Peter booked the flights to and from Finland this weekend and we were happy with both the times and the price. Or so we thought. I guess you could say that it was little mistake. Today we tell you about this weekend's big travel mistake, and other travel mistakes we've made throughout our lives.
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The right day and the right time, but ...
We flew to Helsinki on Saturday morning, and on Sunday evening we were due to fly home again. We couldn't check in at the machine, so we went to the manual check-in desk and showed our tickets. Then we realised the problem. We had booked the right day and the right time, but ... WRONG MONTH!
"Would you like to stay another month in Helsinki?", asked the man at the check-in desk. No offence to Helsinki, but it would have been difficult to explain at work... We simply had to buy new tickets home. To rebook the ticket with SAS had cost 5000 SEK, so we chose to buy brand new tickets with Norwegian for 3500 SEK. Not so fun, but there is no one to be angry with when it is you who made the mistake ...
More travel mistakes throughout life
You might think that those of us who are used to travelling all the time are doing the "right" thing, but that's not really the case. The more we travel, the more opportunities to make mistakes, so to speak. When you combine stress and lack of time with a lot of travelling, that's what happens sometimes... Today we're sharing some of our travel mistakes through life. Hope to hear that we are not alone now! What travel mistakes have you made?
Forgetting your passport at the hotel
Morocco 2012. We had spent a week in Marrakechtogether with Peter's son Billie. When it was time to leave the country, we went through the hotel room to make sure nothing was forgotten. What we didn't realise was that the passports were still at reception!
We only realised it when we were in the queue for check-in and then we had to throw ourselves into a taxi and rush back to the hotel. Peter ran the last bit between donkeys and carts in the medina and the taxi drove as if he had stolen the car. But we arrived by plane!
Sleeping in sub-zero temperatures
Germany, 2014. As we set off on our 1 year long motorhome trip around Europe the campervan was full and we didn't dare add water to the camper for fear that the camper would be too heavy. We planned to drive all the way from the ferry to France, but in Germany, Peter was so tired that he was unable to drive. forced to sleep (and I don't have a driving licence).
We parked at a rest area, but since we have water heating in the motorhome, we couldn't switch on the heating. It was a few degrees below zero outside and didn't really get any warmer in the motorhome. A very cold night you could say. When we woke up and breathed, we blew smoke rings in the car ...
Almost missing the flight
Sweden, 2017. Twice we have almost missed our flight. The first time was in Italy and the second time was in Stockholm, on our way to Malta. We was in good time for the flight, but there were incredible queues at Arlanda and when we finally made it through security we only had ten minutes. We ran and ran... only to realise that they had changed the gate.
Not many minutes left and we were at the wrong end of the airport, panic! Fortunately, friendly airport staff called our gate and asked them to wait. Also, we had checked in luggage, so they could not have taken off without unpacking the luggage. And yes, we came along! Crazy lactic acid though!
A night on the airport floor
Spain, 2017. If I had been 17, I probably wouldn't have even counted it as a mishap. Now we're a bit older and although we can live spartanly, we prefer not to sleep on an airport floor. We were on our way to a cruise on the cruise ship. Freedom of the Seas and was due to land in Barcelona the night before.
We hadn't really had time to think about staying overnight and thought "it will probably work out". It often does, but not this time. Or yes, we survived the night!
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Lena - good for the soul says:
Hehe, sometimes it can get a little sweaty! That with the passports left in the reception did NOT sound fun!
Almost missed the flight to California. When I entered the Arlanda terminal, I realised that I had left my hand luggage in the car in the long-term parking lot. I threw myself into a taxi. The driver didn't know where the car park was at first, but took a chance. Correct. In that particular car park, the staff take the keys and park the car... and he was of course out and about. The receptionist couldn't get hold of him at first... It was fine in the end. The extra expensive ticket, to enjoy the lounge at Arlanda for the first time, I of course did not use! 🙁
And yes, I have also slept on the floor at Arlanda. About a year ago there was a snowstorm when we were going to Gran Canaria, and basically all flights were cancelled... and all hotel rooms in the vicinity were booked.
