Made any travel mistakes lately?

[JohnK]

If you see a cheap airfare don't hesitate even if looks looks like a mistake airfare.

Friday night/Saturday morning found $2500 airfare on Cathay website BNE-BKK return for 3 of us for Sep 2026. Did not have money in credit and stupidly chose not to use debit card, instead sending money to credit card. By Saturday lunchtime airfare went to $3100 which is the same as SQ airfare but SQ airfare has been increasing to $3200 the past day.

What's even worse is that the first seats in cabin were able to be selected for free as were travelling with child.

The $600 saving would have covered 9 nights in hotel in Pattaya with breakfast and change left over for beers.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

If you see a cheap airfare don't hesitate even if looks looks like a mistake airfare.

Friday night/Saturday morning found $2500 airfare on Cathay website BNE-BKK return for 3 of us for Sep 2026. Did not have money in credit and stupidly chose not to use debit card, instead sending money to credit card. By Saturday lunchtime airfare went to $3100 which is the same as SQ airfare but SQ airfare has been increasing to $3200 the past day.

What's even worse is that the first seats in cabin were able to be selected for free as were travelling with child.

The $600 saving would have covered 9 nights in hotel in Pattaya with breakfast and change left over for beers.

I’ve seen that quite a bit with cathay… prices fluctuate wildly. A flight I was looking at from MNL-HKG went from $149 to $256 and then $347, before dropping back to the $149! although only for a very brief period.

Might pay to be checking every couple of hours to see if the fare drops.

 

[Holiday.with.Ken]

If you see a cheap airfare don't hesitate even if looks looks like a mistake airfare.

Friday night/Saturday morning found $2500 airfare on Cathay website BNE-BKK return for 3 of us for Sep 2026. Did not have money in credit and stupidly chose not to use debit card, instead sending money to credit card. By Saturday lunchtime airfare went to $3100 which is the same as SQ airfare but SQ airfare has been increasing to $3200 the past day.

What's even worse is that the first seats in cabin were able to be selected for free as were travelling with child.

The $600 saving would have covered 9 nights in hotel in Pattaya with breakfast and change left over for beers.

Could try clear cookies and browser history? or try a different device, wifi, VPN, incognito etc?

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Oh hell yeah - the just keep coming

Booked MEL-BQB July 17 2026 then 6nts MR then 1nt PER then VA PER-BME then 4nts BME then VA BME-PER-MEL - all set and all nestled in - then I realized that overlaps annual XMAS in July party at me best mates house where the Geange glows freely

BUGGER - bring everything forward 6 days - MR booked thru LE so had to cancel and rebook again but got there and once all set and nestled in I realized I had missed 1nt in PER midst the MR-BME transfer

BUGGER - back onto LE to ament MR booking and they now want extra $400 to bring the 6nt booking forward 1day - GFY - so cancelled and rcvd refund and called apt owner in MR and booked directly at cheaper rate than original LE bookings

Another day - another balls up

 

[Beano]

Had a massive senior moment yesterday. Departing Jakarta on an international flight we made it to the departure lounge without having checked in, so obviously without boarding passes, and with our bags containing a knife, a pair of scissors and several containers with over 100mls of liquid

So how did you get through security without a boarding pass?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

So how did you get through security without a boarding pass?

Even immigration!

 

[Beano]

This last trip I left behind a hairbrush, toothbrush, glasses case (a nice soft one that I like)

Sigh

You know what they say, if you leave something behind you are bound to return. I left a sponge bag in a hotel in NZ when I was there for a job interview. A year later I was living in NZ and been there 32 years. I retrieved the sponge bag.

 

[AuSammy]

Tried to check-in to hotel in BKK.

No booking Sir

Here’s my confirmation.

Yes Sir that was for last month, you were a no show. No booking for today

 

[JohnK]

Could try clear cookies and browser history? or try a different device, wifi, VPN, incognito etc?

Haven't tried different wifi. Doesn't look to be cookies or browser history.

