I sometimes hear from respected members of the Go Curry Cracker Community that traveling internationally can be a daunting prospect.
“I wish I was as confident as you guys, to go off into the great unknown and have grand adventures! I’m too worried that I’ll make a big mistake.” – nice person from a GCC meetup
Mistakes? Oh yeah, those definitely happen. Let me tell you – I am an expert at making travel mistakes.
My Best Travel Mistakes
Passport expiration
We are currently in Thailand, but not for lack of trying. I attempted to check in for our flight online, only to discover that my passport was about to expire.
Do you know that requirement where your passport needs to be valid for 6 months to be allowed entry? Oops. Mine expires in a few weeks.
The airline only asked if I was aware of the expiration date. The Thailand Immigration officer gave me the stink eye, but since he had already sent my spouse and kid towards baggage claim he just waved me through. I think he just didn’t want to deal with it at 6 am.
I’ve already scheduled an appointment for a new passport once we get back to Taipei. Hopefully I can get a new one before my residency permit expires in a few weeks, cuz that would be messy.
Lost Passport
Once upon a time, I was on a business trip to the UK. Heading home, I packed all my things, put my passport in my pocket, and boarded the Heathrow Express at Paddington station. When it was my turn at the check-in desk, my passport was nowhere to be found!
The airline staff was super supportive, helping me make a couple of phone calls, first to inform the police that I had a lost passport, and second to get permission from the US government to return home without it.
It was in the middle of that second call when somebody turned in my passport to the First Class desk of the same airline. Whew, that was a close one!
Can’t Do ATM Math
We arrived late in Budapest and I quickly got some cash from the airport ATM to pay for a taxi to our Airbnb. Somehow I managed to get about $1,000 in cash instead of $100, and the taxi took credit cards anyway (as did every other place we went.)
The morning of our departure I still had about $1,000 in cash, but it was Sunday and the first several currency exchange places I walked to were closed.
I thought for sure I was going to have to exchange funds at the train station for a ridiculous 20% fee or something, but fortunately, I found a place with no fees and a decent bid/ask spread. It’s always the last place you look…
Expired ATM Card
When we were in Guatemala I tried to get some cash from the ATM… only to discover that the card had expired. Guatemala had primarily a cash economy, so this was bad news.
Fortunately, I had a backup card, although it charged a fee for overseas withdrawals. (Now both our primary and secondary cards have zero fees and reimburse for ATM fees.)
I ended up having a new card sent to our Traveling Mailbox and forwarded to a friend who brought it down (along with some really nice shoes.)
Leave card in the ATM
We try to pass the majority of our spending through credit cards for maximum rewards points, but I still pay rent in cash.
I guess I’ve gotten into a specific cash withdrawal habit because I walked away from a new ATM machine this week with the card still inside. In Thailand.
The bank phone answering service was really helpful though:
“What is your phone number sir?”
Uh, I don’t know…. it is a temp SIM I just got from the airport.
“OK, no problem. What hotel are you staying at?”
Oh, ummm… let me see. It’s uh… I’ll have to look that up.
Anyway, I got the card back a few days later.
Going to the Airport a Day Early
There is a lot to keep track of when planning a vacation. LIke what day your flight leaves.
Long ago, Winnie and I were going away for the weekend, flying from downtown Taipei to a beach area in the south.
We got to the airport pretty early, about 25 hours or so ahead of schedule.
The staff was really nice though and got us on that day’s flight. Extra vacation time for the win!
It’s kind of a dumb move, but not as dumb as…
Going to the Airport a Day Late
Years ago I ended up with 2 free tickets to any British Airways’destination. From their flight map, I picked the furthest and longest possible flights, to Mauritius off the coast of Madagascar.
When we arrived at the airport we were kindly informed that we missed our flight by 24 hours. The airline staff explained our best option was to catch up to our itinerary by purchasing a 1-way ticket to Mauritius at a price of about $2,000/person.
So I did what any masculine individual would do. I cried.
I’m sure a passenger in distress is a common thing, but on this particular day there was an abundance of empathy. BA put us on a different flight that day, no charge. The only downside is we had a 2 day layover in London.
Vacation saved! Thanks, British Airways!
(Also thanks for losing our checked bags for 2 weeks.)
