Made any travel mistakes lately?

[Brissy1]

A 10k limit today will buy a LOT less in 10 or more years time

Good advice, the original min $6k limit on my Maq black card now barely covers the house insurance. And preloading other cards to pay flights etc in order to activate travel insurance is a pain.

 

[Cossie]

One reason why I used to pay my amex by phone, you could put in extra if big expenses were coming. Online, you can only pay the amount owing and not even 'pending' payments. Pay by phone was automated, as of December you will transferred to an agent.

 

[n7of9]

One reason why I used to pay my amex by phone, you could put in extra if big expenses were coming. Online, you can only pay the amount owing and not even 'pending' payments. Pay by phone was automated, as of December you will transferred to an agent.

If you BPay from your bank account you are not limited by closing balance amounts

 

[SYD]

@ellen10 Vilnius is so worthwhile, any place that has a statue to Frank Zappa has to be worth visiting and of course the self declared republic of Užupis is definately a must.

Drove past the sign to the memorial coming in from the airport after returning a rental car. Literally walked past it today (hidden in a carpark)! Before the GPS got excited that I’d passed it!

 

[mel-world]

Made a big mistake of packing a rather expensive half bottle of Scotch, purchased Tax Free in Japan, into my hand luggage for the flight out of HND last week.

But then, 'Little things I like', was that security did not flag it so only remembered when I got to the Hotel in SYD that it was there. Not sure I should be happy that it got thru or worried that the usual Japanese efficiency failed. Maybe liquids as not quite as important as they used to be.

Obviously I had no issues on the VA flight to MEL the next day.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

We went to Schonbrunn Palace at the end of a quick weekend getaway from Paris to Vienna in early June.
Left our backpacks in a locker facility at the tourist centre across the road.
All packed ready to head direct to the airport for our return flight to Paris.
We returned at about 18:15 only to find the entire facility locked, dark and abandoned.

We had both failed to notice the sign stating the facility closed at 17:30 and no assistance would be available after hours.
However I could see my partner was about to blame me, perhaps on the spurious basis that the sign was in English.
Numbers and times are the same in French!
He confessed he was so worried because his passport was in his backpack.
Mine was on me - I am never separated from my passport while overseas.
We needed to make the flight because we had tickets to the men's final of the French Open at Roland Garros the next day.

Fortunately despite the sign I was able to find a friendly gentleman who had keys and gave us access to retrieve our backpacks.
I then insisted on taking a taxi from the taxi stand to the airport instead of calling an Uber or Bolt.
My partner complained about the fare but it was worth paying to calm him down and avoid his wrath!

When we arrived I whisked him through the express lanes for business class at the dedicated Austrian Airlines section of the terminal.
Once in the (Austrian) lounge my partner looked at the flight board and remarked "Oh - are we flying with Austrian instead of Air France?".
I just looked at him (I always forward all the booking emails to him) and gestured at our surroundings.
He said "Oh, I wondered why we were able to use their express lanes!".

 

[kookaburra75]

We went to Schonbrunn Palace at the end of a quick weekend getaway from Paris to Vienna in early June.
Left our backpacks in a locker facility at the tourist centre across the road.
All packed ready to head direct to the airport for our return flight to Paris.
We returned at about 18:15 only to find the entire facility locked, dark and abandoned.

We had both failed to notice the sign stating the facility closed at 17:30 and no assistance would be available after hours.
However I could see my partner was about to blame me, perhaps on the spurious basis that the sign was in English.
Numbers and times are the same in French!
He confessed he was so worried because his passport was in his backpack.
Mine was on me - I am never separated from my passport while overseas.
We needed to make the flight because we had tickets to the men's final of the French Open at Roland Garros the next day.

Fortunately despite the sign I was able to find a friendly gentleman who had keys and gave us access to retrieve our backpacks.
I then insisted on taking a taxi from the taxi stand to the airport instead of calling an Uber or Bolt.
My partner complained about the fare but it was worth paying to calm him down and avoid his wrath!

When we arrived I whisked him through the express lanes for business class at the dedicated Austrian Airlines section of the terminal.
Once in the (Austrian) lounge my partner looked at the flight board and remarked "Oh - are we flying with Austrian instead of Air France?".
I just looked at him (I always forward all the booking emails to him) and gestured at our surroundings.
He said "Oh, I wondered why we were able to use their express lanes!".

