BootsnAll Travel Community

My story involves ending up paying twice for the same plane ticket.

I am in Beijing and have a ticket to fly to Shanghai in a few days. But, I have met a girl and we decide we'll travel overland together down to Shanghai and hit a place or two along the way. So I cancel the air ticket (for no credit) and we book an overnight bus to Qingdao. That afternoon she get's a pretty bad case of food poisoning so we bail on the overnight bus and check back into the hostel. The next day we're planning to leave again and the food poisoning now hits me. Another night in the hostel.

The following morning the national holiday period in China begins and land transportation is completey booked out for the next few days. I need to get to Shanghai for a flight out of the country. Ah, if only I hadn't cancelled my original plane ticket. So now I book an airline ticket for the same day of the exact flight I had just cancelled.

Halfnine...

Whoa! That is some craziness... Sounds like something I would do.

I just got a $6 traffic violation in Chiang Mai


But, I would say that faitful morning I got on the bike in Ko Pha Ngan and got in an accident would be the most costly.


I guess that I can also consider buying a ticket too early and then having overlapping routes as being pretty big travel costs that didn't have to happen.

Couple of years ago, bought three tickets Melbourne to Surfers' with Qantas. Four months before we were due to fly out, a new cut-price airline started - Jetstar, a subsiduary of Qantas. All the flights were down-graded to the el cheapo one. When I complained they said you can either accept $60.00 refund per ticket or get a full refund.

The only problem was I couldn't get seats on Virgin without paying extra, because we were flying during peak season (school holidays). Too make it even worse, the take-off time was shitty, and the airline staff had most definately not taken their happy pills. A ruder bunch of people I have yet to meet.

That being said, the staff on the return flight couldn't have been nicer - they were politeness itself.


Have a nice day, Whistler.


If you can keep a sense of humour and see the funny side of life, you will never be old. SMC.

One time I volunteered to be bumped from my flight when they overbooked it and I received a voucher for a free R/T ticket within the continental USA and Alaska. I planned on using it to fly to Alaska or visit home for a quick weekend. Now the bad part. A coastal storm rolled in later that afternoon and for the next three days we had a horrendous fog bank laying over the airport. I showed up at 5am for three days in a row only to wait for 4 hours before heading home. Consequently my friends decided we had to party everynight because it was my last night in town, so I was in bed at 2a at airport at 5a home again my 10a and drinking again my 2p! For 4 days! On the last day of delays i was interviewed by the local news station and I was so delerious it was hilarious! seriously, I was so funny. Seeing my beady little red eyes and listening to my outlandish answers was nearly worth all the pain and suffering I went though. But now for the worst part. I never got to use my free tic. To many restrictions and it was seriously impossible for me to fit any available flights into my extremely loose schedule. Lesson learned, sometimes a deal seemingly too good to be true, is.

I was studying abroad in Florence in fall 2004, and I was getting ready to visit my friends in London (with a RyanAir ticket from Pisa for 75 EUR).

So the night before I left, the guy that I had been seeing on and off came over to see me, we went to a bar, we were all over each other, and I can't believe that I was so into him (only had 2 beers!) that I LEFT MY PURSE IN THE BAR. My wallet, my cell phone and my PASSPORT were in there.

I didn't even realize it until the next morning when I was getting ready for class.

I ran over to the bar, but it was closed until 7:00 PM. My flight was to leave at 6:00 PM. All in all, I cancelled my trip. A very expensive lesson.

On a trip to Thailand, I decided to save a few bucks and wash my clothes in the bathtub. I dumped in my load, along with detergent, and sloshed them around. My stomach dropped as I saw the soapy water turning blood-red. What the...? Turns out, I'd accidentally tossed a new pair of RED shorts in with my WHITE wash.

Pink undies, pink socks, pink T-shirts. It took me nearly an hour to figure out how to say "bleach" in Thai. When I finally got "bleach" it turned out to be something that totally ate through my clothes.

To the market I went...for new EVERYTHING. sigh.

