Dumbest Booking Error

[audreyh1]

Really good stories in this thread!

I was at a scientific conference in Portland, OR, and a large group of German colleagues mysteriously cancelled their talks. They were, of course, sitting in Portland, ME.

On no! Poor guys

 

[Happyras]

We use TripIt too. Very handy. Better than a spreadsheet IMO and I'm a spreadsheet guy.

Same here, I read this thread and immediately set up our April trip trans atlantic in TripIt. Amazing how well it works, so easy and viewable by our iphones or pc. It puts in all the shore excursions, each port time, all my various flights and hotels. Its perfect.

I double booked us in San Juan but can cancel prior to the trip so we have time to decide which one we like best, but wow it shows right there in the itinerary!

I wonder why its free? Ads? or are they using this for others to see how we travel? Hmmmm

 

[athena53]

Same here, I read this thread and immediately set up our April trip trans atlantic in TripIt. Amazing how well it works, so easy and viewable by our iphones or pc. It puts in all the shore excursions, each port time, all my various flights and hotels. It's perfect.

One unexpected benefit: In mid-2022 I took a side trip from Munich to Malta and lost my passport in Malta. The US Embassy in Malta, bless them, issued me a new one in less than 24 hours. When I left Munich to go back home the Border Control guy noted my replacemet passport and asked if I'd saved my boarding pass from my flight TO Munich. Of course I hadn't. He needed documentation that I hadn't overstayed the max number of days you could remain without a Schengen visa. I showed him my Tripit itinerary on my phone and he was happy with that.

 

[Aerides]

My dumbest mistakes have been forgetting to book, twice:

Once for work. I must have gone in and planned my arrangements but never finalized them. Went to print my itinerary on a friday afternoon, as I was travelling late Sunday. Oops. Managed to book it all last minute at a bit of a premium, but not so much as to get challenged on an expense report.

Once for personal: DH and I were going to a gamer convention. Travel plans were all set, but...we had to book our actual attendance admission separately as it was done under our gamer accounts. I somehow forgot to book mine. We realized the day before we flew out, and despite several desperate phone calls were told nope, we'd have to join the line for the few day-of tickets that were available. Lucky me got one.

 

[pb4uski]

Not a dumb booking error but still a travel error.

Our first trip to Paris in 1986. DW went to our credit union and got USD$300 of French francs. We sat next to another couple our age who had been to Paris before on the flight. I asked them what it cost to go out for a nice dinner and they gave us a number that happened to be the same as the amount of French francs that DW received from the credit union. I said "It costs $300 for a nice dinner!" and they replied "No, it's about $30."

It turns out that the teller slipped a digit and instead of having $300 of French francs that we only had $30 of French francs. It paid for the cab from deGaulle to the hotel and then we had to hunt for a restaurant that took credit cards to have dinner and went to the bank the next day and got the money that we needed.

 

[audreyh1]

OMG!

At least we don’t have to deal with all those different currencies anymore (a few exceptions).

I’m pretty comfortable dealing in Euros.

I do get to deal with Czech Koruna CK this trip. I’m hoping those few days will be cashless, although I suppose it’s probably acceptable to leave tip in Euro coins if I don’t add it to the bill. CK to Euro is ~ 25 to 1.

 

[W2R]

I realize, I'm really bad at this travel booking stuff. There's probably not many people here that can top my blunders, or want to admit theirs, but if so, might be entertaining/instructional. Or maybe how you make sure you don't book travel like I do

Well, you all KNOW how I make sure not to have similar mistakes/problems... I am one of the lucky few who quite honestly has zero desire to travel anywhere for fun, especially outside the US. So, to make a long story short, I haven't done any travel booking in decades. (When I had to travel for work, they did the booking for me.)

I did travel for fun to my DD's 2009 wedding in Oregon, with Frank, but didn't arrange anything but the airline tickets in advance. Worked out perfectly well. But of course, everything was inside the USA. Simple, stress free, easy as cake. Each to his/her own, the best option to choose is something bringing you happiness and eliminating stress, IMO. But YMMV. We only live once.

 

[simple girl]

DH has tons of these examples.

1) Fell asleep on the train from CT to NY. He missed his stop and ended up at the last run of the line when he woke up.

2) Flight delayed, so he went to the bar for a drink. Didn't hear the announcement that the flight actually was fixed somehow so it ended up on time. Missed his flight.

