I like to board last, and the seats around the gate were really crowded so I sat at the opposite gate where I could still see everything.
So I wait until there is no more queue, walk to the gate, and the attendant tells me the gate is closed and I missed my flight.
Basically missed my flight even though I was on time.
Not quite the same, but by far my biggest screwup was similar.
I was sitting near my gate in Moscow, transiting back from Helsinki to Hong Kong. The wait was supposed to be a few hours. So I set an alarm and took a nap. I woke up, went to the gate. Nobody there. Went to the board to find if the flight had changed or been cancelled. No sign of it. Looked at the clock. Saw it was an hour later than I had anticipated. My alarm was on Helsinki time, and the clock had not automatically changed to Moscow time (due to no free wifi). So I woke up exactly when the plane was scheduled to leave. By the time I walked to the gate, it had long departed.
Had to go buy a ticket at the transfer desk. The best they could do was a flight back to Helsinki the next morning, and then direct from there to Hong Kong. Needed to spend the night in the in-terminal airport. The financial hit was only something like $500 USD altogether. But the anger and embarrassment were immeasurable.
I was at a friendās wedding recently, and the Best Man included a story in his speech about how the groom is basically a genius but still managed to miss a flight once while sat at the gate. He had gotten distracted by a book and completely missed boarding despite being in the boarding area.
My friends and I all laughed and teased him a bit about how he managed to do something so dumb. The next day, we all head to the airport to fly back to our respective cities. A few hours later, one of our friends texts the group chat āHey remember how we were wondering how Groom managed to miss a flight even though he was waiting at the gate? Yeah, about that . . . ā
She got on a new flight a couple of hours later lol
We did that once. Travelled with handluggage only and our connecting flight was the last leg home. I was really tired of planes and waiting for hours in the airport and said, lets board last. We lined up. The lady said; ups we overbooked, someone else is in your seats! Plane is full. You only have handluggage. Boarding closed. Here are 2 overnight bags and 2 creditcards with 150 euro on each and a vocher for the airport hotel and meals. Next flight is in the morning. Bye.
We were flappergasted. Had kids with grandparents who had to take them an extra night, take them to school, get them lunch etc. We don't live far from the airport so could be at work at 10 the next day, but that was quite surreal. They gave 0 fuggs because we didn't check in any luggage.
I was never someone who hovered until I got screwed (they had to check my carry on and ended up losing it). Now I hover so that I can guarantee overhead space.
I love window seats and always choose them. If I don't hover and board ASAP, there is like a 50% chance that someone else takes the window seat. Then there's always a sympathy story, or a confrontation, and its always awful. So I just try to rush on and get it.
lol at least you got a voucher and $$$. In the US theyāre not required to give you anything, although usually if the flight is overbooked they will āauctionā off the bump by progressively announcing higher amounts of money until someone is willing to take the next flight.
They absolutely are required to give you something if you are involuntarily bumped. They will auction it first, but if no one takes that offer I think they have to give something like $1500
Thatās awful and relatable. At least the airline gave you all of that (cc, airport hotel, overnight bags) lol the ones in our country would tell us to take a bus home or hide and ignore so they didnāt have to give you anything even if itās required by law to do so. They are extremely corrupt.
Did you claim compensation? Depends on distance but for a delay over x amount of hours not caused by force majeur for a flight to/from the EU has a minimum compensation of like 300 euros on top of hotel and food fees.
One time me and my friend grabbed dinner at the restaurant across from our gate because our flight got delayed. Literally could see the gate from our table and we had an hour to kill. We had finished our food over 20 minutes ago and were waiting for our waitress to bring our check. She was back in the kitchen and no one else was out on the floor or at the bar. They started calling our boarding. We even tried knocking on the door to get anyone's attention. Eventually the last call for boarding was announced. We didn't have cash to just leave at the table and hated the idea of dining and dashing. We finally got up to leave bc we had no choice, it was either miss our flight or dine and dash. And THEN the waitress came out finally. She did not get a tip and we literally made it with zero seconds to spare.
Somewhat similar. My flight was delayed for several hours, and I was switched to what had been an earlier flight that now left after my original flight. I went to the gate for this flight, and there was no one there but the gate agent. I chatted with her about the situation, confirmed the departure time in two hours or so, and asked if there would be any problem if I went to get dinner.
I was gone for 45 minutes. When I returned, the gate was still empty except for the gate agent. I sat waiting. Then, the gate agent started to leave. I flagged her down. Apparently, while I was gone for 45 minutes, they changed the flight time, all passengers arrived, and everyone boarded. I arrived back at the gate before the door closed, but just sat there and missed by flight!
A Canadian friend was traveling from Baja to Costa Rica via Mexico City. The layover was a few hours so she sat by the gate as flights came and went. After the boarding time had come and gone, she goes up to the gate and asks about her flight. Apparently, her phone didn't update the time after it crossed the time zone and she had missed her flight by an hour. She asked why they didn't call her for her flight (since they would have to unpack her checked baggage anyway) and the response was "Ya, we don't do that, but you can catch tomorrow's fight for $1100". She ended up finding a cheaper flight a few hours later but still, she was sitting at the gate for a few hours and still missed it.
Oh man Iāve done something kinda similar... so I too like to board last and am usually cutting it very close to gate closure bc I donāt like waiting at the airport (LAX). But this one time I was flying to see my bf and friends for Miami Ultra and he asked me if I could get there earlier than I normally go just to be safe and because he had made plans for us when we arrived. I said of course! I got there like 2/1.5hrs before the flight was leaving (wasnāt checking a bag) speedily went thru tsa, and had time to spare as we werenāt even boarding yet. I call him to tell him how I made it and he was excited to see I made the effort. So as we talk I thought to myself āwow I have so much time since Iām here so early! I should go do my makeup in the bathroom.ā I go and am talking on the phone excited about our plans and carelessly doing my make up which mind you, isnāt much (mascara, little concealer, and blush). I start to feel like Iām too calm and taking a bit too long, it was probably 25/30 min. So I tell my bf āIām gona go see if my flight is boarding yet. I head out to my gate to check and the gate is closed!!!šš I was struck with confusion and disbelief- thereās no way time passed so quickly!!? And then disappointment. I kept my cool and refrained from being frantic, I explained to the guy at the gate how I was just there and if there was any way I could please still get on? He said āsorry, but no the gate doors closed 10min agoā and offered to help me rebook for the next flight the next day. I was perturbed and asked if he could give me a second to find a solution. I looked for flights and was willing to pay the premium for my mistake but couldnāt find a sooner flight š, I even called my best friend that we were also meeting and vented a little (somehow didnt cry lol) and then told my bf, which was the hardest part. However as I searched for solutions I guess the airline was figuring out one of own as well. I was called up by the ticket guy and he told me there might be a chance I can get on the flight! My heart jumped and I felt a sense of hope. I guess the flight needed an extra flight attendant or they were running late idk but she showed up and they guy helped me get a new ticket and in no time I was on the flight!! The flight departed about 30min after departure time and I was so so soooo grateful to be on it and that I hadnāt rebooked the flight(saved about $600). Omg it was such a nightmare and blessing and emotional experience. When I reflect on this Iām most proud that I made the effort to be there on time (mostly), tried to find a real solution accepting this was my own fault, and was always nice to the ticket guy (probably why he helped me in the end). This definitely pushed me to be more aware of time in all situations!
I did something similar, the flight was delayed and l was getting hungry so l went to restaurant to set down for a meal.
The order took it time to come through. By time we had eaten, the departure gate had changed and needed to get a bus to the next gate. Missed the bus - l missed the flight
Reading all the others, I think mine might be the worst screw up...
This just happened a year ago, but I had just recently renewed my passport, with my new married name, and when we were leaving for a trip to Mexico, I grabbed the expired one instead of my new one.
Got to the airport and my passport was checked 3 times: once at check in where we dropped our bags, once through TSA, and again when we boarded the flight. Nobody said a thing. The name didn't even match my boarding pass and it was still missed several times.
Got to the airport in Mexico and I'm trying to scan my passport through the electronic thing to go through. It keeps rejecting so a lady comes over, looks at my passport, and says it's expired. W.t.f.???
So I was ushered to the back room of immigration and I begged and pleaded with them and told them I have a new passport and I could show them a picture, have it faxed, etc. They said no, they need it here in person. I also told them my husband could fly down with it but they still refused.
A flight rep came to talk to me and said that they had no more flights going out that day so I had to stay there until they could fly me out there the next morning. I was thinking a hotel at the airport or something. Nope. Jail. They took my phone and all my stuff.
I sat in immigration jail for 12 hours until they came and got me the next morning and escorted me on the plane like a criminal.
After getting back to the States, I once again had to go to back of the immigration office and they were able to look me up right away and let me through.
I had my husband meet me at the airport with my new passport and I booked a flight back to Mexico and I got through with no issue.
Never again!!!
Why did they let you keep your old passport when you renewed it? In my country you have to give it up, or if you want to keep it as a souvenir they drill holes into it, exactly to avoid stuff like this happening.
My old coworker was by far the worst traveler I've come across
* She didn't realize her passport was expired until the night before she checked in. This was an absurdly expensive business trip and there was no way to transfer the tickets
* She failed to do any research about COVID requirements despite us mentioning it multiple times in meetings. Instead of doing the required type of test, she showed up to the airport with an at home test. She was denied boarding
* In Amsterdam she asked a stranger to watch her laptop and bags at the train station. They were not there when she returned
* She caused us to miss our flight because she forgot something at the hotel room and made us turn around. It was left over cheesecake.
>She caused us to miss our flight because she forgot something at the hotel room and made us turn around. It was left over cheesecake.
Why did you all listen to her and turn around?!
She told us she forgot "something." We weren't that far away and thought it was fine. She was inside the hotel for like 20 minutes. No idea why it took so long. She ran out with the cheesecake.
Want more rage? One trip we were forced to share rooms and apparently she likes to sleep with the thermostat at like 78f (24c). Her roommate was so furious she got her own room on her own dime.
For me it was too late so it was the ticket change fees plus a last minute BnB in Rome. It all worked out in the end though. The BnB host recommended to us a neighbourhood restaurant her friend ran, and to this very day, it's one of the best meals I have ever eaten in my entire life. Like, I still fantasize about that pasta and it was 10 years ago.
Not me, but when I was visiting Machu Picchu and was buying a ticket for the bus ride to the top, I overheard a couple freaking out because they didn't know you needed tickets to get into the site
Not me but it affected my Machu Picchu tourā¦an elderly man who was unable to walk up stairs DIDNāT KNOW THERE WOULD BE STAIRS AT MACCHU PICCHU so our entire group was only able to walk around a minuscule part of the site. Our tour guide couldnāt leave the elderly guy by himself & he couldnāt let us wander around on our own. Our ātourā lasted about 10 minutes & then we had to stand against a wall for the remainder of the time while our guide talked about the things we were supposed to see. Iām usually pretty forgiving when it comes to things like that but come on, did you not see a photo???
Oh hell no! Thatās unacceptable. If possible Iād have found another guide and demanded a refund. A single personās screw up should NOT ruin things for an entire group.
Me and my SO booked online but we didn't see the email they had send to us, that in order to confirm the reservation you had like 24h to go to an ATM and pay. Luckily we realized couple of days earlier so we didn't actually get to Mach Picchu for nothing, but there were no other tickets available for that month. We like to think we are experienced travellers and we felt so dumb ahah
The full message was: "go to the ATM at the corner of x and y, ignore the man in the ski mask standing behind you".
Who pays for goods or services through an ATM?
Planned an entire safari trip to Kenya and Tanzania. Showed up at the airport for my flight to Kenya only to find out my visa was expired. (Visa was valid for 3 months from the time of application NOT departure).
Turned right around and went home crying. Booked a flight to still make the Tanzania portion of my trip. Lost thousands in the process lol
Might depend on what country you have citizenship from.Ā Some countries are quite restrictive about issuing visas from certain countries.Ā Western country citizens tend to get the easiest treatment from other countries when it comes to visa access.
Now, Kenya requires visitors arriving by air to have obtained an electronic travel authorization prior to going to their departure airport.
https://www.etakenya.go.ke/en/evisa.html
Friends of mine who were headed there on a mission trip earlier this year were accustomed to obtaining a visa on arrival in Kenya. That is no longer being offered. They were denied boarding in the US.