My biggest mess up was a Ryanair one, too. I was starting my first big solo trip. I flew into Vienna and took a bus straight to Bratislava. I'd heard it was a waste of time so I had a flight out that afternoon to visit a freind of mine in Italy. I spent my 5 hours in Bratislava and got to the airport. I waited in the Ryanair line and got up to the desk. The guy tells me I'm not on the flight. I hand him the confirmation and he says that he guesses I am on the flight. He calls over a supervisor, she points out that the ticket is for JUN 30. Since it was July 30th, I had missed my flight by a month. I was going to replace the ticket and fly both SkyEurope and Ryanair had planes going out to Italy, and the tickets were about 200 Euro more than my original one. I opted for Ryanair since they left earlier. I go to the ATM to get the cash to pay for the flight. My card get denied. So, I go to the money changing place to cash traveler's cheques only to learn that they exchange rate is so bad that I can afford the ticket. I say screw it and go look for trains and buses which don't exist and since I have to be in Poland by the next night I call my freind in Italy and tell her I'm not comming afterall and just stay in Slovakia for the night and have the most amazing night of my entire trip.

After reading all these posts I feel really, really stupid.

I was doing South East Asia alone and had been in Bangkok for like two weeks. I got an email from a friend who had decided to come to BKK and had the idea of going to Phuket. Everything s fine until and we make it to Phuket. My friend takes advantage of the ridiculously low priced bike rentals and rents a nice fast rice rocket. He the proceeds he can convince me that he can teach me to ride on this nice empty street....I crashed the bike into the only car on the street.

that one hurt

-tres

I went to Paris last month and arrived at the airport on the way home in good time (thankfully). Got to the top of the queue to check in for a ticketless flight. As always I hadn't printed out the ticket. And was told I was booked in for a month later that I'd planned. I'd checked the flight price so many times that I'd gotten lazy about the dates and started putting in any ol dates to see how the prices were. Then without thinking must have bought them. Cost me €250 to get home. Bit worrying that I could make such a stupid mistake when I think that I'm attempting a round the world trip next month!

I was in Cesky Krumlov and wanted to go to Bratislava. Unfortunately for me, the day before I left it began to snow heavily, to the point where flights and trains were being cancelled throughout the country. This I did not know at the time however. I go the bus station, wait in the cold and snow only to find that my first bus never shows up, so I catch the next one and end up in Brno. After some struggles to simply find the bus station, as we weren't dropped off at it, but simply in between the old station and the new one being built I manage to find out what time the next bus to Bratislava is. It never shows up and I've been standing the snow for several hours now. Finally I give up and get on a bus back to Prague, land at the opposite end of town and am lucky enough to find a room at my orginal hostel. I did get to Bratislava the next day, a much easier 4 hour trip than the prior day long attempt.

The other one was when I was trying to leave Yemen. I really did not want to leave and was already upset, had packed too much as I was coming back from college and Yemen was a one month study stop-over. So when I finally get to what passes for an airport there, I find that my bags supposedly weigh too much, even though the have the same amount of stuff as they did when I arrived, which was fine. This being Yemen, they don't take credit cards, or debit cards and I have about 100USD on me, and they want several hundred for the excess weight. Haggling is the name of the game there so I went for it, stubbornly refusing to speak in English and only in Arabic I got the supervisior to waive most of the weight and accept what money I had and let me on the plane. The flight home was the longest I've ever been on, Yemen-Bahrain-London-Vancouver-Seattle, well over 36 straight hours of flying and layovers.

I've been pretty lucky, though there was one drunken taxi driver in Yemen, me showing up at 4 am by mistake for a 6 am train in Spain, and the fact I always seem to get back to Scotland on a Sunday when there are almost no buses.

I was due to fly from Perth to Kuala Lumpar at 1am on 27 March 2004. I turned up at 1am in the morning...but it was the wrong morning (I'd try to stay awake for the night) but I'd missed my flight by 24 hours.

Mild panic, Then played the lone-travelling female card and quietly assumed they'd get on the next flight. They did. For free. Result.

