Made any travel mistakes lately?

[Warks]

I actually like that they are erring to being a little overprotective of your money instead of letting all kinds of transactions through and you then to sort them out after the fact.
I've told my credit card providers for eons when I'm travelling: "I'll be travelling 1/7 - 18/7 and you may see transactions from countries A, B, C and D". A simple online banking message a few days beforehand has usually sufficed for that.

Hadn't been anywhere overseas (apart from NZ) for four years so didn't cross my mind.

 

[Scarlett]

Hmm, it's been an A320 on that route for at least the past 3 to 4 years or so. A330 disappeared a long time ago and flies by exception rather than the rule.

All I can say is that our original booking for CMB-CGK on 22 Jul was scheduled as A330-200 when booked and had held that aircraft type for four months. The flight is now cancelled.
FR24 also shows flights this week having been predominantly operated by A330s.

 

[Himeno]

I'm going to an event in Hartford, CT soon.
The event has room blocks at 3 nearby hotels for discounted rooms for attendees.

When I looked for accommodation, those hotels were full, so I booked another hotel in the area that didn't have a room block.
Before I departed on my holiday, I was checking the paperwork for the event and clicked through to the hotel attached to the convention center and saw that a room had opened up in the block - for half the price of my confirmed hotel.

I went to see if I could change, but the hotel I booked was prepaid and couldn't be cancelled.

 

[encryptededdy]

I didn't have a local SIM but Telstra has their global roaming for $10 a day or whatnot.

If using Telstra, you can use Wifi Calling whilst overseas which incurs no roaming charges.

 

[Scarlett]

To follow up on this issue:
UL have offered us a delay of two days in Frankfurt and then take the same planned flights FRA-CMB-CGK.
We can make this work but I have told them they either need to book us a hotel in Frankfurt for those two nights or agree to reimburse us if I book a hotel for the two nights.
The travel mistake (well, not really - just a 1WP (first world problem)) now is that the CMB-CGK has changed from A330 lie-flat to A320 standard recliner. Here’s hoping that the problems with that sector indicated above, don’t materialise.

Update:

UL have spun their giant chocolate wheel of randomness and now decided to book us QR J flights FRA-DOH-CGK in lieu of the ticketed FRA-CMB-(cancelled)-CGK.

Winning.

This is NOT a travel mistake any more.

 

[Flashback]

Update:

UL have spun their giant chocolate wheel of randomness and now decided to book us QR J flights FRA-DOH-CGK in lieu of the ticketed FRA-CMB-(cancelled)-CGK.

Winning.

This is NOT a travel mistake any more.

Now that's a result!

 

[Stealthflyer]

Not checking the SKL Mel opening times before going through to international during a long transit. I’m a duffer. I had to sit with the masses and wait for it to open, which wasn’t very conducive to work. If I’d known it closed between flights I would have spend a few hours in the VA domestic lounge before going though immigration.

 

[mrsterryn]

Found an excellent J rewards for close enough dates for the booked PE I had
Booked the reward J , promptly cancelled the booked seat.
Mistake - I haven't got the confirmation from Qantas that the rewards seat is confirmed
Now to wait
Really hoping it all goes through. It is appearing on the app however haven't received the email yet

 

[Pushka]

Found an excellent J rewards for close enough dates for the booked PE I had
Booked the reward J , promptly cancelled the booked seat.
Mistake - I haven't got the confirmation from Qantas that the rewards seat is confirmed
Now to wait
Really hoping it all goes through. It is appearing on the app however haven't received the email yet

It's Sunday maybe?

 

[mrsterryn]

@Pushka my paid seat notification earlier this month took a couple of days to arrive. Just a bit cranky with myself for cancelling the sale seat I had without waiting for the email confirming the reward one
Ah well

 

[mrsterryn]

Phew , the email has arrived confirming the ticket over .
Now to wait for points from the first cancellation a few weeks back , then the cash from this flight and then book a return ticket lol

 

[LostRedditor]