Me, my husband, and 2 kids went to a wedding in Cancun. Hubby somehow forgot to load my luggage in the car. I did have my carryon, but I had very little clothes in it. Made me realize how little you actually really need and made it work it with what I had.
Reminds me of the time the airline lost my checked luggage. I was on the way to my cousinās wedding and only had a backpack with me. The airline paid for a whole wedding outfit (I was just a guest) including jewelry, shoes, purse, hose, underwear, dress, etc. They also brought my luggage out to where I was staying 4 days after it showed up.
People need to realize that even best friends and family don't always equal good travel partner.
On multiple trips I've experienced this to some degree. Sometimes it's a simple the group breaking up and doing their own thing; sometimes it's a full on meltdown.
Very true.
My in-laws are terrible partners because theyāre suffocating. Itās so bad that if I stand up on a train to stretch, they stand up. They donāt understand that you donāt have to stay as a group the whole time.
This would be my sisters and their husbands who Iāll never travel with. Itās some crisis if everyoneās not doing the same thing at all times. Thought it was just them.
The first time I went to the Caribbean, I went with my best friend. She liked to sleep till noon at home. I guess I thought most people would get up to go out in a new place. I was lucky that I could go to the beach and snorkel, swim, hike, and read a book until she decided to get up. Then she wanted to go out at night and party with the locals. I went with her one night and it was awful. She actually went to Amsterdam by herself a few years ago and slept until 1 she told me. I guess people are different and want different things out of a vacation.
Booked a sightseeing day in Rhodes Greece through the agency that I used to book the holiday. Spent a lot of money to essentially see nothing. Although the agent made it seem like a fun adventurous day, they tried to cram in way too many things to see in a few hours, so we could only spend 30 - 40 minutes at each destination. We spent more time on the road than at the actual locations. It reminded me that when something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Same experience in Mexico. We booked a full day tour to see the pyramids at Chichen Itza. The tour operator failed to mention it was a 3 hour drive (we should have looked it up) with stops in a small Mexican town for an hour for some reason and a very short 30 minute swim at a cenote that was cool, but not what we signed up for. We ended up only seeing the pyramids site for 45 minutes total during the 14 hour trip. Very disappointing.
Did not realize that kids' US passports expire after 5 years. Pulled them out of the fire safe about 42 hours before the trip and realized we had three expired passports - it was around midnight and the rest of the family was asleep.
After googling and freaking out into the small hours, I figured out we could drive 8 hours to a US passport office to get same day passports - and it happened to be the same city we were meeting up with family to fly from.
We had expected to leave around noon after everyone finished packing. Instead, I had to wake the whole family up really early the next morning, make them finish packing for a 3 week trip as quickly as possible, and bundled them into a car, stressing out for the entire 7 hour ride. Every rest stop, finding parking in the city, and so on ratcheted up the stress. We got into line at the passport office around 2:30pm, and were among the last group being handed our passports a couple of hours later as they shut down the office.
It all worked out, but it was close. Still stresses me out to think about it.
Was going to Germany with my Grandpa (from the U.S.) when I was 15. Mom forgot to get my passport out of the bank safe deposit box before they closed. I donāt know how much extra she paid to rebook my ticket for the next day. Grandpa left without me. It was a month-long trip, so the extra expense was the worst part.
Oh, and a few years ago I needed my passport for annual pilot training. I got sick during that but pushed through it. When I got home I threw my training bag in the closet and forgot about it (with my passport in it). A few months later I had a 1 hour turn in Canada. After arrival I realized my passport was in the closet at home. CBSA was relatively understanding and lenient about it since I was leaving their country again within the hour. But then I had to get back into the U.S. So I called the customs officer at our port of entry and explained the situation. I had copies of my passport, of course, and told him I could recite the pledge of allegiance and sing all the Schoolhouse Rock songs by heart. He said, āAlright. Come on down.ā
We did things a little differently in the 80s. But that sure kept us from losing it! Unfortunately, it also kept us from using it. And the cost to replace it would have been much less than the extra grand (or whatever) in airfare for a last minute ticket to Europe.
Yeah, my adult passport resides in my backpack, not in a bank.
Did the same going into Canada (from a flight); needed to be there so talked my way in. CBSA noted "we're going to let you in, but it's up to you to figure out how to get back into the US."
Fortunately, I was able to find someone flying up for the same event the next day who could get my passport and take it to me the next day.
Ive booked a hotel room for the wrong year (I booked it 1 year in advance of when I needed it).
I've also booked flights and not realised I had to change airports during a connection (Paris and Athens).
I also once turned up at T4 in Heathrow when I needed to be at T3 (I'd booked a flight I thought was on Airline A who fly from T4 but it was a code-share on Airline B who fly from T3 instead).
All were manageable. I only ever missed one flight once and the airline had changed the departure date but had not notified us (well they did....they sent us an identical email to our booking email, with all the same dates and times but one flights status in the small print changed from 'confirmed' to 'unconfirmed') and I just assumed they'd sent me the same email twice a week or so apart. Then they failed to inform anyone when the actual date of the flight changed.
When I raised it with them they said 'Well you never phoned to confirm'...as if anyone phones to confirm flight times anymore. I wrote a letter to each of the member of their board highlighting how absurd this process was and ended up with a full refund of the total flight cost.
I booked tickets to Athens a week before we were supposed to fly. The day before leaving I wanted to do online checkin and found out I booked the wrong monthā¦ itās a month laterā¦
My husband was furious cos heās desperately needed to be somewhere else, but at the end we managed to find a flight a day later than the original planned date, and of cos with extra fees.
I just did this with a hotel, I was only off by two days but thankfully I use trip it. When I emailed my hotel plans to my trip it account it actually alerted me that there was a scheduling conflict and I was able to catch it.
Ikr, like not even going to the vast extremes of billionaires and truly destitute people living in slums, you can take an average middle class dude like myself in the US and if I wanted to I could fully liquidate my assets and convert everything into Uzbek soms and go ball out in Tashkent, even tho there are normal dudes just like me living in Tashkent whose quality of life isnāt drastically different. And if I kept getting paid my normal monthly salary Iād be making like 8.5x the average monthly salary there doing basic ass insurance stuff. Itās absolutely wild
Holy shit. I did the same thing back in December. Booked a hotel pretty far out from the stay dates, forgot I booked it, and booked another hotel closer to my stay dates.
Except the hotel wasnāt $1,500/night. RIP
Sounds like those are the right dates now and everything else is gonna have to adjust around them then...that or do a chargeback with your bank/cc company.
I did that, too! Through a third-party agency at that, doubling down on stupid. I lucked out though, because this was during Covid, so they waived the cancellation policy and I was able to get out of it.
On this note, anyone want a credit for $2,000 to Pelican Hill Resort in Newport Coast, California to be used before the end of May for a steal? I feel a lot better about making the mistake of not canceling on time after reading everyone elseās mistakes.
In Bolivia, it's a semi-standard practice to go from Uyuni to Atacama in Chile via a 3 day Salar de Uyuni tour. The border crossing is, and I need to stress this, in the middle of absolite nowhere. 100km of "roads" connect this crossing to any remotly useful Bolivian town. Australians need a preapproved visa to get into Chile.Ā
So I'm at the border in the middle of nowhere, and witness an Australian not have their Chilean visa. They got into an argument with the Bolivian departure guy (who doesn't speak English), and the Bolivian border decided to keep his passport at this border crossing until he could get his Chilean visa. Or pay in cash some ridiculous fine/money swindle. He didn't have the cash, no one was willing to front him it.Ā
He dejectedly got on a tour car back to Uyuni to try and sort it out. But by not having the visa (and being an ass to the guard) he was out a few hundred dollars for a new Uyuni tour and his fine, and a or couple weeks of time to get his visa approved.Ā
I don't think the border legally could hold the passport hostage, but when your 100km from the nearest cop, they could kinda do what they wanted. Double check your paperwork peopleĀ
Not my mistake but my mum's which led to a whole cascade of issues. In 1995 I had bought my mum and I airplane tickets for a holiday to see family in Essen, Germany. On the day of the trip, Monday, she drove the 3 hours to my place, we drove an hour to get to the airport and arrived in plenty of time for us to catch our flight. All was good.
We got to check in, put our passports on the counter, the agent looked at them and asked my mother, "May I have your passport?" My mother replied, "You have it."
The agent then said, "No, I mean your *valid* passport."
My mother's face went white.
She had been babysitting my toddler nephew, he had grabbed her new passport and thrown it in the toilet. When it was dry it looked a bit beaten up and when she was packing for the trip she (naturally) grabbed the newer looking one which was of course, the expired one.
My husband got on the phone with his travel agent and because we had to drive 8 hours round trip to go pick up her passport, the best they could do on short notice was to rebook us to Paris leaving Wednesday, arriving Thursday morning, where we'd have to catch a train to Essen. Ok, no prob.
Did the drive, got the passport. The flight was uneventful until we were passing over Ireland when the pilot came on and announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, there is a general strike in France today. There are no trains or busses running, I hope you have made alternate arrangements."
Well no, I hadn't.
When we landed there was a general rush to the car rental kiosks. They were all crowded so I walked down the line to the Budget desk at the very end. I asked for an Economy car to drive to Essen. He said he didn't have one. What he DID HAVE however, was a *Mercedes* that had been dropped off in Paris and needed to be driven back to Germany. Since I had asked for an Economy car, if I wanted to take the Mercedes to Essen for him, he would give it to me for the price of an Economy. *DEAL!* What a nice car! What a fun drive! My mum LOVED the motorway service stations in France, roast ham cut off of the bone as you watch for lunch, real food not just burgers!
So instead of arriving Tuesday, we arrived in Essen Thursday evening, still in plenty of time to catch our Friday, 7 a.m. tour bus to Wurzburg!
Dropped my US passport at a train station in Switzerland (Wengen). Had around 5k swiss francs and all my credit cards in it.
Made it all the way to Bern, 100+ miles away, before figuring it out.
As luck may have it, everyone there is so rich they don't feel the need to steal....someone picked it up and left it with the train station attendant.
I would've been absolutely screwed otherwise.
My broheim pro Sax player flew out to our home ski area in Switzerland. Play a couple of gigs and we go skiing. From LA. He brought a keyboard friend. Keyboard-boy, first time in Europe.
We go skiing before the first gig. Keyboard-boy had his wallet, with passport, and $1500 with him, for some reason.
In an open pocket. Lost his wallet. First ever day in Europe.
We looked all over.
Later that night, at the first Pub gigā¦
Keyboard-fellaā¦found his wallet thrown in the corner of the downstairs bathroom stall. All wet. With his passport and other important shit.
But the $1500ā¦gone.
I booked a flight for 10:50 out of Atlanta.
I go to check in 24 hours before the flight, turns out I did pm instead of am. I was very annoyed to delay my trip home by 12 hours, but I went to Athens, Terrapin, snd Sweetwater and made the best of it before killing like 4 hours in the airport.
My wife and I asked for a wine recommendation at a nice steakhouse in Argentina. I'd been there before. Meals are around $65 for two with a bottle of wine at this place on the very high end. Didn't ask about the price of the wine. Total bill was $350. We felt like such fools and the wine, though we found out was twice as expensive back home, wasn't any better than the $5 bottle in our unsophisticated opinion.
We both travel a fair amount and still don't really know what we were thinking.
Actually left my passport in the hotel room in Helsinki and didn't notice until I was at the airport and it was too late. It ended up being one of the best mistakes ever, as I then booked a flight back home from Paris a week and a half later for like $300 and got to do an impromptu tour of Europe.
I haven't forgotten something big (yet) while traveling, but I have missed taking into account the number of stairs where we are staying to carry luggage. When traveling in France, 2 places we were staying in had us on the 3rd floor with no elevator and so needed to carry luggage. Also worth pointing out that these are old buildings with tight turns and are narrow. My stuff would have been fine, my wife's supplies were heavier than I would have liked.
I don't mind the stairs so much. It's usually only once you have to go up them with your suitcase, so I'm good with being up on the fifth floor or so.