When I started reading this, I thought that you were lucky to dodge that bullet. But then by the end, I think that your partner was lucky to dodge the bullet by making that statement. No jury would convict you

 

[esseeeayeenn]

Made a big mistake of packing a rather expensive half bottle of Scotch, purchased Tax Free in Japan, into my hand luggage for the flight out of HND last week.

But then, 'Little things I like', was that security did not flag it so only remembered when I got to the Hotel in SYD that it was there. Not sure I should be happy that it got thru or worried that the usual Japanese efficiency failed. Maybe liquids as not quite as important as they used to be.

Obviously I had no issues on the VA flight to MEL the next day.

This reminds me of two things.

First, a return flight from Paris last June.
Flew from CDG to LHR with BA to pick up QF2 LHR-SIN then QF72 SIN-PER.
Was upgraded to First LHR-SIN.
The wonderfully attentive FA noticed two things.
First, I had just attained LTG.
Second, I had a very shiny obviously brand new white and rose gold ring on a certain finger.
After asking about the ring, she returned with a bottle of champagne as a gift to celebrate the occasion.
Then she returned shortly thereafter with a second bottle.
Luckily, a short while after that, I remembered that SIN do LAGs checks at the departure gates.
So even though SIN has an integrated airside area, with no security check for transit passengers on entry, I would not have been able to board QF72 with the two bottles of champagne not in a sealed duty free bag.
I chatted with the FA to confirm this and test my plan.
In SIN I left airside, and checked in again, with a backpack containing the two bottles, wrapped in QF F pyjamas, as an additional item of checked luggage.
I then boarded QF72 lighter and retrieved the backpack and the champagne in PER.

Not a mistake I made, but a mistake I avoided.

Second, a flight back from MEL to PER last year.
Was HLO and, going through security, was horrified to watch an officer pull a waiter's friend (with built in knife) out of my bag.
They didn't confiscate it, and put it back in my luggage.
But security in PER had not even found it!
It was a souvenir from Bellagio, so I was pleased not to lose it.

So this one was a mistake I made, but, like you, I avoided the consequences.

 

[Brissy1]

HLO

HLO is fraught with danger

 

[GDSman]

Made a big mistake of packing a rather expensive half bottle of Scotch, purchased Tax Free in Japan, into my hand luggage for the flight out of HND last week.

Did a similar thing flying to JFK one Christmas morning - completely forgot the very good bottle of port in my HLO

 

[GDSman]

Sort of a mistake - AirTag shows my luggage didn’t successfully transit MEL and follow me on to SYD for Canada trip. Backpack has underwear and wash bag but no other clothes. Golf on Monday is going to be interesting as I can’t see bag making it to Niagara for a few days…

 

[I love to travel]

Sort of a mistake - AirTag shows my luggage didn’t successfully transit MEL and follow me on to SYD for Canada trip. Backpack has underwear and wash bag but no other clothes. Golf on Monday is going to be interesting as I can’t see bag making it to Niagara for a few days…

If you are on Air Canada often it is wrong. Good luck

 

[JessicaTam]

If you are on Air Canada often it is wrong. Good luck

But if it is @GDSman’s own AirTag chances are he is right.

 

[GDSman]

Never been on AC - this is a QF/ WS situation….ive validated with QF lost luggage and they already knew (as did I) that bag didn’t get loaded in MEL. After all, I was only there for 3hrs…can’t put them under that sort of pressure…

If you are on Air Canada often it is wrong. Good luck

 

[Warks]

Just back from nearly 7 weeks in Europe and had a stopover of a few days in Bangkok on the way home. Neither of us had ever been to Thailand, amazing how I've never been there in all these years. Anyway we did a tour out to the temples of Ayutthaya about an hour and a half north of Bangkok one day and the next we decided to go to the Grand Palace precinct. We decided to walk in the mid morning humidity (same as the rest of the day) as it was about 20 mins away. About halfway there we were crossing a major road at the lights where you get the countdown timers which tell you that you have a long wait. A bloke in normal looking business clothes was walking a bit ahead of us and stopped at the crossing. He gave us some friendly advice about the crossing and then asked where we were going. (Experienced Bangkok people will know where this is headed now). He told us about the "special ceremony" this morning at the Palace which would be closed until 1pm. (I'm not sure why it didn't click at that moment as I'd read to ignore people telling you the palace was closed but this guy seemed so random and not the usual scammer type - ha!). Anyway he proceeded to give us a great programme of things to do before it opened which included a ride on "Thai boat" which did a circuit of the rivers/canals via a lot of monuments and would eventually take us to the palace. A tuk-tuk just happened to stop then (or he called it) and he said it would take us to the place to catch this boat which was very cheap as it was the normal Thai boat not "tourist boat" which cost 3600 baht each or something (I didn't calculate that in my head at the time but he said something about the local boat being 160 baht). Anyway I said I didn't have any cash and I needed to change a bit of money so the tuk-tuk guy took us to a number of places (which were closed) before one that was open. I changed some money and then he took us to the boat, which turned out to be the office that sells tickets for the boat. The 'nice' woman tells me it's 1600 baht each (so for two it was ALL the money I had just changed). Me being a tightarse said that was way too much. She just about halved her price in a minute but I was out of there. We just walked away.

