Expensive travels mistakes.

Not really expensive last May I lost about $90 when I did not notice until I got there that I booked two different hotels for the same day in two different towns (Vicenza and Milan) on my itinerary. Also last July I was overly ambitious trying to go to too many places in Switzerland and ended up not using two non refundable (only good for the route taken) SuperSaver train tickets.

Not in the expensive category, but I have booked non-refundable train tickets for the same date, different routes TWICE on this last trip.

One expensive error was not keeping the documentation for two cancelled nights at a hotel, cost €180. Grrrr.

Also, my (now) ex-husband and I met in Piazza Navona.

Not too expensive either, but every dollar wasted is a dollar not saved for a future trip. That said, I have two mistakes: 1 not filling up the gas tank when returning a rentral car in Munich. What would probably have been around €20 for gas ended up costing about €75 and; 2 prebooking an overnight train from Munich to Rijeka, Croatia. We needed to get to Rijeka and me being a nervous person about doing things on the fly, we booked from home 3 months in advance. The conductor and my DH were speaking and he couldn't believe how much we paid, said we were overcharged. Oh well, for me the peace of mind was worth it though knowing I had a bed to sleep in and not having to sit up all night.

New Years week 2016 I took my 70 year old uncle on his first European trip through Stockholm, Paris (where we rang in the New Year) Amsterdam. When we got back he ended up in the hospital 5 days for severe dehydration, from not drinking enough water and traveling too fast for his level of health.

About 15 years ago we missed our Eurostar train in Paris and had to buy new tickets for the next train. There were 3 of us and I think it was well over 300 Euro. We couldn't figure out how to return our rental car at the train station! The return was a block and a half from where the car was picked up. My husband ended up parking the car and walking from where we picked it up to figure out where to drop it off:( The other lesson we learned was not to rent a car in Paris:)

So far, just booking a DB Sparpreis ticket for the wrong date, noticing it immediately but still having to pay the 15 EUR (then) cancellation fee to get it booked on the right date. Its 19 EUR nowadays.

Also, my ex-husband and I met in Piazza Navona.

LOL, Zoe! I met one in Innsbruck in 1972. Lasted until '77.

My most expensive mistake (though in retrospect more of a choice) was in the neighborhood of €350. I booked an apartment in Roma whose reviews online went down and down and down as our trip approached. (Poor management, impossible wifi, cleanliness.) Since we were going to be there 9 nights, I unplugged us from that commitment and found another apartment that was great. Funny thing is, even though I canceled 3 months in advance and never paid the balance (which was required 60 days in advance of arrival), they got mad at us for not showing up! We passed by the door to the canceled lodging after dinner (quite late) on arrival night and saw a huge notice posted: "Laurel Barton we waited all day for you! Contact us immediately," yada yada yada. They refused to acknowledge I had canceled even when I sent them the proof I had done so.

We've also ditched train tickets purchased in advance when a strike loomed, left a pre-paid hotel early for the same reason, paid for a cable lift that was actually covered by a pass we had, and ditched €144 of plane tickets when we decided to change itineraries.

Not bad for all the travel we do.

We've been lucky so far - no missed trains or anything...what could have been a $500+ mistake was when I booked our car in France. Hubby ended up putting a big scrape on it in a parking garage. I used Amex to book as it included coverage but used MY card instead of the principal driver's card (hubby). Thankfully, Amex decided to reimburse us for the charges.

So I learned two things - use hubby's card to book car rentals and don't park in indoor parking garages unless necessary!

We didn't lose money (thanks to the kindness of a stranger), but this is a travel mistake all the same.

My husband and I went on a baseball road trip around ten years ago as part of our long term goal of visiting the major league baseball parks. I made the hotel reservations and my husband purchased the baseball tickets in advance. Our first stop was in Arlington, Texas to see the Texas Rangers. We walked up to the gate with our tickets and were denied entry because the tickets were for the next day! We were leaving the next day so we decided to go to the ticket window to buy tickets for that night.

As we were standing in line, a woman walked up to us and said she was a season ticket holder and couldn't go to that night's game and asked if we wanted her two tickets for no charge! We managed to thank her although we were nearly speechless. Towards the end of the game, we gave our tickets for next day's game away to a couple sitting near us.

Took wrong train in Vienna for the airport. Missed flight to Zurich. Paid a few hundred $ for the 2 of us later that day. Oh crap!!!

