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What is the most stupid travel mistake you have ever made?

What is the most stupid travel mistake you have ever made?

Old Oct 8th, 2008, 05:13 AM
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emd
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What is the most stupid travel mistake you have ever made?

I made our reservations for Peru, have been wanting to go all my life. Got a great deal on Delta, $808 per person RT from D.C. Booked and paid. Then realized 3 days later that I had booked a return flight at midnight on Sunday morning instead of Monday morning. It was the midnight timing that got me confused.

Called Delta, and cried profusely on the phone when I was told that the rate change (in the intervening 3 days, and the flight isn't til April 2009) means that each of us has to pay $500 to change the ticket. For the two of us, the combined change fee is more than our original ticket.

I can't come back a day early, as I have already booked and paid for a 4 day/3 night stay in the Amazon and it concludes the next day. And the Amazon lodge can't switch our dates, they are booked.

This is definitely the worst travel mishap I have ever had. I pride myself in details and being careful when I make reservations and plans. I can't believe I did this and it is going to be expensive to fix it.

Can anyone make me feel better with some stories of other travel mistakes?
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Old Oct 8th, 2008, 05:21 AM
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Mine haven't been that bad. I once booked an Orlando Clarion instead of the Kissemmee one through Expedia. had to pay the $25.- change fee. Even with the fee, it was still cheaper than going through the hotel directly.
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Old Oct 8th, 2008, 05:24 AM
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Not me, but my grandfather - before 9/11.

He took shuttle from NYC to Boston several times/year to visit me. At the time there were 2 shuttles from NY, one to Boston and one to DC, leaving from same general terminal area. One could board and even buy ticket on the plane.

He got on plane, settled in, they passed out copies of Washington Post, plane started to drive on tarmac, pilot gave weather conditions in Washington - it finally dawned on him that he was on wrong shuttle. They actually drove plane back to terminal area and let him off.

This makes me really aware how much has changed in the 15 years since this happened.
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Old Oct 8th, 2008, 05:28 AM
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I was very fortunate a couple of weeks ago when I purchase a non-refundable/non-changeable airline ticket to Toronto from United. I booked the outbound segment for the wrong date and fortunately realized this mistake almost immediately.

I called them and they cancelled the reservation without penalty or charge as a courtesy.

Now, the most stupid travel mistake...not going to Europe even more often when the exchange rates were even better!
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Old Oct 8th, 2008, 05:32 AM
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Not looking at the back of my receipt from the Hooter's restaurant in West Palm Beach back in 1991.
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Old Oct 8th, 2008, 05:39 AM
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Made very sure to book my Irish rental car with a credit card that covered the CDW insurance - then left that credit card at home Cost me $300 in extra insurance (as much as the rental itself was).

Not my mistake originally, but I helped:

Dad bought us tickets for Ireland for April 2002. He had purchased in Jan 2002, but somewhere he had paged back in the process, and the date reset to Jan. I didn't look at the tickets when I got them, until two weeks before the trip. Then I did, realized the mistake, and called to get them fixed. They were paper tickets, so I had to fedex them - by the time they got them the next day, it was less than two weeks to the trip, so the price was much higher ($300 per ticket, as I recall). Ouch!
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Old Oct 8th, 2008, 05:43 AM
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Cancelled my credit card when I got mad about a rate increase, only to realize as we're trying to check into a Paris hotel that doing so caused the hotel to cancel my reservation.
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Old Oct 8th, 2008, 05:43 AM
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I am sorry this happened to you, it sounds like an easy mistake to make. Call Delta again and keep pleading your case, maybe you'll get lucky and a sympathetic person will answer.

A friend of mine booked a ticket to Ireland on priceline, and it was completely non-changeable and non-refundable. The day before they left she looked at her flight schedule and discovered she has booked the return date for 9/23 instead of 8/23. Her husband called priceline, spent 2 hours on the phone with a supervisor but they wouldn't budge. The ticket was not changeable even for a stiff fee. In the end they had to spend $1800 to buy new tickets home. She cried about this all day.
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Old Oct 8th, 2008, 06:23 AM
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I made pre-cruise reservations very early last year knowing that the Miami Marathon was going on. Reserved in FLL using free points and thought we'd shuttle back to airport and take cruise shuttle to Miami pier. Somewhere in the 6 months that followed I forgot and we took a taxi to the FLL port. Imagine my surprise when the biggest cruise ship wasn't there! LOL! It then hit me...oh yeah, it cruises out of Miami! It was an expensive taxi ride, but my husband knew better than to say anything...verbal or nonverbal (such as rolling eyes, etc)
We managed a good laugh later tho....
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Old Oct 8th, 2008, 06:27 AM
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I once entered our names backward for an online booking
e.g. Smith Frank
Luckily the online agency supervisor noticed that the names looked strange and called right away. She was super - she called the tour company and got everything straightened around and talked them out of charging us for the change.
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Old Oct 8th, 2008, 06:27 AM
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oh, i am feeling a little better already. Thank you all. I got a chuckle out of the Hooters mistake...

