Made any travel mistakes lately?

[JessicaTam]

Currently on QF112 AKL to PER. Had previously gotten off MIA to JFK on AA then transited JFK to AKL on QF4. After those two flights especially after the 16 hr from
JFK I was feeling quite exhausted. And now I just realised I left my M5 iPad 13 with pencil pro in the seat pocket in front on QF4. I was in full zombie mode. I have find my iPad turned on and I can see it at AKL Int. Oops!!

Staff just said go see baggage services in PER and they will reach out to AKL baggage service and get it sent over. Hears hoping….it’s only 3 months old. Sigh…..

If I can be of any help, will have sometime in AKL, the airport, not the city itself, tomorrow (Monday 11th) and have room to bring it back as HLO to Sydney. But then getting it to PER is the issue.

What time do you arrive in Syd ?

I’m flying to Adelaide Monday night 9pm. Could in theory carry it onward … yet still not Perth

And who said AFF wasn't a community?

 

[SeatBackForward]

What time do you arrive in Syd ?

I’m flying to Adelaide Monday night 9pm. Could in theory carry it onward … yet still not Perth

Won't work in this instance as I'm returning to SYD on QF4 early Tuesday morning. Hence why ill have time at AKL airport Monday afternoon.
I am likely to be in Perth sometime in the next few months, but that might be too long for @fewings85 to wait.

 

[Big John]

Not sure if this counts, but I’ll mention it anyway.

First time we’ve managed to travel HLO internationally was on CI52 from SYD to TPE. Got our boarding passes in the app and shot past the bag drop to security. Later at the gate , we had our names called. Turns out that we didn't get our passports scanned.

Needless to say, we made sure we scanned our passports on the return flight!

 

[Stealthflyer]

My biggest mistake of 2026 was booking Qatar flights to Europe. I just cancelled and rebooked on Singapore. Oh my, the price difference!

Adding insult to injury is that with VA’s international partner status credit changes, I get fewer credits than ever before.

 

[RAM]

Learning the hard way that your memory may be selective can be unpleasant.

Selective in what it remembers from ten years ago about Visa conditions.

Throw in an airline takeover/merger and I managed to experience nearly the perfect storm recently as I arrived at check-in (very early thankfully).

As most know, for many years when traveling to the US for holidays you apply for an ESTA online. The application experience has become far more onerous than previously. Social media history/activity is now an integral part of it. Who knew people with ill intent boast on their social media before even arriving in a country that really do NOT like.

I remembered that the ESTA allows up to 180 days per year in the US, what I did not remember was that this must be in lengths in the US (including traveling time seemingly) of less than 90 days. I had booked 93.

It appears that most, if not all airlines, flying to the US have a built in prompt during the booking process if you exceed this ESTA per visit number of days...

Even the airline I had booked has such a check HOWEVER Hawaiian was taken over by Alaska Airlines in 2024 and has gradually been phasing in various IT system changeovers. Lucky me I chose an arrival date handled by the Hawaiian Airline system and a return date handled by the Alaska Airlines system.

Guess what? The Alaska Airlines IT geniuses did not think of having the two systems 'talk' to each other for anything. Not any normal component of the booking, check-in, flight change/upgrade process. Nothing, nada.

When I booked my flight last December it ended taking nearly 90 minutes, multiple phone calls to both Hawaiian and Alaska Airlines (separately) and I gave up on seat allocation by then.

Fast forward to arriving at the check-in counter to be told within a few seconds; "I'm sorry sir but the system won't let me check you in, there's a problem with your return date."

8 or 9 minutes of trying various work arounds by the CSA, she finally declared defeat and sent me to the manager to try and get it resolved.

I'll avoid the detailed blow by frustrating blow of the next 100+ minutes with an incredibly gracious/helpful/professional manager and her deputy - I'll just include the major 'issues'.

• The system did not say why it wouldn't check me in. Investigation began
• As return date was under the Alaska Airlines system 3 months out - none of the Australian check-in people had been given passwords/accounts let alone any training on how it worked.
• Luckily, the mgr then asked how long I'd be away for and immediately knew the issue, stay > ESTA limit.
• So I suggested now might be a good time to enact Hawaiian's oft listed 'no charge for date changes or alterations' with very few conditions following the asterisk.
• Lack of access to Alaska system rears ugly head in big way now.
• The 'emergency' help phone number for the check-in manager to use goes to a very low-cost Philipines call centre with perhaps the lowest level of English comprehension that I may ever have experienced (checking mgr put phone on speaker for the three of us to translate what was being spoken).
• This period lasted over 100 minutes, so I got to be the only person at the entire check in for over half an hour as the time for checked in bags to get on the plane started to get in to double digits then low double digits.
• The mgr spoke with 5 different call centre operators. Each one professed to knowing what to do, took upwards of 20 minutes (on avg) before the first four admitted defeat and tried to route the call to 'someone who can help complete this amendment'. Script?
• I began thinking how my wife was going to dine out on this for years, if not decades, when I would be forced to call her to pick me up again.
• Now the mgr was warning me that the cut-off for baggage cut-off was not far off.
• The 5th operator's spoken English was worthy of a stand-up comic routine BUT his English comprehension (of anything but numbers) was first class. Around the 30 minute mark he'd managed to access the Alaska system and began to search for alternate return dates. Remember I mentioned his issue with spoken numbers?
• It soon became clear that I would need to accept any date as he had real trouble differentiating numbers in the teens. Trouble was he was so engrossed in looking for a 'range' of dates for my return (that required two flights) he was possibly not noting the time ticking away.
• After what seemed like an eternity, between the three of us, we managed to convince him that what the date he had one combination on his screen - book it. A couple of minutes later he said there was a small charge due to FX changes. YES, I would not be calling my wife - relief massive.
• Counting chickens too soon.
• I'd packed away my glasses, so to speed things up I handed my CC to the mgr to read out. First go, slight wait. "Would not process".
• 2nd go, "would not process".
• Then it hit me, given the problem he had in understanding the numbers for the dates, perhaps his recording of the CC number was a problem. Not wanting to risk the card being flagged for fraud (no FX charges on that one) - I suggested this to the mgr and said I'd have a go.
• This time I got him to repeat the number after each three digits I told him. Sure enough he had issues with three, four, five, seven & eight. Go figure?
• The payment processed (I could not pay cash even though I said I did not need any change - I'd thought of that after CC failure #1).

There was no queue what-so-ever as I went through security & the e-gates - more staff than passengers by a multiple. No lounge visit for me, just a very rapid visit to the GST claim area which did have a 23 person queue.

BTW - of course you all know that you can pack items, you want to claim the GST back on, in your checked luggage? No? Most, if not all, Australian airports (of some size, Ayers Rock you-re out of luck I suspect) have a pre-check in office for having your claimable items verified before checking in your luggage. In Sydney it is at the 9 o'clock position as you get out of the two glass sided lifts (3/4 or so towards the far end of the terminal) on the arrivals level. Nicest custom staff you'll ever come across work there - many visits and always a great experience. They stamp your receipts for you to show upstairs once through security. Could not be easier. no unpacking your carry-on anymore.