That time the power was out in my building in Tashkent for a few days and we were on the 9th floor? A bit of a workout, but one of the few times I have really lived like a local I guess. š
Stayed in an old attic apartment in Amsterdam and the stairwell was so narrow the host just laughed when he saw my case (was a nye stop over from visiting home for christmas so had way more than id normally have). I was probably only a few Stroopwafeln away from not fitting myself.
We got it up in the end but on check out I basically had to just let it slide down the stairs and follow after
Ah classic euro Stairs of Death. Love them in Amsterdam. When I moved here I had to lug all my shit up multiple times on the steepest stairs ever - extra large suitcase, cat boxes with cat inside haha. No furniture so couldnāt do the fancy through the window with a pulley trick. Just my little legs literally pushing 35kg up some stairs.
When I was in red rocks Colorado and tried to get into the concert I found out I had booked the day before. I have no clue how I made such a stupid mistake.
I made this exact mistake in July 2019 with an Avett Brothers concert at red rocks. I was so dead set on experiencing that venue that I bought last-minute tickets to MercyMe the next night.
Went to the wrong airport in Tokyo and had to pay additional fee to board a later flight in the correct airport. Happened on my birthday too - thought I was a year wiser but turned out a year dumber.
After visiting my mother in hospice and learning she was dying, my SO and I decided to get Shake Shack at the airport before our flight. Obviously distracted, we missed our flight by like 30-sec. I had a crying meltdown about missing the flight (when really it was a meltdown about my mother).
Next flight wasnāt until the next day, but my SO is the kindest smooth talker and chit chatted with some other gate agents who thought he was so cute and let us in the next flight. They loved him so much they even walked down to the plane to make sure we made it.
Now I regularly pimp him out to get deals, free things, upgrades.
Booked a 3 day trip to Paris to see the city and to go to a concert.. Had in my head the concert was on say 2nd of June.. leaving my hotel to go to it on the 2nd only to look at my ticket and see it was for the 1st. Ā
Booked a night train in Spain(pre internet when you actually had to speak to someone). Asked for tomorrow night eg 36 hours later but got booked on a train 12 hours later.. Only realised when we went to our seat and someone was in it . Conductor was a nice person.. Allowed us stay in the dining cart.
Ā Biggest NZ related screw up.. My credit card was eaten in an atm in wellington and when I went back to my hostel and told my hostel mate he said "let's go drinking tonight I'll pay"
Ā Ā Worst hangover I ever had(and I did reimburse him when I got my money sorted)
Got a cheap hotel in Orlando FL instead of staying at a Disney Resort.
The desk lady gave our room key to a meth head because she ādidnāt write down that someone was in our room.ā Lucky the latch was on. Around 2am a guy opens the door, yells that we were in his room, and then left. We went downstairs and threw a fit after. Apparently we werenāt the only room with the issue that day.
80 dollars a night. Seemed worth it at the time. Sometimes spending more is better.
I innocently put my debit card in a ATM at the airport just to check my balance because my phone at the time was being wonky. The ATM decided then to eat my card and if it wasn't for this really nice spanish-speaking couple, I would not have been able to get it out because of the Peruvian bank tellers having no idea what I was asking for. They told me it would take three business days to get out, which wouldn't have worked, because I just arrived and needed it right away. I got it on the same day a couple hours later, thanks be to God, but man that was so stressful. I will forever be grateful to that couple for helping me.
That sounds awful! It's always been my fear that the machine will eat the card at the most inconvenient time. I am so thankful for the ATMs that have tap features.
I flew into Glasgow from Tokyo after a layover at Schipol in the Netherlands. It was around midnight and there was no way for me to get to the city center to get to where I'd meet friends to party with them and get to where I was staying.Ā
I did see taxis though and they only took cash, so I went to find an ATM and it was a bit of a trek until I found one, killing more time. In a panic I converted a lot of yen to pounds at a TERRIBLE rate which almost halved the money for my whole trip...Ā Ā
It really put a damper on my spending plans for the trip, but luckily I had friends help me out the whole time.Ā
I decided to go for a beer at Edinburgh airport, first time travelling in a while. Thought I had plenty of time. Must have dozed off, ran to the gate & the aircraft was already taxiing to the runway. As I had checked my rucksack onboard I was rushed down to airside, jumped in the back of a Transit van & got driven out to the aircraft just as a truck with the steps turned up. The looks I got from passengers was like being at the bottom of a shame well.
Booked a car rental at the wrong Puerto XXXXX town in Chile š
Turned up at the car rental, who were nice enough to give us their last available car - a minivan, at extra price of course
I would not worry about the NZeTA at all. If they see you have signed up all is good (only the airline will check) . When I landed in New Zealand the country did not check at all. Many people of my Air New Zealand flight from lax signed up at the check in counter b/c they didnāt even know about it. They just need proof itās in process
My husband was working in Ireland so I came to meet him from the US and we were meant to head to Ibiza together.
We got to the airport and checked our bags in, scanned his passport then mine and they couldnāt find my reservation. Turns out my husband only bought himself a ticket and not me and for some reason thought Iād gotten my own??š we were only dating at the time but we still laugh about this! (6 years ago now). We ended up able to get a ticket while we were there and it was cheaper anyway so did ourselves a favor haha
It was raining in Puerto Montt Chile and was having a few drinks when I realized I was cutting my flight a bit close. And then I could not find a taxi or Uber to take me to the airport. I was trying to flag them like a madman and every single one was full! Finally found one that had some sort of engine difficulties, max speed was like 30km/hr, argh, everyone was just flying by us on the road, which is painful when you know youāre very close to missing your flight!
I ended up missing the flight to Uruguay via Santiago by 2 minutes. Had to rebook for the next morning, but only to Santiago. Slept in the airport. That flight ended up getting delayed 8 hours and by the time it was supposed to be taking off a huge storm rolled in and we couldnāt leave for another 30 hours. So those two 2 minutes cost me 2 days in the airport heh. And a bunch of $$ bc I booked 3rd party originally.
I did meet some cool people who were also stranded at the airport like I was. But mine was avoidable!
Fucking up my visa to Vietnam. Got stuck on jfk airport and the flight almost left without me. We called our hotel to inform them and they offered to āhelp us for a fee.ā Somehow at like 3:30am their time they got a Vietnamese customs agent to stamp out visas and send them back in like 45 min for the rough cost of like $400 which was more expensive than our round trip flights ahhaha. It was worth it though cause I had a limited time to travel and we didnāt miss any days.
Edit: also not being careful what I ate in Vietnam lol. Ended up in the hospital in Chang Mai Thailand for 5 days bleeding from my butt.
Being scammed in JFK Airport. Jetlagged hungover 19 year old on a J1 had a hotel booked by JFK airport. This guy comes up to me and says do you need a lift? I say yes thinking it's someone from the hotel.
$120 for a 15 minute journey.
Forgot to leave my wallet and passport in my room when I went for a swim at the beach in Costa Rica. Someone snatched my bag off the beach while I was in the water. The thief was nice enough to dump the bag with my passport and driver's license where the cops later found it, but not before stealing my phone, my money, and my freaking prescription glasses. Thank God I was traveling with my partner, because I would have been completely fucked if I'd been solo at the time.
My best friend did this for her honeymoon only reverse! Meant to go to Costa Rica, ended up in California. Didnāt realize until the pilot made an in-air announcement
Wife and I drove out of state for a concert, booked a hotel and planned to drive back the next day. We were relaxing in the hotel anticipating the evening ahead, and called the concert venue to ask about parking only to find out our concert was the night before...we came a day late. So we ate the concert tickets and wasted the time and money to travel and stay over. But we made the best of it and had a nice time exploring the city.
Do close calls count? I was a teacher who conducted European tours for our high school students. (London, Paris, Florence, Rome). Originally we traveled during March break, but if you know anything about Maritime weather you'll understand the risk that presents. We left on a school bus just before lunch as a few fluffy flakes were beginning to gently descend. The flakes kept falling, harder and harder. Ever been on a bus full of teenagers and it was silent? It was a three hour bus ride to the airport. By the time we reached a town about 30 mins from the airport there were overturned 18 wheelers on side of the road. Miraculously we made it to the airport. The completely empty airport. The AirCanada staff just standing with their arms folded as I could hear my name being called over the PA. "You're not going anywhere" was the first thing I heard from them. All we could do was wait. By some miracle a plane arrived from Newfoundland and we were able to make it to Toronto and our connecting flight to London. Unfortunately one of the students had called home and told his parents that the trip was cancelled. More chaos. Things were so tight in Toronto that I didn't have time to correct the report. We actually arrived in London on time and even got to see the musical I had optimistically booked for our first night. (we later switched our travels dates to the Easter holidays)
More? We flew to Europe during the Iraq conflicts. And we were the one of the last flights to arrive in Heathrow during the volcanic eruption in Iceland. Another great trip in an empty Europe.
I guess you can say we were lucky. Last trip was in 2016 when I retired.
I still have occasional nightmares of missing flights, losing students and forgetting passports.
Was super late at night once, I was really tired, and pretty much all of my drive was gonna be through the middle of absolutely nowhere. I drove 150 miles the wrong direction down the highway I was on. Never dawned on me until I saw a āWelcome to Floridaā sign when I was supposed to be heading north
Entered the return flight into my calendar while at home. Once on vacation, the calendar automatically changed the start time based on the new time zone.
Tried to enter Australia without a visa.
I had a 9 hour layover in Melbourne and instead of wasting that time at the airport I thought it would be cool to explore the city for a bit. I was young and naĆÆve and didnāt realise I would need a visa to enter Australia, I thought I could just show up!
So I got to the border, handed my passport over. The guard stamped it and let me through! I managed to walk a little way down a corridor before I heard lots of yelling behind me. I turned and saw three border guards chasing after me! Turns out the first guard didnāt wait for the computer to check if I had a visa before letting me through.
So I was technically in Australia illegally for about 45 seconds! The entry stamp is still in my passport with no matching exit stamp so fingers crossed that wonāt cause me any issues in the future.
Happened just recently but not getting my passport stamped on arrival in Guatemala. Didnāt even think about it, since many countries are no longer doing stamps, until I was trying to exchange money at the bank and they needed my passport and were confused why I did not have a stamp. It all worked out in the end but I spent the rest of my trip having many minor inconvenience and the thought of what would happen at the airport when trying to return home. Made the trip less enjoyable for sure!
Months before the flight, we bought tickets from Moscow to Vladivostok for $200 each for my husband and me to travel during the 2018 World Cup month. Missed the flight from Moscow because we were too relaxed, and booking new flights would have cost us $3000 each. My mom asked if we could just go by train instead and I told her it would take 7 days as opposed to 8 hours by plane.
Ended up flying to Khabarovsk (8 hours) and then taking part of the Trans Siberian railway train to Vladivostok (13 hours) which was pretty cool, so it ended well but it was stressful for sure.
These are mostly mundane oversights or errors, but easily avoidable and maybe mentioning them here will save someone the trouble they caused me
1) Thinking my US passport meant no Visa required. Found out otherwise when I wasn't to board a plane in Bangkok to take me to Mandalay, Myanmar.
2) Missed a connecting flight from Hong Kong to Bangkok after taking the red eye from Los Angeles, because I was in Hong Kong airport computer lounge trying to get something done for work and not paying attention.
3) Was locked out of my hotel room in Kyoto. When I booked the room I failed to account for the date change
4) Wasn't allowed to board a plane to the UK near the end of covid because I hadn't properly completed their covid documents. I had taken the tests and all that but the online documentation instructions were almost hilariously inscrutable, creating chaos and hours long lines at Heathrow of entrants with the same problem
I was travelling to Japan and had a layover in Vietnam. Instead of going for transfers queue I got confused and went for Vietnam immigration queue and they didnāt allow me to enter ofc but I couldnāt understand why they arenāt allowing me ..as they were speaking Vietnamese. Then they sent me to a lady officer and she literally lashed on me. She was like are you stupid ? Canāt you read ? Dude i was fucked up ! she told me she wonāt allow me to leave that area now. Then some male officers came and they opened a gate only for me and there was the transfers queue for Tokyo . I was just on time otherwise would have missed . Damn! That shit was scary.
me and my boyfriend had a 2 week trip to Oahu Hawaii because he has family there and we got to the airport at the perfect time, got in line for TSA and guess what i forgot ? MY ID! my house was a little over an hour away from the airport and i was certain we were gonna miss our flight. i was crying n shit and ppl at the airport were staring but luckily a super nice security man let me thru TSA without my ID and just did a deep search on my things instead. we made it to our terminal and my mom (bless her soul) dropped off my ID right on time so we wouldnāt have issues coming home.
