Want to read a stupid, ridiculous travel story in the main-stream press?
Apr 6th, 2006, 12:34 PM
#1
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Want to read a stupid, ridiculous travel story in the main-stream press?
Well, this is a link to the story on USAToday. But it's actually from the AP:
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/...nge-trip_x.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/...nge-trip_x.htm
Apr 6th, 2006, 01:50 PM
#3
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I'm amazed that people get sent off by their companies with no preparation for the little things that go wrong. And, obviously, this guy had never traveled on his own. I can imagine this same story written by a seasoned traveler who would regale us with tales of odd foods eaten, Chinese Airline stories, the brothel story would be a comedy, etc.
Apr 6th, 2006, 02:30 PM
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This guy's totally just poising himself to sue someone. I saw it on the news last night (in Seattle), he had fake tears and everything. Saying he was going to need to "think about it" before he decided how it could be "fixed." C'mon, yes it's an inconvenience and somebody screwed up, but did you not check your tickets before you got on a plane?
I might have more sympathy for the guy if I wasn't sure that I was going to hear about the lawsuit he'll file in the next 10 days.
I might have more sympathy for the guy if I wasn't sure that I was going to hear about the lawsuit he'll file in the next 10 days.
Apr 6th, 2006, 02:45 PM
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So he thought he was booking a flight to "Taiwan"? You don't book flights to countries, you book them to cities. And we're expected to believe that passers-by were spitting at him? Oh, give me a break.
Apr 6th, 2006, 03:12 PM
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Neil - My guess is that someone tells him the Taipei airport is in Taoyuan. [TPE is mostly referred to locally as Taoyuan airport, rather than the official name of "Chung Cheng" (i.e. CKS) airport]. So he tells someone to book his flight to Taoyuan. Taoyuan, Taiyuan, close enough... 
Apr 6th, 2006, 04:23 PM
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This story is such crap. Why would he have needed to borrow money if he was traveling on the corporate dime? I'm sure they didn't leave him with nothing. No mention of calling his company for help either. Also, shouldn't he have a round trip ticket or an ongoing ticket already or was he just flying one way to Taiwan? It makes no sense and he's obviously just trying to make a buck off someone. Why would the Chinese spit on him, that's just rediculous.
Apr 6th, 2006, 04:25 PM
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It's a fascinating article. We learn so much from it. Things like:
- We should all start learning Chinese
- There are brothels in "remote" interior Chinese cities
- We should all sell Intel stocks
- Someone will tell the most humiliating story of themselves just to be in the news
- News must have been slow lately
- We should all start learning Chinese
- There are brothels in "remote" interior Chinese cities
- We should all sell Intel stocks
- Someone will tell the most humiliating story of themselves just to be in the news
- News must have been slow lately
Apr 6th, 2006, 04:58 PM
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I just heard from my source at USAToday. Next week, they'll have an article on the adventure of a Chinese guy who booked the wrong flight and ended up in Little Rock, AR. He doesn't know any English and has no USD on him.
Incidentally, Little Rock is where Mr. Nelson of the current story is from.
Fascinating stuff. Stay tuned!
Hahahah...
Incidentally, Little Rock is where Mr. Nelson of the current story is from.
Fascinating stuff. Stay tuned!
Hahahah...
Apr 6th, 2006, 07:35 PM
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So sad, yet so true.
Unfortunately, this guy is more the norm of the kind of people American companies send abroad rather than the exception.
I've had to escort senior managers (VPs, etc) to China, guys who couldn't find their way to the restroom! So, yes, I've had to escort them to the restroom door and then wait for them to come out and then escort them back to the meeting. Others refused to go to the obligatory banquets and insisted that China was "backwards" because there were no Burger Kings nearby!
Why do so many sign up for jobs involving Asia? Because the pay is good, the perks better. For a lot of them, it's not the job that they are travelling to - it's the R&R (rest and relaxation) session that they feel called up to spend in Australia or New Zealand after the "hardship" days spent in Asia.
That said, Taiyuan is pretty much of a god-forsaken place to be stranded in without knowing the language. The story did say that he was helped by someone(s), so all was not lost.
My question is: why was he left to wander around Asia all by himself? Didn't someone in his company make his reservations for him? Wasn't someone from his company/client company supposed to meet him/help him?
