What was your pointless work trip?

[kookaburra75]

There's some great stories here and some of y'all have way more interesting jobs than me. The stories that I can recall are not quite pointless but certainly examples of inefficiency, near misses and a lot of effort for not much return.
I was involved with a certain underwater vessel project in Northern France and was groomed to be ready to head over without much notice to perform my task. So I got the call and was given a whY ticket to a flight leaving in 48hrs. Of course, when I arrived on site, they were not ready for me and wouldn't be for at least a week. It ended up being 10 days and I passed the time exploring Mont St Michel, Bayeux and some other towns in the region. My work took one day. I then had to wait a few more days so I could transfer back to Paris, and ultimately home, with my new favourite friends who had been the ones to hold me up.

I too have been told by a certain client (who may or may not resemble yours) that I was needed urgently on something that wasn't my problem and had to fly economy as I wasn't "one of them", who all flew in business class. And most of the time when I arrived it was either a) "We didn't know you were coming...", or b) the problem could have been sorted over the phone, "...but they needed me there in person...". Unfortunately, none of them were in such exotic locations, but I got out to wander around and live like a local for a few days.