Summer 2022 Travel nightmare thread

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re currently stuck in Italy. We arrived without any issue. A few days before our return from Florence, I received an email that our flight home had been moved from 10:30 a.m. to 6:05 a.m. The Florence airport doesn’t open until 5:00, so I set the alarm for 4:00 a.m., only to wake up to a text stating that our flight had been canceled but they would be reaching out shortly with alternative arrangements. I immediately called United. After being on hold 20 minutes, spoke to someone who asked several questions before telling me he didn’t work on international flights (annoying bc the first thing I did was explain that we were in Florence, Italy). Transferred me and I was on hold another 15 minutes before the United rep told me they had transferred our ticket to Lufthansa and no longer could help. I then called Lufthansa and was told I needed a confirmation number but the only confirmation number I had was from United. Called United again and they gave me the Lufthansa confirmation number. I went online with this new confirmation number only to find out that our newly scheduled flight on KLM was departing in 10 minutes. I had never received a text, email or any notice that we had been put on a new flight. Apparently, this was due to the fact that the airlines’ systems don’t communicate with each other.

We were rebooked for a flight 4 hours later. While waiting to board after now being at the airport for 6 hours, they announced that due to wind/weight issues, they had to remove 25 of us from the flight. Unfortunately, we were selected. We waited in line to be rescheduled for 3 more hours only to be told there are no available flights with room for 4 people until two days later. We’re in Economy Plus, but there were passengers in first class that were taken off the flight with us and has the same issues rebooking. I think they only way to avoid this is by traveling private.

We better not have issues getting off tomorrow or I’ll lose my mind!

I had the same issue with United last month when they automatically shifted my reservation to British Air.

PPs, do either of you have tips for this?

I guess one is, "If the airline tells you that you have been rebooked on another carrier, ask for the new confirmation number." But love to know if you have others.

United/Lufthansa PP, did you depart?

1. Always get confirmation number and ticket number for the airline you are actually flying.

2. Always call the airline while waiting in the rebooking line. Often you will get through on the phone quicker than waiting in line.

3. Consider using overseas phone number if the phone wait is long. Look up numbers for say United in Australia, etc. Use Google Voice to call, it's like 1 or 2 cents/minute to many countries.

4. If phone waits are long, send Twitter DMs to the airline.

5. Which day matters if it's a partner booking. In this case the ticket was booked through United, but as of the day of travel, Lufthansa "owns" the ticket and has responsibility. So if there was a cancellation more than 24 hours in advance, contact United as ticketing airline. Within 24 hours, contact the operating airline

6. Use Google Flights to find alternatives that are operating and have enough seats, so you can offer options immediately that work for you.

Such a helpful list - thanks for your prompt response.

1 - How does one get the ticket number? Is that provided with the confirmation number or do I have to speak to an agent to get it? We were flying back from Far East to US and trying to upgrade. The airline kept insisting on the ticket number to do so. Had never had that experience before and not since.

2 - The operating alrline really threw me on a trip we just took to Europe. Everything said Delta, but when I tried to check in online within the 24 hours, Delta said this was an Alitalia flight. Definitely news to me. At the airport, however, I checked in at the Delta counter with no trouble though it was an Alitalia flight, listed on the board that way, etc.

Ticket number will be in your receipt. Look up your reservation at the ticketing airline and choose the "print receipt" or "email receipt" option. Ticket number is a 13 digit code, one for each person on the reservation. There is a pattern to then- each airline has a 3 digit code which starts the ticket number. For instance, all United issued tickets start with 016, all Delta tickets start with 006.

Also key, because this happens sometimes. If rebooked because of operational issues, immediately check your new reservation to be sure it is ticketed (the true way to know is.to find the ticket number). Have definitely seen it happen where agent on say Lufthansa grabs a reservation on say KLM to rebook you onto, and gets a reservation code back, because the seats have been held. But the actual ticketing process is a separate step, sometimes needing to be confirmed by a ticketing desk. If you don't have a ticket number, that step hasn't happened and you can't get on the KLM flight. Have heard multiple stories from people in this situation who go to check-in for the new flight and somehow it didn't get ticketed, but no way for the Lufthansa agent to know that. At that point you are really in a limbo.