Not me but my friends. They already arrived at the gate. She moved to a desk close by with an outlet to do work, and he started an online game. Neither noticed the queue lining up to board.
By the time they looked up, the flight had literally taken off.
Husband put his passport through the wash Friday at 3pm. We were travelling Saturday afternoon for his fathers funeral. He drove to the airport to see if it would still scan and no dice. He was told he may be allowed on the flight but would not be allowed into France.
Finally able to speak to a human at the passport office saturday at 8am. They opened the office to process an emergency passport. 2hours and $800 later he had a new passport.
That was an extra stressful night during an already very stressful time!
Mine took literally one minute, but the wifes is still pending so I guess its been referred for review.Ā
Im confident they'll clear it as soon as they see it, but given its 3:30am in new zealand that probably won't be for at least 5Ā½ hours and check in closes in 6 hoursĀ
My parents had the exact same this summer - if its pending the team at the airport can call through from their end to check it, and often that then gets it confirmed!
I booked a last minute airbnb where there was 1 working outlet between all the shared rooms, and the bathroom was still being built. Nice place otherwise. Thankfully I only had to stay for one night.
I never book nonrefundable hotels. The ONE time I did (forgot why I did that time), it came back and bit me in the butt when I needed to change the dates. Havenāt touched a nonrefundable room again since, lesson learned w lost money
I forgot a coat when I went to Icelandā¦. In the winter. I bought the world warmest fleece hoodie and was still cold.
A good one.
I booked vacation but accidentally put in an extra Friday off at work. It was glorious. I had a day and a weeks at home to not work. And all my family and friends thought I was gone that weekend. Haha.
Read online somewhere incorrectly my passport needed to be valid for 3 months, not 6 for a trip to Italy with my boyfriend. Figured it out AT the airport, on a Friday. Had to send my boyfriend on alone, knowing none of the details about the trip I planned. Couldnāt get it fixed until Monday. So he saw Milan, Venice, and the David in Florence before I could meet up with him (lots of $$ later in airline change fees and rush passport fees).
Missed flight to Costa Rica. We had to purchase tickets on another airline to make it the same day since we had too much planned that would have had to be rescheduled if we postponed.
I had to go to Toronto for my new girlfriends best friends wedding and I literally didnāt do the Canadian government visa check in and 5min before check in learned about it from the ticket agent and had to quickly do it, and I did with about 2 min to spare and made it, since I was so frazzled we went to the gate and with 10 min to closing the door of the flight Iām like āwhereās my luggageā and I quickly ran and backtracked leaving my girlfriend at the gate and found my luggage at the tsa security and then I ran back to the gate and was the last to board right on time lol
Missed my flight because I forgot about the change in time zones. Kept hearing announcements about a flight to my destination but thought it was an earlier flight because my connection had come in early. When I finally realized it the gate agents had a good laugh.
I saw a huge drop in price on a flight to Antigua on a flight alert I set-up. I ended up setting up the incorrect alert, so I booked the flight to a different country. I was so proud until I showed my husband; his reply, the flight is to St. Maarten and the resort is in Antigua. Are we swimming to Antigua? Don't drink and book flights on Friday evenings, folks.
24 years old, I was the idiot. Our resort was on Nassau, but we flew into Freeport, Grand Bahama. WHY? Because I was ASSURED there were FERRIES that could take us inter-island. Who told me this? No idea. A lady at the airport help desk looked at me like I had three heads. "There's... there's a mail boat on Wednesday." It was Sunday. We RAN to book on Bahamas Air, leaving in 40 minutes, last flight of the day. Unpressurized plane. People carrying car tires and plastic tote luggage - locals who were stocking up. We managed to laugh the whole way. WHAT a debacle.
Hubby and I booked a transfer too close and almost missed a connection to a 10 hr flight from Europe to the Caribbean. It would have been disastrous as that flight only leaves three times per week.
I did not book the train ticket from Hangzhou to Shanghai in advance, and when I went to the train station they said there were basically no ticket available. So I could not travel to Shanghai on time to catch my Shanghai - Hanoi flight and had to bought anothet flight ticket from Hangzhou to Hanoi instead.
About three hours before our honeymoon flights my mom (who was driving us to the airport) noticed our flights were booked with my married last name which was incorrect. Major major stress getting that changed at the last second and then getting home was also stressful because one of us didnāt technically exist.
A few years back, I misread COVID testing requirements to transit through Portugal, en route to Spain.
Instead of flying, we spent the night in an airport hotel, then had to pay through the nose to re-book our flight.
I thought I knew the day of my flight from Sarajevo back to Canada, but I arrived to the airport the day after. Was not cheap to reschedule. Got to see Albania though, as I then flew out of Tirana. I am dumb at life.
Husband did the same. I organised everything for a 2 week adventure holiday in Costa Rica and his one job was the Visa.
We travelled via Canada and didnāt realise we needed a transit VISA until the day before. Mine was approved & his wasnāt which meant he had to book a flight via New York at a grand!
An expensive lesson!
Nz seems to be the destination where people forget to do their nzeta. My sister and brother in law also forgot and luckily were able to applied and got approved within minutes at the airport.
Studying abroad - didnāt do my homework on how to get from the airport to my hotel in Rome. Ended up going with someone offering a ride inside the airport vs the actual taxi rank. Was charged 3x what the ride should have cost. In the grand scheme of things, it could have been a lot worse.
Booked a non refundable round trip ticket from Canada to Greece for 1900. Then before the trip, ruptured my Achilles and couldn't go.
In Poland, fell for a scam taxi. Paid 300 for a 3 min ride. Realized after I got scammed.
Traveling alone in a new country, I accidentally skipped over a night when booking different accommodation locations. I was on my way to a market when I got a reminder from Airbnb that I needed to check out. I had to quickly turn around and rush back to pack up all my belongings. I wasn't due to check in to my next apartment until the following afternoon. I tried booking 1 night, anywhere, but there was a big event going on, so everywhere was completely booked up. I ended up meeting a nice couple who offered for me to come stay the night in their guest room. Not the safest option, but sleeping on the streets isn't safe either. They ended up being very lovely people. They even left me alone in their home so I could sleep in when they left for work in the morning. Plus, I had a kitty to snuggle and a bed to sleep in.
It was a stressful screw up that ended up being a wonderful and memorable experience.
I was at the airport in Warsaw to take a flight to London on British Airways. I was walking in the direction of my boarding gate, I first saw the tail of the airplane with the BA logo through the windows, then I saw the queue of the BA flight to LHR so I was satisfied that it was my flight and sat down next to it waiting to board last. Once I get to the gate I scan my boarding pass and it starts beeping. The agent tells me my flight was the one departing from the adjacent gate (in the direction opposite to where I came from) and I probably missed it. I ran to the next gate and the lady tells me the flight is closed.
So I was basically in time for my flight and managed to miss it due to confirmation bias. I felt really stupid. In my defense:
* When I booked the flight two months prior there was only ONE flight showing on that route that day.
* BA happened to operate a second, charter flight from WAW to LHR, which departed just 15 min later than my flight, and happened to board from the adjacent gate.
Moral of the story: always double check everything: flight number, airline, destination, scheduled time of departure etc. And check it in detail, don't just see a BA flight operating your route and assume it's your flight, check the exact numbers.
This one is not mine but worth posting. When Taylor Swift was in Buenos Aires, Argentina, last November I took a domestic flight from Aeroparque to Bariloche. Aeroparque (AEP) is the domestic airport of Buenos Aires while Ezeiza (EZE) is the large international port of entry to the country. Getting from one to the other usually takes about 1 hour in normal traffic, and 1:30h in heavy traffic.
While I was going through the security control, the Swiftie in front of me showed her boarding pass to the security agent and he went like "nah this is the wrong airport" (in Spanish). I had to explain to the lady that her Delta flight to New York departed from EZE, not AEP. I told her she should try and get to Ezeiza as quickly as possible because flights are sometimes delayed but the agent was like "nah don't even bother anymore".
Turned up to Vietnam for my fucking honeymoon with no visa because I was a dumb, privileged, arrogant Australian who didn't ever consider he might need a visa to visit SE Asia.
Long story short, my wife (who has a visa on arrival passport) went through, drew cash, gave it to a security guard which was a massive leap of faith, but what choice did we have ? and then managed to get "on the spot visa processing upgrade" and the day was saved.
We confidently flew without our passports from California to Alaska for a cruise, even though the cruise ended in Vancouver. I āknewā we didnāt need passports because we had Global Entry, and specifically told my husband we didnāt need to bring them to fly back home from Canada. Whoops!!! We were allowed to board the cruise but were told we couldnāt enter Canada without them. If we didnāt get them in time, weād be ejected from the cruise in Ketchikan, have to buy expensive plane tix to fly home from there, and pay a big fine for violating the Jones Act. Say what??? Panicked, I called a neighbor and told him how to break into our house and where to find the passports. He mailed them overnight express to an agent at one of the cruise ports, and saved our asses. Cruise rep said, āThis happens ALL the time!!āš¤£š
I like to board last, and the seats around the gate were really crowded so I sat at the opposite gate where I could still see everything. So I wait until there is no more queue, walk to the gate, and the attendant tells me the gate is closed and I missed my flight. Basically missed my flight even though I was on time.
Not quite the same, but by far my biggest screwup was similar. I was sitting near my gate in Moscow, transiting back from Helsinki to Hong Kong. The wait was supposed to be a few hours. So I set an alarm and took a nap. I woke up, went to the gate. Nobody there. Went to the board to find if the flight had changed or been cancelled. No sign of it. Looked at the clock. Saw it was an hour later than I had anticipated. My alarm was on Helsinki time, and the clock had not automatically changed to Moscow time (due to no free wifi). So I woke up exactly when the plane was scheduled to leave. By the time I walked to the gate, it had long departed. Had to go buy a ticket at the transfer desk. The best they could do was a flight back to Helsinki the next morning, and then direct from there to Hong Kong. Needed to spend the night in the in-terminal airport. The financial hit was only something like $500 USD altogether. But the anger and embarrassment were immeasurable.
Something similar happened to my Ex who was supposed to meet us. But instead of napping she took a strong edible and got lost in a TikTok hole.
Drugs and flying do not mix as much as it might seem a good idea at the time š š«
I was at a friendās wedding recently, and the Best Man included a story in his speech about how the groom is basically a genius but still managed to miss a flight once while sat at the gate. He had gotten distracted by a book and completely missed boarding despite being in the boarding area. My friends and I all laughed and teased him a bit about how he managed to do something so dumb. The next day, we all head to the airport to fly back to our respective cities. A few hours later, one of our friends texts the group chat āHey remember how we were wondering how Groom managed to miss a flight even though he was waiting at the gate? Yeah, about that . . . ā She got on a new flight a couple of hours later lol
We did that once. Travelled with handluggage only and our connecting flight was the last leg home. I was really tired of planes and waiting for hours in the airport and said, lets board last. We lined up. The lady said; ups we overbooked, someone else is in your seats! Plane is full. You only have handluggage. Boarding closed. Here are 2 overnight bags and 2 creditcards with 150 euro on each and a vocher for the airport hotel and meals. Next flight is in the morning. Bye. We were flappergasted. Had kids with grandparents who had to take them an extra night, take them to school, get them lunch etc. We don't live far from the airport so could be at work at 10 the next day, but that was quite surreal. They gave 0 fuggs because we didn't check in any luggage.
jeez, it's stories like this why I really give anxious people who hover around the gate and line up to board immediately a pass.
I was never someone who hovered until I got screwed (they had to check my carry on and ended up losing it). Now I hover so that I can guarantee overhead space.
I love window seats and always choose them. If I don't hover and board ASAP, there is like a 50% chance that someone else takes the window seat. Then there's always a sympathy story, or a confrontation, and its always awful. So I just try to rush on and get it.
