TOMFORD

Booking any flight with 45 minute connection time, with both legs being around or less than 500 miles. In the winter. In or around New York.

Annalisa12

A work colleague booked his flight to Europe on a particular airline because he said it took him less time to get there as he arrived on the same day. I said you do realise that you cross the international date line and what you 'gain' on the way there you lose on the way back. I said your 20 hour plane trip is a 20 hour plane trip no matter what time or day you arrive in a country. I said you will take you 2 days to get home so you are not getting anything extra!

Cymro

True, but I'd rather get up early and force myself to stay awake, sleeping in a hotel at my destination, instead of sleeping fitfully on the plane and still being at least 12 hours away from a vaguely normal bedtime once I landed.

No, it won't save time but it would make for a more pleasant experience.

DaveBlaine

Found a super cheap deal on a flight to Australia (AUS). At least I thought it was Australia. Turns out, the reason why the flight was so cheap was because the flight was to Austin, Texas.

I'll never do that again.

JR14

Booked a terrible, incredibly touristy musical performance in Vienna and almost choked on my tongue trying not to laugh for the entire two hours. That goes into the Idiot Tourist Tax category -- the money we throw away on things because we're so painfully not local.

CMK10

Seems that yet again I booked a plane ticket for the day before I need to travel. Thankfully, the trip isn't until September and I realized it today so the mistake will only cost me $215 or so to buy a new ticket. Still pretty stupid of me though

Big4Flyer

Its good to know I'm not the only one who's made these mistakes. Even when you know its not a big deal and its only a couple hundred, I think the painful part is realizing that you get absolutely no return on the money you spent.

GW McLintock

Anyone of you ever get on the wrong plane?

-J.

javabytes

A few years back I misread a promotion as offering triple miles when it really offered triple elite qualification miles. Then I booked a bunch of mileage runs.

More recently I left my MBP in a bin at the TSA checkpoint after getting a freedom grope. With the flight already boarding, I went straight to the gate and got on the plane - went to take my laptop out of the bag and it wasn't there. Sprinted off the plane, to the checkpoint where it was still in a bin, and miraculously made it back on the plane before boarding completed.

I need to pick up some travel secrets from you. Your round trips from SMF to Europe are less than $480?

JDiver

Years ago, I decided to purchase a VW camper, hit the Pan American highway and a bunch of side roads and spend some time learning about different cultures. Halfway down Mexico, I got a severe case of amoebiasis. Metronidazole interferes with my sleep, soon I was even hallucinating - hate that stuff!

As I was recovering and preparing to continue on, I disposed of rubbish to lighten the load. Whoops! I burned my auto registration, and the embassies throughout were unfriendly to me.

So I developed a stratagem. Arriving at a border at "horas extraordinarias" (generally closed, no queues, but fees. I talked my way through borders - Guatemala, with "elections" with two generals and a colonel as candidates; El Salvador and Honduras, at that moment engaged in a mini-war even as El Salvador was in midst of an insurgency; Nicaragua, where the revolt against Anastazio Somoza was at full tilt. Costa Rica, where I didnt have to bribe and was treated quite decently, where I was finally able to get duplicate papers issued.

What documents did I use to cross the borders? My US passport, California smog certificate, "special" fees (and a reasonable "tip") - but most crucially, some used Playboy magazines I picked up in Mexico.

(I returned to the U.S. nearly a year after I left; it was quite an adventure.)

CMK10

Back in 2006. Was flying LAX-BOS, stayed later at the LAX AC then planned and didn't notice the gate for my flight had changed since I arrived earlier. Bypassed the long line to board by going to the Priority Access line. The BP reader spat by BP back out saying "WRONG FLIGHT" but the agents let me on anyway saying it was a glitch. I noticed my seatmate wearing a Yankees hat and said "that's a dangerous hat to be wearing on a flight to Boston". She looked at me like I was crazy and said "this plane is going to Miami". I got my bags and ran off and got on the right plane though I ended up having to gate check my larger bag. I sure felt pretty stupid

Annalisa12

He believed it would give him extra hours on the day of his departure!! What was worse was this was a so called smart person who thought this.

Big4Flyer

Not from SMF, from OAK. If you're flexible with your dates you can fly OAK-ARN r/t for <$400, I think I've seen it as low as $320, especially in fall. Great time to visit with still reasonable amounts of sunlight and a decent chance to see the northern lights if you head farther North.

j_the_p

While my worst is not as bad as some stories here, mine was last summer.

I was flying YYZ-YYC with Mrs. jtp and jtp junior. We were supposed to land in YYC, cab it to a relative's house and pick up a bunch of stuff, including a car, and then drive 6+ hours into southern SK. The relative had mailed me a key to the house because they were already going to be in SK.

The drive from my house to YYZ is about an hour. We arrived at YYZ and went to priority check-in, only to realize that Mrs. jtp didn't have any government issued ID. None. Nada. No time to drive back home to get it and still make the flight. No other flight options until much later. We were pretty frazzled. An airline manager came over to see what the issue was (trust me, we weren't making a fuss with the agent, we were just beside ourselves with having made such a dumb mistake). The manager looked at the "cards" that my wife had in her possession and very graciously allowed us to proceed with "ID" that was not permitted (I won't say what "ID" it was, but it was very sketchy at best). He put a note on our file for the gate agent to allow boarding with this "ID". Remember, in Canada, ID is checked at the gate, not at security.

Ok, so we're both on our last nerve, but we were going to make it onto the flight. I kept having this odd feeling that we were still forgetting something. We started to relax a bit, we got on the flight and it pushed back on time. While we were pushing back, it hit me. I could see the key to my relative's house, sitting on our kitchen counter. We forgot the key. About to push back head across the country with no way to pick up everything we were supposed to, and anyone that could help was a 6 hour drive away in SK. Last nerve was broken.

It would make a better story if I didn't tell you that everything worked out ok, but it really did. While we were taxiing to the runway, we were frantically texting anyone that would listen. Turns out, my cousin had just left YYC so was able to turn back, leave the house unlocked and then head to SK while we were in flight.

By the way, the manager at YYZ said he'd put a note on the file for the flight home from YYC, but he said there were no guarantees that the YYC staff would accept that. So Mrs. jtp frantically found someone to mail her DL to her in YYC. Well the DL didn't arrive in YYC until 2 days after we returned home. Luckily, YYC staff let us on with the highly questionable ID.

There's some lesson in here about a strong marriage, patience and ID in the mail.

skitraveler

Flying AC LGA-YYZ in early 2000's, grab passport case and notice Singapore Air booklet in it and while I didn't remember why I had it, been years since flown them, I decided it wasn't important and took it out. Get to check-in and the agent finds me in the system and then asks for the SIA coupon as my dad had used miles to book the flight for me. After a few minutes pleading with them to check me in, hopped in a cab back to Manhattan, told the cabbie to hustle and I'd give him $50 if got me back in time. Thankfully traffic wasn't bad and was able to make the flight.