Made any travel mistakes lately?

[clifford]

I'm sure we've all been there - but waiting far too long to book (reward) flights for late September trip - now all business options have dried up

You might get lucky with some last minute releases.

 

[anat0l]

So I almost missed a flight. (I have missed flights before, so this is a real near miss)

I was in HKG and enjoying the Pier F before taking a QF flight. Used the nap area and had a good meal before I decided to have a shower before I went back to the low number gates to board. I was going to visit the QF Lounge too, but there just wasn't time.

I had set a countdown timer to show how much time I had before my flight started boarding (which I set to 45 min before departure). My clock was still showing a good hour left, so plenty of time for a shower then walk over. I also had no alerts on the QF app, so also honky dory. Then I decided to check TripWaffle, just off hand. I looked at the flight time.

The departure time was supposed to be now. My countdown was about 1 hour in excess. I had set it up wrong (or the app had adjusted it wrongly).

Shower had to be abandoned as I quickly redressed. I pleaded with the reception agent to call the gate to tell them I was coming, even though it wasn't a CX flight. The agent was very nice - they didn't have to help me and there may have well been nothing they could do. He checked the flight status, and it wasn't boarding yet. Surprised, but in any case he told me to hot foot it.

That I did. I made the flight with nominally plenty of time to spare, but hot footing it all across the main terminal from gate 66 to gate 6 was something else. To add a bit of insult, the already-delayed flight (which allowed me to make it) ended up being significantly delayed.

 

[Quickstatus]

Dave forgets to do a US esta

Presumably he got his Canadian ETA?.

 

[AuSammy]

Dave forgets to do a US esta

Presumably he got his Canadian ETA?.

Certainly seems he has issues, health and/or mental. Been a long time since he was even remotely funny.

 

[Beer_budget]

Dave forgets to do a US esta

Presumably he got his Canadian ETA?.

Did his own research, to his usual standard.

 

[Warks]

Certainly seems he has issues, health and/or mental. Been a long time since he was even remotely funny.

He was the act at a conference about ten years ago, he wasn't all that funny then. He was okay but he just phoned in about 15 minutes of his The Glass House personality and the usual "how about those peanuts on the plane?" type remarks he may have made up on the way there.
But he wasn't the worst I've seen.

 

[ols]

My first big travel mistake but a good one.
Traveling on Viking river cruise next month from Budapest.
Was originally arriving Budapest from Doha but changed to non Doha transit and ended flying Singapore to Zurich on SIA booked when Middle East situation took off.
Had to get Zurich to Budapest flight on Swiss Air so we could meet cruise.
Booked and I thought no more of it.
My wife likes to do her own itinerary so I sent through all emails so she could sort herself.
She goes through every email thoroughly mainly to check baggage limits as she tends to bring a fair bit of luggage on our travels.
She says to me something about her limit on Swiss Air for our flight to Bucharest.
I say it's not Bucharest it's Budapest.
She says no, we are flying to Bucharest!
Fortunately had booked Business flex and spent great deal of time last night with Swiss Air getting the flight destination changed

 

[Flyfrequently]

My first big travel mistake but a good one.

Booked and I thought no more of it.
My wife likes to do her own itinerary ...

She goes through every email thoroughly mainly to check baggage limits as she tends to bring a fair bit of luggage on our travels.
She says to me something about her limit on Swiss Air for our flight to Bucharest.
I say it's not Bucharest it's Budapest.
She says no, we are flying to Bucharest!

Pat on the back for Mrs Ols!

 

[Justinf]

Just made a duplicate booking for a Tallinn to Helsinki flight.
Realised it and cancelled, and hopefully because I did it within 24 hours, I get refunded the $200.

 

[SYD]

Just made a duplicate booking for a Tallinn to Helsinki flight.
Realised it and cancelled, and hopefully because I did it within 24 hours, I get refunded the $200.

Why not take the boat? We’re doing that tomorrow!

 

[Justinf]

Why not take the boat? We’re doing that tomorrow!

I’d love to but pressed for time.
I have to make it to HEL for the flight to DBX.

 

[SYD]

I’d love to but pressed for time.
I have to make it to HEL for the flight to DBX.

DXB? Make sure you allow plenty of time to “exit” the Schengen zone.

I type that on final approach to HEL having just done the entry fiasco at MXP…

 

[Justinf]

DXB? Make sure you allow plenty of time to “exit” the Schengen zone.

I type that on final approach to HEL having just done the entry fiasco at MXP…

I’ve found it all to be fairly straightforward in the past.
But I’ve allowed about 4 hours before the Dubai flight.

 

[SYD]

I’ve found it all to be fairly straightforward in the past.
But I’ve allowed about 4 hours before the Dubai flight.

The new EES can be as bad leaving as arriving. HEL is supposed to be better. We’ll find out in 2 wks flying VNO-HEL-LHR.

 

[ellen10]

@SYD are you doing a tour? or doing your own independent travels?

 

[Stealthflyer]

DXB? Make sure you allow plenty of time to “exit” the Schengen zone.

I type that on final approach to HEL having just done the entry fiasco at MXP…

Yikes. I’m flying into MXP in two weeks. How long did it take?

 

[MARTINE]

Just made a duplicate booking for a Tallinn to Helsinki flight.
Realised it and cancelled, and hopefully because I did it within 24 hours, I get refunded the $200.

Love love love Tallinn and Helsinki
The Tallink ferry is luxury (2hrs) and can walk from the port to old town Tallinn
In the restored warehouse district before old town have a coffee and pastry here
You can smell the cinnamon a block away!!

RØST

www.rost.ee

 

[SYD]

Yikes. I’m flying into MXP in two weeks. How long did it take?

About an hour from air bridge to lounge before onward flight. So not extreme but not great.

We got off a CX flight from HKG and were heading towards arrivals / immigration but I saw a sign pointing to the right for “Transfers”. Wasn’t sure if that was non- Schengen to non- Schengen or all transfers but we were pointed to the processing lines in front of us.

Did the biometric (but no fingerprinting). Took about 5 mins then joined the purple lane (eGates) that weren’t moving very fast. Meanwhile the line behind us got bigger and bigger. Suddenly a bunch of us were herded down a corridor to another bank of eGates (in hindsight, we probably should have just moved up to those waiting for the eGates).

Anyway, go to the eGates where they were doing finger prints - the machines are terribly slow and it looks like the issue is they don’t open the barrier while your fingers are on the pads. cough implementation.

So then we find ourselves in baggage claim but our luggage is check through. So effectively have to go landside and join the masses passing though primary security screening - which was annoying but not too long. Meanwhile, it’s 35°C and we’ve not showered since leaving CGK the day before…