Made any travel mistakes lately?

[serfty]

Sometimes things don't work out as you'd hope.

Booked last minute flights and we've ended up 8 hours short. Stupid connections. Stupid airfare pricing. Sad.

Short of what?

 

[JohnK]

Short of what?

Father in law passed away this morning while my wife was in SIN T4 waiting for flight to CNX. She'll land shortly. Sad.

I spent half the night looking for one-way return airfares last night. Lots of airfares available $650-$750 on Eva Air for next weekend and some other cheap(ish) airfares. Check again now and most gone.

There's one available that I'd do and that is CNX-DMK-DPS-MEL-BNE for ~$400 + 23,000 Velocity points + $110 but I think too much waiting around for wife.

Most other airfares are $1100-$1200+ and involve LCCs with awful connections. This is not the time for last minute travel. Used to be able to pick up award seats at last minute as flights were not full.

 

[serfty]

Father in law passed away this morning while my wife was in SIN T4 waiting for flight to CNX. She'll land shortly. Sad.

Commisserations to your wife, daughter and yourself.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Johnny K my deepest sympathies to you and your beautiful girls - our thoughts with your entire family mate - pls are pass on our thoughts

 

[straitman]

Father in law passed away this morning while my wife was in SIN T4 waiting for flight to CNX. She'll land shortly. Sad.

So sorry to hear this JohnK. My condolences to everyone.

 

[JohnK]

Here's another glitch I never knew existed.

Booked wife/daughter on Webjet trip to Thailand with 2 Scoot flights but SQ flight numbers on all 4 flights so an SQ itinerary.

Booked identical flights for me on Expedia.

Didn't think too much about seat selection as you have to pay for seats on Scoot. Our first Scoot flight SYD-SIN is tomorrow night. Go to check in online. No go. OLCI not offered.

Go to my booking and try to pay for seats for tomorrow's flight only but it hangs. Have to choose seats for SYD-SIN and CNX-SIN. For crying out loud. Why force me to pay for seats on each flight? LCC for a reason. Spent $26 on my seats to ensure no middle seat and left wife/daughter without allocated seats. Think we'll spend the flight apart.

Now for fun tomorrow night with golf clubs. This is an SQ booking so I should get 25kgs + 15kgs Virgin Gold allowance.

Sometimes this can get way too difficult.

 

[burmans]

Not sure of your point, yes it’s a LCC and all that entails. I understand that infrequent flyers might not understand that but I think most frequent flyers understand this means you pay for everything extra, including pre booked seat selection!

 

[JohnK]

Not sure of your point, yes it’s a LCC and all that entails. I understand that infrequent flyers might not understand that but I think most frequent flyers understand this means you pay for everything extra, including pre booked seat selection!

I'd like to pay for seat selection on the SYD-SIN flight but not the CNX-SIN flight. Can't be done. All flights or none.

I'd like to use OLCI to avoid paying for seat selection but that's not available either.

As for golf clubs tomorrow night I know I don't need to pay as this is an SQ booking with SQ flight numbers but I'm sure Scoot is going to try and extort extra money.

I understand the concept of LCC but making things difficult for passengers goes way beyond.

 

[Pushka]

I booked a refundable ticket (thank goodness) for the DSC and booked it for tomorrow! A day too early. . Now cancelled of course.

 

[Happy Dude]

Booked wife/daughter on Webjet

Booked identical flights for me on Expedia.

There's your mistakes right there

 

[Lynda2475]

Is part of the problem wrt OLCI because you booked via 3rd party instead of directly with Scoot of Singapore Airlines?

I booked a flight via Expedia once over a decade ago before all the major airlines had online booking portals, but now that one can book direct what is the advantage of using a OTA?

 

[Brizz]

Arrived at Sydney International on Friday sans passport.

Luckily was planning on spending a few hours in the lounge prior so had plenty of time to retrieve the passport and get back to the airport - lounge time now all used up however.

Certainly was not the relaxed start that I had planned!

