{"id":1064,"date":"2015-04-10T09:20:36","date_gmt":"2015-04-10T09:20:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.diningtraveler.com\/?p=1064"},"modified":"2015-04-14T03:33:35","modified_gmt":"2015-04-14T03:33:35","slug":"travel-gone-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diningtraveler.com\/2015\/04\/travel-gone-wrong.html","title":{"rendered":"Travel Gone Wrong: Courses of Actions"},"content":{"rendered":"
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. \u00a0I had a fabulous time in Taipei and an even more fabulous stay at the Mandarin Oriental Taipei.\u00a0 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. \u00a0 My schedule was as follows: Taipei to\u00a0Okinawa first as I had a separate reservation from Okinawa to DC via Tokyo Narita (Okinawa was work, Taipei was pleasure).<\/p>\n
I woke up early, said my goodbyes to the lovely staff and off I went to the airport.\u00a0 As the taxi driver pulled into the terminal, I thought to myself: \u201cI should use my no-foreign fee credit card and use my leftover cash to buy souvenirs\u201d. When reaching for my wallet, I realized I left both my wallet and passport inside the hotel safe. The horror.\u00a0 Taipei International Airport is a 45 minute ride from the city center.\u00a0 Going back to the hotel to pick up my passport will take at least 90 minutes roundtrip, which meant missing my flight to Okinawa.\u00a0 Downside of traveling with a low-cost carrier such as Peach:<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0lowcost carriers tend to have one flight a day; there\u2019s only one daily flight from TPE to OKA. \u00a0The Marine in me quickly reacted and asked the taxi driver to turn back around and my brain started to churn my COA\u2019s (Courses of Action).<\/p>\n Thank God for my T-Mobile Simple Choice<\/a> plan (seriously, they should give me a discount as much as I praise it!). \u00a0I have inclusive 3G data and text and 20 cent a minute calls when roaming.\u00a0 (I cannot stress this plan enough if you\u2019re a frequent international traveler. I pay $99 for three lines). I immediately called the hotel and asked them to retrieve my passport.\u00a0 I sent the Dutchman a whatsapp message (a free data enabled messaging app) to look for alternative routes.\u00a0 As I was headed back to the hotel, I started to go over my COA\u2019s factoring time and budget. This is what I came up with:<\/p>\n 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. \u00a0Unfortunately, travel gone wrong is quite the expensive mistake!<\/em> <\/strong>\u00a0Although I love to travel, after six weeks, I was ready to go home. \u00a0Getting home sooner than later was my most important factor in choosing.<\/p>\n When I arrived to my hotel, the front desk manager was waiting for me with my wallet and passport in hand.\u00a0 She quickly escorted me to the business center where the desk manager and I sat in front of one another looking for options.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Thankfully my ticket was unrestricted which meant\u00a0no change fee involved.\u00a0 If I would have been on a normal tourist fare, that may have been an issue. \u00a0When all the factors were considered. I went with COA #2.<\/p>\n I immediately went to Kayak<\/a> to check for flights. This is always the tricky part.\u00a0 Sometimes airlines have the best fare if you book directly through them and sometimes they don\u2019t.\u00a0 In this case, it was the latter.\u00a0 I was able to get a one way ticket to Tokyo on Eva Airways via Expedia.\u00a0 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.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0Thankfully, the Mandarin Oriental Hotel was gracious enough to honor the same weekend rate for my stay and keep me in my same room.<\/p>\n The ironic part of this ordeal is that I combed my room TWICE to ensure I did not leave anything behind.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I woke up a 5am super excited to go home and it completely slipped my mind.\u00a0 In order to be more efficient, I had settled my bill the night before so the wallet was an afterthought.<\/p>\n Lesson learned: empty the safe the night before.<\/strong><\/em> This oversight cost me $600 between hotel, airfare, and cab fares. Pretty much the cost of a new international plane ticket.\u00a0 Travel Tip: If you\u2019re the forgetful type ask the front desk ahead of time to ask you for your passport upon check out.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em> The positive part of the experience is that I got to fly EVA AIR Kello Kitty flight<\/a>. \u00a0Do you have any “travel gone wrong”\u00a0stories? How did you get through?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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. \u00a0I had a fabulous time in Taipei and an even more fabulous stay at the Mandarin Oriental Taipei.\u00a0 The day to return home had arrived. Although sad to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":1082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,2,56,1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1064","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-air-travel","8":"category-travel","9":"category-travel-tip","10":"category-uncategorized"},"yoast_head":"\n<\/a><\/p>\n
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