I got a 125 euro transit ticket in Copenhagen (I was using a friend's transit pass...incorrectly). As I was staying with the friend for free, I wrote it off as a hotel night I avoided and a cultural lesson (the transit police were SO NICE). I nearly repeated the mistake on the Rhine in Germany by getting on the wrong train, but the transit patrol there was less efficient so I just lost the cost of the correct ticket (5 euro).

I also lost the cost of a 100 euro internal flight in Spain due to an Iceland volcanic eruption. I was on my way to RS tour, and the up side was they let me change tours for no cost. Sadly, an acquaintance was supposed to go with me on the original tour and had to go it alone. On the up side, I met the most wonderful people on the rescheduled tour - worth the 100 euro!

And I'd love the chance to meet an ex-husband in Europe, but so far no dice :)

I have also lost money because of a mistake reservation. Fortunately it did not cost very much. I made a booking for a hostel in Madrid 2 years ago. The website required me to make a deposit. Unfortunately I made my reservation for the wrong date. The default date on the website was 'today', which was then in May, and I had forgotten to change it to the day I intended to travel which was September. Fortunately this only cost me about 5 Euros. But it showed me the importance of double checking everything when I make an internet booking.

Nicole P's story about the scraped car reminds that I have done something similar with a rental car in Port Douglas in Australia. I hit the car against a pole which I did not notice as I was reversing and turning out of a motel garage. That cost me AU$ 200.

Arriving bright and early at Heathrow for my flight back home, I found out that it was leaving from Gatwick. Fortunately, all it cost was a cab ride. Though I missed my flight, Delta changed my reservation at no charge - but that was in 2003. I wonder how much they'd charge me today.

Also 2 tickets from the City of Rome for entering the same ZTL twice within ten minutes to find my hotel on Christmas Eve at 5 PM.

Two years ago I purchased two tickets as early as possible for Eurostar, London to Paris, for July 1. Paid around 60€ each. So, when the barcode was scanned at the turnstile, it didn't work. We tried a few times, then an employee tried. Nothing. Tried again, nada. Then he showed me the problem. I didn't buy the tickets for July 1 . . .it read June 1.

This was the last train for the evening, so we scurried over to get new tickets. The only thing available was first class, at somewhere around 250€ each. Since then, I force myself to slow down and double check . . .cost of a somewhat pricey error.

Rita - what a lovely story - glad you were able to pass your tickets on. That's fate for you! We were in Boston once and had a 5 day transit pass that still had about 36 hrs left on it - we were leaving so I gave them to the first person I saw at the ticket machine. Actually, we did that twice! Our very first airbnb stay was at a place in Boston - and we left our passes which had a few days left on them for the next people who were staying - the host said he passed them along.

Philip - I can't imagine! Luckily Delta was nice.

Tim - oh, that sucks. I always double and triple check dates before purchase, but I'm sure I'll get caught one of these trips...I've caught myself a few times almost entering the wrong dates.

I've made my share if travel goofs. Because I get so mad at myself when I end up wasting money that my husband and I now have what we call the F'uped Fund. We have a certain amount set aside for the ticket/mistake/ripoff. If we don't use it we roll it over to the next trip. It helps us to not dwell on our stupidity, regroup and move forward without letting it ruin our day.

I have been reading this thread while on vacation, and now I have one to report. I'm in the Yorkshire Dales right now. I was just looking at some tickets I purchased online and collected at the Edinburgh train station a couple of weeks ago. I noticed that the tickets I purchased for travel from Carlisle back to Edinburgh are for July 24 not September 24! Can't imagine how I did this; I am so paranoid, although I do recall being in a hurry that day. (Memo to self: never be in a hurry.) Those tickets were 32 pounds for two, but of course the real cost will be what I have to pay now. Oh well, could have been worse.

One common theme of these posts involve things like inadvertent double booking and putting the wrong date in a booking page and hitting the "confirm" button. They are all a result of the DIY travel planning situation that exists today. These mistakes would have never happened in the "good old days" of using a travel agent, as that was part of what we paid them to do. They did get paid on commissions, 10% to 20% of the trip cost from the hotels and transport companies used for the trip. So things are 10% to 20% less in price overall, as we have cut out the middle man, but now we are responsible for our own mistakes. Even an occasional $1000 mistake is cheaper than paying that 10% to 20% hidden in the old cost for each and every trip. And travel agents always had an incentive to book us into to high priced lodging establishments, for their own income and knowing they would be unlikely to hear any complaints from us as to quality.

