Made any travel mistakes lately?

[TheRealTMA]

If it’s any consolation(?) a set of house keys went missing in a hotel room in the US and someone (not me) got very angry and thought house keeping had taken them. Why?

Turned the place upside down and no keys.

6mths later a jingle sound from a backpack and they were still there between a pocket and the inner lining!

The lesson, at the airport take the opportunity to view the Xray image to see if there any missing items!

To this day when asked “Do you know where my keys are?”…..

IMHO You need to adopt a system for always storing keys, wallet, money, devices, chargers in defined places or defined pockets in your luggage.

 

[Flyfrequently]

IMHO You need to adopt a system for always storing keys, wallet, money, devices, chargers in defined places or defined pockets in your luggage.

And counting the number of bags before heading off @TheRealTMA
@Seat0B does this also I believe

 

[SYD]

IMHO You need to adopt a system for always storing keys, wallet, money, devices, chargers in defined places or defined pockets in your luggage.

I do!

To be fair to SYD+1, somehow the inner lining of the backpack “key section” tore and gobbled the keys…

 

[RooFlyer]

Visiting Malta in June and want to visit the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum near Valetta. I knew there were limited tickets available at set times during the day and booking early was essential. Reviewing the trip (includes a cruise, land tour and bits of France) and I noticed I hadn't booked the hypogeum!

Jumped online, chose the date - ONE ticket left, so I bought it.

Ooops - wrong day. I could go that day, but am getting the fast ferry back from Gozo in the morning and it would be tricky.

Went back online and selected the next, correct day and again got the last ticket AND this time noticed there was a seniors discount of almost 50%. So, two mistakes.

I've contacted Heritage Malta to see if they will cancel the initial 35 euro ticket and give me a refund!

 

[ellen10]

Not really a travel mistake, but an oops.
Our good friends, just finished a river cruise in Amsterdam. I encouraged them to visit Paris.
We looked at flights and then the fast trains. Trains are nice I say. So we booked the train.

Just got a message from them, finally arriving in Paris. 5 train trips later. It seems there was track work, fast trains not operating and a train strike the next day in Belgium, all resulted in chaos.
They said very stressful, as each train connection was very tight and not speaking the local language and with luggage to move from trains and platforms made the trip not the relaxing journey we had envisaged.
At least they got to Paris!

 

[Denali]

If it’s any consolation(?) a set of house keys went missing in a hotel room in the US and someone (not me) got very angry and thought house keeping had taken them. Why?

Turned the place upside down and no keys.

6mths later a jingle sound from a backpack and they were still there between a pocket and the inner lining!

The lesson, at the airport take the opportunity to view the Xray image to see if there any missing items!

To this day when asked “Do you know where my keys are?”…..

IMHO You need to adopt a system for always storing keys, wallet, money, devices, chargers in defined places or defined pockets in your luggage.

I dont know how guys manage all their stuff without a handbag. I did buy Mr Denali a sling bag (to wear at the front because of pick pocket'ers) to stop the "touch every pocket, freak out about missing something, not communicate this to my wife who I eventually tell and she starts looking and finds it". He agrees it helps but doesnt like to use it so that annoys me more

 

[SYD]

I dont know how guys manage all their stuff without a handbag. I did buy Mr Denali a sling bag (to wear at the front because of pick pocket'ers) to stop the "touch every pocket, freak out about missing something, not communicate this to my wife who I eventually tell and she starts looking and finds it". He agrees it helps but doesnt like to use it so that annoys me more

Except when travelling, I don’t take house keys out with me - leave them somewhere safe.

But I always find it weird not having keys in my pocket when travelling….

 

[Flyfrequently]

Not really a travel mistake, but an oops.
Our good friends, just finished a river cruise in Amsterdam. I encouraged them to visit Paris.
We looked at flights and then the fast trains. Trains are nice I say. So we booked the train.