[Anonymous]

All went well for the first 7 days of our European trip, spent in in the UK-- smooth flight, all our bags made it there, and we spent every day after day enjoying classic London experiences hosted by longtime friends. I did feel more stress than I remember from our pre-pandemic trips -- we were overfunctioning a lot to make sure we thought every day through, plus worrying about covid safety, wearing masks inside, and so on. But still, it was wonderful.

Then, the morning we were set to head to Paris for four days, my spouse tested positive for COVID which blew up our plans because France still requires a negative test to enter. So we scrambled and found a last minute air BNB in London with a separate bedroom where my spouse could isolate and recover for five days until we flew home. I split time between nursing my spouse and taking the kids out for a short excursion every day which I was glad to do but it was hard to enjoy it knowing my spouse was back in her room not feeling well. We made the best of it but were pretty exhausted by it all. I don't regret going but was not prepared for how much it took out of us all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All went well for the first 7 days of our European trip, spent in in the UK-- smooth flight, all our bags made it there, and we spent every day after day enjoying classic London experiences hosted by longtime friends. I did feel more stress than I remember from our pre-pandemic trips -- we were overfunctioning a lot to make sure we thought every day through, plus worrying about covid safety, wearing masks inside, and so on. But still, it was wonderful.

Then, the morning we were set to head to Paris for four days, my spouse tested positive for COVID which blew up our plans because France still requires a negative test to enter. So we scrambled and found a last minute air BNB in London with a separate bedroom where my spouse could isolate and recover for five days until we flew home. I split time between nursing my spouse and taking the kids out for a short excursion every day which I was glad to do but it was hard to enjoy it knowing my spouse was back in her room not feeling well. We made the best of it but were pretty exhausted by it all. I don't regret going but was not prepared for how much it took out of us all.

What is overfunctioning?

And if you wore masks in the UK, you were the only ones doing so, or at least it’s only a very few American tourists doing so. We were just there and no masks anywhere anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our enterprise rental car broke down on us on I-75 in Georgia causing us to miss our flight and have to rebook to another airport and take a $150 Uber to Dulles to get our bags and not only did enterprise not waive the rental fee they tried to say we were responsible for the damage to the car and they claimed we put diesel fuel in it. Every single company is absolutely out of their minds right now so good luck to all of us trying to navigate travel this summer

That’s a pretty easy thing to prove. Hopefully you were about to successfully dispute the rental charges!

You’d think, right? We prepaid fuel and had the car for 36 hours total. If still had half a tank of gas when it broke down on us so mileage wise, from the mileage when we got it to when the engine melted down, they could easily have seen there was no way we’d gone through a whole tank, filled it with diesel and then drove through half a tank of that. But even so, they tried it and it spent 3 weeks in “investigations” before they said “we have agreed to cover the damage” like it was a favor. I swear these companies are just trying anything hoping someone is hassled enough to just pay it rather than fight. Took my husband hours on the phone to try and deal with the mess.

Are they still claiming diesel was in the car when they agreed to cover the damage? Or did they have a new excuse?

Lol they never said. They just finally sent a letter that said they would agree to cover the damage and the case was closed and that was it. Possible there never was diesel in the engine, also possible someone at the Hatsfield Jackson airport enterprise had put diesel in and they knew they couldn’t pin it on us with the data.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All went well for the first 7 days of our European trip, spent in in the UK-- smooth flight, all our bags made it there, and we spent every day after day enjoying classic London experiences hosted by longtime friends. I did feel more stress than I remember from our pre-pandemic trips -- we were overfunctioning a lot to make sure we thought every day through, plus worrying about covid safety, wearing masks inside, and so on. But still, it was wonderful.