Hug Lena
24 January 2018 - 6:47
Helena says:
Oh no, what a stressful situation!!! I get completely nervous just thinking about that stuff ... 😉 And sleeping in airports is not so much fun ...
24 January 2018 - 9:13
Sandra Lifsresor.se says:
Twice I have missed a flight because I looked at the arrival time instead of the departure time on the ticket. In Krabi on the way to Bangkok and in Singapore back to Hong Kong when I lived there. Both times it has only been to buy a new one-way ticket. Low price in Thailand was ok but Sunday night from Singapore hurt my wallet as my then partner had to be at work on Monday morning.
24 January 2018 - 6:50
Helena says:
Oh no, that's hard ... It's just like biting the bullet, but not fun ...
24 January 2018 - 9:15
snort says:
It's easy to make some mistakes but most of the time it works out anyway. Though staying in Helsinki for a month was hardly an option 😉.
24 January 2018 - 7:55
Helena says:
Haha, no it would have been a bit difficult to explain at work that I suddenly have to work remotely from Helsinki ... 😉 .
24 January 2018 - 9:16
MR L says:
Nice memories afterwards :). A little tip, you can run the heating in the motorhome without water in the water tank.
24 January 2018 - 7:59
Helena says:
Can you? Is it true? We didn't know in that case... maybe even more mistakes then 😉.
24 January 2018 - 9:20
pilla says:
Dry!
24 January 2018 - 8:04
Helena says:
You could have had more fun for those thousand dollars, so to speak ...
24 January 2018 - 9:20
Veiken says:
We had made a wrong booking when we went to Thailand. Our departure was at different times. Finnair wanted 200 euros plus some difference and service charge. We were told about Menzies at Landvetter. So we went there at the same time and in 10 minutes one of us was rebooked at a cost of 0:- Can be a tip?
24 January 2018 - 8:06
Helena says:
Wow, what a great solution you managed to get!!!
24 January 2018 - 9:25
Ann-Louise says:
Great recognition factor on what happens to you in Helsinki... 🙂 Exactly the same thing happened to me a few years ago when I was in Dublin for work. My boss had booked the flight and I was only going to be there for one night, but he had accidentally booked the return flight on the same day of the week and date, but a month later... When I went to check in, they first looked at me very strangely and then said "but you do know this is for next month?". And the only tickets left for home that night (last evening flight) are in SAS Plus and much more expensive. I throw myself on the phone and try to get hold of my boss who is on a ski trip in the Alps and finally I get hold of him and he tells me to book SAS Plus and that he is responsible for the cost unless the company approves it. Luckily there was free wifi so I just had to pack up my computer and credit card and book a one-way ticket home. After that incident, I'm incredibly fussy when booking tickets whether it's a flight or train and always double check a hundred times and usually I send a screenshot to my partner as well (if he's not home) and ask him to double check the dates in the booking.
24 January 2018 - 8:37
Helena says:
Really the same situation!!! Except that it was the company that booked the ticket then... Easy to get it wrong actually, but can cause a lot of confusion!!!! I think I'll be a bit grumpy after this too ...
24 January 2018 - 9:27
Lisette says:
It was now in the autumn when I was on holiday in California.Me and my oldest daughter flew two nights to Las Vegas and when we were going to fly back to LA, the taxi left her at terminal 1 because we flew with different companies and I sat calmly and said that I'm going to terminal 3.When I arrive at the check-in, I said that my plane would go such and such a time but the man at the counter said that there is no plane then but that it has already left.He checked my ticket and said calmly ... you are in the wrong terminal, you should be in terminal 1.So it was quick to jump in a taxi to check in at the right terminal.So I would from the beginning bora get off where my girl was so I would have avoided all this bustle 🙂 Now after this I will definitely check twice which terminal I will be in 🙂 .
24 January 2018 - 8:51
Helena says:
The terminal is not always easy! At small airports you can move quickly, but at large airports it can be a long distance ....
24 January 2018 - 9:29
Bear says:
I don't really understand what the water tank has to do with hydronic heating, the heating system has its own "water"?