3) Went to the wrong airport in Houston and turned in his rental car there before realizing it. He did make his flight but had to find a quick cab to the other airport.

4) Forgot where he parked his car at the airport. Hunted for a long time and eventually decided the car was stolen. We reported the car to our insurance and we were about to get a check a month or so later, when airport security called us to tell us they found our car.

Hence, the reason I do all of the travel planning.

 

[sengsational]

Some of the "at the wrong place" stories reminded me of another minor blunder. We were going on a very routine cruise out of Port Everglades and a friend of ours was going to drop us at the port and park our car at his house. So we were taking him out to lunch rather than get on the ship early. He dropped us at the Princess ship leaving that day and drove off. We handed over our luggage and were some ways into checking in when we realized it was the wrong Princess ship! Dug out luggage out of the pallet and took a taxi to the other ship.


One thing about these high-stress travel moments...when they're over, it's a great contrast into relaxation...the "ahhhhhh" is pretty sweet.

 

[tulak]

I do get to deal with Czech Koruna CK this trip. I’m hoping those few days will be cashless, although I suppose it’s probably acceptable to leave tip in Euro coins if I don’t add it to the bill. CK to Euro is ~ 25 to 1.

I’m surprised how easy it is to go cashless in Czech. Tipping for smaller purchases, cafes, etc, it’s enough to round up to the nearest whole number adding a few crowns. If it’s a restaurant, then you can round up more, but no more than 10%.

You don’t have to tip in cash. Just tell your server the final amount and that’s what they will enter for the charge.

 

[audreyh1]

I’m surprised how easy it is to go cashless in Czech. Tipping for smaller purchases, cafes, etc, it’s enough to round up to the nearest whole number adding a few crowns. If it’s a restaurant, then you can round up more, but no more than 10%.

You don’t have to tip in cash. Just tell your server the final amount and that’s what they will enter for the charge.

Yes, I’ve done that before and that’s what we’ll do.

I don’t want to get or exchange any crowns.

 

[Chuckanut]

This German man achieved international recognition for traveling to the wrong city:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Kreuz

Erwin Kreuz (1927 – 2010) was a West German tourist to the United States who achieved international celebrity status in the late 1970s for mistaking the city of Bangor, Maine for San Francisco. The incident continues to be told in various media as a prominent example of an airline traveler not reaching their intended destination.

The people of Bangor were so touched and amused to be mistaken for San Francisco that over the next 10 days Kreuz was transformed into a local celebrity. He was the guest of honor at an Oktoberfest event sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, was made an honorary member of the Penobscot tribe and Old Town Rotary Club,[10] received the keys to the city,[11] met fellow local celebrity Andre the Seal,[12] and flew to the state capital in Augusta on October 25 to meet Governor James B. Longley and Secretary of State Markham Gartley.[2] At his own request, he visited a McDonald's and was allowed to flip the hamburgers.[1][13] Kreuz's 50th birthday was celebrated by gala parties held in the McDonald's[13] and Black Rose restaurants.[7]

 

[Chuckanut]

Unlike Herr Kruez my mistake was much more mundane. I arrive at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport at 4 PM expecting to make a connection to home at 8 PM. Nope. It was 8 AM the next day. Foolish me. Fortunately, Schiphol has an international transfer zone with a hotel in it that rents mini-rooms. I spent the night there, had a nice breakfast in the morning and walked to my gate. No need to go through another round of security and checking in.

 

[audreyh1]

Unlike Herr Kruez my mistake was much more mundane. I arrive at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport at 4 PM expecting to make a connection to home at 8 PM. Nope. It was 8 AM the next day. Foolish me. Fortunately, Schiphol has an international transfer zone with a hotel in it that rents mini-rooms. I spent the night there, had a nice breakfast in the morning and walked to my gate. No need to go through another round of security and checking in.

Well it’s good to know that’s an option.

 

[MichaelB]

This German man achieved international recognition for traveling to the wrong city:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Kreuz

That was funny. I guess it reinforces the thought that when men are lost they still don’t like to ask for directions or help.

 

[pacergal]

Not a travel error, just not paying attention--Booked two flights on separate days for a family reunion. Son had a baseball tournament, so he left a few days after us. His flight was the second one I booked, so his departure time was the one I had in mind.
Hubby, daughter and I missed our flight, as it was actually earlier! But we were able to catch a later flight on standby, luckily.

 

[meleana]

Use a travel agent. Tell him/her where you want to go and what you want to do and just have them book it. That is what I do.

