Travel woes

[BillBrasky4Cy]

Flew out of DSM in January for a 6:30 flight. We had to wait on the plane 50 minutes for a mechanic to show up to start the engines.

I've flown the early American flight to DFW a lot and have missed my connection several times because DSM only had one operable de-icer. Every damn airline has an early AM flight so basically everyone had to just sit until the single boom truck could clear each plane.

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

I have had terrible experiences with American Airlines... I will NEVER use them again. I had 1st class tickets on a flight and missed the connection by 1 minute. They put me on the next plane (24 hours later) on the very back of the plane against the bathrooms. They also never refunded me the difference on my 1st class tickets. They didn't even say they were sorry.

Don't use cheap airlines (Spirit, Frontier, etc)... pay the few extra bucks and get a better airline.
I flew Iceland air out of MSP and they were awesome! Clean planes, great service and hot flight attendants.

Don't travel with me... I was very lucky to avoid two major experiences:
1) I was in Madrid Spain and missed the train bombings by 1 week. Yes, I was in that train station.
2) I was in India in 2008 and left 3 days before the terrorists took over that hotel in Mumbai near Thanksgiving time.

Other than that, all is well!

I've flown Spirit and Allegiant multiple times and they are great for direct flights. I haven't had a negative experience that I haven't had through other airlines multiple times.

 

[Cycsk]

Get a global entry if you frequently travel overseas. Saves a lot of time and energy (and you get TSA precheck automatically)
Getting the pre-approval electronically is quick, getting the interview spot can be tricky but if you want to drive to Grand Portage, MN, that'll be nice as they have a lot of open spots 7 days a week. And it's a nice drive along the North Shore & Lake Superior.

Global Entry is under-represented in this thread. If you have ever been frustrated at the immigration line to get back into the US, get Global Entry. Now, I hardly even stop walking. Go right up to a kiosk. Walk right through. Seriously, last month, I got off my flight from Delhi in Newark and was at my domestic connecting gate in 30 minutes. And that includes TSA Pre-Check to get into the domestic terminal.

Eliminates a ton of "travel woes" on re-entry.

 

[ianoconnor]

Is this where they cover the $100 expense of it? Does that just cover 1 persons or multiple? I have the venture card, but we haven't used that perk. I also have IHG card too. Wonder if I can work around a family of 3 to get these covered, would save a lot of time at airports, not that we travel as often as we used to.

It's usually one credit for TSA or Global Entry every 5 years per card. So you pay with the card and then you'll see a statement credit for the same amount to offset the cost.

 

[4theCYcle]

Yeah, you use your card to pay for it and then they credit it back to you. I think it's per cardholder on your account. Both my wife and I got it reimbursed.

Ahh, yeah we each have our own card under my account.

 

[dmclone]

I like global entry but it's not always the best. We recently got back from Mexico and in Houston it took 20 minutes longer through GE than the other couple who didn't have it.

 

[isucyfan]

Ahh, yeah we each have our own card under my account.

I think you're ok then. Same as my situation...the wife and I have two cards on the same account and we both got reimbursed.

 

[4theCYcle]

I think you're ok then. Same as my situation...the wife and I have two cards on the same account and we both got reimbursed.

Cool, may definitely try to do that then because that would be helpful.

 

[NebraskaCY]

I don't have any cool international stories been to Chicago numerous times and it's full of scammers.

One night we were out at the bars in Wrgleyville after a Cubs game. Everyone on my party is completely wasted, this is pre-cell phone and Google maps days so we have no idea how to get back to our hotel downtown. Guy appears out of an alley offering out of the generosity of his heart at 3am to drive us all back to the hotel downtown. I guess I was the only one halfway sober because I suddenly realized this was a very bad idea as my buddy is about to give him the keys to his Escalade. I ended up finally making our way back to the hotel.

Another time I'm walking downtown with a friend, guy comes up offering to shine our shoes. I tell him no but my friend is naive and let's him do it. Next thing you know the guy is up in our face demanding 50 bucks for "all the hard work he put in".

Another pre-cell phone and maps story. Me and a buddy went to a RollingStones concert one year at Soldier Field and stayed out by O'Hare. That morning we taxi to our train station and it's 12 bucks, less than a mile away. Well that night on the return trip home we give the guy the exact address to get back to our hote. Next thing you know he's driving us around for 20 minutes pretending to get lost while the meter is continuing to rack up fees. He finally finds it and tries to charge us over $40 bucks. After a heated argument where I had to do everything to keep my friend from going nuclear on this guy we throw him a $20 dollar bill and tell him to get lost.

Another favorite in Chicago, every year at the same subway station there was alwasy the guy "trying to get to South Bend to see my dying mother" who needed 10 bucks.

This happened to me (15 yr-old) on a high school band trip. We had just gotten off the bus and crossed the street. Before I knew it, this guy sprayed some foam on my shoe and my friends take off running. I kick it off and to start running too, but whatever he said made me stop. A friend felt bad and came back for me, only to have his shoes "polished" too. Never knew what the chaperones were doing at that time.

 

[NoCreativity]

This happened to me (15 yr-old) on a high school band trip. We had just gotten off the bus and crossed the street. Before I knew it, this guy sprayed some foam on my shoe and my friends take off running. I kick it off and to start running too, but whatever he said made me stop. A friend felt bad and came back for me, only to have his shoes "polished" too. Never knew what the chaperones were doing at that time.

So did you guys pay the guy? We ended up just walking away and he finally left us alone.