This is a great thread.

My own story did not really cost me much money but was my first ever encounter with how wrong things could go.

I was in Budapest with another backpacker that I'd met and we had a train ticket to go to Vienna. Off we went down the train station to find the train and saw one with Vienna written on the front (Not sure about now but there really wasn't much English around then) so feeling rather proud of ourselves... we'd brought the ticket and found our train without having to play the helpless lost female card.... we hopped on board chose a little cabin and sat down.

Now at that point you think I would have noticed that there was not a single backpacker other than us on board that I could see. A whole heap of locals piled into the cabin with us. We quickly established that they didn't speak a word of English and other than water, hello, thank you or beer we could not communicate with them.

Hours later we started getting a little worried. You see we should have been in Vienna and just plain weren't. So I pulled out a map which caught the attention of our travel buddies. managed to convey by exaggerated gestures and pointing that we'd all got on the train in Budapest. They all smiled and nodded. Then I indicated that we were going to Vienna pointing to it on the map. they all exchanged startled glances and erupted into laughter.

Things were not looking good.

The kindly looking little old lady across from me composed herself then took the map. Indicated that yes we got on the train in Budapest. She then pointed at Vienna then at us... we nodded... that's right we're going to Vienna.... she shook her head then pointed to Budapest again then the train... then off the map ... East... where we really could not go, we didn't have a visa, we'd get in sooo much trouble. We panicked at that point and jumped up to grab our packs but the kindly little old lady took charge and advised us to wait. We think she was telling us the train stations were too small.

Eventually the lady stood up and indicated we should come too so off we hopped packs in hand expecting to be arrested and never seen again. The little old lady marched us right up to a group of military types on the platform and off she went talking to one of them with all that 'stuff' that indicates rank. Every now and then she would point at us... our hearts sank even further... Then she turned smiled and left... we turned back to the uniform type who it turns out spoke some English. He took us in had bustled us onto the train, without us paying a cent, they got onto explaining that it was going back to Budapest. He and his side kick kind of put themselves between us and their men on the ride back.

We made it back to Budapest in on piece thanks to a kindly little old lady and military types who for some reason due to the little old lady I'm sure, helped us.

Problem. We had no local money but we figured that it was only a few hours so we'd sleep at the station.

Drama #2. A group of rather disreputable looking men were going around and stealing peoples bags while they were asleep at the station. Thankfully we were sleeping in shifts... paranoia is sometimes a wonderful thing. Except big scary dude with the really big knife notices we're awake (I'd woken my travel buddy as soon as I saw what was going on.) He walked over with his men following and without saying a word told us to shut up or he would slit our throats. You know I believed him.

They walked off around the corner and we started waking people up. Trying to explain what was going on. It worked except for a Japanese backpacker. Who did not seem to understand. He just rolled over and went back to sleep. The group of men came back a little later. They noticed that mostly everyone in our section was awake and they pegged us for doing it. Two of them walked at us and just stood there with there knives while the rest picked up the Japanese backpacker and stole his bags that he been on top of.

The next day we tried to help the distraught Japanese guy and tried to explain that yes his bags had been stolen, that was why we'd tried to wake him.

We used our trusty credit cards, managed to get on the right train and made it to Vienna.

You know I still feel a little guilty that I did not stand up to those men but I think if we had. They would have followed through with their treat.

That was the moment I learned that those occasional stories you hear of horrible things happening to travellers could happen to me.

Still I shrugged and kept travelling. Things can go wrong at home too.

These stories are priceless. Not so funny when you are in the middle of them but really funny years later.
Great job everyone, for making it back to write about it .
Cheers
M

I'm trying to get from my uni in a little Scottish town to home in the US. Bus to the train station, train to Edinburgh. So far, so good. Find out at the airport you can only have one carry on, so now with little time remaining I have to go back and check another bag.

Get to Amsterdam where I have a 24 hour layover, only to find they have checked my bags through so I have to wait a few hours to get them thus taking up most of my time in Amsterdam. Finally get to the hostel and have a good few hours wandering around.