Mistakes Happen
So there you have it, mistakes happen. I probably make more than most, and I didn’t even mention that time I got in a bar brawl with some senior citizens or the time I forgot to bribe Mexico immigration.
It is unlikely that I’ll repeat any of these particular mistakes, but I’m sure there will be many more ahead. It’s a normal, but colorful, part of travel.
What are your best travel mistakes?
one time I lucked and got an upgrade to biz class. Just before take off an airline attendant asked me if I would please get my things and follow her. Assuming I was going back to cattle class I put up a fuss. She said OK if you don’t want to sit in 1st Class. I groveled and got to go to 1st class. Always cooperate with airline staff!
Double upgrade, nice!
My dear partner dropped me off at the airport for an early flight from San Diego to DC. Alas, my wallet had slipped from my pocket onto the floor off his car. I realized this as soon as I got onto the sidewalk. As he zoomed away from the curb, I frantically tried to flag him down to no avail and, get this — he didn’t have his phone with him.
Sans ID and credit cards I was up a creek. Luckily I had elite status on the airline which booked me on the same flight the next day. And luckily I did have my phone so I Ubered home. Imagine my partner’s surprise as I wandered up the drive and informed him he got to make the airport run again the very next day!
Most of my problems traveling have the same themes: flight complications or cash/ATM issues. I had a cash machine in Buenos Aires eat my only cash card on a Saturday. I flew to Santiago that day and had to have family wire me money via Western Union. I now travel with multiple cash cards. I had a cash machine in Guatemala complete a transaction for $250 cash without actually giving out any cash. To make it worse, armed guards had shown up to add money to the machine so I was escorted away. Fortunately, my bank credited me the money. I almost missed a flight in Guadalajara after a six-hour layover because I couldn’t find immigration for an exit stamp. Lots of running and pleading to skip the long line at immigration.
My wife and I have adopted mantra to keep calm. Travel hassles are almost universally solved with time and money…
I also had an ATM eat my card in BA a few years ago. What is it with that city?! I also now carry two ATM cards for the same reason and it hasn’t happened since. Go figure.
Keep calm and travel on.
My wife and I spent out Honeymoon in Puerto Rico during the winter of 2016, we had flights on Jet Blue. Because it is a U.S territory we did not bring our pass ports. Our return flight was canceled due to a snow. Even though it was our Honeymoon we welcomed my sister in law and her boyfriend to join us on the trip. Their flight was on Jet Blue and was canceled as well. Luckily, it appeared that Jet Blue booked all 4 of us on the same earlier flight, so we went to the airport only to realize that the couple with us was booked this day and my wife and I were booked on the same flight 2 days later!
The weather was fine in San Juan, but since we didn’t have our passports we could not hop on a flight to another Caribbean island and then back to the U.S., and all the direct flights to the U.S were booked because of the bad weather in the Northeast caused a mass of cancellations and rerouting. We thought we were going to have to stay in San Juan another 2 nights (by this time we really did just want to be home). But after spending some time on the San Juan airport internet we realized we could hop over to the U.S Virgin Islands, then get on a flight to Miami, and from there make it back to Boston.
At this time the U.S Virgin Islands flight was only 60 minutes away, plenty of time we thought, we’re already at the airport! Well, after spending what seemed like an eternity in the TSA line (we didn’t have Pre Check yet and San Juan’s idea of a Pre Check line was just letting every Pre-Check holder cut to the front of the main line) we literally had to run at full speed all the way through the airport to our tiny puddle jumper at the farthest possible gate which was currently boarding for takeoff.
Because Jet Blue couldn’t get us back within 48 hours we were able to buy tickets on American Airlines at $1600 a piece and eventually get refunded by the travel insurance we took out. From this day onward we always purchase travel insurance when traveling internationally. I know for those in a more permanent nomadic lifestyle it may seem ridiculous to spend $150 for insurance that keeps you on your itinerary but since we’re both still working for corporate America the peace of mind involved with keeping your itinerary is huge.
Crying? Never thought about that in the travel arena but I was just reflecting on my corporate career and I’m curious if crying would have done any good during tough times among my testosterone laden colleagues! Oh well, won’t ever get to try that trick.