This isn't my mistake but someone on reddit got in some hot water at Dubai airport. Could have been much worse though

https://www.reddit.com/r/travel/comments/154wpjk

Got myself into a predicament in Dubai Airport

Currently sitting at Dubai with my girlfriend about to board our flight back home to Sydney. We’ve just finished up an awesome 2 month trip around Europe, ending the last week in Amsterdam. We of course got amongst the coffee shops in amsterdam and had a few joints here and there and I forgot that I stored one in my backpack. When I ‘double checked’ my back pack before heading to the airport, i didn’t find the joint as I didn’t even realise I had one in there, as I thought I must have smoked it. Low and behold, we go through security at Dubai, which we were planning on a hop on hop off tour as we had a 15 hour layover, and the security guard pulls out none other than the joint i had forgotten was in there. No good. Spent most of the day getting finger printed, questioned and searched to the point I’m now being deported and never allowed back in the UAE. If this was 2 years ago I would be locked up for 4 years minimum, so I consider myself lucky. This goes for anyone buying weed or any other substance that may be legal where you buy it, do NOT store them in a difficult-to-find pocket in your backpack and forget about it. And before I get flamed saying this was just stupid, I already know, I’ve heard it all day

 

[MEL_Traveller]

In a similar vein… https://www.news.com.au/finance/bus...s/news-story/98ffc168d5a37e175664c41b3b46bfd6

A couple discover fraud on their credit card while travelling. Cancel card. But on arrival home spend countless hours and stress trying to chase the merchant to have the fraudulent charges reversed! (booking.com)

Ummm… they didn’t need to do anything! The CC company would have taken care of it.

 

[Flashback]

Filtered property results on Booking.com with the option 'airconditioning' as the destination forecast was for high 30's temperature wise. Down selected a property, chose a room...... booked. It turns out, more attention needs to be paid to each room / room type description, as the one I chose (only one available though!) didn't have aircon. I did a dummy booking for another day and there is a double room which does have a/c, which is why the filter flagged the property. So a bit of a bad on me for not noticing in the small print for the room, but also booking.com as the only room available didn't have a/c yet it still came up in the results.

 

[TheRealTMA]

Filtered property results on Booking.com with the option 'airconditioning' as the destination forecast was for high 30's temperature wise. Down selected a property, chose a room...... booked. It turns out, more attention needs to be paid to each room / room type description, as the one I chose (only one available though!) didn't have aircon. I did a dummy booking for another day and there is a double room which does have a/c, which is why the filter flagged the property. So a bit of a bad on me for not noticing in the small print for the room, but also booking.com as the only room available didn't have a/c yet it still came up in the results.

Of course it dolesn't mean that the air conditioning will be turned on necessarily.

 

[Flashback]

Of course it dolesn't mean that the air conditioning will be turned on necessarily.

I did have a property in Greece once that had it locked to 27! Pointless. Looked up how to unlock but the steps didn't work.

 

[luxury-lizard]

I'm currently travelling in Europe (past 6 weeks - back home in a few days) - and even places that "claim" to be air-conditioned are not - there may be a dial on the wall but nothing happens. The only places with air conditioning (in my experience) which actually works are 5-star hotels in major cities. I find even the air-conditioning on trains can't cope with current high temperatures. Fortunately we have spent most of the time in mountain villages (Austria and Switzerland) where temps drop to low-teens over night.

 

[TheRealTMA]

I'm currently travelling in Europe (past 6 weeks - back home in a few days) - and even places that "claim" to be air-conditioned are not - there may be a dial on the wall but nothing happens. The only places with air conditioning (in my experience) which actually works are 5-star hotels in major cities. I find even the air-conditioning on trains can't cope with current high temperatures. Fortunately we have spent most of the time in mountain villages (Austria and Switzerland) where temps drop to low-teens over night.

It used to be in Italy (where it's a known fact that AC is the work of Satan and kills you) that AC was only allowed to be turned on August, by law. Don't know what applies in the current Cerberus period.

 

[Flashback]

I'm currently travelling in Europe (past 6 weeks - back home in a few days) - and even places that "claim" to be air-conditioned are not - there may be a dial on the wall but nothing happens. The only places with air conditioning (in my experience) which actually works are 5-star hotels in major cities. I find even the air-conditioning on trains can't cope with current high temperatures. Fortunately we have spent most of the time in mountain villages (Austria and Switzerland) where temps drop to low-teens over night.

Sheesh, even the aircon in the €40 hotels I stayed at near TLS airport at the beginning and end of my trip last week had working aircon!

 

[Franky]

It used to be in Italy (where it's a known fact that AC is the work of Satan and kills you) that AC was only allowed to be turned on August, by law. Don't know what applies in the current Cerberus period.

IIRC they also have a regulated temperature setting - something like 23c perhaps?