Travel Mishaps and Mayham

Travel Gods giveth and the Travel Gods taketh away.

Some trips are good. Some suck.

As long as you survive to tell the tale, I guess it's not a total loss.  With that half-hearted sentiment written, I give you my top 5 travel fails.

In no particular order. And yes it's ok to laugh.

1. My son and I tried to walk on the the NASA base in Houston.
Guard: "Excuse me ma'am. Do you have security clearance?"
Me.... "Security clearance? Just a couple of nice Canadians wanting to see a space shuttle."
Guard: Ma'am, the museum is the next street over. 
Me..."Oh. Sorry."
(Silver lining: Nobody got arrested)

2.  Westjet decided the 16 people on the flight weren't going to make the connection and sent our flight to Honolulu without us. (20 minutes ahead of schedule.) With no apology we were forced to pay our own hotel and wait for a flight the next day. That was on my birthday, last year.  (Silver lining: I had a great travel companion and the bartender bought the first round of drinks at the airport bar.)

3. Went to Vegas for the Rod Stewart concert. Treated myself to a new dress, makeup and a professional up-do. Rushed through dinner to arrive on-time, only to learn that the concert had been cancelled at the last minute.  I cried. Smeared my makeup. Looked like a sad clown.  (Silver lining: 6 months later, I was in Vegas again. At the last minute bought balcony seats to the Rod Stewart concert and was upgraded to front of the house by the usher. He said I was too pretty to sit in the back. No clown makeup that day! LOL)

4. On my 40th birthday, I arrived back in Wpg, in a snowstorm. I had asked my brother to pick me up at the airport but he was "too tired" to drive from his house 10 minutes away. So I waited nearly 2 hours for a cab and the snow was really staring to pile up. Cabbie refused to try the side streets, so I had to walk at 2AM through knee high snow about 1 km to my brother's house. I was so cold & hungry by the time I arrived that I took a microwave dinner out of his freezer and ate it. The next morning he yelled at me for eating his lunch. As if I didn't already hate turing 40 enough. (Silver lining: What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.)

5.  I had my credit card number ripped off at a major hotel in Florida. After I checked in, the thief re-created the card and went to town racking up charges in Florida. Since I had set a travel alert to Florida, the CC company didn't red flag the charges. I only realized the disaster when my CC was declined for a $50 meal outside the hotel.  That was a major headache. (Silver lining: I had alternate payment means with me, and the fraudulent charges were reversed after investigation.)

Air Canada: 1 Day Fail

Air Canada advertised and flaunted an exciting one day sale, to take place February 20th.

Then Feb 20th came and their grand surprise was: a $25 gift card to Hudson Bay Company. Pardon?

I thought they were kidding. I thought this was some sort of teaser? Nope. That was it. $25 to an aging, shrinking retailer.  GRRRRRRR. I wasted my time and yours "reporting" on an upcoming sale.

You'd get better swag from listening to a 20 minute time share presentation in Idaho.

Hudson Bay. Hudson Bay?  Once was a Canadian icon...once had stores in communities across the country. Now, its Zellers brand has disappeared. This "special" reeks of something popular in the 70s. It might have worked then. But now?? No.

Dear Air Canada: There's this thing called the Internet. Travel is a multi, multi BILLION dollar industry. Do not cry wolf again. The 2012 Olympic specials you ran were disappointing at best. This is worse. For a minute I had to check my calendar....nope, it's not April 1st.

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Ok, that all sounds uncharacteristically bitter of me. But when other suppliers regularly offer hundreds of dollars in savings.... For example, a quick check of today's Expedia.ca packages nets a 4 day stay in a 4 star hotel in downtown Vancouver for Under $700 with return Westjet airfare included.  (Infact, flight and hotel included for 4 nights was as low as $493 for a budget hotel.) The dates shown here are March 19-23rd. It's even a direct flight from Winnipeg, to Vancouver on departure. (The return flight has a connection.)

I even found the hotel at the Lonsdale Quay Market for $576. In my opinion, that's like paying regular price for the flight and getting the hotel for free.

This is the amazing market that I visited in November. I can only imagine how great the market would be in the spring sunshine. It's very much like the Forks. It's near a harbour, great downtown shopping and nightlife.  I think this would be a superb getaway.

Anyways, packages like this can be found regularly at expedia.ca . Just scroll down to the bottom right corner and look for package deals.

Thank you expedia and westjet, for saving the day.