Every frequent traveler learns, no matter how experienced, that everyone eventually makes mistakes. Fortunately most of them are the kind of things that can be laughed off later.
For example, it’s easy to forget what hotel or rental car you booked, or even to forget to book a hotel or rental car. It’s also easy to leave socks, or something equally mundane, at home, or to leave a phone charger in a hotel room.
Other mistakes can really wreck an entire trip. Some of them seem to happen to the most frequent travelers. Here are five potential trip-ruining problems to ponder, and try to avoid.
1. Leaving an iPad, smartphone or other small necessary device in a cab or seatback pocket. The smaller these gadgets get, the easier they are to stow or put down and forget. One advantage of a clunky laptop, is that they are heavy enough and big enough that they can’t be hidden in the seatback, and they are hard to miss.
For some reason, this seems to happen to my clients and friends who are on the road constantly. Partly it’s because the more trips, the more chances for something to be lost. But the more travel becomes a regular routine, the easier it becomes to be oblivious (not to mention jetlagged and tired). Unfortunately, as well, the newer and more popular the gadget, the less likely it seems to be to be returned to the owner.
2. Forgetting the airport. Don’t laugh. Travelers from smaller cities don’t have this problem. But in the San Francisco Bay Area, for example, many people fly from one of three major airports, San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland.
More than a few times I have had clients book a flight from an airport that is not their “usual,” for schedule or fare reasons. Even after reminding them or their assistants the day before, they still hop in the car and drive to the wrong one. The more people regularly fly too, the more it seems likely to happen. Probably because that drive to the airport is semi-automatic.
3. Forgetting a passport (especially to Canada or Mexico). Curiously enough, in our office we almost never have a problem with someone leaving their passport home on a trip to Europe or Asia. But those shorter trips that really don’t feel that “foreign” somehow trip people up.
Already this year we have had to reroute two people, one back home instead of stopping in Toronto, one connecting back through San Francisco (from the East Coast) to pick up his passport before heading to Mexico. Yes, they both knew the rules, but didn’t think about it on their way out the door.
4. The legal name game. Gone are the days when TSA agents were flexible about names, not that they were ever that flexible. Most frequent travelers know the drill now — legal name and birth date, at least when they are booking through their usual channels.
But I just did a ticket for a speaker at a meeting that was paid for by another client. She cheerfully emailed me to book specific flights and send her the ticket. When I questioned her on a birthdate, however, and asked if “Terri” was really “Theresa,” she responded that her legal name was actually “Veronica.” (And her middle name wasn’t Terri either.)
In this case, not even the person paying for the ticket knew the name issue. Presumably the speaker’s own company did, for legal documents and paychecks, but they weren’t involved and she just didn’t even think about it.
5. Being at the airport, and still getting distracted enough to miss a plane. This seems to happen mostly to men. But it’s always the regular fliers. Occasional fliers are generally nervous enough to be at the gate early, and to keep a watchful eye on the departure information.
But every once a while we get a call from someone who was busy working away in the lounge or in a quieter spot away from the gate, and they look up to discover their plane is either gone or the door is closed. (Only once do I know someone who talked the gate agent into opening that door.)
No doubt there are other mistakes Consumer Traveler readers can add to this list. And if you’ve experienced one of those how-could-I-be-so-stupid moments, or had a “friend” who did, please feel free to add them in comments. If nothing else, saving someone else from the same situation could be worth a lot of travel karma points.
Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
