Made any travel mistakes lately?

[SYD]

Years ago I left my keys (including car fob) at security. (I never take keys any more as I always catch the train.) But anyway I realised I'd left them when I was away so when I got back to SYD I went to lost and found to ask if any keys had been handed in. The bloke behind the desk pulled out a shopping bag sized sack, pouring it out, said "this is the current week's worth". I found mine but he said lots never come back to get them.

I heard a story of a work colleague who couldn’t find his car keys having flown to Canberra for the day. Thinking he‘d have to call NRMA, he went to his car after arriving back in SYD. His keys were in the ignition and the motor was still running….

 

[Must...Fly!]

I heard a story of a work colleague who couldn’t find his car keys having flown to Canberra for the day. Thinking he‘d have to call NRMA, he went to his car after arriving back in SYD. His keys were in the ignition and the motor was still running….

I did something similar at work once. I was at the end of a long shift and then traveled home on the tube (see, it's a travel mistake!). Got home, reached in to my pocket for keys and nothing. Oh no.

Retraced my steps back to the tube station - nothing. Back to my connecting station - nothing handed in. Back to my originating station - nothing handed in. Was getting quite anxious at this point because both flatmates were in Sweden and so I had no backup. Went upstairs to check the locker room and there they were, still inserted in to the locker

 

[luxury-lizard]

On a similar vein - once leaving work I jumped into a taxi to go home only to realise on arriving home that I'd driven to work that day and my car was still at work.

 

[Warks]

On a similar vein - once leaving work I jumped into a taxi to go home only to realise on arriving home that I'd driven to work that day and my car was still at work.

I recall wandering the car park at SYD looking for my car thinking it must have been stolen when I realised I'd caught the train. My excuse was I'd done a trip every few days and usually struggled to find my car anyway as I looked in the last place I'd parked, not the current trip. It all became a blur. Might be why I switched to the train.

 

[Cossie]

I heard a story of a work colleague who couldn’t find his car keys having flown to Canberra for the day. Thinking he‘d have to call NRMA, he went to his car after arriving back in SYD. His keys were in the ignition and the motor was still running….

Sorry off topic (again) but you were lucky not have your car stolen, as per this couple in Victoria, can’t believe their dogs didn’t work out something was out there!

Couple have four-wheel drive and camper trailer stolen while sleeping inside

A Victorian man recalls the terrifying moment his camper trailer was stolen while he and his partner were sleeping inside on the Great Ocean Road at the weekend.

www.abc.net.au

Also can’t believe he didn’t have the keys on his person…….

 

[Must...Fly!]

On a similar vein - once leaving work I jumped into a taxi to go home only to realise on arriving home that I'd driven to work that day and my car was still at work.

Did something similar the other week, heading home and halfway there in a zombie-like stupor of a walk, realised I rode in the night before and my bike was locked up in the end of trip!

 

[jastel]

Not me but a couple I know.

They had recently relocated but their jobs still meant visiting the previous city regularly. They leave an older car there for convenience, and rentals were scarce and expensive.

Boyfriend was in 2nd city, drove to airport to fly OUT home, left the car there as girlfriend was flying IN a few hours later. Both had their own sets of keys, so girlfriend arrives on last flight in the dark and walks to car...the airport parking ticket was on dash, car was locked etc but the drivers window was WIDE open...and there was 100mm of rain after he left but before she arrived.
He must have left the drivers window open after getting parking ticket from the machine.

She had important clients to take somewhere the next day so she had to do it while sitting on 3 beach towels and a plastic garbage bag. Luckily for her it was only the drivers area wet.

Boyfriend had to get the car professionally detailed and vaccuumed the next week.

 

[Flashback]

Not me but a couple I know.

They had recently relocated but their jobs still meant visiting the previous city regularly. They leave an older car there for convenience, and rentals were scarce and expensive.

Boyfriend was in 2nd city, drove to airport to fly OUT home, left the car there as girlfriend was flying IN a few hours later. Both had their own sets of keys, so girlfriend arrives on last flight in the dark and walks to car...parking ticket was on dash, car was locked but drivers window was WIDE open...and there was 100mm of rain after he left but before she arrived.
He must have left the drivers window open after getting parking ticket from the machine.

She had important clients to take somewhere the next day so she had to do it while sitting on 3 beach towels and a plastic garbage bag. Luckily for her it was only the drivers area wet.

