I do pretty well in travel but also make my share of mistakes, mostly out of habit or path dependence. Since I know how things ‘usually work’ I don’t always pay attention to schedule changes. And I don’t pay attention to the details of my reservations – I’m on auto-pilot, I know that when I land in a given city I ‘always’ go to the same hotel. If I booked a Hyatt there, it must be my usual one!
Here are the (5) biggest mistakes I’ve made in travel, though each one worked out just fine. I thought I’d share these to show my own fallibility, I know the correct advice and should always follow it but I am… human.
- Showing up at the airport in the afternoon for a morning Sydney – Los Angeles flight Virgin Australia had changed the flight time months earlier, which at some level I knew, but Delta (who issued the award tickets) hadn’t notified me of the change. Delta re-booked me onto their own non-stop the next day in business class (revenue inventory) and Virgin Australia gave me a hotel room for the night.
- Snuck into a United Airlines club lounge when my ticket would have granted me access anyway, only I didn’t realize it. That was over 20 years ago and I still feel rather dumb for it.
- Showed up at the Novotel Bangkok Suvarnabhumi hotel only to learn I’d made a reservation for the following month they simply moved my prepaid booking ahead.
- Drove to the wrong Hyatt in Miami out of sheer habit, I’d simply gotten used to staying at the Hyatt Regency Coral Gables. To save me the hassle of changing hotels they simply transferred my booking and I wasn’t treated as a no show at the other property.
- Let my AAdvantage miles expire when I was a teenager. I’d accumulated about 20,000 miles from a trip to Australia (I flew American back when they served Sydney via Honolulu with a DC-10) and when I went to credit a trip to Florida I learned my account was no longer active. I didn’t re-join the program for about 5 years, and though it wouldn’t benefit me in any way I still wish I had my original account and joining date.
What dumb or absent-minded things have you done?
Looked at the Arrivals and Departures board and went to the gate for a later departure to Calgary from Toronto on the other side of the YYZ terminal. A fast walk back as I was timing the lounge exit at the last minute – The phone app for the carrier was not displaying the gate
I’ve showed up at the wrong Hilton a few times 🙂
I showed up at NRT for a flight that was actually booked out of HND. All of my other flights on that trip had transfers at NRT and I hadn’t realized/remembered that my final leg of the trip was from HND. I couldn’t get back to HND in time and needed to be back home so I ended up buying one-way from NRT back home.
At the end of an AA redeye and not fully alert, I left my tablet in the armrest storage bin in first class. Within a couple hours of deplaning I noticed that, and I knew that the tablet was probably on its way to the next destination (other deplaning passengers and the cleaners wouldn’t have seen it), and I might never get it back. Worse, I realized that Google Chrome was still running on it, with me logged in, and someone who had it might get access to all my passwords, or at least be able to auto-log-in to sites for quite a while before my password manager authorization timed out. So I took hours to secure all my sites and data, starting with the highest priority ones, and suffered a couple weeks of worry about whether I would see the tablet again (more for security comfort than for its monetary value), before I counted my blessings that my accounts and data had not been breached.
This got me into the habit of thinking about all of the possible security consequences of a laptop, phone, or tablet loss or theft *before* the next one happens, and taking steps in advance to secure my digital life (including automatically locking everything down within a very short time of non-use, despite the inconvenience of re-log-ins).
Went to Russia as an American tourist in 2018 (thankfully before things went to shit and it was an amazing trip) and didn’t pay attention to the fact that Moscow has three main train stations.
I figured it was like LA, Chicago or or DC (Union Station) or Amsterdam (Centraal) or Zurich (Zurich HB). I didn’t realize it was like NYC (Penn or Grand) or Paris, London or Belin (with 3-4).
Really stupid assumption. I found out that have NINE MAJOR LONG DISTANCE train stations in Moscow. Showed up at the wrong one to take the Sapasan high-speed train to ST. Petersburg then had to figure out, without knowing lick of Russian, in less than 60 minutes, which train station to be at.
Made it with like 2 minutes to spare though, so #MajorWin
Moscow? They have NINE Showed up to take the Sapsan to St. Petersburg and didn’t realize it was from Leningradsky sation and that there were NINE
I’m a pilot. Misread my schedule and went to work a day early. My friends all say I passed the packing, ironing, shoe shine test. Approved for work tomorrow…
Classic! Gary still hasn’t let those 20K AA pointies go… (I wouldn’t either.)
@Mike — Please remind @L737 and I of your escapades in Argentina!
Does your AA account cease to exist if the miles expire? Perhaps, Gary can ask AA to reinstate the original account and then merge the 2 accounts?
My Northwest, United, and TWA account numbers were not retained. With United, they merged the miles into my Continental account number, but still called it MileagePlus, not OnePass.
Hilarious..and cautionary. We should all be able to laugh at ourselves like this. Cheers.
