Made any travel mistakes lately?

[Bundy Bear]

Not really travel as such....

....went onto Qantas Wines last night to purchase some wine: many gifts, bonus points and work towards PC requalification all in one. I knew I had a PC voucher to use, too.

Did all the research, checked wine trackers, weighed up options.... finally put together a cart, paid for it, order went through.......

....forgot to put the voucher code in.

You reminded me I have a voucher to use, I just did my Xmas shopping
Didn’t even cross my mind when paying.

 

[alexczarn]

I flew Jeju Air on an overnight, does that count?

 

[DejaBrew]

Just got airside at SIN and realised I left my checked bag luggage cover at the Swissôtel. How I missed it is beyond me?

Need to see what options are available with the hotel, but if anyone is swinging through SIN shortly and has capacity to carry it back to SYD I’d be eternally grateful!

 

[Daver6]

Just got airside at SIN and realised I left my checked bag luggage cover at the Swissôtel. How I missed it is beyond me?

Need to see what options are available with the hotel, but if anyone is swinging through SIN shortly and has capacity to carry it back to SYD I’d be eternally grateful!

Is it a boogie board bag?

More seriously...how frustrating! Enough time to get a Grab to bring it to the airport?

 

[DejaBrew]

Is it a boogie board bag?

More seriously...how frustrating! Enough time to get a Grab to bring it to the airport?

Nah, just a normal full-sized checked luggage cover, but it’s a perfect match to my bag.

Don’t think I’ll have time to get a Grab to bring it, but I can likely get a colleague here in SIN to collect and “hold” it for me for the time being. So annoyed that I missed such a bleeding obvious thing though.

 

[Hvr]

Just got airside at SIN and realised I left my checked bag luggage cover at the Swissôtel. How I missed it is beyond me?

At least you have a cover story if you need it.

 

[DejaBrew]

At least you have a cover story if you need it.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

3 months ago I joined Aeroplan because of all the good reports on here. bought points with a bonus offer. time came to use them this week.
first was BKK - SYD. Absolutely nothing on TG October/November with Aeroplan. Lifemiles did have Y awards on TG. J came up but on the days I wanted were phantom and Mrsdrron won' fly that long in Y.

Second was SIN-BNE. Aeroplan had some Y awards but nothing in J to any of SQ's flight to Australia. Velocity though had quite a few days in Ocober often with a choice of flights. Problem was I had run out of Velocity and KF points. I had already bought all the velocity points I could for this year so ceased family pooling with Mrsdrron and this allowed her to buy points. So warned they would expire next month as all her activity was immediately forwarded to me. no problem as within 15 minutes from the points hitting her account they were gone. Effectivly a 60% discount on buying the flight.

Now I am left with 2 hard to use programs with LM easier to redeem than Aeroplan.

The window for TG is much closer in… days before departure, then it’s often wide open. There has been the odd availability opening up in the two-three month period, but it’s less reliable.

I looked at a random date in October… the 9th… SIN-BNE is available via DPS, ADL, DRW and CNS, with SQ on the first lag and VA in the second. 2 seats available on all of those.

Checking dates around that, 2 seats available via DPS and at least 1 via ADL or CNS each day… so it is out there.

 

[drron]

The window for TG is much closer in… days before departure, then it’s often wide open. There has been the odd availability opening up in the two-three month period, but it’s less reliable.

I looked at a random date in October… the 9th… SIN-BNE is available via DPS, ADL, DRW and CNS, with SQ on the first lag and VA in the second. 2 seats available on all of those.

Checking dates around that, 2 seats available via DPS and at least 1 via ADL or CNS each day… so it is out there.

But my date was 17th October or soon after. I got the flight I wanted through Velocity on 18th October.
My hopeful back up plan was TG from BKK. I could find that on 28th Octobr that got to payment page but was adding 11 days to the trip. Others showed up but errored at payment so lots of phantom results.
However our 2 TG awards from LM this year SYD-BKK were just after release so LM better than Aeroplan for what I want.

 

[Legovertheseat]

I think my biggest mistake in 50 years of flying.
One mistake belongs to me and one mistake belongs to LATAM.

1. Had booked reward seats SYD-SCL-GRU and SCL-SYD (no reward seats GRU-SCL, so had to pay this sector). All reward sectors on one PRN.
When returning, arrived at GRU and they refused to check me in for the paid flight to SCL.
I had completely forgotten this was a separate paid flight on different PRN and no visa for Chile (required as I would have to go out from airside to landside to collect bags and return to check-in with them). LATAM also refused to check bags through to SYD as separate tickets.
Frantic hour as I scoured the Chile web site for possible escape clauses and found one.

According to Chile web site, Australians with only carry on bag (no baggage checked in) and transiting within eight hours with proof of onward flight, do not require a visa. At 1am in the morning, my wife came out from Sao Paulo to GRU to take my suitcase back with her and bring in two weeks when she returned to SYD. Whew, flight loss avoided. NO.

2. LATAM check-in again refused to board me with the same story, I had no visa for Chile. I showed them the Chile web site regarding carry-on only, they looked at Portuguese and Spanish version web sites, but the duty manager still refused.

Wife again helped and we arrived back in Sao Paulo at 5:30am. A few hours sleep and then off I go to the Chilean Consulate. Long waits and typical Brazilian bureaucracy to get in. Once inside, the Chileans were fantastic. The Consulate General went through my documents and agreed with my reading of their web site. He created a letter to LATAM insisting they board me. He gave me a copy and emailed another to LATAM. They apologised for the incompetence of LATAM. The Consulate staff were understanding, patient and helpful. Two days later when I went to check in at the same time, LATAM was apologetic and provided a personal escort to the lounge and then directly first on to the plane. I lost about A$680 in the process as my A$420 flight credit went to the now A$1,150 flight (a number of cancellations had caused a last minute price surge, which they refused to refund).

A stressful and financial situation initially caused by my mistake, compounded by incompetent LATAM staff. A lesson learnt to always check transit requirements. A bonus came out of it though. Shortly after (about 3-4 weeks), Chile dropped visa requirements for Australians.

As a side add-on, my wife returning GRU-SCL-SYD on one PRN paid ticket issued by Qantas was told her check-in bag could not be tagged through to SYD as LATAM had no interline arrangements with Qantas. She would have to get bags out at SCL and recheck for QF28 to SYD. She telephoned me a little distressed. A few phone calls and then downline to manager soon sorted that. It is 1am at GRU.
Also, her ticket says Terminal 3, checking the Qantas and LATAM apps all say Terminal 3. So off she heads to the lounge in T3 (international departures). A chance conversation in the lounge and evidently the flight is leaving from Terminal 2, gate 268. Terminal 2 is nearly 600m away and a 20 min walk.

We travel to Brazil yearly and the incompetence of LATAM staff never ceases to amaze me. I wonder sometimes how the airline continues to function, in addition to my mistakes.