Boyfriend had to get the car professionally detailed and vaccuumed the next week.

..... and a bouqet of flowers?

 

[kookaburra75]

I heard a story of a work colleague who couldn’t find his car keys having flown to Canberra for the day. Thinking he‘d have to call NRMA, he went to his car after arriving back in SYD. His keys were in the ignition and the motor was still running….

Not quite as bad, but almost. I was working down in Melbourne and staying at the Hilton South Wharf (now Pan Pacific). I was working out at Laverton and had a hire car, which I parked each night in the open area car park out the front. I went to leave the room one morning and couldn't find the car keys. I turned the room upside down, and then thought maybe I had dropped the keys walking in the night before. I retraced my steps down to the car, and there they were. On the roof of the car where I had left them the night before, while unloading my briefcase etc. The fact the keys, and the car was still there, was impressive. I don't know how I would have explained that one to the car hire company, or work.

 

[tdimdad]

Lost property at airports must make a lot of money for charity, due to the items left behind and are unclaimed.

I've managed to employ them, too. On my way to MEL some five years ago, had to take my jacket off in the SYD T3 security. Placed it in the last of my bins, walked to the other side, collected my bag & laptop - and marched off leaving the jacket behind. That made for a few rather cold days in Melbourne with a sweater only to keep me warm (decided to embrace my inner snowman instead of buying another jacket).

My next destination was BNE but luckily I had a connection in SYD. Walked off the incoming plane, out to the lost & found, and to my delight the jacket was there. Then back in through the security - with the jacket now secured to the first bin.

Since then I've always had my bag come through last to guarantee that I remember to collect the small stuff, too. And the same jacket is still touring around with me.

 

[tassie6]

Had spent a year in Canada/US doing the working holiday thing, and was driving over ten days from San Diego back to BC in my van. Filled up with fuel somewhere in middle of nowhere Idaho on a big days drive and pulled around the corner to go in and grab some food… oh cough, realised as soon as the door had shut I had locked the keys in the car. Had been so vigilant up to that point as there was no central locking!

Went in and asked for a coat hanger (young naivety thinking I would be able to do it) but they didn’t have anything. They rang the local sheriff and he (or one of the ‘deputies’) turned up ten minutes later with the gear and spent twenty minutes trying different tactics and finally popped the lock! Didn’t ask for any ownership papers or money, really nice guy. Was so happy as it was otherwise going to ruin my day

 

[Happy Dude]

You can't do a four month trip with family without a few errors.

Always double check the dates of non-refundable bookings. Not once but twice did we get the day or month wrong on hotel bookings. The first time was via QF Hotels and both they and the hotel said "tough luck, absolutely nothing we can do. That was for a one-night booking. The second time was via Expedia for 5 nights in Munich. They contacted the hotel who were happy to cancel the booking which allowed Expedia to refund in full.

The biggest/most expensive mistake was failing to collect a hire car within 59 minutes of the pick-up time. After that, you are considered a no-show and the booking is cancelled. Sure it is actually stated as such in the T&C but who actually reads the fine print on such matters. And in Australia I regularly show up many hours after the booking time without notice and have never been told of anything like a cut off. My understanding was/is that as long you showed up on the day after the pick time then that's fine. I've also been given cars when I've shown up early.

Being a third party aggregator rental (Rentalcars.com) and with Italy being what it is in July, the hire car company (OK Mobile) at FMO took great delight in allowing me to "upgrade" my booking from a Renault Kadjar to a "much more luxury" VW T-Roc for just EUR400 more. I talked them down to 350 after about an hour. We'd only paid AUD$750 for the 12 day booking in the first place. I've never been so angry, but neither have I ever been subject to such irrational pedantry, and judging by the other counters, making the customers mad as hell seemed to be part of the business model. It is worth noting that we did not pick up our two-month hire car from Thrifty in the US within the cut-off time either and even though it was also through rentalcars.com there was not a single peep about any time cut-off.

Ah well, we live and learn. Just like the guy that checked over the car when we returned it needs to learn to be more observant. There were some decent scrapes on the front bumper that were not there when we picked it up that we genuinely do not know how they happened. We did get stuck in some tiny narrow streets but, and I'm being absolutely honest here, we didn't think we hit anything. We actually celebrated getting out of that close shave unscathed. It's more likely that another car bumped ours at some point but we couldn't pin-point when that might have been. Anyway, they didn't seem to notice or subsequently care and we feel like we've dodged a bullet. We'll call it even.