 

[SydneySwan]

I booked a flight via Expedia once over a decade ago before all the major airlines had online booking portals, but now that one can book direct what is the advantage of using a OTA?

Often they are cheaper. You can also get cashback from some of them.

 

[JohnK]

There's your mistakes right there

Yes my mistake that saved quite a lot but now they want it back.

The airfare on SQ website and other OTAs at the time was $1600-$1700 per person.

i found this cheap airfare on Webjet that was around $1300 per person. That's quite a saving for 3 people.

Webjet 3 people on booking no booking fees but Webjet only accepts Afterpay maximum $3000. Book wife and daughter then Webjet wants some ridiculous surcharge for my airfare so book with Expedia with no fees but now we are separated but forgot about Scoot stupidity.

Now one way or another they want this saving back. I need golf and drinking money.

Anyway I've paid for my aisle seats and I'll let Scoot allocate wife and daughter for free then try to sit together if possible. Cabin when I paid for my seats is wide open. We'll get to airport about 5:00pm(ish).

 

[CMA222]

Arrived at Sydney International on Friday sans passport.
Luckily was planning on spending a few hours in the lounge prior so had plenty of time to retrieve the passport and get back to the airport - lounge time now all used up however.

Pre-covid had the same problem. SWMBO and I arrived at the airport to check in and SWMBO had her expired passport, rather than her shiny new one. Return (expensive) taxi trip to extreme Sydney northern suburbs and totally missed the QF F lounge as a consequence. Me keeping my cool and saying nothing was a sensible move.

 

[flyingfan]

SWMBO and I arrived at the airport to check in and SWMBO had her expired passport, rather than her shiny new one. Return (expensive) taxi trip to extreme Sydney northern suburbs and totally missed the QF F lounge as a consequence. Me keeping my cool and saying nothing was a sensible move.

That’s annoying but missing the flight would have been much worse. Was it hard to bite your tongue?

 

[jpp42]

Cabin when I paid for my seats is wide open.

Keep in mind that because of the charges to assign seats, that's normal as many budget travellers won't pay for seats. So it doesn't give you any idea of how full the flight will actually be.

 

[Happy Dude]

Yes my mistake that saved quite a lot but now they want it back.

The airfare on SQ website and other OTAs at the time was $1600-$1700 per person.

i found this cheap airfare on Webjet that was around $1300 per person. That's quite a saving for 3 people.

Webjet 3 people on booking no booking fees but Webjet only accepts Afterpay maximum $3000. Book wife and daughter then Webjet wants some ridiculous surcharge for my airfare so book with Expedia with no fees but now we are separated but forgot about Scoot stupidity.

Now one way or another they want this saving back. I need golf and drinking money.

Anyway I've paid for my aisle seats and I'll let Scoot allocate wife and daughter for free then try to sit together if possible. Cabin when I paid for my seats is wide open. We'll get to airport about 5:00pm(ish).

So you've paid an additional $26, although you wanted to pay more to secure seating and OLCI but couldn't?

The savings to use OTAs far outweigh any inconvenience here and none of us can see where the actual mistake lies. Arguably, you've let us know about a decent travel hack. We all need golf and beer money so quit your bellyaching.

 

[Lynda2475]

Often they are cheaper. You can also get cashback from some of them.

Except it seems perhaps not because they book the most restrictve class without inclusions and by the time you add them back in, it is the same price as booking direct.

 

[Flashback]

Beaten by Ryanair at their own game last week..... I usually leave it as late as possible to OLCI when I don't buy up to the bundle which includes carry-in + priority + seat (often on a very short flight better to just buy up to carry-on + priority). Planned to do it as I fuelled up the rental car, as when it randomly allocates a seat, with everyone having checked in already better chance of getting exit row (if no one sitting there as they need to have 1 person in each) or at least an aisle. Went to check-in, doh, OLCI actually closes 2 hours before; of course they were happy to check me in at the counter for €55. You got me this time FR, but won't next time

Silver linings, more knowledge gained/memory jogged (some airlines do close OLCI earlier than counter...... why though, I do not know!); and I ended up in an exit row seat with an empty middle.