P_M, I also cried hard over this, I am still crying now, and I am not one to cry. The money part is a major bummer. Because I have to pay the steep fees to rebook the next day, we are not going to be able hike the Inca trail, I just can't afford it now. I think you understand that as I know you've been to Peru, I've read your posts.

But it is also a bummer in a deeper way because I am so obsessive about the details of planning, and I can't believe I did this.

I've talked to the supervisors (3) at delta- no help so far.

Now I am on the phone and am being told that when I tried to change the flight online last night, somehow the flights were cancelled completely. I am trying not to melt down. Waiting for another supervisor...

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Old Oct 8th, 2008, 06:29 AM
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Very small potatoes compared to the others, but...

Long solo road trip for work with many tolls.

I called my DH in frustration and told him that he better make sure I had the EZPass before I go on another trip again.

He was very calm and told me that I did in fact have the EZPass. Yup. There it was...right behind my rearview mirror. I double paid - a lot.

I do appreciate that he didn't laugh until we hung up.
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Old Oct 8th, 2008, 06:40 AM
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Dukey--United has had the cancellation with full refund within 24 hours of purchase rule in place for a long time (there are some restrictions). I've had to use it a few times, too.

On our first trip to Europe together, about 17 years ago, mr_go and I went to Italy and were totally winging it--no reservations anywhere except for our rental car when we landed. It was late in the year, and it was actually working pretty well...until we hit a major holiday weekend (Nov 1) that we'd failed to consider. We were in Umbria at that point and for several days of our trip, we had to spend a good amount of time looking for a place--any place--to stay. We ended up at the Hit Hotel outside of Perugia. Yes, that was the name, and we came to find out that it did not mean hit movies. We noted a cluster of very expensive sports cars around the entrance, but did not give it much thought until we went to dinner later on and were about the only people there who were not men in suits with mobile phones (this was 1991), including one from Chicago (we overheard some of his conversation and wished we hadn't). We laugh about it today, but we couldn't get out of there fast enough the next morning. Not a mistake that cost us a lot of money, but it did cost us a lot of valuable time on vacation.
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Old Oct 8th, 2008, 06:40 AM
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emd, I'm so sorry, sending you a virutal hug, here it is:

{{{{{{{emd}}}}}}}

And below are some good travel vibes for a better resolution. (This is what good vibes look like)

<<<<<<emd>>>>>>>>

Good luck.
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Old Oct 8th, 2008, 06:42 AM
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emd, have you looked into buying a seperate one-way ticket home? Maybe that would be cheaper than the change fees?

Just a thought.
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Old Oct 8th, 2008, 06:43 AM
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Years ago I planned what I thought was to be a beach vacation for my non-traveling boyfriend and myself, but booked us into a downtown hotel in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (not having researched the lay of the land). Boy I layed on that bed and cried.

Fortunately a kind bellhop told us "You need to go up to Puerto Plata instead" and somehow helped get us on a bus and to the other side of the island.

Anyways... for emd good luck with your current situation. Hope you get it worked out without too much extra cost.

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Old Oct 8th, 2008, 06:44 AM
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Ryan, buddy, it's time to let that one go.
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Old Oct 8th, 2008, 06:46 AM
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I took an around the world trip by myself when I finished all my schooling. I had been extremely busy and didn't have time to thoroughly research any place. I did get all my visas and shots, etc.

My surprise was arriving in Sidney, Australia in August and not realizing it was their winter. I travel extremely lightly and had the equivalent of a large gym bag of clothing. My solution to this was to wear ALL my clothes to stay warm. I looked like a bag lady when attending Evita one night at their beautiful Broadway style theatre.
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Old Oct 8th, 2008, 06:49 AM
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Oh, emd. Good luck getting it straightened out. I can so understand your frustration.

My worst travel mistake was travelling with a friend who had a major bipolar meltdown right in the middle of it. Awful on so many levels.

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Old Oct 8th, 2008, 06:49 AM
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emd, maybe a Peruvian travel agent can help you find a cheap ticket home.
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