Late the next morning I head off to the airport, go up to the check-in, only to have the lady inform me that my flight no longer exists. Okay, this is good. Wait for a good hour, get my tickets changed to the next day and am bussed with others to a hotel. Fed and housed for the night, spend $40.00 on a call home, reaching them at 5am to say that I'm in Amsterdam so don't come pick me up.

7am next day we are bussed to the airport and I get charged $250 because they have different weight restrictions. But I'm lucky enough to score a row of empty seats so I can lay down and sleep for the 10 hour flight.

Thanks to all the intrepid travelers who have shared their nightmare trip experiences. I'm certain I'm not alone when I say that it makes my travel woes seem benign in comparison.

Ironically my stupidest travel trick happened in the states. The night before I am to leave Asheville, NC to head to Charlotte to fly home, someone gives me directions for a shortcut that will shave 90 minutes off the drive. Uncharacteristically I leave early. Shortly after I get to the interstate I stop for gas. About 30 minutes after I resume driving it dawns on me that I'm not seeing the turn off to the short cut. I have a lot on my mind at the time and don't really think too much about it. I'm driving, looking, thinking, not really paying attention to the fact that the terrain has changed, that big mountains are looming off in the distance in front of me. I don't even think much about the sign extolling the virtues of the Great Smokey Mountains.

It's not until I see the sign, "Welcome to Tennessee," that I realize I have been driving west instead of east. There are no exits for miles. My cell phone is back home in Los Angeles. Finally an exit! It's a gas station/store and the only thing around forever. Inside it feels like I have stepped into a different century. A fat, disheveled man with dirty overalls over a bare chest comes out from the back and glowers at me. Visions of "Deliverance" are dancing in my head. I smile and sweetly ask if there's any chance I can get from there to Charlotte in 90 minutes. He shakes his head no. I ask where I can find a public phone and he nods his head toward the parking lot. I call the airline and learn that this is the last flight of the day. Which means I will have to stay the night and miss a critical appointment in the morning. Not only that but it also means that I am about two hours away from Durham, NC where in just about two hours my first cousin is getting a very special honor from Duke University. I'm feeling super guilty about the fact that I didn't reschedule the critical meeting and stay an extra day to be present for her honor.

So I decide to go for it. I'll drive the Ford Escort to Charlotte as fast as is reasonably safe and see what happens. On the interstate I'm frequently going 90 mph. I find the aforementioned short cut but it means that I have to go 25 mph in several places.

It's now 30 minutes before the flight. I jump out of the rental car, trusting them to not overcharge me, grab my bag and run to the terminal. I find the departures screens, find the gate and run as fast as my pounding heart will take me. I'm gasping for air and dripping sweat when I see the check-in board and learn that the flight has been delayed -- for two hours.

Back in the day, when I was fresh out of the US for the first time, I had a lovely - costly - mishap with Ryan Air.

I was living in Dublin and Ryan Air was running penny+taxes flights all over Europe. For 80euro I managed to piece together a trip to Italy for the weekend. We had to spend several hours (overnight) in the airport in London, but no biggie, we were spontaneous travelers!!

Right.

So, anyway, I booked the flights for me and one other guy. Then some other people got wind of the trip and wanted to come. So I "helped" them book their flights. As you may know, Ryan Air doesn't offer connecting flights. You have to buy a flight Dublin to London and then London to Italy. I was having trouble explaining to my friends which flights to book etc, so I hopped on the computer, booked the penny flights and printed out their info. Unfortunately, I had no idea Ryan Air was changing which flights were a penny every few minutes and I had my friends leaving London before they got there... oops. So, that cost them to change, not me, but they were not thrilled...

So then, coming home, there is FOG IN LONDON. It made our plane late getting there and we missed our flight. So we had to buy another flight to Dublin b/c Ryan Air doesn't guarantee connections. My friends were, needless to say, bullsh*t at me, and we were all out more money.