Best travel failures? Geez – I’ve been pretty “lucky” but I think I’m a real detailed oriented person and a big planner. We’ve come SUPER close to missing non-refundable travel on plenty of occasions but there must be a god(s) because we always seem to make it.
Once the Sixt rental car agents didn’t show up to get their car at the train station in Slovenia. I tricked the train station attendant into accepting the keys till the Sixt people showed up and got them (and I was on the train halfway through Austria by that point).
Another time the bus never showed up to our place in Milan so we walked really really fast to the train station a mile away (with our 3 kids :) ). I think we had about 3 minutes from the time we entered the station until we sat down in our train seat (and this is a major train station, not the rinky dink US stations).
And when I was young and stupid I was pick pocketed several times in Mexico and lost my wallet at least once :) Then I made the mistake of calling collect to my parents at home to get them to wire me money or something. So many fees just to get a couple hundred bucks in spending money.
Everybody respects a guy in touch with his emotions.
Nice move with the rental car return!
I showed up at SFO for a business trip to the East Coast. Whoops, the corporate travel agent had booked it out of Oakland. Thing is, I always asked to fly out of OAK because it’s so much easier, and they always used SFO to save fifty cents. The one time my longstanding request was granted and I totally missed it. Fortunately, I had premier status and there were seats available, so the gate agent made the switch. I actually got to my destination about 15 minutes earlier and all was well.
But then there was the time I slipped my jewelry case inside my pen and pencil case when packing for another business trip. I got upgraded to first class. I happily worked on crosswords and soduku for a couple hours, then fell asleep. When we landed, I groggily collected my things, peeked in the seat back pocket, and hightailed it off the plane, because you know, first class deplanes first, right? It wasn’t until I was on the shuttle that I realized the enormity of my mistake. The pencil case was the same color as the extra deep first class seat back pocket and that’s exactly where it still was. Three strands of high quality pearls and matching earrings, all gone. They were never turned in. I just hope someone, somewhere found them and is enjoying them. I’d hate to think they ended up getting mistaken for just some pencils and tossed out.
I’ve shown up at SJC when I had a flight out of SFO. Oops. I think this was with Alaska and they just changed me to the SJC departure.
Wow, BA took care of you. That’s impressive.
Usually, I don’t make many mistakes, but I had a few on this last Thailand trip.
– I thought our flight from Thailand to HK was a day earlier and booked the hotel accordingly. I realized the problem a few days before the flight and had to rebook our HK hotel and extend our Bangkok stay for one more day. No refund for the extra night in HK. :(
– I booked flight from Bangkok to Phuket using the same names on 2 tickets. It was a debacle to get it changed. I had to buy another ticket with the right name. Air Asia gave me airline credit refund for canceling one flight. No cash refund. :( Now, I have to use that credit by March…
Total damage due to dumb mistakes ~$120
It happens.
I was flying to Scotland from the Washington DC area. Everyone knows that international flights from DC always fly out of Dulles, not Reagan airport…. I showed up nice and early at Dulles. My flight was supposed to be from Reagan–connecting through Newark. At the wrong airport. Ack! So embarrassing. They switched me over to take different flight from Dulles to Newark. All was well!
We travel a lot too, so lots of big travel mistakes/mishaps. Biggest one was when we went to a Chinese ATM (living there at the time) and the machine whirred as if it were giving us money, but no money came out. Only a receipt that showed we had received the money. It was a pretty significant amount too – like $500. Lots of phone calls, but finally got it credited to our account. The biggest mishap was when my son fell out of his bunk bed in Morocco and broke his foot. Spent LOTS of time in the local Moroccan hospital in the sweltering heat – over 100 degrees with no AC. They were super nice, and it only cost us about $30 – we upgraded the plaster for the cast and bought crutches!
When I was much younger, I got to the airport in Honolulu 12hrs earlier than scheduled for my flight (messed up AM and PM). A few years later, when flying to Tokyo from NYC, I forgot about losing a day due to the time difference when scheduling a hostel check in.
So yeah, timing was a biggie for me back then!
Ahh, this reminds me…
I once flew from Asia to Austin, Texas, with a 10-hour layover in Detroit. I really had no idea that Detroit was on Eastern time so I missed my connection and had to spend the night in the airport (in the Westin – it’s nice.)