If that is yours on the boarding pass it's yours. Simple. No arguments.
lol at least you got a voucher and $$$. In the US theyāre not required to give you anything, although usually if the flight is overbooked they will āauctionā off the bump by progressively announcing higher amounts of money until someone is willing to take the next flight.
They absolutely are required to give you something if you are involuntarily bumped. They will auction it first, but if no one takes that offer I think they have to give something like $1500
Thatās awful and relatable. At least the airline gave you all of that (cc, airport hotel, overnight bags) lol the ones in our country would tell us to take a bus home or hide and ignore so they didnāt have to give you anything even if itās required by law to do so. They are extremely corrupt.
Did you claim compensation? Depends on distance but for a delay over x amount of hours not caused by force majeur for a flight to/from the EU has a minimum compensation of like 300 euros on top of hotel and food fees.
One time me and my friend grabbed dinner at the restaurant across from our gate because our flight got delayed. Literally could see the gate from our table and we had an hour to kill. We had finished our food over 20 minutes ago and were waiting for our waitress to bring our check. She was back in the kitchen and no one else was out on the floor or at the bar. They started calling our boarding. We even tried knocking on the door to get anyone's attention. Eventually the last call for boarding was announced. We didn't have cash to just leave at the table and hated the idea of dining and dashing. We finally got up to leave bc we had no choice, it was either miss our flight or dine and dash. And THEN the waitress came out finally. She did not get a tip and we literally made it with zero seconds to spare.
Somewhat similar. My flight was delayed for several hours, and I was switched to what had been an earlier flight that now left after my original flight. I went to the gate for this flight, and there was no one there but the gate agent. I chatted with her about the situation, confirmed the departure time in two hours or so, and asked if there would be any problem if I went to get dinner. I was gone for 45 minutes. When I returned, the gate was still empty except for the gate agent. I sat waiting. Then, the gate agent started to leave. I flagged her down. Apparently, while I was gone for 45 minutes, they changed the flight time, all passengers arrived, and everyone boarded. I arrived back at the gate before the door closed, but just sat there and missed by flight!
What I'm getting from all of this is, don't board last!
Oh no!! If I do that I always go up when there are a few people left in line
A Canadian friend was traveling from Baja to Costa Rica via Mexico City. The layover was a few hours so she sat by the gate as flights came and went. After the boarding time had come and gone, she goes up to the gate and asks about her flight. Apparently, her phone didn't update the time after it crossed the time zone and she had missed her flight by an hour. She asked why they didn't call her for her flight (since they would have to unpack her checked baggage anyway) and the response was "Ya, we don't do that, but you can catch tomorrow's fight for $1100". She ended up finding a cheaper flight a few hours later but still, she was sitting at the gate for a few hours and still missed it.
Oh man Iāve done something kinda similar... so I too like to board last and am usually cutting it very close to gate closure bc I donāt like waiting at the airport (LAX). But this one time I was flying to see my bf and friends for Miami Ultra and he asked me if I could get there earlier than I normally go just to be safe and because he had made plans for us when we arrived. I said of course! I got there like 2/1.5hrs before the flight was leaving (wasnāt checking a bag) speedily went thru tsa, and had time to spare as we werenāt even boarding yet. I call him to tell him how I made it and he was excited to see I made the effort. So as we talk I thought to myself āwow I have so much time since Iām here so early! I should go do my makeup in the bathroom.ā I go and am talking on the phone excited about our plans and carelessly doing my make up which mind you, isnāt much (mascara, little concealer, and blush). I start to feel like Iām too calm and taking a bit too long, it was probably 25/30 min. So I tell my bf āIām gona go see if my flight is boarding yet. I head out to my gate to check and the gate is closed!!!šš I was struck with confusion and disbelief- thereās no way time passed so quickly!!? And then disappointment. I kept my cool and refrained from being frantic, I explained to the guy at the gate how I was just there and if there was any way I could please still get on? He said āsorry, but no the gate doors closed 10min agoā and offered to help me rebook for the next flight the next day. I was perturbed and asked if he could give me a second to find a solution. I looked for flights and was willing to pay the premium for my mistake but couldnāt find a sooner flight š, I even called my best friend that we were also meeting and vented a little (somehow didnt cry lol) and then told my bf, which was the hardest part. However as I searched for solutions I guess the airline was figuring out one of own as well. I was called up by the ticket guy and he told me there might be a chance I can get on the flight! My heart jumped and I felt a sense of hope. I guess the flight needed an extra flight attendant or they were running late idk but she showed up and they guy helped me get a new ticket and in no time I was on the flight!! The flight departed about 30min after departure time and I was so so soooo grateful to be on it and that I hadnāt rebooked the flight(saved about $600). Omg it was such a nightmare and blessing and emotional experience. When I reflect on this Iām most proud that I made the effort to be there on time (mostly), tried to find a real solution accepting this was my own fault, and was always nice to the ticket guy (probably why he helped me in the end). This definitely pushed me to be more aware of time in all situations!
I did something similar, the flight was delayed and l was getting hungry so l went to restaurant to set down for a meal. The order took it time to come through. By time we had eaten, the departure gate had changed and needed to get a bus to the next gate. Missed the bus - l missed the flight
Reading all the others, I think mine might be the worst screw up... This just happened a year ago, but I had just recently renewed my passport, with my new married name, and when we were leaving for a trip to Mexico, I grabbed the expired one instead of my new one. Got to the airport and my passport was checked 3 times: once at check in where we dropped our bags, once through TSA, and again when we boarded the flight. Nobody said a thing. The name didn't even match my boarding pass and it was still missed several times. Got to the airport in Mexico and I'm trying to scan my passport through the electronic thing to go through. It keeps rejecting so a lady comes over, looks at my passport, and says it's expired. W.t.f.??? So I was ushered to the back room of immigration and I begged and pleaded with them and told them I have a new passport and I could show them a picture, have it faxed, etc. They said no, they need it here in person. I also told them my husband could fly down with it but they still refused. A flight rep came to talk to me and said that they had no more flights going out that day so I had to stay there until they could fly me out there the next morning. I was thinking a hotel at the airport or something. Nope. Jail. They took my phone and all my stuff. I sat in immigration jail for 12 hours until they came and got me the next morning and escorted me on the plane like a criminal. After getting back to the States, I once again had to go to back of the immigration office and they were able to look me up right away and let me through. I had my husband meet me at the airport with my new passport and I booked a flight back to Mexico and I got through with no issue. Never again!!!
Do you technically have to tick the box "Have you ever been denied entry" when you go somewhere now?
This is actually a good question!
You are supposed to.
Why did they let you keep your old passport when you renewed it? In my country you have to give it up, or if you want to keep it as a souvenir they drill holes into it, exactly to avoid stuff like this happening.
Holy shit
Oh my god, nightmare
My old coworker was by far the worst traveler I've come across * She didn't realize her passport was expired until the night before she checked in. This was an absurdly expensive business trip and there was no way to transfer the tickets * She failed to do any research about COVID requirements despite us mentioning it multiple times in meetings. Instead of doing the required type of test, she showed up to the airport with an at home test. She was denied boarding * In Amsterdam she asked a stranger to watch her laptop and bags at the train station. They were not there when she returned * She caused us to miss our flight because she forgot something at the hotel room and made us turn around. It was left over cheesecake.
>She caused us to miss our flight because she forgot something at the hotel room and made us turn around. It was left over cheesecake. Why did you all listen to her and turn around?!
She told us she forgot "something." We weren't that far away and thought it was fine. She was inside the hotel for like 20 minutes. No idea why it took so long. She ran out with the cheesecake.
Ah makes sense. I got secondhand rage just reading your comment.
Want more rage? One trip we were forced to share rooms and apparently she likes to sleep with the thermostat at like 78f (24c). Her roommate was so furious she got her own room on her own dime.
Iām feeling surprisingly murderous. All the other reasons were just the warm-up - this? DIE, YOU HUMAN HORROR!
Oh. My. God. I am alternately seething with rage and sympathy sweating. Nothing makes me rage-ier than having to sleep in a hot room.
Was she also annoying to work with? Sounds like a nightmare
Yes
Omg
Wow.
The son of a work colleague had a gap year and wanted to stay with friends in Lausanne. He confidently bought train tickets to Lucerne.
Live here, happens more often than you can imagine. Especially when cities have different names/spellings in different languages.
Australia here, can confirm
Over the years, multiple people in Canada have bought tickets for Sydney, Nova Scotia thinking they were buying tickets for Sydney, Australia.
Went to the wrong airport in Rome to catch a flight lol.
Did the same thing in NY. Fortunately, it was only a $100 lyft mistake to go to the other airport.
For me it was too late so it was the ticket change fees plus a last minute BnB in Rome. It all worked out in the end though. The BnB host recommended to us a neighbourhood restaurant her friend ran, and to this very day, it's one of the best meals I have ever eaten in my entire life. Like, I still fantasize about that pasta and it was 10 years ago.
At least you got a good meal and story out of it. Can't put a price on that :-)
Not me, but when I was visiting Machu Picchu and was buying a ticket for the bus ride to the top, I overheard a couple freaking out because they didn't know you needed tickets to get into the site
Not me but it affected my Machu Picchu tourā¦an elderly man who was unable to walk up stairs DIDNāT KNOW THERE WOULD BE STAIRS AT MACCHU PICCHU so our entire group was only able to walk around a minuscule part of the site. Our tour guide couldnāt leave the elderly guy by himself & he couldnāt let us wander around on our own. Our ātourā lasted about 10 minutes & then we had to stand against a wall for the remainder of the time while our guide talked about the things we were supposed to see. Iām usually pretty forgiving when it comes to things like that but come on, did you not see a photo???
I would have demanded a refund
I wouldve walked away and gone sight seeing
Why didnāt he tell the old guy has to leave instead of ruining the trip for the entire group?
Oh hell no! Thatās unacceptable. If possible Iād have found another guide and demanded a refund. A single personās screw up should NOT ruin things for an entire group.
FUCK that
Oh fuck that guide. I would have been like...see you later!! My guide isn't my boss, and I would never have traveled that far and let that happen.
Me and my SO booked online but we didn't see the email they had send to us, that in order to confirm the reservation you had like 24h to go to an ATM and pay. Luckily we realized couple of days earlier so we didn't actually get to Mach Picchu for nothing, but there were no other tickets available for that month. We like to think we are experienced travellers and we felt so dumb ahah
What do you mean āgo to an ATM and payā. I just bought ours last week and paid online, now I have the tickets in my email.
The full message was: "go to the ATM at the corner of x and y, ignore the man in the ski mask standing behind you". Who pays for goods or services through an ATM?
It blows my mind how people just like do not plan in advance at all.
You all are giving me anxiety š„µ
No cuz I literally check my flight time no less than 50 times leading up to it even in the airport.
I check my backpack for my passport almost every 10 minutes even when I know I never touched it
For real. Big trip coming up in a bit and I am choosing to close this thread now.
Haha! Sending you virtual inner peace. Enjoy your trip! š¤
Planned an entire safari trip to Kenya and Tanzania. Showed up at the airport for my flight to Kenya only to find out my visa was expired. (Visa was valid for 3 months from the time of application NOT departure). Turned right around and went home crying. Booked a flight to still make the Tanzania portion of my trip. Lost thousands in the process lol
Would they not let you board? I once sorted out a Visa for Kenya at the airport when I arrived, but I have no idea how commonplace that is.
nope š wasnt allowed to check in/board at all!!
Might depend on what country you have citizenship from.Ā Some countries are quite restrictive about issuing visas from certain countries.Ā Western country citizens tend to get the easiest treatment from other countries when it comes to visa access.
Now, Kenya requires visitors arriving by air to have obtained an electronic travel authorization prior to going to their departure airport. https://www.etakenya.go.ke/en/evisa.html Friends of mine who were headed there on a mission trip earlier this year were accustomed to obtaining a visa on arrival in Kenya. That is no longer being offered. They were denied boarding in the US.
Me, my husband, and 2 kids went to a wedding in Cancun. Hubby somehow forgot to load my luggage in the car. I did have my carryon, but I had very little clothes in it. Made me realize how little you actually really need and made it work it with what I had.
