Have you ever accidentally booked the wrong holiday? Or similar?

[CrockyBetter]

The thread about booking the nudist campsite made me wonder of you have ever booked the wronh hotel, flight,.theatre tickets, anything really and what happened?

I booked hotel for 12 months time and didnt notice until we had arrived at our destination after a 9 hour flight and 3 hour taxi journey. Our hotel was fully booked. Thankfully it was a chain hotel and we were able to go to anothee hotel nearby and they refunded the original booking. Cost about £200 more at the new hotel tho

[EBearhug]

The first time I went to Dortmund for work, the travel agent booked me into a hotel in Turin. I noticed and queried it - the taxi would be rather over the expenses limit, not to mention taking hours and hours... (I did wonder if someone had a business trip to Italy and ended up with no hotel.)

They booked me into the company-preferred hotel chain in Dortmund, but into the city centre one, not the next-to-the-business park one, and I got a bollocking about taxi fares in my expenses. I'd never been there before, had no idea of the layout - and before I went, I'd told them which hotel I was in (once it had changed from Turin.) They never mentioned it till I put my expenses in. And at least it was the same city (not to mention country.)

[Planterlifer]

An agent once sold me tickets to an opera or some such event for a day it wasn't on. We wasted a day of our holiday basing it around going to the opera. When I went back for a refund the woman behind the desk was a total bitch. The tickets had been maybe €39 and she only had notes. Wouldn't give me €40 back, I had to scrounge around shops to get change so I could give her the euro I owed her. So annoyed 😠

[CoRhona]

Not us (thankfully) but last year we went abroad and practically the whole queue in front of us moved away from the line, none of them had filled in their API before arriving.

We are due to go away this year and I always double, triple and quadruple check what p/w we need and have copies on my phone and printed just in case...

[Planterlifer]

For a weekend away post wedding DH and I booked Hotel A. Immediately after booking online we went into town and saw a big billboard for Hotel B and commented on it, what chain it used to be, is the new name better etc. Got to our mini break destination and went straight to Hotel B who obviously had no booking for us. I couldn't even remember the name of Hotel A and had no internet on my phone (different country) to check which one we'd booked! Hotel B very kindly let me use their computer to check my emails. Hotel A was luckily not too far away. My DM even tried to send us a bottle of champagne to our room in Hotel B we were so sure we were going there we had told everyone

[boreda11]

I booked too many nights in a hotel once. Too late to change so left in the middle of the afternoon as I had to be back home (did not say why) to the hotel.

[amusedbush]

Not my fault but our worst travel day was when we were flying out to get married in New York (just me and DH). We had a one-hour layover in Heathrow, except we were delayed for ten minutes at takeoff, then we missed our landing slot and had to wait in the air for another. We were at the very back of the plan so it took an age for everyone ahead of us to get off. When we finally got into the airport, our onward tickets wouldn't work so we had to get someone to reprint them. Next was the train to the other side of the terminal, but when it pulled up to the platform a guy inside took foreverrrr to check under all of the seats for left luggage. We ran full pelt to the gate and the woman told us they'd seen us land and didn't think we'd make it. We were ushered on to the plane, they locked the doors behind us and when we took our seats, red-faced and sweating bullets - I burst into tears we arrived in NYC to be told that our suitcases - which contained my wedding dress - hadn't made it onto the plane.

I'd rather have a six hour layover than go through that again!

[DuckyMcDuck]

In a similar vein, early 1980s was 16 and flying with my 13yo sister from London to Lisbon to see our dad. It was only on the plane on the wayy home that I realised I had my 40 something old Mum's passport not mine! (She had short black hair and I had long mousey blonde hair).
I was a complete nervous wreck going through passport control at Heathrow but it wasn't spotted - although did confirm I could never be a smuggler or play poker

[janj2301]

Husband's company booked us from London to Tokyo. We said which airport in London they said Heathrow got there a bit early, lucky really. Flight was from Gatwick. Mad dash to Gatwick, rushed through security (pre 9/11) had to take all luggage onto plane, barely sat down when flight took off.

[Xiaoxiong]

The BA flight from Nairobi to London used to take off at 00h50. This means that you need to get to the airport the night of the day BEFORE the flight, so if your flight back says Aug 4th, in fact you need to go to the airport the night of Aug 3rd.

I was caught out by this the first year we went out there and didn't realise until around lunchtime when we were a good few hours drive away - we had a frantic time rushing back to Nairobi a day early and lost the last night's hotel stay that I thought we would need. 12 years on and I see people every single year arguing with the check-in staff that they fly today - the ticket says Aug 4th, today is Aug 4th, why won't you check me in!!!

[Reedwarbler]

Re regular mix ups with Birmingham usa and Birmingham uk, I seem to remember, a few years ago, Birmingham City council (in the uk) put out a promotional flyer with a lovely pamoramic cityscape photo on the front. Unfortunately it was a scenic view of Birmingham Alabama. Oops.

[MerryGoRoundBrain]

I booked return flights for a weekend in a Berlin. Just that I booked them the opposite direction. Cheap airlines too, so nothing could be done, had to book new ones.