So we ended up walking back towards the Palace again (still not realising there was another layer in the scam we'd missed - apparently once on the boat they can just demand more money or leave you anywhere or take you to some scammy market) - and we were not far off when another helpful guy started talking to us and giving advice due to the closure of the Palace (still hadn't clicked). He wrote us down his tour instructions and pulled up a tuk-tuk. I was exhausted and almost willing to go this time to some giant Buddha but he mentioned some "export market" that was only on for another day or so which raised suspicions. Anyway Mrs Warks was not interested at all and quite stood up to them and said we would just keep walking to the Palace which we did. I googled "is the palace closed today" on my phone and it all fell into place. Of course, it wasn't as obvious as I'd expected. It didn't cost us anything in the end, 30 baht on a tuk-tuk ride I guess but I needed to change money anyway.

I've been travelling for over 37 years (not non-stop, mind you) and had my experiences with scammers over the years (never been totally taken in) but it seems we'd been softened by 6 weeks in Europe where nothing like this happened at all.

I'm sure many of you have fended off this scam or similar many times. Soon after we were walking to another Wat after the Palace and guys were telling us it was closed to which I replied "Yeah, sure!"

Hope you enjoyed this.

 

[Dmac59]

Thats

Just back from nearly 7 weeks in Europe and had a stopover of a few days in Bangkok on the way home. Neither of us had ever been to Thailand, amazing how I've never been there in all these years. Anyway we did a tour out to the temples of Ayutthaya about an hour and a half north of Bangkok one day and the next we decided to go to the Grand Palace precinct. We decided to walk in the mid morning humidity (same as the rest of the day) as it was about 20 mins away. About halfway there we were crossing a major road at the lights where you get the countdown timers which tell you that you have a long wait. A bloke in normal looking business clothes was walking a bit ahead of us and stopped at the crossing. He gave us some friendly advice about the crossing and then asked where we were going. (Experienced Bangkok people will know where this is headed now). He told us about the "special ceremony" this morning at the Palace which would be closed until 1pm. (I'm not sure why it didn't click at that moment as I'd read to ignore people telling you the palace was closed but this guy seemed so random and not the usual scammer type - ha!). Anyway he proceeded to give us a great programme of things to do before it opened which included a ride on "Thai boat" which did a circuit of the rivers/canals via a lot of monuments and would eventually take us to the palace. A tuk-tuk just happened to stop then (or he called it) and he said it would take us to the place to catch this boat which was very cheap as it was the normal Thai boat not "tourist boat" which cost 3600 baht each or something (I didn't calculate that in my head at the time but he said something about the local boat being 160 baht). Anyway I said I didn't have any cash and I needed to change a bit of money so the tuk-tuk guy took us to a number of places (which were closed) before one that was open. I changed some money and then he took us to the boat, which turned out to be the office that sells tickets for the boat. The 'nice' woman tells me it's 1600 baht each (so for two it was ALL the money I had just changed). Me being a tightarse said that was way too much. She just about halved her price in a minute but I was out of there. We just walked away.

So we ended up walking back towards the Palace again (still not realising there was another layer in the scam we'd missed - apparently once on the boat they can just demand more money or leave you anywhere or take you to some scammy market) - and we were not far off when another helpful guy started talking to us and giving advice due to the closure of the Palace (still hadn't clicked). He wrote us down his tour instructions and pulled up a tuk-tuk. I was exhausted and almost willing to go this time to some giant Buddha but he mentioned some "export market" that was only on for another day or so which raised suspicions. Anyway Mrs Warks was not interested at all and quite stood up to them and said we would just keep walking to the Palace which we did. I googled "is the palace closed today" on my phone and it all fell into place. Of course, it wasn't as obvious as I'd expected. It didn't cost us anything in the end, 30 baht on a tuk-tuk ride I guess but I needed to change money anyway.

