krlcomm

I just laughed... really hard... thanks!

Jaimito Cartero

You're pulling our leg. Everyone knows Canadians don't lock their doors.

Dadaluma83

Have one to add to this list unfortunately.

Rented a car for the first time this weekend. Went to Nashville, Finding parking on Friday afternoon wasn't too bad actually, just parked in the pinnacle garage. Super easy. I was feeling good about myself, got a little fustrated leaving that night though because the cops started blocking off some roads, and I found out that my phone doesn't get a signal well inside a parking garage so once I got out took a few minutes for the gps to kick in. Went around the block before realizing where I needed to go to get out of there. Downtown big city traffic is horrible!

But that wasn't the dumb travel mistake I made, that happened this morning. I declined to purchase gas from the rental car company and just said I will fill it up myself, so I pull into the BP station and park next to the pump, look at the gas cap, and I see no way to open it. All it said was EZ cap or something like that. No directions at all.

I tried twisting it a little bit to the left, since every single car I have ever seen always has a gas cap, with idiot proof instructions on it to turn left slowly.

The cap didn't budge, but I did see a metal flap thingy where the nozzle usually goes so in my early morning rush my mind had the idea that you just stick the nozzle in and go. So I did that, about half a gallon later I see gas spilling by the rear tire and immediatly stop and realized none of it got in the tank.

Just drove off and said screw it I will just return it with 3/4 of a tank and just let the rental car company fill it and charge me whatever the rate is when you return it with less than a full tank. The rate they offered me was 2.66 a gallon, BP had it for 2.55, so from now on since I don't need to do much driving I will just purchase the fill up option from the rental car company and avoid the hassle, not worth saving 40-50 cents.

I am freaking out though, it was a ford fiesta and now that I think about it don't those cars take some kind of funky ethanol mix? Which explains why the nozzle probably didnt fit. Now I am afraid the car rental company will charge me up the wazoo for repairs or loss of use or whatever, no gas at all got in the tank, but the back did smell of gas a bit, and I also got some on my hands which probably stunk up the steering wheel.

I hope they just charge me for the tank of gas and don't notice the smell. Yeah, lesson learned, just purchase the fuel option from the rental car company and save a lot of hassle.

Jaimito Cartero

First mistake: Ford Fiesta.

Second mstake: Not knowing how to put gas in. (No owners manual?)

Third mistake (possibly): putting the wrong fuel in. Unless you put diesel in, you're probably fine.

Doc Savage

@Dadaluma

I've occasionally had to look around for 5 minutes to find the stupid fuel door button/lever in rental cars. REALLY frustrating when running a bit late for a flight.

DaveBlaine

Thank you!

BenA

I assume the cap looked like one of these?

http://www.ford.com/resources/ford/f...p_easyfuel.jpg

For these easy fuel caps, you simply insert the gas pump nozzle into the center and push until the nozzle fully penetrates the metal sealing flap.

On the new low-emissions pumps with the rubber baffle around the end, you may need to push a little harder than expected to get the nozzle in the fueling cap.

As for E85/Regular, the note on the fueling cap is indicating the car can operate on either. Putting E85 in a car that can't handle it is a problem, but as far as I know, every car that is designed to accept E85 also works on standard fuel. Remember, E85 isn't even available in all states...

Note that the easy fuel option often is calculated based on an estimate of gallons. It's not the fuel rate where they get you - it's the number of gallons they charge you, which is often a mandatory minimum if you drove below 70 miles on the rental. Be careful of your company's travel policy, too - many companies require you to fuel the car yourself and will not reimburse for the fuel service option from the rental agency.

ajGoes

This ^. Signing up for a car rental company's refuel offer is volunteering to be robbed.

airsupply

Kept thinking to check passport expiration date but somehow always forget. Nearly Christmas time and I put international flight on 24 hr hold. Of course my passport expired the day before and daughter's with just under 6 months validity. Thankfully and surprisingly I was able to get an appointment in the local passport office in a day or two and had 2 new passports in our hands in the early afternoon. Ended up costing about extra $130 total but made it into a fun day out and got passports with extra pages too.

Recently forgot my Mac Air Charger for 2 week trip. Was surprised to see that neither EWR, nor NRT sell any alternatives. Got by with phone.

I always have to remind myself what a mess I 78 can be going to JFK and the 3-4 hr trip can become 6 hr nightmare easily. Not too long ago while driving 2 kids to the airport and being stuck in an accident for hours and deciding at which point I just start driving over the curb my college age kid asks where the snacks are. I replied that in the bag with toys and gifts she was bringing to orphanage. Yep, the bag was left home. No chance going back but made the flight.

Dadaluma83

Hmm, well in that case buying the fuel option from the rental car company is a bad deal if there is a minimum. Say for example you only use 2 gallons because you only drive to and from the airport, hotel, and event, but yet charge you for 10 gallons when they only fill up 2.

As for putting in the wrong fuel I picked 87 octane unleaded, none of it got in the tank.

Lesson learned after my first car rental, of course right when I got the car in the lot I spent a few minutes looking around to see how to turn on the AC, turn signals, windshield wipers, etc. Perhaps now I will have to take a look at the gas cap and google how to fill a -insert make, model, and year- if it is not blatantly obvious.

The cap looked exactly like that BenA.

The charge from Alamo is still pending on my credit card, once it posts I can rest easy.

nyc10036

A couple of years ago, I had scheduled a flight out of Tokyo HND--and, no, luckily, I didn't go to Tokyo NRT by mistake! Since I had to attend an event Thursday evening, a midnight flight would be perfect, I thought.

So, I booked a flight that leaves HND Thursday night...shortly after midnight...like 12:15 am. Hmmm. So, I leave on Thursday at 12:15 am... @:-) Wait, that's Wednesday night!!! Luckily, I caught the error when I received the check-in reminder 3 days before and the JAL people were so nice about it. I guess this is the disadvantage of booking flights on my own online, as such an error could have been prevented with a travel agent booking on my behalf.

I am sure this happens relatively frequently for flights leaving shortly after midnight!

shuigao

Thankfully I haven't made any big blunders yet but a year ago, on a big family holiday, we turned up at the airport and my mum's passport was <6 months and was denied boarding.

Naturally, the rest of us got on the plane and left her to go do a quick same day renewal on her own. She joined up with us on the next day's flight.

GW McLintock

I almost made the same mistake a few months ago. There are several different options to fly from SLC to NYC late at night -- there used to be an 11:55pm SLC-JFK, and a 12:55am to ATL (and then you connect). Now there is a 1:05am SLC-JFK, and an earlier flight to ATL (or something like that)... I had to be extra vigilant to make sure I booked the right time/day

-J.

st1575

JL maintains a special "reminder" web page about these flights. You are clearly in good company.

Norri

Of course a reminder wouldn't be necessary if they used the 24hr clock.