 

[andye]

Haven't tried different wifi. Doesn't look to be cookies or browser history.

Interested if anyone has success doing this.

My impression is that the illusion of prices going up while you delay booking is due to a cheap fare-bucket filling in the meantime, rather than an algorithm spotting your interest

 

[JohnK]

Interested if anyone has success doing this.

My impression is that the illusion of prices going up while you delay booking is due to a cheap fare-bucket filling in the meantime, rather than an algorithm spotting your interest

You'd be surprised. I've seen prices fluctuate. I should know better.

P.S. On Saturday morning this airfare for 3 of us was $2500, then jumped to $3100. Yesterday I checked airfare again and this time was at around $2950 but then went back up again.

As @MEL_Traveller mentioned you have to keep looking and be ready to book.

 

[andye]

You'd be surprised. I've seen prices fluctuate. I should know better.

P.S. On Saturday morning this airfare for 3 of us was $2500, then jumped to $3100. Yesterday I checked airfare again and this time was at around $2950 but then went back up again.

As @MEL_Traveller mentioned you have to keep looking and be ready to book.

I stuffed up my meaning. Prices do go up while you wait. My feeling is that the illusion is that they go up because you are looking

 

[Katie]

Teen's birthday present this year was a girls' day trip to Radelaide for a comiccon event where Billie Piper (Dr Who and more) would be appearing. The event overlaps my milestone birthday, and as I'd seen some thing on the website about Billie appearing "all weekend", I took that to include Friday, not just be Saturday and Sunday.

On Friday just gone, I check something as we still need to purchase the token to get Billie's autograph.

Billie's only appearing on Sat and Sun. Of course she is. Saturday is my party and Sunday I was hoping to sleep in ... but that means Sunday will be the day to fly to Adelaide and back.

$500 to change one flight, $600 to change the other (separate bookings; or was it $600 and $700? ). Friday tickets for the event will be refundable after purchasing the Sunday tickets.
Mr Katie is staying home because BNE-ADL is $844 for a Red eDeal (could have done Classic Plus Rewards for him, have plenty of points, but if he stays home, then we don't have to worry about the dog).

 

[JohnK]

I stuffed up my meaning. Prices do go up while you wait. My feeling is that the illusion is that they go up because you are looking

That depends.

If Cathay prices going up but Trip, Expedia, Webjet, Skyscannner etc steady then Cathay playing games.

P.S. The flights Im looking at are 12 months away and look to be wide open

 

[VPS]

You know what they say, if you leave something behind you are bound to return. I left a sponge bag in a hotel in NZ when I was there for a job interview. A year later I was living in NZ and been there 32 years. I retrieved the sponge bag.

I don't think I want that toothbrush back after 9 months. God knows what they did with it

 

[VPS]

I've just been to a conference in Hobart.

One of the speakers was from the UK and his wife came into Melbourne at the end of the conference and was going to have a night in Melbourne and then fly to Hobart the next afternoon. She booked her hotel in Melbourne and when she went to the taxi queue they didn't know where it was. She had to ask someone else - she had booked a hotel in Melbourne, Florida

 

[Fruitloop50]

So how did you get through security without a boarding pass?

Even immigration!

Apologies for the long post ...

I attempted online check in for our Qatar flight when it opened 48 hours before departure, and after entering some details I was informed that I couldn't check in online and would have to do it at the airport. Fast forward two days and I had completely forgotten about this and thought I had in fact checked in.

Our hotel shuttle dropped us of at the airport and when we entered the terminal we saw a 'departures' sign about 30 metres ahead. When we got there we had to go through security and were asked for our boarding passes. We thought this was one of those occasions where you had to go through security just to enter the terminal and then go to the check in area afterwards. (I realise it sounds so stupid now since we had already entered the terminal).

Thinking I had checked in online I opened the Qatar app and showed them what I thought was a boarding pass and they were satisfied with it. Since the security scan didn't flag any of our prohibited items it just reinforced the idea to us that it was a preliminary check.