When I was in college we played some school up there. We went to Giordanos and had almost am entire whole pizza left. As we are walking back to the hotel a homeless guy asked if we had any money because he was hungry. We offer him the whole leftover pizza(probably 30 bucks worth) and then he starts screaming at us "that he needs money not pizza". That's the last time I ever tried to help anyone in need.

 

[NebraskaCY]

Didn't happen to us, but we did an Eastern Mediterranean Cruise for our honeymoon. We did a pre-cruise excursion in Rome that included travel to the port of call. We heard of someone that were getting themselves to the ship by train and got picked by some gypsies, which also included their passports. They had to go back to their embassy in Rome to get new ones issued and then fly themselves to either the first or second stop on the cruise to meet back up with the ship.

 

[NebraskaCY]

So did you guys pay the guy? We ended up just walking away and he finally left us alone.

When I was in college we played some school up there. We went to Giordanos and had almost am entire whole pizza left. As we are walking back to the hotel a homeless guy asked if we had any money because he was hungry. We offer him the whole leftover pizza(probably 30 bucks worth) and then he starts screaming at us "that he needs money not pizza". That's the last time I ever tried to help anyone in need.

We were 15-years olds from a small town, and didn't know better. We knew we were being taken, but I don't think we were smart or brave enough to not pay. I don't remember what he charged, but my buddy didn't have correct change. The guy took his extra money and said thanks for the tip.

 

[4theCYcle]

In my wife and I's travel history, we've missed our fair share of flights. We generally expect something to go wrong on our trips, as a more go with the flow attitude and we not try and let it get to us.

 

[cyclone13]

Global Entry is under-represented in this thread. If you have ever been frustrated at the immigration line to get back into the US, get Global Entry. Now, I hardly even stop walking. Go right up to a kiosk. Walk right through. Seriously, last month, I got off my flight from Delhi in Newark and was at my domestic connecting gate in 30 minutes. And that includes TSA Pre-Check to get into the domestic terminal.

Eliminates a ton of "travel woes" on re-entry.

Yup, that's why I put the global entry. Took me less than10 seconds in LAX last summer to breeze through the immigration.

 

[jbhtexas]

I've flown Spirit and Allegiant multiple times and they are great for direct flights. I haven't had a negative experience that I haven't had through other airlines multiple times.

Agree. I flown Spirit numerous times for direct flights without issue.

 

[wxman1]

Agree. I flown Spirit numerous times for direct flights without issue.

Managing expectations is key.

 

[pulse]

Global Entry is under-represented in this thread. If you have ever been frustrated at the immigration line to get back into the US, get Global Entry. Now, I hardly even stop walking. Go right up to a kiosk. Walk right through. Seriously, last month, I got off my flight from Delhi in Newark and was at my domestic connecting gate in 30 minutes. And that includes TSA Pre-Check to get into the domestic terminal.

Eliminates a ton of "travel woes" on re-entry.

That’s the truth. Breezing through Miami coming back from the Caribbean saved me sooo much time. That regular line was insane and I just walked right up to the kiosk and was through in a minute.

 

[VeloClone]

My brother had a timeshare in Hawaii that he wasn't going to be able to use one year so Mrs. Velo and I put together a hasty trip for President's Day weekend when he had booked his timeshare. I have a buddy whose wife is a flight attendant. He said that his wife had buddy passes that were about to expire and we could use them. We decided to do it and fly standby. The morning of the trip we were planning to fly out of MSP but the flight was full. Our benefactor said that we should hop the flight to Salt Lake since there appeared to be room on that flight in the afternoon. We just missed getting on. So she told us to take the evening flight to Cincy since the next day's flight was practically empty. We did and actually stayed with her in Cincy. The next morning the flight was actually quite empty and we even got first class.

When we tried to get back home we found every flight full and we weren't high enough on the list to make the onesie-twosies seats that might be availble for standby. It took us three days to get off the islands and we finally went evening to LAX, just missed getting on the flight to Denver that would have gotten us back to MSP so we took the red-eye to Atlanta and then ran through the airport to catch the early morning flight back to MSP.

Moral of the story is don't fly standby to an island on a holiday weekend. Everybody who can fly standby likes to have the free extra day of a holiday weekend too, and most of them are higher on the seniority list than you are.

 

[Sparkplug]

Son was on school trip to China. He needed to be back in Iowa a couple of days before the rest of the group

He called at 2am our time to tell us his flight was canceled. They planned to send him to Alaska the next day where he would spent the night then be flown to Denver and held overnight then to DSM

I was trying to find a solution when he called again. He told the lady at United he was a minor.

They grabbed his bags and walked him to the gate of a flight that was loading.

Learned that a minor cannot be held overnight in a foreign country.

A year later we were meeting him in London. Authorities would not let him go into the terminal. He had to prove he had family waiting for him. Luckily I had emailed him our itinerary. He had to show them the email and they escorted him to us

 

[AndyShuler]

Hey, I totally feel you on the travel woes! It's crazy how one incident can make us rethink our travel habits. I had a similar experience when a friend's bag got stolen in front of me when we were in Rome. One dude just approached her o his bike, took a bag with her passport, cash, and credit cards, and escaped. The ugly truth is that Paris and Rome are famous for picked pockets. Ever since then, I've become super cautious about keeping my belongings safe. And now I don't take all my cash and passport to the city.
By the way, I'm also looking for some travel info. Recently discovered this cool spot called Los Altos Resort, and I'm dying to go there. Heard amazing things about it! Still, it would be helpful to hear any feedback about it.