Just got a message from them, finally arriving in Paris. 5 train trips later. It seems there was track work, fast trains not operating and a train strike the next day in Belgium, all resulted in chaos.
They said very stressful, as each train connection was very tight and not speaking the local language and with luggage to move from trains and platforms made the trip not the relaxing journey we had envisaged.
At least they got to Paris!

Just plain bad luck sadly @ellen10
They could have also been stymied if flying, by weather, pilot strike, lost baggage - but do understand stressful!

 

[RB001]

This is not my mistake, nor have I made this one, but here goes...

On an outing on the Sydney Metro today - a young family (on an outing of their own) that was sitting opposite alighted at their stop and proceeded on their merry way. A couple of stations later I glanced over at their (still unoccupied) seat and noticed what turned out to be a <hotel branded> cardboard sleeve with 2 keycards inside!
I live in the city, so upon my return a couple of hours later, I headed down to the hotel to hand the keys back in - the family probably wouldn't have noticed until they were about to re-enter the hotel after their day out.
Now this <hotel brand> has several properties in town - how did I know which one to go to?
That required an intensive detective effort on my part - not only was their room number on the cardboard sleeve, but the hotel Wi-Fi code is the street address of said hotel!

Personally, I never leave the room with the key anywhere near the cardboard sleeve, except when I'm on my way downstairs to check out. If on the rare occasion my name is written on there, it comes home with me. Some hotels don't even write the room number on the sleeve anymore.

What concerned me most was the relative nonchalance of the hotel staff. They seemed to think that their ability to deactivate the card protects the guest and their belongings. Of course, this relies on a distracted family from noticing well before they arrive back at the hotel, and calling to report the loss of the keycards. Yes, the onus is largely on the guest to keep the sleeve and the keys separated, but there's nothing to remind them apart from commonsense, which is easily suspended in the busyness of family vacation life.

 

[clifford]

I Just made a bit of a "mistake" with my CommBank "free" travel insurance. At my age, buying travel insurance for a couple of weeks can easily exceed $500, so the CommBank requirement of spending $500+ (in one transaction) on travel with their CC seems to be a good deal. So far so good.

I had planned to spend the required $500+ on hotels/apartments in Italy, 3 nights in Perugia, 2 nights in Brindisi and 2 nights in Bari, via booking.com (where each stay has to be paid for separately). Well, I was finding this to be quite difficult (without going over the top, value wise), so I had to consider Plan B. The problem was that I had to arrange the accommodation around my booked flights LHR-PEG-BDS-BRI-DBV.

The solution that came to me was to change my itinerary to have 4 nights in Brindisi (and none in Bari, which I could visit for a day by local train). And hey presto, a very nice apartment in Brindisi for $550 for 4 nights. Who would have thought it.

As an aside, I wouldn't consider using my CommBank card for purchasing long-haul airfares, as the 3% fee and lack of award points makes it uncompetitive.

 

[Scr77]

I Just made a bit of a "mistake" with my CommBank "free" travel insurance. At my age, buying travel insurance for a couple of weeks can easily exceed $500, so the CommBank requirement of spending $500+ (in one transaction) on travel with their CC seems to be a good deal. So far so good.

I had planned to spend the required $500+ on hotels/apartments in Italy, 3 nights in Perugia, 2 nights in Brindisi and 2 nights in Bari, via booking.com (where each stay has to be paid for separately). Well, I was finding this to be quite difficult (without going over the top, value wise), so I had to consider Plan B. The problem was that I had to arrange the accommodation around my booked flights LHR-PEG-BDS-BRI-DBV.

The solution that came to me was to change my itinerary to have 4 nights in Brindisi (and none in Bari, which I could visit for a day by local train). And hey presto, a very nice apartment in Brindisi for $550 for 4 nights. Who would have thought it.

As an aside, I wouldn't consider using my CommBank card for purchasing long-haul airfares, as the 3% fee and lack of award points makes it uncompetitive.