Luckily for me there was an upside! Having to buy another flight made me realize I had left my WALLET ON THE PLANE. I managed to get the guy who I was originally traveling with to cover my ticket and then convince some nice airport worker to go out and get my wallet off the plane, thank goodness...

I still haven't lived that one down.

I have many stories of traveling mishaps-heres a good one.

Last year I am leaving for Europe out of NYC and there is a blizzard going on. The last 3 times I left for a big trip there was a blizzard when I was supposed to leave. Well last one was very bad. My bro is in Stowe Vermont and they got 4.5 feet of snow from this storm the day I left!

Anyways the flight I scheduled had an 10 hour layover in Amsterdam-thats why I booked that particular flight. So I have a hellacious 60 mile drive in a blizzard to JFK. I check my backpack and head to the airport bar. Its packed because there are massive delays.

I ended up meeting a great girl at the bar who loves traveling and is going to Amsterdam for her first time. Our plane is delayed longer and longer. Me and the girl hit it off and are partying, having a great time. We make plans to hang out in Amsterdam during my layover and I will show her around. Well my flight gets delayed 8 hours.

We arrive at Amsterdam and hit up downtown. I talk to a cab driver and say "I have my boarding pass and need to catch my 14:00 connecting flight to Frankfurt-how much time should I allow?". He says he will wait outside the coffee shop and 30 minutes will be plenty to catch the flight. Well its not-I miss the connecting flight-which set off cascading problems. I had a reservation in Frankfurt and a flight the following day to Krakow and had to get on a computer to get my flight info.

I digress- so I am at the Amsterdam airport waiting for my backpack to return. I have a Eurorail pass and the next flight to Frankfurt is a long time and will cost me $200euro- so I decide to take the train-Amsterdam to Frankfurt.

Well the Dutch train was running late and the German train was on time- I missed the train to Frankfurt. I tried a complicated train route that involved 5 train switches in an attempt to get to Frankfurt frantically. I am frustrated by my third train switch, the train is empty and I am starting to realize that chances are I will not make it Frankfurt.

The train stops- and thousands of people dressed like clowns hop on and they are loud and fun-Carnival is going on. A couple of nice German ladys were helping me out, then explained that it was the last stop(its past midnight at this point). I was in Dusseldorf. The kind ladys walked me around trying to find me a hotel.

Finally I get the hotel and I realize I packed my wrong ATM card(it was the expired date). I was so tired and just wanted to sleep. Anyways I have the deskclerk ring up my ATM manually with the new expiration date(which I knew off hand). I went to bed thinking I had a 15:00 flight for Krakow and that I had to catch the 11:15 train to Cologne to catch the 12:00 bus to Hahn. The 11:15 train sign was up, the train was there-but it didnt say Cologne.

I ask a girl "is that the Cologne train?". She looks at the sign and says no. Train leaves, shes asks someone in German and says to me "that was the Cologne train". I went to the office and they said it was their mistake, and gave me a free pass for a cab. Cologne is something like 45 miles away and its 11:28. I ask the cab driver if he can get me there by 12- he says hop in and does 150 kph-I get to Ryan Air bus with no time to spare-those Germans can drive!

I get to the airport all excited to get to Poland and come to find out my flight was at 9:00 and I missed it. I ask when the next flight to Krakow is- tomorrow they tell me. "Do you have any flights to Poland today?" I ask- and the lady tells me they have a 21:00 flight to Gdansk. I said "put me on it!"(my #1 rule of traveling is be flexible!). I have her punch in my expired ATM card manually and get on a plane to Poland 7 hours later.

I arrive at Gdansk late at night(with less then 30 euros on me!) and go to the hostel where I booked my reservation (after wandering around looking for it)-well there is no hostel at the address listed. I finally find another hostel later and check in.

The next morning I hopped on a train to Krakow and had my father wire me some money. So I spent 3 stressful days trying to get to Krakow and stretched out 30 Euro over those 3 days- all to hang out with a traveller whom I met at the airport bar during the blizzard!

Bad, formatting! Bad!

(paragraphs please!)