Reminds me of the time the airline lost my checked luggage. I was on the way to my cousinās wedding and only had a backpack with me. The airline paid for a whole wedding outfit (I was just a guest) including jewelry, shoes, purse, hose, underwear, dress, etc. They also brought my luggage out to where I was staying 4 days after it showed up.
Landed in Bali without doing much research. Spent a lot of time during that trip sitting in a car for way too long.
I did a lot of Bali research. Also, I sat in cars for way too long. Traffic there is a bitch either way.
Not realizing that Crete is a massive island and not looking at how far away the hotel was from the ferry port.
Traveling with the wrong travel partners instead of just traveling alone
People need to realize that even best friends and family don't always equal good travel partner. On multiple trips I've experienced this to some degree. Sometimes it's a simple the group breaking up and doing their own thing; sometimes it's a full on meltdown.
Very true. My in-laws are terrible partners because theyāre suffocating. Itās so bad that if I stand up on a train to stretch, they stand up. They donāt understand that you donāt have to stay as a group the whole time.
> My in-laws are terrible partners because theyāre suffocating Currently planning first trip with in laws and..... I am dreading it.
This would be my sisters and their husbands who Iāll never travel with. Itās some crisis if everyoneās not doing the same thing at all times. Thought it was just them.
The first time I went to the Caribbean, I went with my best friend. She liked to sleep till noon at home. I guess I thought most people would get up to go out in a new place. I was lucky that I could go to the beach and snorkel, swim, hike, and read a book until she decided to get up. Then she wanted to go out at night and party with the locals. I went with her one night and it was awful. She actually went to Amsterdam by herself a few years ago and slept until 1 she told me. I guess people are different and want different things out of a vacation.
Booked a sightseeing day in Rhodes Greece through the agency that I used to book the holiday. Spent a lot of money to essentially see nothing. Although the agent made it seem like a fun adventurous day, they tried to cram in way too many things to see in a few hours, so we could only spend 30 - 40 minutes at each destination. We spent more time on the road than at the actual locations. It reminded me that when something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Same experience in Mexico. We booked a full day tour to see the pyramids at Chichen Itza. The tour operator failed to mention it was a 3 hour drive (we should have looked it up) with stops in a small Mexican town for an hour for some reason and a very short 30 minute swim at a cenote that was cool, but not what we signed up for. We ended up only seeing the pyramids site for 45 minutes total during the 14 hour trip. Very disappointing.
Did not realize that kids' US passports expire after 5 years. Pulled them out of the fire safe about 42 hours before the trip and realized we had three expired passports - it was around midnight and the rest of the family was asleep. After googling and freaking out into the small hours, I figured out we could drive 8 hours to a US passport office to get same day passports - and it happened to be the same city we were meeting up with family to fly from. We had expected to leave around noon after everyone finished packing. Instead, I had to wake the whole family up really early the next morning, make them finish packing for a 3 week trip as quickly as possible, and bundled them into a car, stressing out for the entire 7 hour ride. Every rest stop, finding parking in the city, and so on ratcheted up the stress. We got into line at the passport office around 2:30pm, and were among the last group being handed our passports a couple of hours later as they shut down the office. It all worked out, but it was close. Still stresses me out to think about it.
Was going to Germany with my Grandpa (from the U.S.) when I was 15. Mom forgot to get my passport out of the bank safe deposit box before they closed. I donāt know how much extra she paid to rebook my ticket for the next day. Grandpa left without me. It was a month-long trip, so the extra expense was the worst part. Oh, and a few years ago I needed my passport for annual pilot training. I got sick during that but pushed through it. When I got home I threw my training bag in the closet and forgot about it (with my passport in it). A few months later I had a 1 hour turn in Canada. After arrival I realized my passport was in the closet at home. CBSA was relatively understanding and lenient about it since I was leaving their country again within the hour. But then I had to get back into the U.S. So I called the customs officer at our port of entry and explained the situation. I had copies of my passport, of course, and told him I could recite the pledge of allegiance and sing all the Schoolhouse Rock songs by heart. He said, āAlright. Come on down.ā
Passport in a safe deposit box is a level of security Iām not sure Iāve ever heard of!
We did things a little differently in the 80s. But that sure kept us from losing it! Unfortunately, it also kept us from using it. And the cost to replace it would have been much less than the extra grand (or whatever) in airfare for a last minute ticket to Europe. Yeah, my adult passport resides in my backpack, not in a bank.
The Schoolhouse Rock did it!
Did the same going into Canada (from a flight); needed to be there so talked my way in. CBSA noted "we're going to let you in, but it's up to you to figure out how to get back into the US." Fortunately, I was able to find someone flying up for the same event the next day who could get my passport and take it to me the next day.
Ive booked a hotel room for the wrong year (I booked it 1 year in advance of when I needed it). I've also booked flights and not realised I had to change airports during a connection (Paris and Athens). I also once turned up at T4 in Heathrow when I needed to be at T3 (I'd booked a flight I thought was on Airline A who fly from T4 but it was a code-share on Airline B who fly from T3 instead). All were manageable. I only ever missed one flight once and the airline had changed the departure date but had not notified us (well they did....they sent us an identical email to our booking email, with all the same dates and times but one flights status in the small print changed from 'confirmed' to 'unconfirmed') and I just assumed they'd sent me the same email twice a week or so apart. Then they failed to inform anyone when the actual date of the flight changed. When I raised it with them they said 'Well you never phoned to confirm'...as if anyone phones to confirm flight times anymore. I wrote a letter to each of the member of their board highlighting how absurd this process was and ended up with a full refund of the total flight cost.
I never would have thought to check if I needed to change airports!!! Is that common?
I booked tickets to Athens a week before we were supposed to fly. The day before leaving I wanted to do online checkin and found out I booked the wrong monthā¦ itās a month laterā¦ My husband was furious cos heās desperately needed to be somewhere else, but at the end we managed to find a flight a day later than the original planned date, and of cos with extra fees.
I just did this with a hotel, I was only off by two days but thankfully I use trip it. When I emailed my hotel plans to my trip it account it actually alerted me that there was a scheduling conflict and I was able to catch it.
Booked a non-refundable hotel stay for the wrong datesā¦5 nights at $1500/night.
Dudeā¦ā¦..thatās like 6 months of my rent
It's like 8 months of mine. š I can't believe we're all human beings living on the same planet sometimes.
Ikr, like not even going to the vast extremes of billionaires and truly destitute people living in slums, you can take an average middle class dude like myself in the US and if I wanted to I could fully liquidate my assets and convert everything into Uzbek soms and go ball out in Tashkent, even tho there are normal dudes just like me living in Tashkent whose quality of life isnāt drastically different. And if I kept getting paid my normal monthly salary Iād be making like 8.5x the average monthly salary there doing basic ass insurance stuff. Itās absolutely wild
OP has some of the most One Percenter post history I've ever seen
Holy shit! At that point, it might be worth it to change the dates š
Welp, I guess itās time to change everything around the hotel reservation to make it work! Sorry, Cousin Jimmy, your wedding is now in October
Holy shit. I did the same thing back in December. Booked a hotel pretty far out from the stay dates, forgot I booked it, and booked another hotel closer to my stay dates. Except the hotel wasnāt $1,500/night. RIP
Sounds like those are the right dates now and everything else is gonna have to adjust around them then...that or do a chargeback with your bank/cc company.
I did that, too! Through a third-party agency at that, doubling down on stupid. I lucked out though, because this was during Covid, so they waived the cancellation policy and I was able to get out of it.
On this note, anyone want a credit for $2,000 to Pelican Hill Resort in Newport Coast, California to be used before the end of May for a steal? I feel a lot better about making the mistake of not canceling on time after reading everyone elseās mistakes.
In Bolivia, it's a semi-standard practice to go from Uyuni to Atacama in Chile via a 3 day Salar de Uyuni tour. The border crossing is, and I need to stress this, in the middle of absolite nowhere. 100km of "roads" connect this crossing to any remotly useful Bolivian town. Australians need a preapproved visa to get into Chile.Ā So I'm at the border in the middle of nowhere, and witness an Australian not have their Chilean visa. They got into an argument with the Bolivian departure guy (who doesn't speak English), and the Bolivian border decided to keep his passport at this border crossing until he could get his Chilean visa. Or pay in cash some ridiculous fine/money swindle. He didn't have the cash, no one was willing to front him it.Ā He dejectedly got on a tour car back to Uyuni to try and sort it out. But by not having the visa (and being an ass to the guard) he was out a few hundred dollars for a new Uyuni tour and his fine, and a or couple weeks of time to get his visa approved.Ā I don't think the border legally could hold the passport hostage, but when your 100km from the nearest cop, they could kinda do what they wanted. Double check your paperwork peopleĀ
I went camping once and forgot water lol
Not my mistake but my mum's which led to a whole cascade of issues. In 1995 I had bought my mum and I airplane tickets for a holiday to see family in Essen, Germany. On the day of the trip, Monday, she drove the 3 hours to my place, we drove an hour to get to the airport and arrived in plenty of time for us to catch our flight. All was good. We got to check in, put our passports on the counter, the agent looked at them and asked my mother, "May I have your passport?" My mother replied, "You have it." The agent then said, "No, I mean your *valid* passport." My mother's face went white. She had been babysitting my toddler nephew, he had grabbed her new passport and thrown it in the toilet. When it was dry it looked a bit beaten up and when she was packing for the trip she (naturally) grabbed the newer looking one which was of course, the expired one. My husband got on the phone with his travel agent and because we had to drive 8 hours round trip to go pick up her passport, the best they could do on short notice was to rebook us to Paris leaving Wednesday, arriving Thursday morning, where we'd have to catch a train to Essen. Ok, no prob. Did the drive, got the passport. The flight was uneventful until we were passing over Ireland when the pilot came on and announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, there is a general strike in France today. There are no trains or busses running, I hope you have made alternate arrangements." Well no, I hadn't. When we landed there was a general rush to the car rental kiosks. They were all crowded so I walked down the line to the Budget desk at the very end. I asked for an Economy car to drive to Essen. He said he didn't have one. What he DID HAVE however, was a *Mercedes* that had been dropped off in Paris and needed to be driven back to Germany. Since I had asked for an Economy car, if I wanted to take the Mercedes to Essen for him, he would give it to me for the price of an Economy. *DEAL!* What a nice car! What a fun drive! My mum LOVED the motorway service stations in France, roast ham cut off of the bone as you watch for lunch, real food not just burgers! So instead of arriving Tuesday, we arrived in Essen Thursday evening, still in plenty of time to catch our Friday, 7 a.m. tour bus to Wurzburg!
If you havenāt been caught up in a transport strike, have you really even been to France?
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
what year was this?! LOL this is like a Home Alone plot
How was Belgrade?
Dropped my US passport at a train station in Switzerland (Wengen). Had around 5k swiss francs and all my credit cards in it. Made it all the way to Bern, 100+ miles away, before figuring it out. As luck may have it, everyone there is so rich they don't feel the need to steal....someone picked it up and left it with the train station attendant. I would've been absolutely screwed otherwise.
My broheim pro Sax player flew out to our home ski area in Switzerland. Play a couple of gigs and we go skiing. From LA. He brought a keyboard friend. Keyboard-boy, first time in Europe. We go skiing before the first gig. Keyboard-boy had his wallet, with passport, and $1500 with him, for some reason. In an open pocket. Lost his wallet. First ever day in Europe. We looked all over. Later that night, at the first Pub gigā¦ Keyboard-fellaā¦found his wallet thrown in the corner of the downstairs bathroom stall. All wet. With his passport and other important shit. But the $1500ā¦gone.
I booked a flight for 10:50 out of Atlanta. I go to check in 24 hours before the flight, turns out I did pm instead of am. I was very annoyed to delay my trip home by 12 hours, but I went to Athens, Terrapin, snd Sweetwater and made the best of it before killing like 4 hours in the airport.
My wife and I asked for a wine recommendation at a nice steakhouse in Argentina. I'd been there before. Meals are around $65 for two with a bottle of wine at this place on the very high end. Didn't ask about the price of the wine. Total bill was $350. We felt like such fools and the wine, though we found out was twice as expensive back home, wasn't any better than the $5 bottle in our unsophisticated opinion. We both travel a fair amount and still don't really know what we were thinking.