24 January 2018 - 8:58
Helena says:
Yes, but that's right Björn! You are absolutely right. It is I who has written strangely, I have to change the wording. We had no water at all in the car, neither in the tank nor in the heater.
24 January 2018 - 9:43
Solan says:
You learn a lot from all mistakes! Guess both Freedom and us have learnt a lot ??☺?
24 January 2018 - 9:09
Helena says:
That's it! And I will double-check the flight tickets next time 😉.
24 January 2018 - 9:29
Mr Steve says:
It's a bit encouraging for us mere mortal travellers that even professionals like you can make travel mistakes.
One mistake I remember is on a trip to Rhodes in the 70s. We took a boat to the island of Symi and spent the day there. However, we missed the return trip on the boat. Symi's only hotel was fully booked, but the receptionist packed bedding on his bike and guided us a bit out of town where we spent the night with a Greek family. After returning to Sweden and when all the photos were developed, I discovered that I had taken a photo of the boat just as it left Symi. The boat that we should have been on. It was a wonderful and rich extra day on Symi and a memory for life.
24 January 2018 - 9:45
Helena says:
Wow, what a story! Maybe an interesting and exciting memory afterwards, even if it wasn't so funny when you discovered the mistake .... And yes, I promise we make mistakes! 😉
24 January 2018 - 15:59
Therese says:
Oh, the passport incident is not funny... We had two similar incidents when we were on a road trip in the US.
The man asked me if I had unpacked everything from the drawers before we would check out of the hotel in New Orleans. I had, I even triple-checked. We had some time left to spend in the city before we needed to move on so we thought we would check out those boat tours... It turned out that you needed to have identification... when we did not find the passports, my husband asked if I did not take them out of the drawer. It turned out that there was a small, small "secret" box where he had hidden the passports ... It was just to go back to the hotel and ask to enter the room again (and hope that no one else had checked in). Fortunately, they were still there...
Later on the same trip we had to go over the bridge to get into SF... they didn't take cards and we had no cash... We drove around for a while without finding an ATM so finally we stopped at a bank... and turned the whole car upside down to find the man's passport... which was totally gone. For two days he called around to all the hotels we had stayed at without success...finally he remembered that he used it in death valley...and sure enough...he had forgotten it at the reception of their visitor centre... After a lot of hassle we managed to get it sent to the last hotel we were going to stay at before returning home...you could say it was a bit sweaty there for a while...
24 January 2018 - 9:59
Helena says:
Oh no, I get all sweaty just reading! The passports are so dependent .... and how hard with a type of "secret" box. As made to forget something !!!!
24 January 2018 - 16:01
Ruth in Virginia says:
Very sweaty in Death Valley - in the summer anyway! 🙂
24 January 2018 - 22:01
Britt-Marie Lundgren says:
The travel mistake we remember most is a missed vaccination.
When we were in Botswana a few years ago, we went to a vaccination centre beforehand because my partner needed most of it. We went through the trip with the doctor and yellow fever was NOT needed for South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe. As the trip comes to an end and we sit around a campfire, our tour guide asks if everyone is aware of their yellow fever vaccination. It turns out that you can't fly to South Africa from Zambia without it (not even for transfers). With a lot of help, two doctor's visits (memorable hours in waiting rooms), two visits to different nurses' offices and visits to hospital offices, for stamps, a total of 10 hours of discussions before we got a syringe with a fake certificate (because you have to get the syringe 10 days before departure), we could proudly show our certificate at check-in the next day.
Although Lars' desired helicopter ride over the Victoria Falls was cancelled, we had a memorable day and came home without quarantine. Nowadays we are fully vaccinated...
24 January 2018 - 10:21
Helena says:
Oh help what soup! Fortunately it went well in the end, but how sad to miss the helicopter ride!!!
24 January 2018 - 16:04
Marina says:
Yes, there are perhaps more pleasant ways to train fitness compared to running in airports 😉.