From a different perspective...spending money elsewhere early in adulthood rather than on trips to Europe and other international destinations. A bit slow to start, but catching up quickly.

I once had a debit card with fraudulent charges that I had to cancel, forgetting that all of my train tickets for my trip 5 week trip to France had been charged to that card. You had to show the card at the ticket window to pick up the tickets once in France. They refused to give me my tickets without the card so I had to repurchase ALL of my tickets for that trip...it was expensive. Such a bummer.

I wouldn't call this a mistake, but an expensive decision. Last summer, before leaving on our 3+ week trip to Europe, we discussed the current health of our aging 13 year old golden retriever and decided he would be fine for 3 more weeks. He was moving slow, but still eating and being his loveable self. With 9 days to go in our trip, we get a text and email from our dog sitter letting us know that Shafer had to be taken to a 24 hour vet as his legs quit working. So after 2 nights in our week long Paris apartment (1200), we changed our flights and flew home the next day ($200), missed our tour in Normandy with train tickets (another 150+), international calls to vet 3-4,times, forfeited Heathrow express tickets, Non refundable globe theatre tickets, and since our boy needed 24 hour care, a big vet bill. Unfortunately, we had to put Shafer down the day after we arrived home.

Despite having two additional legs and no thumbs, dogs are family. We take care of them, despite serous illnesses and at the end of life. They'd do the same if roles were reversed.

Karen, I am tearing up!

A few years ago I made the mistake of double booking, reserving the same night in two different cities, London and Paris. Since I failed to notice this, I knew I was going to lose the 80 Euro for that night I would be a no-show in Paris. To avoid that mistake, you have to check constantly in your planning, ie to have every night accounted for, be it in a hotel in city A, or in B, or on a night train, or intentionally left open.

This incident I don't know if it was a scam or real. Still it was a financial loss in a small way. In August 1989 on the DB train I was using my German rail pass doing no different from what I had done before with a pass and taking German trains. This conductor said I had to pay a fine, forgot how many DM it was, maybe 60? I knew enough what was to be expected in riding German trains, couldn't figure out why I was being fined since I wasn't doing anything different from past rides. He saw the US passport, didn't switch over to English, plus I thought it was more effective to argue in German, still you're not going to win against officialdom (Beamtentum).

The argument went back and forth, it was ticking me off so I aimed to waste as much of this guy's time by continuing the argument using a strategy of attrition. I knew he was not going to yield, (you don't win against officialdom) and in the end I would have to hand over the cash. It did occur to me to call for his supervisor, but nixed the idea as useless. I paid him the cash, he gave me a receipt, still have that today. The guy never said if I didn't pay this fine that I would have to get off at the next stop. I should have asked that question.

What I should have done afterwards which never dawned on me was to go the Reisezentrum to ask about this receipt and why.

Anita, that happened to me last year before my trip to Germany. I purposely kept the cancelled credit card & brought it with me. I presented it to the car rental agent and told them that the card was cancelled due to fraudulent charges & had its replacement. Luckily she accepted that. By the way, I was born in Long Beach.

You were so smart to think of taking the cancelled card with you! I completely spaced on the fact that I needed the card to get the tickets until I was in France...bleh!!
Seems like everyone out west has SOME connection to Long Beach! Ever get here to visit?

The thing I usually do, but did not this last trip, is to print a hard copy of every accommodation confirmation (since some come from different sources) and every train ticket (reserved seat), put them in chronological order, and double- or triple-check them. For a long trip, this works very well. If I do it.

I take the stack with me and throw the papers away as I go or as I use the train tickets.

Like Zoe - I also keep hard copies - I made myself a book that's 6 x 12-ish (I'm a crafty person, I have a coil binding machine and I'm not afraid to use it...lol). I have a page/slot for each stay - so if we are in an area for 3 nights, I have one page for that. And on each page in the pocket I made I have a printout of the accom booked and any train tickets or plane ticket printouts and printouts for anything else I may have booked - like a museum or tour. And I'll stuff in our cc receipts and ticket stubs and pamphlets I've picked up and want to keep for sorting when I get home - I always tell myself I'm going to scrapbook these things someday. (But I prob won't).

I also learned to make a note on the printout of which cc I used to purchase said things - last time I had to pick up train tix in London, I didn't write down which cc I used. Since I had to insert said cc to retrieve my tickets I had to go thru my 3 cc (thank goodness we only have three) and of course it was the last one I inserted...sigh.