Just on that, the Amex insurance policy says that we'd need to get a police report to accompany any claim. But report of what? We didn't know anything about it (where, when, who etc). And which type of police - Polizia? Carabinieri? Some traffic looking ones? Can't imagine how difficult it would be for non-Italian speaker (of which I'm one). It was hard enough understanding that a roadside cop wanted to see my International Drivers License during a stop for some reason - "documento" . Just kept giving him things until he was happy - passport, AUS licence, rental agreement, insurance paper, rego (?). I thought that must be why those were in the glove box.

 

[Pushka]

The biggest/most expensive mistake was failing to collect a hire car within 59 minutes of the pick-up time.

Thanks for the tip. That could have wrecked our family Christmas this year.

 

[drron]

Especially picking up at an airport I usually add 2 - 3 hours to the time of pick up so less likely to fall foul of the pick up time rule. Knew a couple of friends that it happened to so I am aware of it.

 

[Flashback]

It's also why they ask for your arrival flight details though, so if it's delayed they know you are still picking up.

US is a bit different, too. They'll note the exact time you pickup and then charge if you bring back after the 24 hour period block from pickup rather than the original return time. Whereas in Europe if they give to you early, they'll still honour the original return time.

 

[bcworld]

Europe trip 2023. Lisbon.

Mistake #1 - not knowing that World Youth Week (or the build up to it) coincided with our dates. A million overexcited, teenage, catholic pilgrims and the associated chaos in the city.

Mistake #2 - having been unable to open the safe in the hotel room and with reception unable to assist (no master key)...deciding to 'hide' valuables in the room instead. One disappeared passport later, one remainder of holiday in disarray. Two trips back to the Australian embassy in Lisbon (from the Algarve) smack bang in World Youth Week.

 

[Flashback]

Europe trip 2023. Lisbon.

Mistake #1 - not knowing that World Youth Week (or the build up to it) coincided with our dates. A million overexcited, teenage, catholic pilgrims and the associated chaos in the city.

Mistake #2 - having been unable to open the safe in the hotel room and with reception unable to assist (no master key)...deciding to 'hide' valuables in the room instead. One disappeared passport later, one remainder of holiday in disarray. Two trips back to the Australian embassy in Lisbon (from the Algarve) smack bang in World Youth Week.

What hotel? So we know not to stay there...... sorry to hear about your troubles.

Was the passport stolen do you think, or just misplaced?

 

[bcworld]

...I will add it sort of worked out in the end. We missed the Switzerland part of the trip while waiting for the emergency passport. Minus the bus trips to Lisbon we had a really nice extended stay on the Algarve. Had we made it to Switzerland we would have been confronted by some fairly horrendous weather that we simply weren't prepared for and would've been a real downer. I was able to burn some Avianca LifeMiles to get us rerouted within Schengen and we had a nice couple of days in Munich...I maxed out a Volvo on the Autobahn! My partner, whose passport was the one lost, left for Australia from there whereas I stuck to plan A and continued to Istanbul to meet our friend. I was unable to get an answer from anyone about the emergency passport being good for entry into Turkey...the general consensus is now he'd have been locked up, if not denied boarding in the first place!

 

[bcworld]

What hotel? So we know not to stay there...... sorry to hear about your troubles.

Was the passport stolen do you think, or just misplaced?

The hotel is called FLH Boemio...it was actually rather nice...well the room was, it would be considered low on services. It's a bit weird as it is part of group but they don't seem to have launched a website for it yet...but you'll find it on all the major booking sites and highly regarded.

Google Travel

www.google.com

We do believe it was stolen, yes, but the whole thing is just really confusing. We were on the train to the Algarve when asked to produce the passport...and it was just...not where it should have been!

 

[kookaburra75]

I must admit, Ido like reading about others misfortunes while travelling, as it makes me feel a bit better that I'm not the only one. After admitting to my faux pas with the hire car, @bcworld story about passports brought back a memory that I included in a trip report
Post in thread 'Belated Trip Report - European Escapade' Belated Trip Report - European Escapade
How I got away with that I'll never know.