We have friends (several) who missed flights at night, when keeping track of dates becomes a bit of a chore, but as you say, it's hard to blame anyone else...
I missed a flight from Karlstad on one of my trips to Singapore, but then they had actually changed the timetable without notifying me, so I could get annoyed, because it wasn't my fault 😉.
24 January 2018 - 10:26
Helena says:
Peter's brother's family missed a flight that was supposed to leave at 0:3am because they miscalculated the day. It wasn't fun ... And if they change the time without telling you, well then it's not easy!!!
24 January 2018 - 16:06
Ditte says:
A bit of a pain to buy new tickets in Helsinki, of course. But nothing else to do at the time. And home you came. Nowadays when I travel, we often pay for tickets where "fast track" is included and then you avoid the queues. Sometimes they are really long and take time (but abroad they are not always available but then we have had to go ahead if it was urgent with this plus ticket).
If you travel often and a lot, it is easy to make the occasional mistake. I also have a few mistakes from previous trips.
24 January 2018 - 10:26
Helena says:
Yes, it was hard to buy new tickets. But there was nothing to choose from ... And it's easy to make a mistake sometimes, especially when you're travelling frequently.
24 January 2018 - 16:07
Maggan and Ingemar says:
Fun with a post about misses 😀 My biggest miss was not about me but my son. He was in the US for a year and I had to order the ticket home. No problem, I thought, as I had just acquired a computer, this was about 20 years ago. The ticket was ordered and paid with 6000 SEK only that I had missed that he would go from the USA to Gothenburg and not the other way round. A new ticket was ordered and this time in the right direction, but it stung the cash register which was not so big at that time. The times are not so easy especially when travelling between LA (USA) and here, there is a difference of about 9 hours. My sister experienced this when she was home for a visit and was going back. It turned out that she should have gone home the day before, so it was just to order a new ticket on the spot and call her daughter, who was on her way to pick her up and change the arrival time. I guess it doesn't matter how often you travel, it's important to check the ticket properly to make sure you've filled in the right dates etc.
24 January 2018 - 12:22
Helena says:
Oh no, how sad to accidentally book in the wrong direction... It's really easy for something to go wrong! And no, I don't think it matters how often you travel. You simply have to check carefully, carefully ...
24 January 2018 - 16:10
Ruth in Virginia says:
Dates and times are difficult to keep track of in the US.
Regarding the date, it is always written as Month, Day, Year.
not Day, Month, Year. May cause problems.
Regarding times, the 24-hour system is not used most of the time,
without AM and PM, 12 o'clock can be either "noon" or "midnight".
24 January 2018 - 22:13
Ia says:
Yes, there are some crazy things in your travel history! Almost missed a flight due to remodelling and crowds in the security check at Kastrup (I was there very early!), but the plane's departure was postponed so I made it. Forgot my wallet in my pocket on the seat in front on a "turning" plane. Booked a hotel room a month ahead, i.e. the same mistake as with your flight tickets on Sunday.
24 January 2018 - 12:38
Helena says:
Terrible when it is so thick in the security check so you can't get through, even though you were actually in good time! And Peter has also forgotten his mobile phone/wallet in the seat pocket on the plane once. Forgot to tell him about it.
24 January 2018 - 16:12
Travel Friday says:
Oh no! I'm glad the price was affordable.
You? Missed a flight in Paris and booked a hotel on the wrong day (happened just before Christmas). It still worked out in the end...
24 January 2018 - 13:11
Helena says:
We thought the price seemed quite expensive, but sure, it could have been worse ...! Missing flights, ugh, not fun!
24 January 2018 - 16:14
Johnny Friskilä says:
You are alive and no permanent damage apparently. Bitter with 3500kr but yes, such things happen!
24 January 2018 - 13:12
Helena says:
Yes, of course it is. Bitter at the time, but yes, that's what happens.
24 January 2018 - 16:15
On a journey of discovery says:
We must say that we are impressed by the way you handled the situation with composure. Congratulations!
We can provide your own travelling companion to your fine collection.