I discard the printouts along the way to make room for the receipts/etc. And it fits nicely in the front large pocket of my carry on, where it is easily accessible - I guess it's my trip 'bible'. We don't have a smartphone, but I do make sure I have copies of confirmation emails on my ipad in case the worst happened and I lose my bible. Call me old-fashioned - I still prefer hard copies.

€300 for airplane tickets turns out I couldn't use.

Bought tickets between two European cities from a European airline that only operates in Europe. Thinking I had the 24 hour free cancellation window I do when I purchase tickets in the US, I wasn't too concerned about my other plans not being finalized. Well, turns out that there was no 24 hour refund option on tickets sold in Europe which these were since I bough them from the airline's European web site. Also, this airline offered non-changeable tickets so I couldn't even pay a change to fly a different day. Lesson learned - they don't do things in other countries the same way they do them in the US. :-)

Recent trip to Croatia and Slovenia – Rented a car in Croatia with drop off in Slovenia. Last minute decided to drop off car outside of office hours so we would not have to rush in the morning. Sixt has an arrangement with the Kempinski Palace in Portorz to leave with valet. Before leaving our accommodations, took a tour around the car to make sure there were no dings or scratches, thought about taking pictures, didn’t, no need to right – people are honest. 3 weeks after getting home, credit card is charged for $300 more than anticipated. Contacted Sixt – they sent copy of invoice with charges for “damage” along with pictures of a car with a huge dent and scratches! Clearly either not our car, or damaged after we dropped it off. Disputed charge, luckily credit card company took care of it. Lessons learned - do not drop off outside of business hours; take pictures; do not trust everyone you deal with is honest.

Same trip – added the international data plan to my Verizon plan for myself and 2 daughters like I always do. Next month’s bill had over $800 in additional charges. I had picked the wrong plan. After 2 hours on the phone with Verizon, they did give me a credit for almost half for which I am extremely grateful. Lesson Learned – verify selection before hitting “confirm”.

Not taking the $2000 per person voluntary denied boarding voucher that Delta was offering for our outbound UK trip last year.

The main theme here is TRAIN TICKETS and TICKETS IN GENERAL.

We found out this as well. We bought a couchette from Split to Zagreb overnight. I somehow dropped the reservation for the actual couchette, although we still had the train reservation. We had to repurchase it. $75, but my wife was annoyed.

In Europe, a ticket is your proof of purchase. In the US, we are used to a system where we can reprint such physical tickets. This is not always the case in Europe.

Another one is RENTAL VEHICLES. Every time we rent in Europe, we get 1-2 speeding tickets on our credit card. I agree with the comments above - never return an expensive car after hours (and all cars are expensive). Always take pictures. Always ensure that you get a copy of the clean return receipt.

One more poor planning mistake: We took an overnight train from Frankfurt to Berlin. Problem - 2 hour layover in Hannover from 12 PM to 2:45 AM. There was no sleep that night, and we were VERY groggy the next day, and really didn't enjoy Berlin. So, saving $50 on the train was not a good choice. Make sure that an overnight train is a CONTINUOUS over night train.

You guys who double-book yourselves in two hotels for the same night are amateurs. When I mess up on dates, it's usually not by one day, it's by a month. On my most recent trip I arrived in Truro, Cornwall, to find that my reservation was for 31 days later. With the assistance of the B&B where I had originally (mis-)booked, I got what may have been the last room in the town, at an extra cost of £20-30. It could have been much uglier.

Last year I almost bought a Spanish rail ticket for a month later than I needed; that was caught when the ticket agent repeated the date back to me, so no money lost there.

Another close call was the first-stop booking for my 2015 trip, which I set up to begin on my departure date (a night I knew perfectly well I'd be spending on the plane). The light dawned just in time for me to drop the unneeded first night during the free-cancellation period.

One time I was almost caught was when I was booking the night train from Salzburg to Venice...of course it left at 1:30am or some ungodly hour like that - and I ALMOST booked it for either the day before or day after because I wasn't thinking 'am'. I just remember going...phew when I caught it before it happened.

Lost an envelope with 300€ after I got home and just tossed it on a table. Suspect it got thrown out with the junk mail!! Stupid me. That was my startup stash for next year. OUCH.

Lost an envelope with 300€ after I got home and just tossed it on a table. Suspect it got thrown out with the junk mail!! Stupid me. That was my startup stash for next year. OUCH.