Another time I was super hungover in Denmark and went to the airport at 8 am, thinking I had an early flight. Alas, the flight wasn’t until the afternoon and the check-in desk wasn’t even open, so I ended up sleeping on the floor for a few hours.
When you say crying, do you mean tears and everything? If so, good for you! Airlines and all businesses need to take care of their customers.
Big manly tears.
Great stories. I will add a few of mine to the list:
– When I move from France to California for work (back in 2008), I took with me two of the largest suitcase I could checked it. British Airways managed to loose track of one of them during my connection at London Heathrow. (this was shortly after they completed the big renovation of that terminal). After calling/writing to them multiple times, they managed to settle with me by sending me a check for about $1,500 USD. This barely covered for the content of that suitcase, especially all my favorites clothes that I’ve accumulated over the years and that I eager to wear once in California. I definitely cried at that point, especially when I knew how hard it was to try to get a new wardrobe in the US. I learn from this by traveling carry on only now which should help reducing this type of incident (https://nomadnumbers.com/carry-on-packing-list-for-nomadic-long-term-travels)
– I lost my passport three times since I move to the USA in 2008. I always lost them once I got back home so that wasn’t as dramatic as your situation. If you have of a good solution to prevent this in the feature, my hears and wide opens.
– Lastly, I concur with you when it come to leave your ATM card in the ATM. I noticed that their are two kinds of ATM in the world. The ones that give you card back immediately and the ones that keep it until your finish your transaction. American ATMs seems to fit in the former category. So when we started to travel the world fulltime, we has very close calls of leaving it in the ATM.
Great stories. I’ll add mine lol.
#1 Forgetting my passport
In 2004 I was working in Germany as a Co-op student. The first very trip I did with other Canadian students was going to Amsterdam. The night before we drank a lot of got completed wasted. I woke up the next morning after my alarm and ran to the train station to catch my train. When I got on the train I realized that I had forgot my passport. When we were at the border, the Dutch police got on board. I gave them my drivers license and told them the story. They just laughed. On the way back the German police got on board and I gave them the same story. They laughed too.
#2. Forgetting credit card
A few years ago my parents, my brother, and I went to UK together. Upon arrival my dad went to the train station to pick up all the train tickets that we had booked previously. Later that day, when my dad was about to pay for dinner with his credit card, he couldn’t find it. We backtracked and realized that he had forgot his credit card at the train station earlier that day. When we went back to the train station the next day, the staff told us that they had tried to contact us but couldn’t reach us. For security measure, they had cut the credit card. Fortunately we had already collected all the booked train tickets and had more than 1 credit card.
Yea travel mistakes happen, you gotta deal with it. :)
It was the end of December, 2001. The travel industry was in terrible shape because 9/11 had been just three months prior. I was going to Miami from Baltimore to watch the Orange Bowl with the meager three days off in a row that I got from my crappy mall retail job, after a month of crazy holiday season blitz. To sum up: both I and the airline staff had every excuse to not bring their A-games. I got down the jetway to the hatch before my brain caught up with the announcement, so I talked to a flight attendant: “Excuse me, is this plane going to Fort Lauderdale?” “No, it’s going to Jacksonville.”
Oops. Walked back up, talked to the gate staff, she promised to flag me down when my flight to Fort Lauderdale was boarding… and then she typed a few things and printed me up a new boarding pass. I guess I was adequately pitiful — Premium economy, with extra legroom and free drinks. Score!
We showed up at the airport to catch a flight only to be told we were missing a transit visa for Australia for our connection and that we wouldn’t be allowed to board the flight. We booked a last minute ticket on a completely different airline, paid through our nose and then spent the night at the airport. That was not fun!
Apparently we didn’t learn from our mistakes coz we repeated the same mistake with a different country (UK) 2 years later. But this time we were stuck in Paris. Paris! We picked up a new ticket using miles. That stay of one more night in the city of love was one of the most memorable mistakes we made and we will end up treasuring it forever for happy reasons.
3rd time is the charm?
In February 2016, i was 5 weeks into a new job, and was on my first business trip to São Paulo. Now, mind you, I had been to Brazil 2x before, but it had been a few years.