Walking on a bit further we came to immigration and knowing the check in desks wouldn't be after immigration we went back to a security officer and told him we wanted to check in our bags. He said we could do it after immigration. So we went through immigration using the eGates where there was no need for boarding passes, we just had to scan our passports. Still having taken leaves of my senses, when we got through I asked one of the officers where we could check in our bags and he just pointed us in the direction we had to go to leave immigration.

By this stage we just thought we would take our cases on board with us and hope that we could check them in when we got to Doha before our onward connection. We then asked at an information desk which lounge Qatar uses and were pointed in its direction. On arrival at the lounge we showed them our 'boarding passes' in the app and the man thought it was a bit odd. He consulted with his colleague, took photos of them and then let us in.

It was only after being in the lounge for about 15 minutes that the light bulb came on in my head and I remembered that we were unable to check in online. I started to panic now because check in was due to close in 45 minutes so we hot footed it back to immigration and told an officer we hadn't actually checked in for our flight.

He called the Qatar check in counter and they sent someone up who escorted us back through immigration and security, checked us in, and then escorted back to immigration.

 

[Beano]

Apologies for the long post ...

I attempted online check in for our Qatar flight when it opened 48 hours before departure, and after entering some details I was informed that I couldn't check in online and would have to do it at the airport. Fast forward two days and I had completely forgotten about this and thought I had in fact checked in.

Our hotel shuttle dropped us of at the airport and when we entered the terminal we saw a 'departures' sign about 30 metres ahead. When we got there we had to go through security and were asked for our boarding passes. We thought this was one of those occasions where you had to go through security just to enter the terminal and then go to the check in area afterwards. (I realise it sounds so stupid now since we had already entered the terminal).

Thinking I had checked in online I opened the Qatar app and showed them what I thought was a boarding pass and they were satisfied with it. Since the security scan didn't flag any of our prohibited items it just reinforced the idea to us that it was a preliminary check.

Walking on a bit further we came to immigration and knowing the check in desks wouldn't be after immigration we went back to a security officer and told him we wanted to check in our bags. He said we could do it after immigration. So we went through immigration using the eGates where there was no need for boarding passes, we just had to scan our passports. Still having taken leaves of my senses, when we got through I asked one of the officers where we could check in our bags and he just pointed us in the direction we had to go to leave immigration.

By this stage we just thought we would take our cases on board with us and hope that we could check them in when we got to Doha before our onward connection. We then asked at an information desk which lounge Qatar uses and were pointed in its direction. On arrival at the lounge we showed them our 'boarding passes' in the app and the man thought it was a bit odd. He consulted with his colleague, took photos of them and then let us in.

It was only after being in the lounge for about 15 minutes that the light bulb came on in my head and I remembered that we were unable to check in online. I started to panic now because check in was due to close in 45 minutes so we hot footed it back to immigration and told an officer we hadn't actually checked in for our flight.

He called the Qatar check in counter and they sent someone up who escorted us back through immigration and security, checked us in, and then escorted back to immigration.

All is clear now but you must have had small enough bags to go through the X-Ray machine and not raise suspicions. I have seen people turn up at security with large bags then been turned away to check-in their bag because it was too large for a carry-on and would be turned away at the gate.

 

[MrGalaxy]

Booked a flight and thought 2 stops was actually 1 stop. Was booking at 1am!

 

[Zero]

Interested if anyone has success doing this.

My impression is that the illusion of prices going up while you delay booking is due to a cheap fare-bucket filling in the meantime, rather than an algorithm spotting your interest

Sometimes it's you yourself blocking up the cheap fare bucket. I had a few experiences where the payment failed and it took about 4 hours for the seats to become available at the same price as before. Or it could even be repeating the search in another browser / window before the previous pending booking has timed out.

This is also a method to force a higher fare bucket if you need it for higher points earning etc.