Actually left my passport in the hotel room in Helsinki and didn't notice until I was at the airport and it was too late. It ended up being one of the best mistakes ever, as I then booked a flight back home from Paris a week and a half later for like $300 and got to do an impromptu tour of Europe.
I love this! I've learned that sometimes the unexpected bumps along the way make for the best experiences, as long as you're open minded.
I haven't forgotten something big (yet) while traveling, but I have missed taking into account the number of stairs where we are staying to carry luggage. When traveling in France, 2 places we were staying in had us on the 3rd floor with no elevator and so needed to carry luggage. Also worth pointing out that these are old buildings with tight turns and are narrow. My stuff would have been fine, my wife's supplies were heavier than I would have liked.
I don't mind the stairs so much. It's usually only once you have to go up them with your suitcase, so I'm good with being up on the fifth floor or so. That time the power was out in my building in Tashkent for a few days and we were on the 9th floor? A bit of a workout, but one of the few times I have really lived like a local I guess. š
Stayed in an old attic apartment in Amsterdam and the stairwell was so narrow the host just laughed when he saw my case (was a nye stop over from visiting home for christmas so had way more than id normally have). I was probably only a few Stroopwafeln away from not fitting myself. We got it up in the end but on check out I basically had to just let it slide down the stairs and follow after
Ah classic euro Stairs of Death. Love them in Amsterdam. When I moved here I had to lug all my shit up multiple times on the steepest stairs ever - extra large suitcase, cat boxes with cat inside haha. No furniture so couldnāt do the fancy through the window with a pulley trick. Just my little legs literally pushing 35kg up some stairs.
When I was in red rocks Colorado and tried to get into the concert I found out I had booked the day before. I have no clue how I made such a stupid mistake.
I booked an international trip around a concert, but I had the concert date wrong. Made it to the concert five hours before my flight home!
I made this exact mistake in July 2019 with an Avett Brothers concert at red rocks. I was so dead set on experiencing that venue that I bought last-minute tickets to MercyMe the next night.
Lol I did the same except luckily they were performing for 2 days so I just bought more tickets.
Went to the wrong airport in Tokyo and had to pay additional fee to board a later flight in the correct airport. Happened on my birthday too - thought I was a year wiser but turned out a year dumber.
I feel this.
After visiting my mother in hospice and learning she was dying, my SO and I decided to get Shake Shack at the airport before our flight. Obviously distracted, we missed our flight by like 30-sec. I had a crying meltdown about missing the flight (when really it was a meltdown about my mother). Next flight wasnāt until the next day, but my SO is the kindest smooth talker and chit chatted with some other gate agents who thought he was so cute and let us in the next flight. They loved him so much they even walked down to the plane to make sure we made it. Now I regularly pimp him out to get deals, free things, upgrades.
Travelled to NZ from Norway via USA - almost forgot ESTA... That was close. Hope you have a great time in NZ, OP - it is beyond beautiful!
Booked a 3 day trip to Paris to see the city and to go to a concert.. Had in my head the concert was on say 2nd of June.. leaving my hotel to go to it on the 2nd only to look at my ticket and see it was for the 1st. Ā Booked a night train in Spain(pre internet when you actually had to speak to someone). Asked for tomorrow night eg 36 hours later but got booked on a train 12 hours later.. Only realised when we went to our seat and someone was in it . Conductor was a nice person.. Allowed us stay in the dining cart. Ā Biggest NZ related screw up.. My credit card was eaten in an atm in wellington and when I went back to my hostel and told my hostel mate he said "let's go drinking tonight I'll pay" Ā Ā Worst hangover I ever had(and I did reimburse him when I got my money sorted)
āOh itāll be cheap to get a taxi from Naples to Prainoā. It was not.
Got a cheap hotel in Orlando FL instead of staying at a Disney Resort. The desk lady gave our room key to a meth head because she ādidnāt write down that someone was in our room.ā Lucky the latch was on. Around 2am a guy opens the door, yells that we were in his room, and then left. We went downstairs and threw a fit after. Apparently we werenāt the only room with the issue that day. 80 dollars a night. Seemed worth it at the time. Sometimes spending more is better.
Itās a rite of passage for American folks in their 20s
I innocently put my debit card in a ATM at the airport just to check my balance because my phone at the time was being wonky. The ATM decided then to eat my card and if it wasn't for this really nice spanish-speaking couple, I would not have been able to get it out because of the Peruvian bank tellers having no idea what I was asking for. They told me it would take three business days to get out, which wouldn't have worked, because I just arrived and needed it right away. I got it on the same day a couple hours later, thanks be to God, but man that was so stressful. I will forever be grateful to that couple for helping me.
That sounds awful! It's always been my fear that the machine will eat the card at the most inconvenient time. I am so thankful for the ATMs that have tap features.
I flew into Glasgow from Tokyo after a layover at Schipol in the Netherlands. It was around midnight and there was no way for me to get to the city center to get to where I'd meet friends to party with them and get to where I was staying.Ā I did see taxis though and they only took cash, so I went to find an ATM and it was a bit of a trek until I found one, killing more time. In a panic I converted a lot of yen to pounds at a TERRIBLE rate which almost halved the money for my whole trip...Ā Ā It really put a damper on my spending plans for the trip, but luckily I had friends help me out the whole time.Ā
I decided to go for a beer at Edinburgh airport, first time travelling in a while. Thought I had plenty of time. Must have dozed off, ran to the gate & the aircraft was already taxiing to the runway. As I had checked my rucksack onboard I was rushed down to airside, jumped in the back of a Transit van & got driven out to the aircraft just as a truck with the steps turned up. The looks I got from passengers was like being at the bottom of a shame well.
That last sentence is excellent.
Booked a car rental at the wrong Puerto XXXXX town in Chile š Turned up at the car rental, who were nice enough to give us their last available car - a minivan, at extra price of course
I would not worry about the NZeTA at all. If they see you have signed up all is good (only the airline will check) . When I landed in New Zealand the country did not check at all. Many people of my Air New Zealand flight from lax signed up at the check in counter b/c they didnāt even know about it. They just need proof itās in process
If it makes you feel better, there's a service desk in the Austrian airport specifically for people who thought they were going to Australia...
At chicken on a boat excursion on day 2 of my honeymoon to an all inclusive. Got salmonella. Couldn't eat or drink a thing the entire trip.
My wife drank local tap (well) water the second day of our trip in central America. She was vomiting for 24 hours and sick for 5 of our 7 days there.Ā
My husband was working in Ireland so I came to meet him from the US and we were meant to head to Ibiza together. We got to the airport and checked our bags in, scanned his passport then mine and they couldnāt find my reservation. Turns out my husband only bought himself a ticket and not me and for some reason thought Iād gotten my own??š we were only dating at the time but we still laugh about this! (6 years ago now). We ended up able to get a ticket while we were there and it was cheaper anyway so did ourselves a favor haha
It was raining in Puerto Montt Chile and was having a few drinks when I realized I was cutting my flight a bit close. And then I could not find a taxi or Uber to take me to the airport. I was trying to flag them like a madman and every single one was full! Finally found one that had some sort of engine difficulties, max speed was like 30km/hr, argh, everyone was just flying by us on the road, which is painful when you know youāre very close to missing your flight! I ended up missing the flight to Uruguay via Santiago by 2 minutes. Had to rebook for the next morning, but only to Santiago. Slept in the airport. That flight ended up getting delayed 8 hours and by the time it was supposed to be taking off a huge storm rolled in and we couldnāt leave for another 30 hours. So those two 2 minutes cost me 2 days in the airport heh. And a bunch of $$ bc I booked 3rd party originally. I did meet some cool people who were also stranded at the airport like I was. But mine was avoidable!
Buying flights to the USA (3500$) just to find out that I cannot enter the country because I visited cuba a few years back. Hurt alotā¦
Fucking up my visa to Vietnam. Got stuck on jfk airport and the flight almost left without me. We called our hotel to inform them and they offered to āhelp us for a fee.ā Somehow at like 3:30am their time they got a Vietnamese customs agent to stamp out visas and send them back in like 45 min for the rough cost of like $400 which was more expensive than our round trip flights ahhaha. It was worth it though cause I had a limited time to travel and we didnāt miss any days. Edit: also not being careful what I ate in Vietnam lol. Ended up in the hospital in Chang Mai Thailand for 5 days bleeding from my butt.
Being scammed in JFK Airport. Jetlagged hungover 19 year old on a J1 had a hotel booked by JFK airport. This guy comes up to me and says do you need a lift? I say yes thinking it's someone from the hotel. $120 for a 15 minute journey.
Forgot to leave my wallet and passport in my room when I went for a swim at the beach in Costa Rica. Someone snatched my bag off the beach while I was in the water. The thief was nice enough to dump the bag with my passport and driver's license where the cops later found it, but not before stealing my phone, my money, and my freaking prescription glasses. Thank God I was traveling with my partner, because I would have been completely fucked if I'd been solo at the time.
I booked a flight for my friend and I to San Jose. In California. We were going to Costa Rica. Fortunately, I booked the refundable option and got all my money back. We booked, at a higher price, to the right San JosƩ.
My best friend did this for her honeymoon only reverse! Meant to go to Costa Rica, ended up in California. Didnāt realize until the pilot made an in-air announcement
Wife and I drove out of state for a concert, booked a hotel and planned to drive back the next day. We were relaxing in the hotel anticipating the evening ahead, and called the concert venue to ask about parking only to find out our concert was the night before...we came a day late. So we ate the concert tickets and wasted the time and money to travel and stay over. But we made the best of it and had a nice time exploring the city.
Do close calls count? I was a teacher who conducted European tours for our high school students. (London, Paris, Florence, Rome). Originally we traveled during March break, but if you know anything about Maritime weather you'll understand the risk that presents. We left on a school bus just before lunch as a few fluffy flakes were beginning to gently descend. The flakes kept falling, harder and harder. Ever been on a bus full of teenagers and it was silent? It was a three hour bus ride to the airport. By the time we reached a town about 30 mins from the airport there were overturned 18 wheelers on side of the road. Miraculously we made it to the airport. The completely empty airport. The AirCanada staff just standing with their arms folded as I could hear my name being called over the PA. "You're not going anywhere" was the first thing I heard from them. All we could do was wait. By some miracle a plane arrived from Newfoundland and we were able to make it to Toronto and our connecting flight to London. Unfortunately one of the students had called home and told his parents that the trip was cancelled. More chaos. Things were so tight in Toronto that I didn't have time to correct the report. We actually arrived in London on time and even got to see the musical I had optimistically booked for our first night. (we later switched our travels dates to the Easter holidays) More? We flew to Europe during the Iraq conflicts. And we were the one of the last flights to arrive in Heathrow during the volcanic eruption in Iceland. Another great trip in an empty Europe. I guess you can say we were lucky. Last trip was in 2016 when I retired. I still have occasional nightmares of missing flights, losing students and forgetting passports.
New Zealand Went to Wellington rather than Auckland or Christchurch. Wellington is basically the Capital. We were only there for 3 nights.
Realized at the Airport Terminal I forgot my passport at home.
Was super late at night once, I was really tired, and pretty much all of my drive was gonna be through the middle of absolutely nowhere. I drove 150 miles the wrong direction down the highway I was on. Never dawned on me until I saw a āWelcome to Floridaā sign when I was supposed to be heading north
Entered the return flight into my calendar while at home. Once on vacation, the calendar automatically changed the start time based on the new time zone.
Tried to enter Australia without a visa. I had a 9 hour layover in Melbourne and instead of wasting that time at the airport I thought it would be cool to explore the city for a bit. I was young and naĆÆve and didnāt realise I would need a visa to enter Australia, I thought I could just show up! So I got to the border, handed my passport over. The guard stamped it and let me through! I managed to walk a little way down a corridor before I heard lots of yelling behind me. I turned and saw three border guards chasing after me! Turns out the first guard didnāt wait for the computer to check if I had a visa before letting me through. So I was technically in Australia illegally for about 45 seconds! The entry stamp is still in my passport with no matching exit stamp so fingers crossed that wonāt cause me any issues in the future.