I boarded the flight in Orlando, to Connect through Miami. About 30 minutes before the plane landed in São Paulo, I had an eerie feeling That I was forgetting something. I looked in my wallet, and everything was in place. I then checked my passport and realized That I did not have a valid visa for Brazil. I talked to the purser on the plane, Who said it was impossible that I would have gotten this far without a visa. He said I must have an he said I must have electronic one.
I landed in Brazil, and sure enough I got deported four hours later. The only upside- I was traveling business in both directions. 😂
X
Oops!
Great stories! We just started Year 4 of perpetual ER travel, and have a few:
1) Miscounting Visa Days: In Philippines, got an auto 30 day VOA, which we extended once for another 30 days at an immigration office, but forgot to count the day of arrival as first day when booking our tickets out. A week before our flight out, I finally looked at our last extension stamp in passport and realized we would be 1 day overstay. Searched Google to see if we really needed to apply for yet another extension or would be able to slip by with only 1 day “overstay” since extension was a few hundred for us both.
Consensus was it was best not to chance it, so we sat in yet another immigration office for a day and forked over the money, which was less than rebooking flights. We now consider it our stupid tax. We double check our visa lengths now and leave some wiggle room when booking flights out of a country. Love, love, love your slight “modification” on you Mexican FMM!
2) ATM card loss: DH forgot his ATM card on the small Indonesian island of Gili Trawangan right before we left to the even smaller neighboring island of Gili Air (both cash-only places). ATM ate card, but there was no bank on the island to get it back, just 3 scattered ATMs, which often ran out of money. Called Schwab after getting to Gili Air and found that my ATM card from same acct still would work as they cancelled DHs (with Schwab, ATM cards from same acct have different numbers) and they would get DH’s replacement to us in 2 days for $15 express fee. We were skeptical and explained how remote the island was and how there were no cars, etc., but card arrived by ferry to our small hotel in the time promised! Gotta love Schwab customer service on TOP of refunding all ATM fees worldwide…
3) No onward ticket and forgotten bag: In Japan we were flying one way to another country (normal for us), but this time airline insisted we must have a flight out of next country or we could not board. At same time we got this news, DH realized he had left a small bag at our Airbnb. We always arrive early to airports, thank goodness, so DH ran back to get cab to Airbnb to retrieve bag, while I got online to ‘rent’ an onward flight from country we were flying to. After paying the small online fee to rent onward ticket, I saw notice it could take up to 2 hours to arrive. We would miss flight if it took 2 hours. I sweated it out deciding that if not there when DH arrived, we would bite bullet and buy the cheapest one way refundable tickets I could find. Searched and found the cheapest ones as Plan B. DH ran to desk with forgotten bag, and as I started explaining Plan B, the rented onward flight ticket popped up. I showed it to agent, who DID NOT EVEN GLANCE at my phone, just threw boarding passes at us and told us to run through secunity and to gate! We made it, but now always arrive early to airport citing that stressful day. Also, have since found a free online service that lets you quickly create fake but real looking Orbitz or Travelocity itineraries. Have used it twice since.
Compromised credit card: After 3 full years of world travel, our credit card number was compromised for the first time ever…in the U.S. in NYC! We were there this Christmas and visited a Russian Vodka Bar where we think it got compromised. Chase notified us after it was used to buy Taiwan rail tickets that day, haha!
Thank you for sharing the travel mistakes.
3 years ago, I was in Beijing. I almost missed the train, due to the horrible traffic jam. I was only 2-3 miles away from the train station, but the car was just sitting there, and the clock was ticking brutally. The rain was pouring down. Luckily the train was delayed for 30 minutes, and I was able to catch it. The lesson I learnt is that, take the metro in Beijing, as the time is more guaranteed. The road traffic in Beijing is always a wild card.
When we were in Venice, we scheduled a boat transfer to the airport since we were staying at an Airbnb pretty far from the main bridge. But the night before our flight, we still had no confirmation that the boat would pick us up, and it was New Years and the lines were down. Scared that the boat wouldn’t come and we would miss our 7:00am flight home, we walked 4 miles to the bus station at 2:00am, parents in tow, luggage and all, and got to the airport by 3:30am. I’m still surprised the boat service reimbursed our money.
