pull down to refresh

Your biggest travel disasters?
1840 sats \ 23 comments \ @SimpleStacker 21 Sep mostly_harmless
After not having traveled much since Covid I made a noob mistake recently. Booked tickets through Orbitz, specifically getting regular economy instead of basic economy so I could choose seats.
Didn’t realize you can’t choose seats on Orbitz and actually have to contact the airline to choose seats. When flight day came I realized I had the crappiest seats on the plane 😞
Learned my lesson: just book directly from the airlines next time
write
preview
this territory is moderated
related posts
65 sats \ 3 replies \ @Satosora 21 Sep
Got to be when l got stranded in the desert in my rover.
reply
20 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 21 Sep
I wasn't even thinking about driving travel disasters. Thankfully, we didn't get stranded, but we did get lost on desert forest service roads for over 12 hours, while trying to find a shortcut.
reply
20 sats \ 1 reply \ @SimpleStacker OP 21 Sep
Sounds like a story. Do tell
reply
14 sats \ 0 replies \ @Satosora 21 Sep
It wasnt even special. The alternator belt broke, and l didnt have a spare. Ended up going to a shop 2 hours away and getting any belt that fit. After l got moving, l got the right belt on it.
reply
36 sats \ 0 replies \ @Golu 22 Sep
There are so many because I travel a lot. Even yesterday I had one where I forgot to bring my laptop with me. i realised I when I'm nearly 100 kms ahead. I needed it for accessing important bills and other briefs. But I decided not to return and asked someone to bring it. Around 3 hours lost.
reply
100 sats \ 1 reply \ @kruw 21 Sep
Last year I went to Europe for a month and accidentally signed out of my Nostr account while the physical backup was on another continent.
This year I went to Europe again for 3 weeks and my Bitcoin wallet got corrupted the first time I opened it (once again, with the physical backup on another continent).
reply
21 sats \ 0 replies \ @SimpleStacker OP 21 Sep
Ah a bitcoin related travel disaster. Hope you were able to sort it out and access your sats? Or did you have to resort to fiat?
reply
41 sats \ 1 reply \ @Bitcoiner1 21 Sep
I have done the same mistake twice, when renting a car using Booking.com they offer a full insurance, I paid it.
When pick up the car, the staff in from the car rental push me to buy another insurance or to block €1500 from my credit card, as my credit is way lower than that, the only option left, was to pay €300 for a proper insurance from the car rental company.
So, the insurance offered on booking is worthless.
reply
0 sats \ 0 replies \ @SimpleStacker OP 21 Sep
That sucks. I would have been livid
reply
58 sats \ 2 replies \ @Undisciplined 21 Sep
The first time my wife and I took a cruise we made the mistake of flying in on the morning of departure. That seems reasonable, right?
The problem is that if anything goes wrong with your connecting flights, you can find yourself in a real pickle. Our departure was delayed, causing us to miss our connection. Fortunately, they got us on another in time, but they didn't get our luggage onto that flight.
We ended up getting on the cruise in time, but without any luggage.
reply
50 sats \ 1 reply \ @SimpleStacker OP 21 Sep
Wow. What about changes of clothes? Did you have to buy clothes on the cruise?
reply
34 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 21 Sep
We had whatever was in our carry-ons. I had to buy some clothes on the ship and they did give us some toiletries when we told them what had happened.
The problem though was that none of the shops opened until we got out to international waters. Not the biggest deal, but I had been in the same travel clothes for a couple days at that point and really wanted to be able to take a shower without having to put dirty clothes on afterwards.
Our luggage caught up to us at our first port of call, which was a couple days later.
reply
102 sats \ 1 reply \ @tradenet 21 Sep
My disaster? Being a travel agent during COVID. Try canceling digits worth of travel arrangements for clients. It took 2 years! After 10 years in the business I threw in the preverbal towel.
reply
0 sats \ 0 replies \ @SimpleStacker OP 21 Sep
Wow, my condolences. Must have been a stressful time
reply
16 sats \ 3 replies \ @DesertDave 21 Sep
I once was stuck in an airport in Peru for over 24 hours after a flight was canceled. I remember trying to sleep on a tile floor. It was rough. I really do not like flying. I like being in a plane. It's fun. But the whole process drives me nuts. I am not planning to travel much this way anymore.
reply
11 sats \ 2 replies \ @SimpleStacker OP 21 Sep
Yeah, flying is definitely stressful and time consuming. It got exponentially worse after 9/11
reply
16 sats \ 0 replies \ @DesertDave 21 Sep
Yeah. I miss rolling up to the gate last minute. Your family could send you off even. Ahhh. The good old days.
reply
11 sats \ 0 replies \ @Taurus 22 Sep
I’ve been Traveling a lot in Europa and South America and I clearly can say that it’s faster, cheaper and more reliable now than 10/20 years ago. I remember sleeping in the airport floor because companies just filled bankruptcy that same night, travelling 3 days to go from Madrid to Bolivia or Peru, etc. For less than 4 hours flight I just take the train if they exist lol
reply
13 sats \ 1 reply \ @398ja 21 Sep
Travelling to Israel, we arrived at our apartment in Tel Aviv at around midnight to find out that there were people inside. The owner had double booked!!
Here we are, with a sleepy 3yo in my arms, trying to find a hotel for the night. 😩
reply
1 sat \ 0 replies \ @SimpleStacker OP 21 Sep
Ooof that sounds horrible. Hope the party at fault offered some way to make things right?
reply
10 sats \ 1 reply \ @grayruby 21 Sep
I don't really have many travel disasters. I have had a bunch of delayed flights. Missed 1/3 of a three day vacation to Bahamas years ago because someone tried to flush a diaper down the toilet on the flight before us and they had to get it out because there was only one bathroom on that plane and they can't fly without a functioning bathroom. By the time they got it cleared the flight crew was off duty and we had to wait for the next crew to come in. It ended up being a 10 hour delay and didn't leave until 6am the next morning. By the time we arrived we were so exhausted that we just slept the first day.
reply
0 sats \ 0 replies \ @SimpleStacker OP 21 Sep
That reminds me I had an overnight delay at Chicago O’Hare once. Definitely a rough night
reply
0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Taurus 22 Sep
Forgetting to reserve one seat in a long multi-train voyage. All the train connections and reservations are lost… and other seats are already reserved unless you pay 4x more
reply