sueciv

Picked the wrong town to stay in.
I thought my husband raved about St. Tropez. He did, but going over from St. Raphael in his boat. Staying in St. Raphael. Anyway, it was a lovely honeymoon.

Second dumb thing, was in my jet-lagged stupor, forgot that euro's can come in coins. I thought I got the equilvalent of quarters from a 20E bill. Er....duh!

goddesstogo

I'm sure I've made more stupid mistakes than this but I do have to be careful when booking consecutive hotel stays. More than once, I've left us without accommodation because I've thought "ok, we'll check out of this hotel on X and into that hotel on Y" not realizing that leaves us without a hotel room on the night of X.

On the other hand, a couple of times this sort of error has resulted in a great surprise. In fact, it's exactly how we got to spend a couple of days in Aix-en-Provence when we hadn't planned on stopping there, and we loved it. (I'm a very 'glass half-full' sort of girl, can't you tell? )

traveljunkie28

emd, I did somewhat of the same thing . I booked Europe this past spring and we were to stay a month. Well I booked our flight home out of Paris a week early...duh! It only cost me $250.00 for all four tickets. Not too bad I guess. But what made me mad was I called back within minutes of booking. Made no difference. Still had to pay the fees. I learned to re-check all details!

Ryan

Follow-your-bliss..
I'll will never let that one go. In this alternate universe I've created in my subconcious turning that receipt over would have put me on the path to be America's next Tom Vu.

Brazilnut

My most stupid mistake only cost me 100 euros, but that was the money I was going to use for a nice dinner...

Last year, on my way to Bangalore, India, I stopped in Paris and stayed at a nice room in the Tim Hotel in Montparnasse. I had reservations for a different hotel in the area for my return, but the Tim hotel's location was so convenient for catching the Air France to the Airport, and besides, they agreed to keep an extra bag I would not need in India, that I decided to cancel my reservations at the other hotel.

Big mistake. I thought they would charge me the same rate (an internet rate)of my previous stay, and did not check beforehand. Besides getting a lousy room, they overcharged close to 100 euros because there was a big sports competition in Paris that night (can't remember what sport).

Of course, it was my own fault for not checking the rate, but I swore to never again I stay at the Tim hotel!

ncounty

hmmm....I'm not following the back of Hooters receipt, Tom Vu thing. I must be naive; can someone explain?

Ryan

Hooter's receipt - phone number of very hot waitress.

Tom Vu - 1980's infomercial star that surrounded himself with bikini clad women while telling Americans "you lazy and stupid, look me, surrounded by beautiful women because I'm rich"

Ryan

BTW, the phrasing was from typos, not a mocking of Vu's accent..

kybourbon

Delta has the 24 hour change/cancellation policy too, but emd said she didn't notice until 3 days later.

emd- I would repost on the airline forum as the posters there know all the ins-and-outs of these things and may come up with some better options for you. Patty seems to be the Delta expert.

emd

Ok, well, the supervisor got my reservations back and changed them and charged me $950 to change the two flights home. P_M, I thought about a different flight home but I doubt I can find one for $475 apiece that comes close to the Delta schedule.

I am going to try to look on the bright side. At least I can afford to go. And afford to pay the change fee, even though it is steep. And even though we won't hike the Inca trail (which I felt was expensive anyway, a one day hike that is really 5 hrs of hiking for $400) there are lots of great short hikes we can take in the Sacred Valley for free.

And best of all, my 18 yr old son who will be going off to college next yr. (hopefully) actually wants to go w/me! My husband has no interest in South America, and my 15 yr old daughter doesn't like to go to the supermarket w/me, much less a foreign country.

And you can bet your panties I won't make this mistake again.

emd

and at least I can come here and commissurate. I have not been able to think about telling my husband about this mistake and the $$ it is costing yet.

abranz

emd,
i would have suggested seeking help from a travel ombudsman.
glad to know that you were able to get this resolved.
hopefully your stay in the amazon will reduce the sting of the price you had to pay.

lvk

Great attitude, emd! Don't let it ruin your trip, which sounds amazing!

I have posted this one before, but if it makes you feel better....

DH was going on a skiing trip to Austria with his German buddies. I found him a great, under-$400 rt fare from LAX-Munich. After the ski trip, his friend dropped him off at the MUC airport, with plenty of time to spare. While sitting at the gate, he fell asleep, missed all of the boarding announcements, and the flight took off without him. It ended up costing him almost twice the amount of the original fare just to get a flight back home.

And my lesser boneheaded move....

After an Alaskan fishing trip, I checked us out of our Juneau hotel one night too early. After we presented our claim ticket for the 150+ lbs of fish we had stored in the airport freezers, I attempted to check into our flight, only to be told that my tickets were for the next day. Fortunately, they were able to put us on a flight to Seattle, where we stayed overnight (and they stored our fish) before joining up with our original connecting flight. We enjoyed a bright, sunny day in Seattle, so it ended up working out just fine.

colduphere

My girlfriend (now wife) and I were exiting Schiphol airport in a rented car. We were looking for a town that (as I remember) started with AA. That would get us going in the right direction for our vacation to Germany and then Denmark.

We spotted a sign for a town beginning with AA. I knew we were going in the wrong direction but thought that maybe the road was circular. Well by the time we checked the map again we had gone so far to the southwest we just kept going. Instead of going to Germany and Denmark we went to France and Switzerland for 16 days.

I think of this story everytime I see someone's trip plan with every day worked out in detail. We had no itinerary and no reservations.

baladeuse

Not my mistake (though Ive made many).

A few weeks ago Canadian newspapers ran a story of a woman who wanted to go to Sydney, Australia. She booked a flight online and ended up in Sydney, Nova Scotia. Apparently she had no idea there was a Sydney in Canada. She stayed and had a great time anyway, apparently.

SallyCanuck

A few times the travel companions have been a mistake - re-enforcing why I love to travel alone.

I booked a return flight forgetting about the 24 hour clock so was 12 hours late for my flight but Air Canada let me on another flight without charge.

A few travellers, not me, have ended up in Sydney, Nova Scotia rather than the Australian Sydney - now that would be a shock. http://www.smh.com.au/news/travel/to...217366682.html

llamalady

Arranged to have a friend meet us at
Frankfurt Airport - a 4 hour drive
from her village. Forgot about the
day change; she had to make two
round trips because of my timeless
error.

emd

I once drove several hours to New Market, Virginia to spend the day antique hunting. When I got there, I drove all up and down the main st., no antiques. That is because all the antiques live in New Market, Maryland. But at least I have never flown to the wrong city or slept through my flight being called.

Keep them coming, I am feeling way better now. I have gone from chuckling about Ryan's Hooters mistake, to laughing.

emd

abramz, what kind of travel ombudsman were you thinking of? That is interesting, I had not thought of that; I am not sure I know of a travel ombudsman.

P_M

I aslo heard the story about Sydney Nova Scotia.

I'm glad you are feeling better emd, enjoy Peru!!