We were to take the train to Frankfurt airport and happily jumped on the express train with the sign Frankfurt on it when it appeared. Once on board it turned out that the train came FROM Frankfurt and was going to Basel. After half an eternity, the express train stopped and we were eventually able to get on the right train - trust us to pay extra attention to the signs this time! Still, it was extremely sweaty to keep up. Thanks in retrospect to everyone in the long queue at security for not stopping us as we ran past!
24 January 2018 - 16:25
Helena says:
Oh help how hard ...! Just when you are going to the plane, it is extra hard to be delayed! Glad you made it after all!!!
25 January 2018 - 9:05
Lennart says:
You can laugh about the mistakes long afterwards!
24 January 2018 - 16:52
Helena says:
Yes, that's how it is. It's much more fun afterwards than at the time 😉.
25 January 2018 - 9:05
Matts Torebring says:
Forgive me, it was a relief that you "young people" had problems. I have flown a few times to Cologne and Amsterdam for work and had "youngsters" with me. The same as for you, the "AUTOMATIC" check-in does not work. This is exactly what I am afraid of. That's why I want to go by motorhome wherever I go. I'm glad you got home.
24 January 2018 - 18:42
Helena says:
If the automatic check-in does not work, there is always a counter with staff. But I still like motorhomes the most 🙂
25 January 2018 - 9:06
Daniela / Discovering The Planet says:
Thankfully we haven't had any major mishaps that I can think of. However, it was difficult when I booked my sister's honeymoon in the United States and had booked the hotel on the wrong days. Now it was solved thankfully. Nowadays I book trips with caution to others :). That is, preferably not at all :))
24 January 2018 - 19:52
Helena says:
Even more difficult to book for someone else than for yourself ...!
25 January 2018 - 9:07
BP says:
Hahaha! You're NOT alone in booking the wrong date, ending up in the airport waiting room or chasing an aeroplane.
A wrong date on a booked train ticket for five people to Åre is an example. My error...
I can't recommend missing the departure day in Bulgaria either. We saw the luggage in the hotel foyer and wondered what had happened. Yes, yes!!! It was a very expensive trip home and a night at the airport...
Running after an aeroplane despite being out in good time stings. Oh yes, you get better fitness on the purchase;-) I should have much better fitness than I have if I count all occasions...
PS. Hope you get the money for the return journey back in some form from SAS. It is just "threaten" with the blog, it should give results;-) DS.
24 January 2018 - 21:43
Helena says:
Oh help, the wrong day for the train tickets sounds like a pain in the arse. Like the incident in Bulgaria. It's nice not to be alone in making mistakes, but I wouldn't wish these bad experiences on anyone else .... In retrospect, you can laugh at them, but maybe not at the time. If SAS had made a mistake, we would have tried to get the money back, but now it seems doubtful ...?
25 January 2018 - 9:11
4000mil says:
You make a few mistakes now and then. We've (also) collected ours in one post:
https://4000mil.se/index.php/vara-varsta-misstag-pa-resa/
24 January 2018 - 22:10
Helena says:
Yes, I was looking for that post when I wrote my post, but didn't find it and thought I remembered wrong... Thank you!
25 January 2018 - 9:11
Henny says:
Of course there are mistakes to tell about. Booked a trip for his son in LA but somehow it ended up being SAN JOSE instead. Still don't understand how that happened. Stayed overnight at the airport and bought a new domestic ticket to LA. Strangely enough, I was only strengthened by the fact that I managed it all on my own. Forgotten passports at a hotel in Madrid were also fixed, the taxi driver got a teddy bear hug afterwards. A trip to Norrköping was booked by a union I was to represent. I usually travelled from Skellefteå at that time, but this time they had booked a flight from Luleå. Of course, I went in a snowstorm down to Skellefteå, (it is about 12 miles between the airports) and only discovered there how wrong I was.
25 January 2018 - 0:37
Helena says:
Oh help, what a story about San José!!!! Sometimes you do not understand how it works ... The flight that was from Luleå instead of Skellefteå also sounded like a rather difficult experience ... It gets wrong sometimes simply!
25 January 2018 - 9:14