We also had a crazy morning getting out of Venice, but not nearly as bad as yours. We also made the mistake of flying out of one of the remote airports.
– I left my card in the ATM machine in the Mexico City airport; the next person there ran after me to return it.
– I showed up with my reservation papers at the Avis counter in an airport in Oman to find they didn’t have any cars. I found another company who had the last car in the airport and convinced Avis to reimburse me the extra expense.
– I got on the train to the airport in Casablanca. As it left the city, I found out that it was a long-distance train to the far south that arrived at my platform late (but to the minute when my real train was due). I jumped off as the train moved out of the station and was lucky that my few remaining remaining were just enough for a cab to the airport.
– My backpack was stolen in Paris with my wallet inside. I had my phone and my metro pass in my pockets, and my passport in the AirBnB…and with my wife’s credit cards still safe, we did fine.
– I got food poisoning in Yemen and missed my in-country flight. Oh well.
– A snowstorm in Korea canceled my flight out of China. Got re-routed through Hong Kong and by random good fortune got my first taste of Business Class.
A few years ago we arrived by train in LA at 5:01 pm. The rental car office closed at 5. The staff was still there but refused to help (Hertz.)
I had a serious case of food poisoning in Mexico (street tacos) that didn’t hit me til I got on a bus. I had fever dreams and serious full body pain for a 10-hour ride.
A bush holiday over remote slow rough gravel tacks and fast smooth main roads. Slowly rolling along old school friends farm drive and steering ball joint popped out. Anywhere else would have been a problem or disaster. Front end loader to lift vehicle onto car trailer a fraction too narrow to fit whole vehicle. Front wheels on back of trailer pivoting the tow vehicle up at rear. Off to town – just outside garage, jack-knifed. A day for parts and good as new.
Three biggest mistakes for me:
1: missed the last train to the airport in Paris and had to stay on the streets for 5 hours as a student (I was broke too)
2: went to the wrong terminal in heathrow. They had me run inside the tunnel of a non working tram. Got on the flight 2 mins before doors closed.
3: withdrew $300 instead of $30. Then thought I’d exchange it at the airport but then ended up paying huge fees.
One was definitely the worst. I chalk it up to lessons learned and promptly forgave myself!
Paris is a great city to spend 5 hours with zero money at least.
Leaving Bangkok to go home, I didn’t realize there were 2 major airports. We told the taxi the wrong airport. In a panic once I realized what happened and that we were at the wrong airport, I went and found the first cab I could and told him our predicament (we had about 40 min until our flight). Needless to say, he overcharged us by a lot to get us there quickly.
I did the same thing in Budapest! I meant to get ~$80 and got $800 or something worth. Mostly large bills also which no one wanted to cash for small items. I fronted cash for everyone in our group and still ended up exhanging some of it back at a pretty crappy exchange rate.
The other big mistake was booking flights arriving at midnight thinking they were at noon. Luckily someone else in the group understood am and pm better than me and I was able to cancel and re-book within 24 hour window. Hmmm…that might have been the flight to Budapest.
Checked out at 6am and mistakenly took an apartment host’s guest key with me from central Milan to Bergamo airport over an hour away. A friendly taxi driver was more than happy to help us out in returning it to Milan…for the right price!
This is awesome. Some of the best travel memories I have were started by some travel mistakes. Someday I would like to quit the rat race and travel full time like you guys.
Showed up at 5 am at the Cancun airport and they didn’t have a record of my ticket. Not exactly my mistake, but quite a scare!
On a multi country trip, my wife and I had been using ATMs to get local currency as needed. We landed in Rarotonga (Cook Islands) and spent some time looking around the island only to find out there was not a single ATM there! Oh well, several days of only being able to use a credit card in a primarily cash economy…The beach was nice, though, no cash needed!
A day late or day early to the airport. Depends on your point of view…
So here we are, packing for our trip FROM Colorado, when I get a call from my parents IN Australia, who had driven 3 hours to the airport to pick us up, asking where we were…
I’d miscalculated the time zone and travel time changes by 24 hours and given my parents the wrong date…
Dad was calm but probably wondering what sort of idiot son he had raised…
While this event has come up in conversation once or twice since – that mistake has NEVER been made again.