Travel Gone Wrong: Courses of Actions

Sometimes fabulous international trips do not end the way we want them to. Sometimes even the most epic trips end up in the “travel gone wrong” category.  I had a fabulous time in Taipei and an even more fabulous stay at the Mandarin Oriental Taipei.  The day to return home had arrived. Although sad to leave my luxurious digs at the hotel, I was ready to go home to my husband and new home.   My schedule was as follows: Taipei to Okinawa first as I had a separate reservation from Okinawa to DC via Tokyo Narita (Okinawa was work, Taipei was pleasure).

I woke up early, said my goodbyes to the lovely staff and off I went to the airport.  As the taxi driver pulled into the terminal, I thought to myself: “I should use my no-foreign fee credit card and use my leftover cash to buy souvenirs”. When reaching for my wallet, I realized I left both my wallet and passport inside the hotel safe. The horror.  Taipei International Airport is a 45 minute ride from the city center.  Going back to the hotel to pick up my passport will take at least 90 minutes roundtrip, which meant missing my flight to Okinawa.  Downside of traveling with a low-cost carrier such as Peach: lowcost carriers tend to have one flight a day; there’s only one daily flight from TPE to OKA.  The Marine in me quickly reacted and asked the taxi driver to turn back around and my brain started to churn my COA’s (Courses of Action).

Thank God for my T-Mobile Simple Choice plan (seriously, they should give me a discount as much as I praise it!).  I have inclusive 3G data and text and 20 cent a minute calls when roaming.  (I cannot stress this plan enough if you’re a frequent international traveler. I pay $99 for three lines). I immediately called the hotel and asked them to retrieve my passport.  I sent the Dutchman a whatsapp message (a free data enabled messaging app) to look for alternative routes.  As I was headed back to the hotel, I started to go over my COA’s factoring time and budget. This is what I came up with:

1. Try to find another flight to Okinawa the same day.
2. Stay an extra night in Taipei. Try to fly straight to Tokyo from Taipei to catch my connecting flight from Tokyo to Dulles.
3. Try to book a Peach Flight the next day to Okinawa and delay my return home by one day.

When doing the cost benefit analysis, all of the above came in between $100 of one another given the flights, additional hotel day, and transportation costs.  Unfortunately, travel gone wrong is quite the expensive mistake!  Although I love to travel, after six weeks, I was ready to go home.  Getting home sooner than later was my most important factor in choosing.

When I arrived to my hotel, the front desk manager was waiting for me with my wallet and passport in hand.  She quickly escorted me to the business center where the desk manager and I sat in front of one another looking for options.  She called Peach and Eva Air for me as I called United to see if I can forfeit my Okinawa to Tokyo flight and board my direct flight from Tokyo to Dulles.  Thankfully my ticket was unrestricted which meant no change fee involved.  If I would have been on a normal tourist fare, that may have been an issue.  When all the factors were considered. I went with COA #2.

I immediately went to Kayak to check for flights. This is always the tricky part.  Sometimes airlines have the best fare if you book directly through them and sometimes they don’t.  In this case, it was the latter.  I was able to get a one way ticket to Tokyo on Eva Airways via Expedia.  There were several other low-cost carriers like Tiger Air and Vanilla but when you factor baggage, seating costs, and accrued miles, it was almost the same price to fly a Star Alliance airline. Tip: Sometimes low-cost looks cheaper but make sure to factor baggage and extra fees.  Thankfully, the Mandarin Oriental Hotel was gracious enough to honor the same weekend rate for my stay and keep me in my same room.

The ironic part of this ordeal is that I combed my room TWICE to ensure I did not leave anything behind.  When traveling overseas, I always make a point to put my passport and wallet in the safe and just carry the basics in my purse in case of loss or theft.  I woke up a 5am super excited to go home and it completely slipped my mind.  In order to be more efficient, I had settled my bill the night before so the wallet was an afterthought.

Lesson learned: empty the safe the night before. This oversight cost me $600 between hotel, airfare, and cab fares. Pretty much the cost of a new international plane ticket.  Travel Tip: If you’re the forgetful type ask the front desk ahead of time to ask you for your passport upon check out.  The positive part of the experience is that I got to fly EVA AIR Kello Kitty flight.  Do you have any “travel gone wrong” stories? How did you get through?