As for Amex, they're into making money, not in helping their clients. I use Amex as little as possible when travelling abroad.
Phew, just had to get my two cents in!
Unfortunately, this guy is more the norm of the kind of people American companies send abroad rather than the exception.
I've had to escort senior managers (VPs, etc) to China, guys who couldn't find their way to the restroom! So, yes, I've had to escort them to the restroom door and then wait for them to come out and then escort them back to the meeting. Others refused to go to the obligatory banquets and insisted that China was "backwards" because there were no Burger Kings nearby!
Why do so many sign up for jobs involving Asia? Because the pay is good, the perks better. For a lot of them, it's not the job that they are travelling to - it's the R&R (rest and relaxation) session that they feel called up to spend in Australia or New Zealand after the "hardship" days spent in Asia.
That said, Taiyuan is pretty much of a god-forsaken place to be stranded in without knowing the language. The story did say that he was helped by someone(s), so all was not lost.
My question is: why was he left to wander around Asia all by himself? Didn't someone in his company make his reservations for him? Wasn't someone from his company/client company supposed to meet him/help him?
As for Amex, they're into making money, not in helping their clients. I use Amex as little as possible when travelling abroad.
Phew, just had to get my two cents in!
Apr 6th, 2006, 08:27 PM
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i know this guy.....he is the one who built my computer....that is why it is all screwed up....what a moron...why not just go to the airline for help....have them telephone your corporate travel agent....and if that did not work, just telephone your office for help....english can be hard to find sometimes, but not that hard to find....
take a good look at him....he looks like he could not puff his way out of a wet paper bag....too much crazy smokes!!!
take a good look at him....he looks like he could not puff his way out of a wet paper bag....too much crazy smokes!!!
Apr 6th, 2006, 09:17 PM
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- the guy was an a half dozen Chinese city business trip
1 why didn't he just use the ticket to the next leg of the trip
2 you'd think he would of done some research on such a long trip: learned some simple words, read up on business culture etc.
- poor guy injured his back because of leaping out of the way of cars and spit.
-why do I get the feeling this guy doesn't work for INTEL, but is just a electronics clerk at Walmart.
Apr 7th, 2006, 04:59 AM
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JamesA - I am not sure what airline he flies. It's a once-a-week route, most likely on China Eastern. [See, his travel agent really went out of the way to book him to Taiyuan. Just one flight per week, instead of about 3/hour to TPE.]
But to answer the other questions. He did go to various Chinese cities, so he have a business multi-entry visa. And my guess is that he had finished his China-portion of his trip, exchanged all his RMB, and then is on the way to Taiwan, then back to the US.
That HKG-TYN flight arrives late at night, around 11pm. So, I am not surprised that he couldn't find a lot of help.
So, the facts of his trip did hold up. It's not a made-up story. It's just an embarrassing and humiliating one.
My point is that if this happened to me (say if I ended up in Uzbekistan by accident and went through the whole ordeal), I wouldn't let it printed on USAToday to show the whole world what a moronic thing I did.
But to answer the other questions. He did go to various Chinese cities, so he have a business multi-entry visa. And my guess is that he had finished his China-portion of his trip, exchanged all his RMB, and then is on the way to Taiwan, then back to the US.
That HKG-TYN flight arrives late at night, around 11pm. So, I am not surprised that he couldn't find a lot of help.
So, the facts of his trip did hold up. It's not a made-up story. It's just an embarrassing and humiliating one.
My point is that if this happened to me (say if I ended up in Uzbekistan by accident and went through the whole ordeal), I wouldn't let it printed on USAToday to show the whole world what a moronic thing I did.
Apr 7th, 2006, 02:47 PM
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It's depressing, but in this country at least there seems to be an endless supply of people happy to appear on national TV and proclaim, in effect, "Look at me! I'm a cretin!" I'm talking about the kind of people who feature on the trashier "current affairs" shows which ostensibly specialise in exposing fraudsters. Their real appeal is that the rest of us (who've all fallen for a scam at some time) can have the satisfaction of watching people who are more stupid than we are - the kind of people who agree to make the final progress payment to their builder when he's half-finished, or sink their life savings into ostrich farming, or buy land that turns into a mangrove swamp at high tide. OTOH as laurieco says, he mightn't be as stupid as he looks.