I've been travelling for over 37 years (not non-stop, mind you) and had my experiences with scammers over the years (never been totally taken in) but it seems we'd been softened by 6 weeks in Europe where nothing like this happened at all.

I'm sure many of you have fended off this scam or similar many times. Soon after we were walking to another Wat after the Palace and guys were telling us it was closed to which I replied "Yeah, sure!"

Hope you enjoyed this.

Interesting read @Warks
That’s a real eye opener and for one who has not travelled to BKK, something to keep in mind.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

Just back from nearly 7 weeks in Europe and had a stopover of a few days in Bangkok on the way home. Neither of us had ever been to Thailand, amazing how I've never been there in all these years. Anyway we did a tour out to the temples of Ayutthaya about an hour and a half north of Bangkok one day and the next we decided to go to the Grand Palace precinct. We decided to walk in the mid morning humidity (same as the rest of the day) as it was about 20 mins away. About halfway there we were crossing a major road at the lights where you get the countdown timers which tell you that you have a long wait. A bloke in normal looking business clothes was walking a bit ahead of us and stopped at the crossing. He gave us some friendly advice about the crossing and then asked where we were going. (Experienced Bangkok people will know where this is headed now). He told us about the "special ceremony" this morning at the Palace which would be closed until 1pm. (I'm not sure why it didn't click at that moment as I'd read to ignore people telling you the palace was closed but this guy seemed so random and not the usual scammer type - ha!). Anyway he proceeded to give us a great programme of things to do before it opened which included a ride on "Thai boat" which did a circuit of the rivers/canals via a lot of monuments and would eventually take us to the palace. A tuk-tuk just happened to stop then (or he called it) and he said it would take us to the place to catch this boat which was very cheap as it was the normal Thai boat not "tourist boat" which cost 3600 baht each or something (I didn't calculate that in my head at the time but he said something about the local boat being 160 baht). Anyway I said I didn't have any cash and I needed to change a bit of money so the tuk-tuk guy took us to a number of places (which were closed) before one that was open. I changed some money and then he took us to the boat, which turned out to be the office that sells tickets for the boat. The 'nice' woman tells me it's 1600 baht each (so for two it was ALL the money I had just changed). Me being a tightarse said that was way too much. She just about halved her price in a minute but I was out of there. We just walked away.

So we ended up walking back towards the Palace again (still not realising there was another layer in the scam we'd missed - apparently once on the boat they can just demand more money or leave you anywhere or take you to some scammy market) - and we were not far off when another helpful guy started talking to us and giving advice due to the closure of the Palace (still hadn't clicked). He wrote us down his tour instructions and pulled up a tuk-tuk. I was exhausted and almost willing to go this time to some giant Buddha but he mentioned some "export market" that was only on for another day or so which raised suspicions. Anyway Mrs Warks was not interested at all and quite stood up to them and said we would just keep walking to the Palace which we did. I googled "is the palace closed today" on my phone and it all fell into place. Of course, it wasn't as obvious as I'd expected. It didn't cost us anything in the end, 30 baht on a tuk-tuk ride I guess but I needed to change money anyway.

I've been travelling for over 37 years (not non-stop, mind you) and had my experiences with scammers over the years (never been totally taken in) but it seems we'd been softened by 6 weeks in Europe where nothing like this happened at all.

I'm sure many of you have fended off this scam or similar many times. Soon after we were walking to another Wat after the Palace and guys were telling us it was closed to which I replied "Yeah, sure!"

Hope you enjoyed this.

30 baht is $1.28 AUD so you came through with barely a scratch.
It was worth $1.28 just to be able to tell the story!

As a general rule, beware of unsolicited advice, anywhere.

I make a point of never even talking to restaurant touters.

