FlyerTalk’s Dumbest (and Funniest) Travel Mistakes

Although infrequent flyers are prone to making travel-related mistakes that can ruin a trip, such as accidentally booking tickets from Philadelphia to London, Ontario rather than London, England (it actually happened to someone we know), but even seasoned travelers can occasionally make boneheaded decisions when traveling – a few are even willing to admit it.

Enter the Dragon

Forgetting to declare an item while traveling internationally can be costly if discovered at the airport. For one FlyerTalk member, it was nearly life-changing.

“When I was traveling in 2007 I went to Japan and bought two Japanese throwing stars for about a fiver each, and had them gift wrapped,” travbod57 explained. “I put them at the bottom of my backpack and continued on through Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore for 3 weeks before flying to Australia. I landed in Melbourne and our luggage got scanned again as we left the airport (I thought this weird at the time). However the machine beeped at my bag but I thought nothing of it. They asked whether I had anything in the bag that could have set the beeping off to which I replied no, completely forgetting about the throwing stars. Of course they got discovered and I looked like a right tit. They read me my rights and issued me a formal warning of which I have kept the documentation as a souvenir. They told me that legislation for this kind of offense had changed in the last 6 months and had this incident occurred 6 months earlier, I could be facing a jail term or up to $50,000 fine. A close shave. I think they took pity on me because firstly they were gift wrapped and secondly I said that if I were to bring a weapon into the country with the intention of causing harm, Japanese throwing stars would not be my weapon of choice!”

A “Stupid” Mistake

Presumably, Georgina Cammalleri is a much more savvy traveler now, but that wasn’t always the case. She freely admits she was once young and “stupid.”

“I went on a school trip to the US when I was 17. I thought myself very cool and ‘grown up,’” she recalled. “We get to immigration control and we have to fill out the immigration cards. For occupation, a person my age would normally write ‘STUDENT’. So, imagine my shock when the officer checking my details goes to me: ‘So, you are a Stupid?’ I had written in big capital letters under occupation: ‘STUPID’ not ‘STUDENT.’”

Garcon! Garcon!

FlyerTalk writer and verified idiot Jeff Edwards, opted not to share a story about boarding the wrong train in Barcelona and ending up two hours away from his intended destination – a nearby hotel (lest he be assigned a social worker and 24-hour-a-day supervision). Instead, he shares a much more embarrassing, but somewhat less troubling tale of an ugly American facing a language barrier with less than ideal results.

“The scene is the bar car of a train somewhere between Paris and Antwerp,” Edwards confesses. “A waiter asks a question in French which I loosely translated to ‘Would you care for a drink?’ I reply, ‘Cote du Rhone, si vous plait’ in practiced French. To which the waiter (now speaking very clear English) responds, ‘I am not your f***ing waiter; I am the conductor. Now, could I have your ticket please.’”

Checked a Coat, but Not the Weather

Airport coat checks are a great option for passengers headed for tropical climates who don’t want to haul a heavy winter coat with them to a beach resort, but will require a bit of extra protection from the elements on the ground at their city of origin. The service is even better when it comes included as a perk of using a parking service, but there can be unexpected drawbacks.

“For my flight 2 days before Christmas to a hot, sunny destination I was happy to get free coat check due to my parking option,” FlyerTalker Fragola admitted. “I was happy to take advantage of it since it was -20 C and windy outside, knowing that my 737 would be boarded from a jetbridge and I could comfortably get myself into the terminal wearing my puffy down parka but not have to worry about lugging it around. I was NOT happy to learn at the gate we would actually need to walk outside on the tarmac and board using the stairs. Staff were reminding everyone to put their jackets back on. All I could do was do up all the buttons on my sweater…unlike the guy in line who was only in shorts and t shirt.”

Any Port in a Storm

A passenger running late a for a departing flight cut some corners when returning a rental car, but it turns out the rushed driver might as well have just left the car in short-term parking. It seems brand loyalty isn’t a big concern for this particular traveler.

“When I returned my rental car at the Detroit airport, the attendant mentioned that another car nearby wasn’t theirs,” Dragonbelle related. “The renter had left it and dashed madly for the shuttle bus. If she’d waited for her receipt, she’d have realized she was at the wrong agency.”

Off-Season

We are all guilty of occasionally finding an airfare deal that seems too good to be true; if we are lucky, the reason for the bargain-basement price is clear before we pull the trigger. One FlyerTalk member, however, didn’t realize there was a catch until it was too late.

“A few years ago, looking to fly from NY to south FL for a long weekend in February, dead of winter,” RBirns confessed. “Big prices, naturally. Got online to search one day, and found a very low fare to FLL, so I booked it. Turns out I booked the reverse trip. No wonder it was so cheap. Who wants to go from FL to NY in February?”

There Are No Problems, Only Solutions

A FlyerTalker learned that traveling with a paper drivers license extension card can make renting a car nearly impossible. Fortunately, a rental agent offered an unlikely solution to the problem.

“I accepted that it was my problem but was there any way to solve it?” sjclynn wrote. “She has one of the service guys take me to the local DMV where they verified that I was actually legal in CA, gave me a quick vision test and in a matter of 10 minutes I had a temporary South Dakota drivers license.”

Same, Same

BuildingMyBento had a concise but universally understood “dumb travel mistake” to admit. Unfortunately, it is a mistake many of us are guilty of repeating over and over again.

“Flying to EWR,” the FlyerTalk member wrote with no explanation required.

This is Where We Used to Live

There are rough trips and there are those journeys that can make you lose track of major life events. If one of the goals of travel is to make you forget your worries, then this excursion must have been an overwhelming success.

“Have you ever had that feeling when something is not quite right but you can’t put your finger on it?” a FlyerTalker with the handle Roger Wolco posed. “After a long multi-segment journey I was relieved to be driving home from the airport and was looking forward to unwinding chez Wilco. The light bulb did not go off until I discovered that my key would not open the front door – and then it took me a moment or two to figure it out. No, Mrs Wilco had not changed the locks. We had moved house the previous year! I must have really liked the old place. Fortunately it was only a few miles away.”

Ever booked a flight to the wrong airport, misread the departure time, left a passport in a taxi or slept through a change of gate announcement? Well, misery loves company. FlyerTalk members are sharing their best “I can’t believe I did that” stories and sympathizing each other’s tales of woe in the forums now.

 

[Featured Image: Shutterstock]