Then, the morning we were set to head to Paris for four days, my spouse tested positive for COVID which blew up our plans because France still requires a negative test to enter. So we scrambled and found a last minute air BNB in London with a separate bedroom where my spouse could isolate and recover for five days until we flew home. I split time between nursing my spouse and taking the kids out for a short excursion every day which I was glad to do but it was hard to enjoy it knowing my spouse was back in her room not feeling well. We made the best of it but were pretty exhausted by it all. I don't regret going but was not prepared for how much it took out of us all.

What is overfunctioning?

And if you wore masks in the UK, you were the only ones doing so, or at least it’s only a very few American tourists doing so. We were just there and no masks anywhere anymore.

Ok? Why do care if they wore their masks?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All went well for the first 7 days of our European trip, spent in in the UK-- smooth flight, all our bags made it there, and we spent every day after day enjoying classic London experiences hosted by longtime friends. I did feel more stress than I remember from our pre-pandemic trips -- we were overfunctioning a lot to make sure we thought every day through, plus worrying about covid safety, wearing masks inside, and so on. But still, it was wonderful.

Then, the morning we were set to head to Paris for four days, my spouse tested positive for COVID which blew up our plans because France still requires a negative test to enter. So we scrambled and found a last minute air BNB in London with a separate bedroom where my spouse could isolate and recover for five days until we flew home. I split time between nursing my spouse and taking the kids out for a short excursion every day which I was glad to do but it was hard to enjoy it knowing my spouse was back in her room not feeling well. We made the best of it but were pretty exhausted by it all. I don't regret going but was not prepared for how much it took out of us all.

What is overfunctioning?

And if you wore masks in the UK, you were the only ones doing so, or at least it’s only a very few American tourists doing so. We were just there and no masks anywhere anymore.

Ok? Why do care if they wore their masks?

It’s just very amusing and poetic that this person steadfastly wore their mask in a place where the locals have given it up long ago and their partner still got COVID!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All went well for the first 7 days of our European trip, spent in in the UK-- smooth flight, all our bags made it there, and we spent every day after day enjoying classic London experiences hosted by longtime friends. I did feel more stress than I remember from our pre-pandemic trips -- we were overfunctioning a lot to make sure we thought every day through, plus worrying about covid safety, wearing masks inside, and so on. But still, it was wonderful.

Then, the morning we were set to head to Paris for four days, my spouse tested positive for COVID which blew up our plans because France still requires a negative test to enter. So we scrambled and found a last minute air BNB in London with a separate bedroom where my spouse could isolate and recover for five days until we flew home. I split time between nursing my spouse and taking the kids out for a short excursion every day which I was glad to do but it was hard to enjoy it knowing my spouse was back in her room not feeling well. We made the best of it but were pretty exhausted by it all. I don't regret going but was not prepared for how much it took out of us all.

What is overfunctioning?

And if you wore masks in the UK, you were the only ones doing so, or at least it’s only a very few American tourists doing so. We were just there and no masks anywhere anymore.

Ok? Why do care if they wore their masks?

It’s just very amusing and poetic that this person steadfastly wore their mask in a place where the locals have given it up long ago and their partner still got COVID!

That’s pretty disgusting that you are amused someone got sick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All went well for the first 7 days of our European trip, spent in in the UK-- smooth flight, all our bags made it there, and we spent every day after day enjoying classic London experiences hosted by longtime friends. I did feel more stress than I remember from our pre-pandemic trips -- we were overfunctioning a lot to make sure we thought every day through, plus worrying about covid safety, wearing masks inside, and so on. But still, it was wonderful.

Then, the morning we were set to head to Paris for four days, my spouse tested positive for COVID which blew up our plans because France still requires a negative test to enter. So we scrambled and found a last minute air BNB in London with a separate bedroom where my spouse could isolate and recover for five days until we flew home. I split time between nursing my spouse and taking the kids out for a short excursion every day which I was glad to do but it was hard to enjoy it knowing my spouse was back in her room not feeling well. We made the best of it but were pretty exhausted by it all. I don't regret going but was not prepared for how much it took out of us all.