Hey @clifford

Have you considered moving your card to the CBA Smart or CBA Ultimate awards card?

They have no overseas fees and earn rewards points. IME, CBA doesn’t ask too many questions when moving between products or credit limits.

 

[Myrna]

Last year we visited Turkey, so applied for Turkish visa - paid US$60 each - with our AU passports.
This year we will be in Turkey again. Just about to apply for new Turkish visa, then hubby discovered that UK passports are exempt. We forgot about using our UK passports last year - could have saved us US$120.

 

[I love to travel]

Do travel mistake dreams count for this thread? Thought it was funny when I woke up.

The true facts:
I am on a BA 380 later this year in first class

The dream
When I boarded I sat down in a weird seating configuration but it was the seat on my boarding pass. The seat looked more like premium economy. I then somehow managed to get every overhead bin to open and malfunction and everyone's belongings fell out. After takeoff, I realised I was on the upper deck and first class is on the lower deck. I sheepishly moved downstairs

 

[bam71]

Accidently booked ourselves on the ADL DOH QR flight in November to continue on to London. Only just realised this week ( 4weeks after booking), that we are on the service that goes via MEL. We live in MEL and were happy to get an early morning flight to ADL to depart. Now it’s going to be MEL ADL MEL DOH. We’ve decided to keep it as we’re on points and now there are no other alternatives.

 

[henrus]

Accidently booked ourselves on the ADL DOH QR flight in November to continue on to London. Only just realised this week ( 4weeks after booking), that we are on the service that goes via MEL. We live in MEL and were happy to get an early morning flight to ADL to depart. Now it’s going to be MEL ADL MEL DOH. We’ve decided to keep it as we’re on points and now there are no other alternatives.

Why fly direct when you can connect! Just be happy you aren't on the return DOH-MEL-ADL that stops in MEL for ~6hr between 11pm and 5am.

 

[JessicaTam]

Do travel mistake dreams count for this thread? Thought it was funny when I woke up.

The true facts:
I am on a BA 380 later this year in first class

The dream
When I boarded I sat down in a weird seating configuration but it was the seat on my boarding pass. The seat looked more like premium economy. I then somehow managed to get every overhead bin to open and malfunction and everyone's belongings fell out. After takeoff, I realised I was on the upper deck and first class is on the lower deck. I sheepishly moved downstairs

As long as it isn't a premonition!

 

[sudoer]

Now it’s going to be MEL ADL MEL DOH

Reads well in Homer Simpson's voice

 

[JohnK]

On Monday I booked last minute trip OOL-SYD return for today Wednesday on VA. As VA Gold I could only manage aisle seat for row 20 something.

Wife is VA Platinum and I think there were economy X seats available.

 

[justinbrett]

This is a bit niche...

Having navigated the complexities of setting up an Indian Railways online account, and even booking my first trip without issue, when I went to book the return (leaving aside the fact you can't book return tickets, you have to do 2x one ways) - I discovered the train I wanted was "not available".

Assuming the train was scheduled not to run I had to book an evening train (instead of lunchtime) significantly cutting my time in Delhi before flying out.

I've now discovered when you select "Foreign Tourist" as the ticket type, there is a special quota for tourists, but you can still select "General". From what I understand quotas are meant to work the other way, reserving tickets for tourists if the train sells out, but in this case it was the tourist quota that was not available. Apparently it's perfectly fine to book general as a foreigner - it's no cheaper.

So now I have two Agra - Delhi tickets on the same day, which I suppose can't hurt in case I miss the first train for whatever reason. It's only A$40 or so.

 

[OZDUCK]

A mistake which we luckily caught in time and have now corrected. Booked a hotel in Berlin for the day after we are due to arrive. It would have been nice to turn up in central Berlin at 22:00 and found no room at the inn. I think the mistake was caused because the QR flight out of Singapore is leaving at 10:30 and I am used to catching evening flights to Europe so I automatically added a 'day' to account for the travel time..