What was your pointless work trip?

[Warks]

I suddenly remembered someone else's pointless trip. I was at a regional meeting in Langkawi, Malaysia in the late 90s. One of the attendees came from Germany and gave us a long winded presentation on the company's attempts to get our products accepted by the WHO in some of the trouble spots of the world at the time. Every story edged us towards a possible successful outcome but ended with the final kicker "but ve did not vin the tender..." I'm pretty sure this could have been covered in an email.

 

[mel-world]

Back in 2002, working for a sports media company in Singapore, I flew SIN-JNB-CPT to look at the production of a South Africa v India Test cricket match and meet with local organizers about future rights. No sooner had I deplaned in CPT than my 'brick' mobile rang and I got a flood of emails - it was the Company Secretary instructing me to attend a meeting back in SIN the next day. (Hate to think of the roaming charges in those days). Anyway, back on the same plane - we had a different crew out of JNB - only to be told on arrival that she had found my completed paperwork in the meantime and there was really no reason for me to attend the meeting. I found a new job in Melbourne a few months later.

 

[jb747]

There was a somewhat famous cabin crew trip (in BA I think). When originally planned, it was about 10 days long, and bounced all over, with the crew working all sectors. Slowly but surely, the sectors became paxing, until in the ultimate bit of planning, all of the sectors were as a passengers. Now, you'd think at this time, it would be cancelled from the system, but no, apparently it actually ran like that for a while, until someone foolishly asked scheduling about it.

 

[flyer89]

Now, you'd think at this time, it would be cancelled from the system, but no, apparently it actually ran like that for a while, until someone foolishly asked scheduling about it.

And straight into a management position they went.

 

[Warks]

Forgot about this "pointless" thread I'd started a couple of years ago.

More recently a friend with a manufacturing company in Melbourne had some products made in a regional centre in NZ. They were due to ship the product in a few days but had run out of product labels. These labels are for registered products and are officially legal documents so cannot just be run up on a printer. So my friend's wife picked up the labels in Melbourne, flew to Auckland and on to the regional centre to hand the labels to the manufacturer as they absolutely, positively had to be there the next day. He didn't want to chance a courier losing them. So there was a point to the trip it was very short as she turned straight around and flew back to Melbourne.

 

[trooper]

Mine is a very minor one compared to some of these. I was a Naval Officer working in "Manning Policy." Got sent up to Sydney for a meeting - 6am flight of course. Sat in the meeting for 2 hours in order to follow my Directors instructions to give a firm "NO" to two critical questions. After the second of those the meeting itself was pretty pointless. The only GOOD news was that QF happily put me on an earlier flight back to CBR. We were the last flight in before the airport closed due to bad weather. VERY interesting approach and landing in the Dash 8 that day. As an aside, I was in Uniform, as we travelled ion those days, and wearing a set of Gold wings... so through the scary approach and solid ARRIVAL I thought I had better try to look super calm. Problem is, they were my PARACHUTE WINGS and I was sh*tting myself.

 

[SYD]

Mine is a very minor one compared to some of these. I was a Naval Officer working in "Manning Policy." Got sent up to Sydney for a meeting - 6am flight of course. Sat in the meeting for 2 hours in order to follow my Directors instructions to give a firm "NO" to two critical questions. After the second of those the meeting itself was pretty pointless. The only GOOD news was that QF happily put me on an earlier flight back to CBR. We were the last flight in before the airport closed due to bad weather. VERY interesting approach and landing in the Dash 8 that day. As an aside, I was in Uniform, as we travelled ion those days, and wearing a set of Gold wings... so through the scary approach and solid ARRIVAL I thought I had better try to look super calm. Problem is, they were my PARACHUTE WINGS and I was sh*tting myself.

Were you wearing whites or blues?

OT, but the bumpiest flights for me have usually been in / out of CBR. A couple of times pondering if brown corduroy would be better than white…although uniform usually helped with a jump seat pre 9/11.

 

[Denali]

Years ago I had to go to Lyon France for a 2.5 day workshop for a program that we/our country company did not use and never used and will never use. Mr Denali had a ball, dining at wonderful restaurants and wandering around Lyon and then we wandered around Paris for a few days before heading home

 

[AuSammy]

Arrive at ADL airport early morning to be told can’t take off and will be a delay because MEL closed due to fog.

Then a delay then a delay, then we boarded and took off.

Circled the Grampians 2-3 times and the projected opening of MEL didn’t happen and we were getting low on fuel so we returned to ADL and went home.

 

[Supersonic Swinger]

In 2008, I flew New York (kind of, Newark) to Singapore on the old SQ A340 direct to meet with a company, went in to the company the morning after landing, only for the CEO to tell me "hasn't your boss spoken to you? Bear Stearns was bailed out overnight, the economy is going into freefall and everything has been cancelled". Had some great meals in Singapore before getting the flight back two days later...

 

[Aeryn]

My pointless work trip was when employer booked me on Air NZ to WLG so I earned no points or SCs. Luckily was able to get the return leg changed to QF so I got points.

 

[Happy Dude]

There's some great stories here and some of y'all have way more interesting jobs than me. The stories that I can recall are not quite pointless but certainly examples of inefficiency, near misses and a lot of effort for not much return.

I was involved with a certain underwater vessel project in Northern France and was groomed to be ready to head over without much notice to perform my task. So I got the call and was given a whY ticket to a flight leaving in 48hrs. Of course, when I arrived on site, they were not ready for me and wouldn't be for at least a week. It ended up being 10 days and I passed the time exploring Mont St Michel, Bayeux and some other towns in the region. My work took one day. I then had to wait a few more days so I could transfer back to Paris, and ultimately home, with my new favourite friends who had been the ones to hold me up.

In 2000 I was working in my profession in the UK, an apparent breach of the conditions of the Working Holiday Visa I held. After nearly a year, my company realised this and tried to employ me legally which required them to demonstrate that no-one else in the EU could fill my role. It all proved too hard so they organised for me to transition to a 1-year Training Visa, after which I'd have to leave the EU, an effective resignation. I'd also have to leave the country while the visa was processed, which could be up to several weeks, and then re-enter on the new visa. They organised for me to work out of the HKG office and booked flights, accommodation etc. I was really looking forward to the experience as it was CNY and miserable winter in the UK. I had an evening flight and was going to spend the day in the office and head to the airport around 4pm. Just before 3pm, HR came to my desk clutching the visa paperwork that was supposed to be sent to me in HKG in a few weeks. And just like that, my fully paid month-long or so in HKG had just became a weekend in Paris mostly at my cost. Damn the incredibly efficient Home Office! There are no such restrictions these days, I'm told, and I always doubted the Home Office would have found out or even cared at all anyway. And I still haven't done a CNY in HKG.