 

[Martlet]

I have forgotten the exact details but in essence I booked a hotel in Dublin for all seven nights of a trip to Ireland that I only needed for the final night. By the time I realized my mistake (from memory, at check-in on the final night) the hotel had cancelled our booking and had only one room left for my wife and me and my son and his GF. For some reason, my son thought this was unacceptable. So the hotel or Orbitz, I forget which, found us rooms at roughly comparable place for significantly more $$. Then, in the middle of the night, the faucet in my son's room broke off upstream of the valve gate, flooding the room. They had to move again. An eventful day.

I was a very experienced business travel and booked all my own business travel for the prior fifteen+ years with essentially no mishaps. But stuff happens.

 

[donethat]

I haven't read all the replies but believe I'm certainly in the running for dumbest ever. I was booking air travel from Shanghai to Panama, which required a 10 hour layover in LA. When we landed we tried to check our bags for the LA to Panama flight and just could not get it done at the kiosk. We went to the counter for help and the airline rep also had trouble. Ultimately it turned out that because I had not taken the International Date Line into account we had landed in LA the day before we left Japan. Ended up we had to hold onto our bags and book an expensive airport hotel stay. Live and learn.

 

[athena53]

Use a travel agent. Tell him/her where you want to go and what you want to do and just have them book it. That is what I do.

I can't. I'm a control freak. I have very specific ideas of what connection times I'll tolerate that vary by airport, time of day, lounge availability, time of the next flight out and how mission-critical it is (need to meet a tour, need to connect to a transatlantic flight, etc.) The airlines can subsequently mess that up, of course, with a schedule change. When I traveled on business, corporate travel agencies or on-line "tools" didn't always show everything available and sometimes made silly suggestions like cheaper hotels out in the Chicago suburbs when I was working in a downtown office. It got so I'd so searches on other sites first, then tell the travel agents what to book (provided any cost difference was explainable).

I guess the ones still in business are more customer-focused.

 

[Texas Proud]

I will admit mine but I blame it on Expedia...


Back in 2008 was visiting a few islands of Hawaii... so flew into the big island and was reserving a car WITH MY PLANE reservation... when I saw the prices there was a button to book one close to the airport that was a lot cheaper.. so I booked that...


When we arrive they laugh and said this was happening a lot... the booking was on a nearby island.. not even the big island... had to rebook the car and pay a lot more than what it was when I reserved it.. lucky they had some at the airport..

 

[Brat]

I have been watching a UTube series by a hotel staffer. One of her STRONG recommendations is to book directly with the hotel. She says that there won't be a difference in price but any schedule changes can be easily arranged and that the hotel will know the specifics of amenities available. The other is to use your credit card, not your bank card, when making reservations or paying at the front desk.

 

[Koolau]

40 years ago, I guess(?) when I traveled for Megacorp, we had to use the in-house travel agency. We were not allowed to book our own flights or hotels. I had a multi-leg travel schedule and when I reviewed the documents sent to me, I realized that they had routed me into a city and then routed me out of another city by the same name but different state. It wasn't a big "fix" but I was so glad I scrutinized the documents carefully when they arrived.

 

[NoMoW2]

Since the title of this thread is Dumbest Booking Error, I’ll enter the competition with one I made when making air reservations for DW and me for a trip to Portugal that including a TAP Airlines booking.

So I’m on their site, find the flights I want, select them, and start filling out the usual online forms - name, address, passport, etc.

I’m doing this on the same PC Chrome browser that I use all the time, and it knows a lot of my info and prefills it for me. So when I come to fill out DW’s info I entered her first name in the first box. As I started typing our shared last name in the separate second box the browser offers to fill in the rest of the address info so I accept that.

Finished filling it all out, purchased, done.

Two days later I’m reviewing the confirmation email and notice it’s got my full name listed on both tickets. The browser autofill apparently changed her name to mine in the first name box when I accepted the autofill. Doh!

A big whoops, for sure, but one I thought wouldn’t be irrecoverable with a quick call to TAP. Nope. Nothing doing. They said the ticket was non-changeable, non-refundable, and wouldn’t help me out. Ultimately I ended up buying another ticket for DW with her name on it.

Irritating, but a good lesson learned: web form autofill can be a real time saver - but always double check the confirmation emails as soon as you get them.

 

[sengsational]

I'd make sure I got both seats if I bought two tickets!