Recently in Barcelona I took my partner to the Plaça Reial, an old square just off La Rambla.
He is usually very fussy about restaurants and chooses them from the MIchelin guide.
I had one in mind as I have been to this square a few times before.
However, he uncharacteristically allowed himself to be waylaid by a touter.
I didn't want to intervene and let him handle the interaction.
We ended up eating in a restaurant which was not very good, and didn't serve the grilled chorizo I was looking for!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Just back from nearly 7 weeks in Europe and had a stopover of a few days in Bangkok on the way home. Neither of us had ever been to Thailand, amazing how I've never been there in all these years. Anyway we did a tour out to the temples of Ayutthaya about an hour and a half north of Bangkok one day and the next we decided to go to the Grand Palace precinct. We decided to walk in the mid morning humidity (same as the rest of the day) as it was about 20 mins away. About halfway there we were crossing a major road at the lights where you get the countdown timers which tell you that you have a long wait. A bloke in normal looking business clothes was walking a bit ahead of us and stopped at the crossing. He gave us some friendly advice about the crossing and then asked where we were going. (Experienced Bangkok people will know where this is headed now). He told us about the "special ceremony" this morning at the Palace which would be closed until 1pm. (I'm not sure why it didn't click at that moment as I'd read to ignore people telling you the palace was closed but this guy seemed so random and not the usual scammer type - ha!). Anyway he proceeded to give us a great programme of things to do before it opened which included a ride on "Thai boat" which did a circuit of the rivers/canals via a lot of monuments and would eventually take us to the palace. A tuk-tuk just happened to stop then (or he called it) and he said it would take us to the place to catch this boat which was very cheap as it was the normal Thai boat not "tourist boat" which cost 3600 baht each or something (I didn't calculate that in my head at the time but he said something about the local boat being 160 baht). Anyway I said I didn't have any cash and I needed to change a bit of money so the tuk-tuk guy took us to a number of places (which were closed) before one that was open. I changed some money and then he took us to the boat, which turned out to be the office that sells tickets for the boat. The 'nice' woman tells me it's 1600 baht each (so for two it was ALL the money I had just changed). Me being a tightarse said that was way too much. She just about halved her price in a minute but I was out of there. We just walked away.

So we ended up walking back towards the Palace again (still not realising there was another layer in the scam we'd missed - apparently once on the boat they can just demand more money or leave you anywhere or take you to some scammy market) - and we were not far off when another helpful guy started talking to us and giving advice due to the closure of the Palace (still hadn't clicked). He wrote us down his tour instructions and pulled up a tuk-tuk. I was exhausted and almost willing to go this time to some giant Buddha but he mentioned some "export market" that was only on for another day or so which raised suspicions. Anyway Mrs Warks was not interested at all and quite stood up to them and said we would just keep walking to the Palace which we did. I googled "is the palace closed today" on my phone and it all fell into place. Of course, it wasn't as obvious as I'd expected. It didn't cost us anything in the end, 30 baht on a tuk-tuk ride I guess but I needed to change money anyway.

I've been travelling for over 37 years (not non-stop, mind you) and had my experiences with scammers over the years (never been totally taken in) but it seems we'd been softened by 6 weeks in Europe where nothing like this happened at all.

I'm sure many of you have fended off this scam or similar many times. Soon after we were walking to another Wat after the Palace and guys were telling us it was closed to which I replied "Yeah, sure!"

Hope you enjoyed this.

Your total outlay just 30 baht!? Or did I read that wrongly?

I hope only 30 baht, and as they, you got off lightly. Many others aren’t as fortunate.

‘The temple is closed’ is as common as the ‘come to a tea tasting’ in China. Or ‘this would be a wonderful opportunity for me to improve my English, let’s go to…’

Anyway if it was only 30baht then it’s a good primer and you’ll be on the lookout next time

 

[Warks]

Your total outlay just 30 baht!? Or did I read that wrongly?

I hope only 30 baht, and as they, you got off lightly. Many others aren’t as fortunate.

‘The temple is closed’ is as common as the ‘come to a tea tasting’ in China. Or ‘this would be a wonderful opportunity for me to improve my English, let’s go to…’

Anyway if it was only 30baht then it’s a good primer and you’ll be on the lookout next time

Yes that's it. I had a handle on the currency by then so the boat price turned me off immediately. If it had been the low price I might have got on.

As someone who's travelled to some scammy places like Istanbul and Cairo I didn't think I'd be taken in, given that I already "knew" about this one. It just manifested differently, the guy just seemed like a random businessman, who only incidentally spoke to us. Shows how smooth it all is. I'm used to the "in your face" guys.
I don't even make eye contact walking down streets with touts, just make the polite refusal hand gesture the whole time. Mrs Warks tends to engage with some who ask where we are from "so as not to be rude"... I say "don't give them an opening!"