What is overfunctioning?

And if you wore masks in the UK, you were the only ones doing so, or at least it’s only a very few American tourists doing so. We were just there and no masks anywhere anymore.

Ok? Why do care if they wore their masks?

It’s just very amusing and poetic that this person steadfastly wore their mask in a place where the locals have given it up long ago and their partner still got COVID!

Dp, I am glad I am not the only one who saw the irony.
I also wonder if “longtime friends” rolled their eyes at them wearing masks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All went well for the first 7 days of our European trip, spent in in the UK-- smooth flight, all our bags made it there, and we spent every day after day enjoying classic London experiences hosted by longtime friends. I did feel more stress than I remember from our pre-pandemic trips -- we were overfunctioning a lot to make sure we thought every day through, plus worrying about covid safety, wearing masks inside, and so on. But still, it was wonderful.

Then, the morning we were set to head to Paris for four days, my spouse tested positive for COVID which blew up our plans because France still requires a negative test to enter. So we scrambled and found a last minute air BNB in London with a separate bedroom where my spouse could isolate and recover for five days until we flew home. I split time between nursing my spouse and taking the kids out for a short excursion every day which I was glad to do but it was hard to enjoy it knowing my spouse was back in her room not feeling well. We made the best of it but were pretty exhausted by it all. I don't regret going but was not prepared for how much it took out of us all.

What is overfunctioning?

And if you wore masks in the UK, you were the only ones doing so, or at least it’s only a very few American tourists doing so. We were just there and no masks anywhere anymore.

We just did London and Paris. My DH also got sick right before we went to Paris. We did not need a negative Covid test to enter. Dh tested negative 5x on rapids but stayed in the room most of the time we were in Paris.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All went well for the first 7 days of our European trip, spent in in the UK-- smooth flight, all our bags made it there, and we spent every day after day enjoying classic London experiences hosted by longtime friends. I did feel more stress than I remember from our pre-pandemic trips -- we were overfunctioning a lot to make sure we thought every day through, plus worrying about covid safety, wearing masks inside, and so on. But still, it was wonderful.

Then, the morning we were set to head to Paris for four days, my spouse tested positive for COVID which blew up our plans because France still requires a negative test to enter. So we scrambled and found a last minute air BNB in London with a separate bedroom where my spouse could isolate and recover for five days until we flew home. I split time between nursing my spouse and taking the kids out for a short excursion every day which I was glad to do but it was hard to enjoy it knowing my spouse was back in her room not feeling well. We made the best of it but were pretty exhausted by it all. I don't regret going but was not prepared for how much it took out of us all.

What is overfunctioning?

And if you wore masks in the UK, you were the only ones doing so, or at least it’s only a very few American tourists doing so. We were just there and no masks anywhere anymore.

We just did London and Paris. My DH also got sick right before we went to Paris. We did not need a negative Covid test to enter. Dh tested negative 5x on rapids but stayed in the room most of the time we were in Paris.

Yeah I was wondering about the negative test required to enter France also- the regs say as long as you are vaccinated there is no other entry requirement:

"According to European regulations, vaccinated travellers no longer have to be tested before departure. Proof of full vaccination once again suffices to enter France, regardless of the country of departure"

So either PP wasn't vaxxed, or misunderstood the requirement, or decided it best not to ride public transit with a covid positive passenger, which is entirely reasonable. But they would have been able to go to France with a vaccine card.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm definitely nervous for my flight to Portugal in less than 2 weeks. Going it is non-stop and we have ONLY carry-on's which was always the plan. Returning we have a layover in Montreal and I am nervous about that. I'm trying to prepare in the event that our return flight especially is delayed, prepping work for the possibility.

Covid is rising and monkeypox is spreading so that's not good either. I have good travel insurance so hopefully that will cover if there are any issues.