I made a hotel reservation at the Hyatt Place Frankfurt Airport for a one night stay in May 2024. I made the reservation in October 2023 because I knew I would have an overnight layover. Before the trip started, I couldn’t find the reservation at Hyatt.com. I figured it was a glitch, so I found the confirmation email so I could add it to my reservations. When I looked at the email, I realized I had made the reservation for the night of October 13, 2023, the day I booked it. Thankfully, it only cost me 5000 World of Hyatt points.
I let my Usairways miles expire when I had 25,000 miles.
I once showed up to LGA when my flight was out of JFK
Once made a 2 night reservation for the same day for a Hyatt hotel in Portugal while I was at home. Contacted them immediately but they couldn’t cancel it. They did book me in for the correct dates the following month and charged me no points for it. Ended up getting credit for all 4 nights, so worked out for me!
Got the dates 6/7 and 7/6 confused and showed up for a flight a month late. (This is NOT a TicToc fad reference – this happened a decade ago.) My ticket was useless, of course, but fortunately there was a seat available for purchase at a reasonable price.
I bought a bus ticket upon entering Chile, thinking they were only an hour ahead of Peru — at that time of year they were two. Had a walk around town and missed the bus, but the damage was only another $21 ticket leaving an hour later.
I was trying to take a train from Pécs to Villány in Hungary, but there were two trains leaving from the same track at the same time, going in opposite directions, and I got on the wrong one. Got to explore Dombóvár for an hour.
I sneaked into Emirates’ Marhaba Lounge in Dubai because I had an overnight layover and wasn’t entirely sure my economy ticket didn’t suffice; I just walked in and no one stopped me. Now that Emirates promotes Trump properties in Saudi Arabia as part of its pre-movie ads (or at least did last spring), I have no compunction over having screwed them over as much as possible at the time, and I would heartily do it again if they weren’t on my no-fly list.
In the early days of the internet, I was able to book a r/t from home to XYZ through Prodigy. I had the dates right, but both flights were XYZ to home.
I never book prepaid, non cancelable hotel rooms. Did it once for a single night on a road trip. Realized quickly, but too late, it was for the wrong night. I think it just burned points.
And, one not my fault. I regularly stay at Adagio hotels (serviced apartments) in France. If I book through the Accor website, I can’t reserve for more than 28 days on a single reservation and don’t get as good of a deal. For last summer and this upcoming summer, the Adagio website shows the dates you selected perfectly. As soon as you confirm, the start and end dates shift two days. Fortunately, a quick email to the property and they fix the reservation, but it isn’t reflected in your online dates.
Also expiring miles – was something like 30k virgin atlantic miles well over a decade ago. You live and you learn.
I showed up for a flight to Iceland with a passport that expired within 90 days and they wouldn’t let me board. Luckily living in LA, they explained to me how to get an expedited passport in person the next morning and rebooked us for the following night for free. We lost one day but I got the passport and we had a great trip. Will never make THAT mistake again!
Also, a number of years ago, I had just the right number of HP (America West) miles to fly my mother r/t from her home to PHX, a trip she took every year. I sent her my login info, and invited her to use it. I immediately put it out of my mind, she never used it, and the miles expired.
Went to the wrong airport out of habit. Was living in Pennsylvania and often used Harrisburg airport because the parking and traffic were so much easier. Typically had a quick flight to Philly and the extra time connecting was basically the same as the extra drive for. a direct flight. Had booked a direct flight from Philly to Nashville for a quick trip and drove to Harrisburg out of habit, didn’t realize it until I couldn’t find my flight on the departure board. This was pre 911 and I was already thru security. Had to drive down to Philly and take a later flight.
Flew to Greenville, NC when intending to go to Greenville (Spartanburg), SC. Both CLT connections.
These stories are great! It’s always good to laugh at ourselves! I’ve mixed up flights out of IAD vs. DCA which have led to some interesting reroutings. I’ve also forgotten to hit “Confirm Booking” on rental car sites more than once, which usually works out ok unless it’s a small airport with limited cars available.
Went to LGA instead of JFK for our non stop flight to STT. We jumped in a cab and flew (i wish) to JFK. Ran to the gate. It was just closing. After discussion they let go to plane. But even though the door was open and there were seats available the head steward would not let us step foot into the plane! They put us the next flight which required a stop.
Once when flying home from IND, I mixed up the flight number and departure time on my ticket. I returned the rental car and entered the airport, where I couldn’t understand why my flight wasn’t listed on the monitors. The check in counter pointed out the correct time and rebooked on onto the next flight, probably using the flat tire rule.
many years ago, I was flying IAH-TUS. somehow, I had the arrival time in TUS cemented in my head as the departure time from IAH. needless to say, I missed the flight by several hours. I had to go home and come back later in the afternoon since there were only two flights per day
I used to think TYP were for the birds back before AA; LHW; Preferred Hotel bookings. NOW I wish I still had that original Sears card from colllege (long-ago cancelled) to rack up 10% TYP offers. Or held onto the Prestige after its SUB. Same with the IHG 10% points rebate card, I could be cleaning up at IC Hotels!
Booking flights to San Jose…yeah which one?!