When I first ventured to the US to study at the University of Missouri, I was but a young and clueless child. I made many, many mistakes, which gave my parents many grey hairs, but ultimately helped me grow a lot. And maybe they can help you too.
So, here are my shocking, baffling, distressing travel horror stories, and lessons I learnt from them. Buckle up — anxiety is imminent.
1. Check your passport before you make your way to the airport
Bags? Check. Keys? Check. Boarding pass? Check. Passport? Double, triple, quadruple checked.
What I neglected to check, though, was whether that passport was evenmine.
For whatever reason, I had mistakenly taken my sister’s passport instead.
The problem was that I only realised once I got to the airport and was about to check in. It was 5 a.m. or so in the morning, and my home was an hour and a half away by car from the airport.
My whole family was there at the airport with me, so it’s not like I could just call someone at home to rush over with my passport.
We ended up having to call a family friend. Thank God they were awake and willing to help. Yes, my parents chewed me out copiously. I would do the same if my child pulled a stunt like that.
2. Don’t rely on a friend to get to the airport – especially if it’s early in the morning
It was early morning. I was waiting with my bags packed. My sister’s friend had offered to drive us to the airport, which was some half an hour away.
The clock ticked by. I was getting restless. Theyfinallyarrived, some 30 minutes later than expected. We rushed our way to the airport and dashed straight to the check-in counter.
Then, the attendant told us: The gate was closed five minutes ago.
We missed our flight.
What’s worse, because we missed the first leg of the flight, that meant legs two and three were all forfeited too. That’s thousands of US dollars! Yeah, talk about travel horror stories.
That friend’s mishap cost us thousands of dollars. But, well, lesson learnt!
3. If you can help it, book direct instead of through a third-party site
My sister and I, wanting to save some dollars, had opted to book through a third-party travel agency site.
But the thing about third-party sites is that they can hardly help you whenever mishaps like these happen.
Our friend, who booked direct, actually managed to change her tickets immediately. For us, it was impossible.
We ended up buying a one-way ticket back home to Malaysia, after double and triple-checking that our return ticket would still be valid.
We were distraught but decided to just let it go and enjoy our time at home. Crisis averted, right?
Wrong. When it came time to fly back to Missouri, the staff at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport told us our tickets were null and void.
They had already sold off our seats since we didn’t make the first round of flights!
We begrudgingly bought one-way tickets again to Columbia, Missouri, feeling the burn in our wallets.
I spent the rest of the summer trying to find ways to recuperate the losses, spending hours on end on hold with the airlines, and even visiting my school’s legal services to see if there were any legal actions I could take.
Ultimately, they managed to give me airline credits, and I flew back to Malaysia again at the end of the year.
We even got to sit in premium economy for the first time, so I’ll consider that a win.
4. Apps may save you from writing your own travel horror stories
One of my worst airport experiences was when I was stuck in the Denver International Airport for some 20 hours.
This incident, though, was not my fault but rather just a consequence of unpredictable weather.
Due to my anxious traveller tendencies, I had downloaded the app earlier for a smoother check-in experience.
When all the flights going out of the airport started getting cancelled, I quickly rebooked on my app.
The next available flight was for the next morning, which was some 15 hours away. But, well, it was my best option.
Anyways, people who didn’t check their apps or didn’t have it ended up having to queue up to try to rebook their tickets. The lines were so long, I wouldn’t be surprised if they took upwards of hours.
So hey, carve out some space on your phone for the airline’s app such as the United appor American Airlines app. It’ll be worth it should anything happen.
At least there are lessons to be learnt from these travel horror stories. Source: Claudia Khaw
The silver lining of my travel horror stories
Sharing these travel horror stories with my friends, I’ve been told that it’s likely due to these sorts of high-stress situations that have prepared and groomed me as a person. Thanks to experiences like these, I’ve learnt how to perform well under stress and deal with the repercussions of my own mistakes.
So yes, I totally believe that studying abroad teaches you things beyond your courses and assignments. You’ll make mistakes, miss flights, and overall collect various travel horror stories, but as the saying goes, life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.
