Lessons learned when things go wrong

Oh, this reminded me that I should contact the Rick Steves office about an issue that has occurred on my last 2 tours.
I generally arrive a day before, and am out and about the day of our first meeting. The meeting time was moved earlier, and I only found out when I returned to the hotel expecting a bit of time to recuperate instead of heading into a meeting that's already started. Not a good start!

In future, I think I'll tell the front desk on my way out to notify the guide to contact me if the meeting time is changed.

The ship not being there beats my complaint!

2007- flight to London via p.m.Chicago connection canceled after boarding. Spending the night at the airport because there was a huge convention in town meant that we missed a reservation to see an exhibit at the British Museum. Lesson learned - don’t make non-refundable reservations for the first day of a trip.

2023- connection through Heathrow to Paris. Arrived on a Thursday the end of May to discover a major IT issue had shut down all British Airways flights. First rebooked flight on Saturday was canceled. Finally left Sunday p.m. We were joining a cruise and were thankfully able to stay in contact. Lots of lessons learned on this one - because of our Chicago experience we had carry-on luggage so we didn’t have to worry about lost luggage too; we are now aware that bank holidays and/or half terms being on the same weekend will eliminate most other options for travel; just because an airline gives you a voucher doesn’t mean there will be a room at that hotel; if you have a connection through a country with different plugs & currency it’s handy to have backup; if you tell the driver you only have a credit card, they may take you to an ATM; apps are handy if you need to change reservations.

Come on, you are asking a lot. They left messages with your phone and email and that is ineffective methods. I am always aware of last minute changes so I check my message every few hours when traveling. I think it is my responsibility to stay in contact. Given the situation two days of advance notice is pretty good.

I am so glad you found the message about the changes on these first nights. I would be scared as well not to find the ship.

My lesson learned is to not book an early flight on day after we put clocks back in the US. And remembering that other countries change clocks different date/time of the year.

Last August, we were supposed to travel by train from Dundee to Edinburgh, spend one night in Edinburgh, and then fly home the next day. Storm Floris had other plans. This wicked wind storm cancelled all trains, so we were stuck in Dundee an extra night. We were able to book an extra night at the same Dundee hotel and move our Edinburgh reservation. For the flight, we had to rebook for the following day, which cost an extra $1,500. Thankfully, trip insurance reimbursed us for everything. The lesson learned is spend at least two nights in the city you are flying home from.

I think it might be a bit optimistic to expect a tour company to follow alternative/additional notes about how to contact you. The expectation is that the contact details you provide will be working up to and during a trip.

One thing I do try and remember to do is add email addresses for travel companies etc into my email address book so there messages are much less likely to go to spam. Obviously whether I actually read the email is another matter, I’m dreadful at checking email although on the run up to a trip I am a bit better.

At the end of this past March we arrived at our hotel in Tokyo to find we had no booking. And this is the height of Sakura season.

This booking was the one detail DH was taking care of. He booked through booking .Com but never checked his emails. He had a new credit card and the payment failed so they cancelled. His fault for forgetting to update it, and again for ignoring emails

In the end the hotel adjusted, and moved mountains to get us in, but at a higher rate than our original booking.

I learned to just do it all myself.

We took a tour of India and Nepal in February and used the tour company, Gate 1 for the airfare. Flights from JFK went through Dubai (we were on Emirates).
At the end of the tour, we were flying from Nepal to Dubai and when we arrived at Dubai, discovered that our flight to JFK was delayed, then cancelled due to a huge snow storm.

My cell phone doesn't work overseas unless we have wifi for emails and texts, so I had to find a way to contact Gate 1 to arrange for finding another flight. We were told by Emirates that the JFK flight would likely be rescheduled, but it could be a couple of days. Also, changing our flight to another US airport would require Gate 1 to manage.

We were at a hotel (not at the airport) courtesy of Emirates, but we couldn't do anything about rescheduling for flights at the hotel.
So I had to take a taxi to the airport. The Dubai airport is huge with terminals separated by miles, so I had to find the right airport terminal. I found it talking to agents from the hotel.

At the airport, I managed with Gate 1's concurrence to rebook for a fight to Dulles, and then book through Delta to Atlanta and our home airport (that was a separate lengthy phone call).