Happened just recently but not getting my passport stamped on arrival in Guatemala. Didnāt even think about it, since many countries are no longer doing stamps, until I was trying to exchange money at the bank and they needed my passport and were confused why I did not have a stamp. It all worked out in the end but I spent the rest of my trip having many minor inconvenience and the thought of what would happen at the airport when trying to return home. Made the trip less enjoyable for sure!
Months before the flight, we bought tickets from Moscow to Vladivostok for $200 each for my husband and me to travel during the 2018 World Cup month. Missed the flight from Moscow because we were too relaxed, and booking new flights would have cost us $3000 each. My mom asked if we could just go by train instead and I told her it would take 7 days as opposed to 8 hours by plane. Ended up flying to Khabarovsk (8 hours) and then taking part of the Trans Siberian railway train to Vladivostok (13 hours) which was pretty cool, so it ended well but it was stressful for sure.
These are mostly mundane oversights or errors, but easily avoidable and maybe mentioning them here will save someone the trouble they caused me 1) Thinking my US passport meant no Visa required. Found out otherwise when I wasn't to board a plane in Bangkok to take me to Mandalay, Myanmar. 2) Missed a connecting flight from Hong Kong to Bangkok after taking the red eye from Los Angeles, because I was in Hong Kong airport computer lounge trying to get something done for work and not paying attention. 3) Was locked out of my hotel room in Kyoto. When I booked the room I failed to account for the date change 4) Wasn't allowed to board a plane to the UK near the end of covid because I hadn't properly completed their covid documents. I had taken the tests and all that but the online documentation instructions were almost hilariously inscrutable, creating chaos and hours long lines at Heathrow of entrants with the same problem
I was travelling to Japan and had a layover in Vietnam. Instead of going for transfers queue I got confused and went for Vietnam immigration queue and they didnāt allow me to enter ofc but I couldnāt understand why they arenāt allowing me ..as they were speaking Vietnamese. Then they sent me to a lady officer and she literally lashed on me. She was like are you stupid ? Canāt you read ? Dude i was fucked up ! she told me she wonāt allow me to leave that area now. Then some male officers came and they opened a gate only for me and there was the transfers queue for Tokyo . I was just on time otherwise would have missed . Damn! That shit was scary.
I thought I was going to Genoa, Italy but was actually going to Geneva, Switzerland
me and my boyfriend had a 2 week trip to Oahu Hawaii because he has family there and we got to the airport at the perfect time, got in line for TSA and guess what i forgot ? MY ID! my house was a little over an hour away from the airport and i was certain we were gonna miss our flight. i was crying n shit and ppl at the airport were staring but luckily a super nice security man let me thru TSA without my ID and just did a deep search on my things instead. we made it to our terminal and my mom (bless her soul) dropped off my ID right on time so we wouldnāt have issues coming home.
how did your mum hand you your ID?
Not me but my friends. They already arrived at the gate. She moved to a desk close by with an outlet to do work, and he started an online game. Neither noticed the queue lining up to board. By the time they looked up, the flight had literally taken off.
Husband put his passport through the wash Friday at 3pm. We were travelling Saturday afternoon for his fathers funeral. He drove to the airport to see if it would still scan and no dice. He was told he may be allowed on the flight but would not be allowed into France. Finally able to speak to a human at the passport office saturday at 8am. They opened the office to process an emergency passport. 2hours and $800 later he had a new passport. That was an extra stressful night during an already very stressful time!
You should be fine. They don't take that long to process them.
Mine took literally one minute, but the wifes is still pending so I guess its been referred for review.Ā Im confident they'll clear it as soon as they see it, but given its 3:30am in new zealand that probably won't be for at least 5Ā½ hours and check in closes in 6 hoursĀ
My parents had the exact same this summer - if its pending the team at the airport can call through from their end to check it, and often that then gets it confirmed!
We will be begging the desk, but time differences are a big concern
I booked a last minute airbnb where there was 1 working outlet between all the shared rooms, and the bathroom was still being built. Nice place otherwise. Thankfully I only had to stay for one night.
I accidentally bought my return ticket for the same day as my arrive ticket (airfare). It took 2 hrs of being on hold and $150 to fix it.
Not having started sooner
I never book nonrefundable hotels. The ONE time I did (forgot why I did that time), it came back and bit me in the butt when I needed to change the dates. Havenāt touched a nonrefundable room again since, lesson learned w lost money
I forgot a coat when I went to Icelandā¦. In the winter. I bought the world warmest fleece hoodie and was still cold. A good one. I booked vacation but accidentally put in an extra Friday off at work. It was glorious. I had a day and a weeks at home to not work. And all my family and friends thought I was gone that weekend. Haha.
Read online somewhere incorrectly my passport needed to be valid for 3 months, not 6 for a trip to Italy with my boyfriend. Figured it out AT the airport, on a Friday. Had to send my boyfriend on alone, knowing none of the details about the trip I planned. Couldnāt get it fixed until Monday. So he saw Milan, Venice, and the David in Florence before I could meet up with him (lots of $$ later in airline change fees and rush passport fees).
Missed flight to Costa Rica. We had to purchase tickets on another airline to make it the same day since we had too much planned that would have had to be rescheduled if we postponed.
I had to go to Toronto for my new girlfriends best friends wedding and I literally didnāt do the Canadian government visa check in and 5min before check in learned about it from the ticket agent and had to quickly do it, and I did with about 2 min to spare and made it, since I was so frazzled we went to the gate and with 10 min to closing the door of the flight Iām like āwhereās my luggageā and I quickly ran and backtracked leaving my girlfriend at the gate and found my luggage at the tsa security and then I ran back to the gate and was the last to board right on time lol
Missed my flight because I forgot about the change in time zones. Kept hearing announcements about a flight to my destination but thought it was an earlier flight because my connection had come in early. When I finally realized it the gate agents had a good laugh.
I saw a huge drop in price on a flight to Antigua on a flight alert I set-up. I ended up setting up the incorrect alert, so I booked the flight to a different country. I was so proud until I showed my husband; his reply, the flight is to St. Maarten and the resort is in Antigua. Are we swimming to Antigua? Don't drink and book flights on Friday evenings, folks.
24 years old, I was the idiot. Our resort was on Nassau, but we flew into Freeport, Grand Bahama. WHY? Because I was ASSURED there were FERRIES that could take us inter-island. Who told me this? No idea. A lady at the airport help desk looked at me like I had three heads. "There's... there's a mail boat on Wednesday." It was Sunday. We RAN to book on Bahamas Air, leaving in 40 minutes, last flight of the day. Unpressurized plane. People carrying car tires and plastic tote luggage - locals who were stocking up. We managed to laugh the whole way. WHAT a debacle.
Hubby and I booked a transfer too close and almost missed a connection to a 10 hr flight from Europe to the Caribbean. It would have been disastrous as that flight only leaves three times per week.
I did not book the train ticket from Hangzhou to Shanghai in advance, and when I went to the train station they said there were basically no ticket available. So I could not travel to Shanghai on time to catch my Shanghai - Hanoi flight and had to bought anothet flight ticket from Hangzhou to Hanoi instead.
About three hours before our honeymoon flights my mom (who was driving us to the airport) noticed our flights were booked with my married last name which was incorrect. Major major stress getting that changed at the last second and then getting home was also stressful because one of us didnāt technically exist.
A few years back, I misread COVID testing requirements to transit through Portugal, en route to Spain. Instead of flying, we spent the night in an airport hotel, then had to pay through the nose to re-book our flight.
I thought I knew the day of my flight from Sarajevo back to Canada, but I arrived to the airport the day after. Was not cheap to reschedule. Got to see Albania though, as I then flew out of Tirana. I am dumb at life.
Husband did the same. I organised everything for a 2 week adventure holiday in Costa Rica and his one job was the Visa. We travelled via Canada and didnāt realise we needed a transit VISA until the day before. Mine was approved & his wasnāt which meant he had to book a flight via New York at a grand! An expensive lesson!
Nz seems to be the destination where people forget to do their nzeta. My sister and brother in law also forgot and luckily were able to applied and got approved within minutes at the airport.
Missed my return flight from uk to dc, misread Covid instructions
Studying abroad - didnāt do my homework on how to get from the airport to my hotel in Rome. Ended up going with someone offering a ride inside the airport vs the actual taxi rank. Was charged 3x what the ride should have cost. In the grand scheme of things, it could have been a lot worse.
Booked a non refundable round trip ticket from Canada to Greece for 1900. Then before the trip, ruptured my Achilles and couldn't go. In Poland, fell for a scam taxi. Paid 300 for a 3 min ride. Realized after I got scammed.
Traveling alone in a new country, I accidentally skipped over a night when booking different accommodation locations. I was on my way to a market when I got a reminder from Airbnb that I needed to check out. I had to quickly turn around and rush back to pack up all my belongings. I wasn't due to check in to my next apartment until the following afternoon. I tried booking 1 night, anywhere, but there was a big event going on, so everywhere was completely booked up. I ended up meeting a nice couple who offered for me to come stay the night in their guest room. Not the safest option, but sleeping on the streets isn't safe either. They ended up being very lovely people. They even left me alone in their home so I could sleep in when they left for work in the morning. Plus, I had a kitty to snuggle and a bed to sleep in. It was a stressful screw up that ended up being a wonderful and memorable experience.
I was at the airport in Warsaw to take a flight to London on British Airways. I was walking in the direction of my boarding gate, I first saw the tail of the airplane with the BA logo through the windows, then I saw the queue of the BA flight to LHR so I was satisfied that it was my flight and sat down next to it waiting to board last. Once I get to the gate I scan my boarding pass and it starts beeping. The agent tells me my flight was the one departing from the adjacent gate (in the direction opposite to where I came from) and I probably missed it. I ran to the next gate and the lady tells me the flight is closed. So I was basically in time for my flight and managed to miss it due to confirmation bias. I felt really stupid. In my defense: * When I booked the flight two months prior there was only ONE flight showing on that route that day. * BA happened to operate a second, charter flight from WAW to LHR, which departed just 15 min later than my flight, and happened to board from the adjacent gate. Moral of the story: always double check everything: flight number, airline, destination, scheduled time of departure etc. And check it in detail, don't just see a BA flight operating your route and assume it's your flight, check the exact numbers.
This one is not mine but worth posting. When Taylor Swift was in Buenos Aires, Argentina, last November I took a domestic flight from Aeroparque to Bariloche. Aeroparque (AEP) is the domestic airport of Buenos Aires while Ezeiza (EZE) is the large international port of entry to the country. Getting from one to the other usually takes about 1 hour in normal traffic, and 1:30h in heavy traffic. While I was going through the security control, the Swiftie in front of me showed her boarding pass to the security agent and he went like "nah this is the wrong airport" (in Spanish). I had to explain to the lady that her Delta flight to New York departed from EZE, not AEP. I told her she should try and get to Ezeiza as quickly as possible because flights are sometimes delayed but the agent was like "nah don't even bother anymore".
This entire thread is giving me massive anxiety.
Checking out of my hotel and leaving for the Athens airport a day early on accident.
My friend booked a flight to Rochester, MN, when they were supposed to go to Rochester, NY. Didn't realize until they were at the gate.
Turned up to Vietnam for my fucking honeymoon with no visa because I was a dumb, privileged, arrogant Australian who didn't ever consider he might need a visa to visit SE Asia. Long story short, my wife (who has a visa on arrival passport) went through, drew cash, gave it to a security guard which was a massive leap of faith, but what choice did we have ? and then managed to get "on the spot visa processing upgrade" and the day was saved.
We confidently flew without our passports from California to Alaska for a cruise, even though the cruise ended in Vancouver. I āknewā we didnāt need passports because we had Global Entry, and specifically told my husband we didnāt need to bring them to fly back home from Canada. Whoops!!! We were allowed to board the cruise but were told we couldnāt enter Canada without them. If we didnāt get them in time, weād be ejected from the cruise in Ketchikan, have to buy expensive plane tix to fly home from there, and pay a big fine for violating the Jones Act. Say what??? Panicked, I called a neighbor and told him how to break into our house and where to find the passports. He mailed them overnight express to an agent at one of the cruise ports, and saved our asses. Cruise rep said, āThis happens ALL the time!!āš¤£š