - Vienna - KL - SYD started very late with a "technical issue". I had got to Geneva airport and as boarding time approached went to the gate. It soon became apparent that boarding wasn't about to commence and looking across the tarmac the reason was evident - there were two mechanics on ladders working on one of the engines of the Tyrolean Airlines dash 8 (J class in a Dash 8 was a novel non experience but that wasn't my worry at the time). My connection in Vienna was looking tighter as the mechanics continued their work. I was anticipating an extra day in Vienna when they finally announced that the plane would be boarding shortly. The plane eventually took off and we touched down in Vienna 25 minutes before my next flight was scheduled to depart. As we taxied the cabin announcement stated that they had a car to take a couple of passengers directly across the tarmac to their next flight leaving in about 10 minutes and the rest of us who were connecting should catch the main bus across the tarmac and "proceed directly to our next flight". This still involved going through security again. I think it is the only time I have boarded a flight and they were waiting to close the door behind me. I was even more relieved when by bag turned up on the carousel at Sydney airport.
Arranged a trip though Europe with wife, her twin sister and brother-in-law. Plan was to fly to Rome for 4 nights, train to Venice, stay 3 nights, train to Lyon France then pick up a hire car and drive on a circuit around France, visiting Avignon, Carcassonne, Dordonne, Bordeaux, Loire Valley, Normandy and the Somme Valley ending up in Reims. Drop off hire car then train to Paris for a week stay - celebrating 35th wedding anniversary in Paris.
Sounds great, doesn't it. I was the designated driver, being the only one with experience driving on the other side of the road.
Working in the garage a week before and trip over, broke my left elbow. The day before we were due to fly out I have a check up and the doctor advises that it had not set correctly and I will have to have an operation. If this occurs the whole trip is off for me - the other three had no idea as to arrangements, and would get lost in a grocery shop.
I suggest to the doctor that I am going, no matter what, and explain the anniversary trip.
He is sympathetic and promptly sets the arm, no anaesthetic, puts it in a split fibreglass caste and says I am ok to go.
All clear from here you think - no. I am as high as a kite on panadeine forte the whole trip. the only time a came down was in a rush when a F/A dropped a hot cup of tea in my lap half way between KL and Dubai. Boy, did I move quickly.
The brother in law did a great job driving in France, especially with me giving obscure directions (remember I as doped up) and twins screaming in the back seat.
The remarkable thing is, we never got lost.
We did, however end up in a few places that we did not necessarily want to be - but we knew were we were, so technically we weren't lost.
Overall a very memorable experience.
Sounds great, doesn't it. I was the designated driver, being the only one with experience driving on the other side of the road.
Working in the garage a week before and trip over, broke my left elbow. The day before we were due to fly out I have a check up and the doctor advises that it had not set correctly and I will have to have an operation. If this occurs the whole trip is off for me - the other three had no idea as to arrangements, and would get lost in a grocery shop.
I suggest to the doctor that I am going, no matter what, and explain the anniversary trip.
He is sympathetic and promptly sets the arm, no anaesthetic, puts it in a split fibreglass caste and says I am ok to go.
All clear from here you think - no. I am as high as a kite on panadeine forte the whole trip. the only time a came down was in a rush when a F/A dropped a hot cup of tea in my lap half way between KL and Dubai. Boy, did I move quickly.
The brother in law did a great job driving in France, especially with me giving obscure directions (remember I as doped up) and twins screaming in the back seat.
The remarkable thing is, we never got lost.
We did, however end up in a few places that we did not necessarily want to be - but we knew were we were, so technically we weren't lost.
Overall a very memorable experience.
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