We made it out of Dubai 4 days prior to the Iranian war.

Lesson no. 1, when booking through a tour company for air, it can be difficult to arrange for rescheduling, so be ready for ways to take care of that issue.
Lesson no. 2, take action and don't just wait for the airline to reschedule for you when you know a massive snow storm will close your airport for ?? days. We found out that some of our fellow tour group members also went through Dubai and didn't get out until 2 days after us.

Well, forum knows about my fiasco when I tried to rebook an AA flight to Tokyo at 3 am without sleep. I clicked on an incorrect link and my carelessness cost me $750 although I did recover $450.00.

Lesson learned is first take.a deep breath, relax and do not do business when sleep deprived unless you really have to.

And another one.

I got. a great deal on an APA hotel in Yokohama but it was not the right hotel for me. APA hotels are geared for the Japanese business community although anyone is welcome to stay there. However very little English is spoken and when I had problems with check in (my fault), it was very difficult although it did eventually get straightened out.

Along with that was getting a cab to the cruise port. There were issues that was not my fault but still there was not much help for me. And it was again very difficult. I got stressed and got in a wrong cab. He tried to bilk me but the men at the cruise port stepped in.

APA hotels are very nice but they are not geared for English speaking tourists. I should have done better research.

Sometimes you do not know what you don't know.

Come on, you are asking a lot. They left messages with your phone and
email and that is ineffective methods.

I could be wrong about what Carol meant but I interpreted it as it was ineffective because she didn't provide proper info for her circumstances, not that the ship did anything wrong.

In 2017 we showed up for our ocean cruise in Venice only to find out the ship was going to be 10 hours late getting to port. The ship said they sent out messages. It turns out they called my home phone. For some reason we still have a home phone even though we never give out that number anymore. If you still have one, make sure it's not included in travel information.

My main advice once something does go wrong is to be proactive and don't count on others to solve your issue even if it's not your fault. It's still your problem.

Come on, you are asking a lot. They left messages with your phone and
email and that is ineffective methods.

I could be wrong about what Carol meant but I interpreted it as it was ineffective because she didn't provide proper info for her circumstances, not that the ship did anything wrong.

That was my interpretation as well. Carol pretty much said that she learned her lesson and next time she will give them more effective methods of communication.

My lesson learned was from 16 years ago when I booked a hotel for myself and a friend in Munich. I did everything by email, and knew it was done but when I got there, they had no record of the booking. It turns out that I never sent them a confirmation email with my credit card number, so the booking was cancelled. Luckily they had a room for us, but it was more expensive (and I paid the extra cost). But it did definitely teach me a lesson about ALWAYS following up.

Bostonphil7, I agree,
"sometimes you don't know what you don't know."

We were in Strasbourg December, 2019, and the lady at the table next to us was talking about the massive
strikes in two days.
What strikes?
Apparently there were nation-wide strikes planned, affecting airlines, trains, buses, etc. The strikes had been announced six weeks in advance. I didn't realize that strikes were an issue, so never did any research.
Our hotel just told us, "Something will work out." Period.
Thankfully the leader of our wine tour figured out the solution: We were three miles from the Kehl, Germany, train station. We actually could walk it. The hotel could have told us that.
We called a cab, not knowing if they were honoring the strike, or would hike fares. The cab actually showed up early, and charged the regular fare.
At the small train station, we were actually interviewed by a radio station, inquiring about the effects of the strikes.
Onto the Xmas markets in Rothenburg!

My main advice once something does go wrong is to be proactive and don't count on others to solve your issue even if it's not your fault. It's still your problem

Perfectly said! I always think this when someone says they'll use a travel agent in case things go wrong. I'm too much of a control freak to sit somewhere in this world waiting for someone to show up to work to take my call. And don't get me started on a well traveled friend who wasn't going to take her phone on her first post pandemic trip because she wanted digital detox! I outright bullied her into taking it even if she left it turned off. Like WTF?!

Andrea, agreed!

Thanks Alan and Marlee for helping to clarify. Indeed, the whole point of my post was that I needed to give correct contact info for my situation to the company. It certainly isn’t their fault it went to spam or my line was turned off.