In Rio in 2000, I lost my American Express traveler's checks. In retrospect, they fell out of my pocket when I got out of a taxi and was preoccupied with my luggage. (Of course I was preoccupied with thoughts of theft in Rio, so it's ironic that the checks weren't stolen - it was my fault I lost them).

I didn't really need them, since I had been using ATM's for several years at that point; they were just leftover checks from several years before that I had brought as backup. Therefore, I didn't do anything about them until I got back home. What I then learned was they were cashed shortly after I lost them, and that since I hadn't reported the loss within 24 hours, American Express was not going to reimburse me. So, that was about $400 gone.

Needless to say, I never used traveler's checks again. But it made me aware; for many things, you have to report problems within a certain time frame, or you don't get redress. So, when I couldn't find my credit card once, I called the bank right away!

Thank goodness this didn't happen to me but I had an acquaintance who said, upon hearing the train announcement for " Firenze" said no worries we're going to Florence.
cheers

This May, we were in Western France and were booking our train from Chartres to Frankfurt. We spoke in English, as did the booking agent. Only later did we realize that he booked us for the wrong days. Knowledge of French and English false cognates (words that sound alike but mean different things) suggested that he heard our English date words but interpreted them wrong.

So, my suggestion is to write out the numbers for the date of travel, rather than merely saying them. And check those tickets carefully before you leave the facility. We didn't do the later. We were able to change them later, but had to pay a higher fee due to the change in ticket prices.

So, my suggestion is to write out the numbers for the date of travel, rather than merely saying them

Ah but then you risk the confusion created when American's use the MM/DD/YY format whilst pretty much the rest of the world uses the DD/MM/YY format, therefore if you wrote down 04/03/18 do you mean the 4th March 2018 or the April 3rd 2018?

I always use the suggestion made by Paul, writing out the dates when I need to go the train station counter in France, Germany or Austria to buy tickets, or seat reservations for night trains and sometimes day train trains, also writing out the dates in my own notes on hotel reservations, in the manner used by "pretty much the rest of the world." 3/6/17 is June 3, 2017 to me in my notes and when I talk to staff at hotels and train station counters. No confusion or mix up at all.

This post is making me feel so much better!!! 1) also double booked and couldn't find the piece of paper I had jotted the hotel name on so I couldn't cancel. 2) Booked tickets to Mary Poppins in London and went the wrong night (The tickets were for the previous night). Got to the theater, got wanded in , went to the seats and told the people sitting there they must have been in the wrong seats. Then discovered my mistake. I threw myself on the mercy of the theater manager to no avail. Luckily there were tickets available but I did pay top dollar. At the time, my son was eight and very uptight when he made a mistake. Decided to use it as a teachable moment that most mistakes can be fixed , everyone makes mistakes etc. kept us both calm. Enjoyed the show after all.
But the doublebooked hotel still makes me wince. lesson learned: Dont make reservations late at night when overtired.
thanks for everyones honesty

More and more, I prefer yyyy-mm-dd. Today, Friday, is 2017-09-22. To be very clear 2017-Sep-22. This is a much better date format. For one thing, it sorts properly when used in file names (numeric form with leading 0).

I used to work for an international bank which avoided date disasters by having computer formats which required the month to be in letters so that 03-Sep-2017 was never confused with 09-Mar-2017. So that's the way I write them in all correspondence.

This past May I was in Portugal on business but extended my stay by three nights. Hotels were very booked but found availability at a Eurostars hotels. Noticed there were two with similar names- O Porto and Porto Douro, but didn't book at that moment as I was still exploring other options. Next day booked at the Eurostar (thinking it was the one on the river). On my train ride into Porto I realized I'd acidently booked the hotel in the suburbs. Oh S**t. So after getting off the train, figured out the hotel was at the last stop on one of the metro lines. I'm picturing a very unsafe place..... So took the metro to check out hotel and area thinking worst case I'd find another hotel. But the area was fine, hotel was fine, and they were able to transfer my reservation for the next night to the other Eurostar hotel on the river. All worked out, but I was willing to walk away from 300 due to my rookie mistake from an experienced planner.

Expensive mistake --

Getting a sinus infection in England and not realizing that pharmacists can write prescriptions! I believe that's mentioned in at least one of the RS travel books covering London, England and the UK. I suffered terribly. Nothing more expensive than the loss of precious time.

I just remembered another...using the phone at the hotel to call home. My husband called his parents, talked for 5-10 min or so...(I think he charged it to our home phone...we must have had a calling card at the time. 2008). $85. And he called the night before we came home. Sigh.