Most travel insurance doesn't cover issues related to pandemics; ours flat out said it wouldn't cover anything Covid related, even with expensive "cover everything" coverage.

can people share their experiences with the travel insurances and specify what kind of insurance please?
i am a little behind reading this thread, sorry if it has been discussed.

[Anonymous]

Schiphol Airport Disarray -- KLM Bans Checked Luggage for European flights

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/amsterdam-schiphol-airport-klm-hand-luggage-b2128083.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All went well for the first 7 days of our European trip, spent in in the UK-- smooth flight, all our bags made it there, and we spent every day after day enjoying classic London experiences hosted by longtime friends. I did feel more stress than I remember from our pre-pandemic trips -- we were overfunctioning a lot to make sure we thought every day through, plus worrying about covid safety, wearing masks inside, and so on. But still, it was wonderful.

Then, the morning we were set to head to Paris for four days, my spouse tested positive for COVID which blew up our plans because France still requires a negative test to enter. So we scrambled and found a last minute air BNB in London with a separate bedroom where my spouse could isolate and recover for five days until we flew home. I split time between nursing my spouse and taking the kids out for a short excursion every day which I was glad to do but it was hard to enjoy it knowing my spouse was back in her room not feeling well. We made the best of it but were pretty exhausted by it all. I don't regret going but was not prepared for how much it took out of us all.

What is overfunctioning?

And if you wore masks in the UK, you were the only ones doing so, or at least it’s only a very few American tourists doing so. We were just there and no masks anywhere anymore.

Ok? Why do care if they wore their masks?

It’s just very amusing and poetic that this person steadfastly wore their mask in a place where the locals have given it up long ago and their partner still got COVID!

You know they're not 100% right. No one ever said they were.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just flew home from Paris yesterday and Charles de
Gaulle was an absolute mess. It took 1.5 hours for us to get through customs/security and we got to the gate 1 minute before departure. Thankfully, they held the plane for us. I strongly advise getting to the airport 3 hours early.

Dulles customs was also a slog. They had a monitor that showed all of the international arrivals and it said 12 flights landed within a 30 minute period so all of those people were in the customs line too. A mess.

In Paris' slight defense, CDG is like this on a good day pre-COVID.

It is the seventh circle of travel hell and the worst airport in the world.

CDG took us 3 hours just to get through Passport control recently on a weekend - WITHOUT checking bags before hand. Only made plane after a mad dash through airport/security because they held it. If we had checked bags we would have needed honestly 4 hours. And after the crush of people in that 3 hour passport line - its no wonder BA5 is spreading at the rate that it is....we wear masks - not worth disrupting the rest of my life over covid and willing to take basic precautions to also see the world again - and no one got covid which was a true test to me of N95/KN95s.

[Anonymous]

Southwest - the return was changed from small town -> DAL -> DCA to a stop in New Orleans after Dallas. One of those Southwest stops where you stay on the plan. Right as we get to the gate they announce "This plane isn't going on to DCA. You need to deplane and go to Gate 8."

We dutifully go to Gate 8 only to find out that we don't have a flight, we have a line of people 100 people or so long because they have canceled TWO flights to DCA - allegedly because of weather. It's 1:30pm. Some weather is predicted but no major issues in the WMA are being reported.

Southwest wants to rebook me and my two kid for the next day where we leave at 9am, then go to ORLANDO for SEVEN!! hours and then catch a flight to DCA. I am unhappy and not confident that we'll make it home on that routing. I don't fly Southwest that often and forgot that they don't have any reciprocal agreements so there's no chance of them booking us on another airline.

Long story short on the rest - I spent 6 hours in New Orleans airport between getting my luggage back (total cluster) and then waiting at the Southwest Ticket Counter for an hour while the very nice ticket agent called to get a refund processed for us. I couldn't even get Southwest to attempt it for me over the phone on my own.

The silver lining is that the refund covered the direct flight on United the next morning and our hotel room for the night.