[Aroundtheworldin80moves]

This wasn't me but @Bluntness100story has reminded me
Just over a year ago I was taking a flight from a German city to London. Leaving from two gates next to each were flights to Gatwick and Heathrow, different airlines. The one we were on was delayed. They boarded the other flight. Numerous announcements in various languages about the passengers to Heathrow needing to board now. Moved onto announcing names. Then the flight assistants went round asking for these few names. They give up and flight departs. 20mins later they are able to board our flight.... And there are some very disgruntled people who should have been on the first flight who got mixed up. Unfortunately our flight was full. And it was 11pm.

[Bluntness100]

I got on the wrong plane once. Work trip, easy jet. Twenty odd years ago.

They were boarding a number of flights at once and three easy jet planes were lined up on a row, with signs saying which was which. I got on the first one, took a seat and then sat there with my headphones in.

The flight was delayed and at one point I heard everyone laughing. So I took my headphones off and asked the woman next to me what was going on, she said someone’s on the wrong plane and they are not admitting it.

I sort of shrugged and said this is going to glasgow isn’t it, and she said no it’s going to Aberdeen. 😱

It was terribly embarrassing I had to jump up and get my bag and everyone was laughing, I was rushed off the plane, and then had to walk along to my one, the pilots in each plane were laughing and waving as I did the walk of shame.

I then got on my plane, in a cold sweat and typical easy jet couldn’t find anywhere to store my bag, everyone was giving me filthy looks because all three planes were delayed as they tried to find the missing passenger. Eventually a man got up and kindly helped me find a space for my bag and I sat down mortified.

[BlackAmericanoNoSugar]

I booked tickets to see a stand up comedian, it was on the Cutty Sark which I thought would be a cute venue and it was 13 months away so plenty of time to fit a nice weekend away around it with reasonably cheap flights. Only it was actually a month in the future. It was fine, although the flights were a bit expensive.

When we lived on the Isle of Dogs years ago my parents came to visit and booked themselves into the Hilton on the IoD. Only when they got there they found they have booked themselves into the Rotherhithe Hilton, so they had to take the ferry across the Thames every day to come to us.

[Aridane]

This thread cracks me up

[stoneysongs]

@Shannith I wasn't very popular!

[Shannith]

@singingstones that's just wonderful!

[bigbluebus]

I live in a town with the same name as (at least) 2 other places in the UK. I have to be very careful when booking train tickets to make sure that I click on the correct one. So far I haven't made an error but I'm guessing many people have.

The owner of my favourite Italian restaurant tells me she gets frequent cancelled booking from people who realise that they are actually staying hundreds of miles away from the restaurant but didn't realise when they booked that there is more than 1 town with that name.

[DianaT1969]

There are two train stations with exactly the same name in Germany, about 5 hours apart. I booked to the wrong one online. Fortunately I realised something was 'off' as I was boarding it.

[BlueSwathesChoose]

I booked a cruise for Halloween. It was the first time I had managed to persuade DH to go away in 6 years. So i booked and paid. This was in 2015. The cruise I paid for was in 2016.

Thankfully i realised before we tried to embark. (The lead passenegr Mrs Blue Swathes Choose age on embarkation being 1 year in front of my age gave iut away).

So we went to Centerparcs that Halloween and enjjoyed the cruise the year after.

[SallyOMalley]

@Poppyismyfavourite

Ooh although I did almost book the wrong flight once - was booking manchester (UK) to philadelphia (US). I had no idea there was a manchester in the US, so was almost sucked in by the cheap price of that flight!

My sister did exactly the same thing when she was making plans to go to NYC! Thankfully, her then-boyfriend looked over her shoulder and realised her mistake before she hit 'book'.

[LoopyGremlin]

I once had a holiday booked to the Caribbean flying out from Gatwick. This was booked by the travel agent but I decided to book return flights from Edinburgh to Gatwick myself. Got there fine and flew out. Then realised I had booked the return to Edinburgh for 14 days later when we were actually staying 14 nights. 🙈 Had to phone BA at enormous expense from hotel phone to rearrange for the following day. This was many years ago so before mobiles.

[gabsdot45]

DH and I turned up to a concert a year early once. Deacon Blue in Dublin a couple of years ago. We thought the crowd looked a bit young as we queued up.
We went to the cinema that night instead and went to see Deacon Blue the following year. It was a great show.

I used to book travel in a job I had once and a manager asked me to book personal flights for her for a holiday. I swear I booked the dates she told me but when the confirmation came she said she told me a different return date. Her trip ended up only being 2 days instead of 4. She was not happy.

[MoonriseKingdom]

We went camping in France with my SIL and family. Me and DH had to go home but they were staying on another week. My SIL recommended an amazing sounding campsite not too far from where we would get an early morning ferry. She spoke excellent French and phoned up and booked it.
I speak much less excellent French. We turned up saying we had a reservation and the man looked a bit confused but showed us to our pitch. We walked around looking for the promised amazing views of the coast but couldn’t find them. There was a dawning realisation we were at the wrong campsite and this one was somewhat less impressive. It was quite late by that stage so we were stuck with it.

[Strawberrycreamsundae]

A friend was labelling the luggage and discovered should have flown the previous day, error no. 1. Rebook flights.
They turned up an airport with her family to discover DD’s recent birthday put her above the age limit for being on your mother’s passport, error no. 2. Rebook holiday, cancel first accommodation.
Her DH had to trek to the passport office for a new passport, holiday rebooked.
Family go to totally different destination, it pours with rain all week, come home with d&v.
It simply wasn’t meant to be.