I think it is important to learn from our mistakes as we move forward, always keeping in mind what we could do better to improve things. I greatly appreciate it when people share their lessons so we can all benefit and learn.

I've had so many unexpected events that I've learned to do a few things to make life easier while on the road:

Make sure you have a way to communicate. While my cell phone is supposed to work in most countries, I also have an alternate way of making calls. I do this with wifi calling. Some cell services, including mine, are set up to allow you to make phone calls while connected to wifi. Additionally, I use Google Voice to make calls since it is cheaper than my cell service. I also have a phone number with Google Voice that I can use in an absolute emergency.

Always check for local holidays when planning your trip. And not just the major ones. Twice, last month, I was surprised with local holidays where stores and restaurants were closed. Some sites as well. Luckily, I heard about them the day before so it wasn't as if I woke up to "surprise."

Confirm, confirm, confirm. I make all of my reservations direct with the supplier. Usually through an app. Always check the app to see your actual reservation, it's booked, and has the correct information. Take a screen shot of it. I don't know how many times I've gone to show the information--trains, hotels, flights--and I have issues with internet connection. It used to be where you had to call to confirm. Now all you have to do is either look at a confirmation email or at the app.

Google Translate is your friend. (Or any other language translation app that allows you to have a conversation, use the camera to translate printed words on the screen, etc.) Download any language files you may need ahead of your trip just in case of no internet.

This may be only for me....but....I have the belief that with just my passport, credit card and phone I could go from any street corner to home without going to get my luggage if necessary. I always have those three things on me.

Stuff happens. Don't panic. Know your options. If a train is canceled, is there a bus or flight I could take instead? (In an earlier example where a train from Dundee to Edinburgh was canceled, did the poster check to see if the FlyDundee coach, with direct service from Dundee to Edinburgh Airport, was operating? Or any bus service?)

Never cut things too close where it's out of your hands and you don't have some type of backup.

My story may not relate to a "scare" per se, but hear me out.

I learned to walk around my accommodation. Just like that- take a full circle. Why?

1) Locate the nearest transport stop. I use public transport when I can and it saves a lot of money on taxis.
2) Locate the nearest post office. I send postcards from travels and most often than not postage can only be bought in a physical post office.
3)Locate the nearest supermarket. I save a lot of money by stocking my own snacks, fruit, breakfast items, etc. instead of , for example, buying water in a souvenir shop in the centre.
4) Locate the nearest pharmacy. Just in case.
5) Locate the nearest working ATM. Just in case.

Informed is armed, I guess?

Given how often flights are cancelled since Covid, we always arrive a day in advance of the beginning of a tour, although based on one poster's experience(leaving Sunday instead of Thursday!) I realize that even that may not be enough. And it seems like BA has more IT shutdowns that do other airlines. In 2017 we were flying to Portugal and the person at the airport door had written on his hand(not an iPad or paper printout) which flights were actually leaving.

This may be only for me....but....I have the belief that with just my passport, credit card and phone I could go from any street corner to home without going to get my luggage if necessary. I always have those three things on me

With those three things you can solve almost any travel problems. Lord knows we’ve spent extra money to solve the occasional unanticipated problems.

As Gilda Radner used to say on Saturday Night Live, "It's always something. If it's not one thing, it's another."

On one trip, I damaged my cell phone in Europe, and recently, I discovered that my Capital One ATM card was worthless in much of Europe because the bank switched from the Master Card to the Discover network. When I incapacitated my cell phone, I had a laptop (which I often don't bring) for email communication, and I make hard copies of everything that I possibly can with the bar codes--hotel reservations, tours, train and museum tickets, and anything else for which I have reservations. On my last trip, I had several hundred dollars in American cash and was able to access some money through American Express.

In short, try as much as possible to anticipate what could go wrong and have a backup. If you are traveling abroad--especially if you are doing it on your own--it's a lot of work. For me, one of the more draining aspects of European travel is checking my pocket, seemingly every 15 minutes, to make sure my wallet and passport are still there and in the right pocket--two or three times on every trip, I still instinctively put my wallet in my back pocket.

But even given how much preparation you have done and how experienced you may be traveling in Europe, things happen, as our friend Frank II above noted. When they do, take a deep breath, realize it's not the end of the world, and try to find a solution.