As a somewhat frequent traveller, I am usually very fortunate, but mainly because I do a great deal of pre-planning. I like knowing what to see, what to eat, things to do, just so that I can use the time during my trip to enjoy it, rather than wasting any time planning these details.
Some things, you just can’t plan for though.
First off, is the food.
There are a lot of food and restaurant chains that are found in Australia, but not in Canada, so I had planned to try many of these things. I had a whole list of places that I wanted to eat at, but in the end, I counted 6 places that I did not end up eating at, simply because my research turned out to be outdated.
As I was traveling to Australia at the beginning of Spring, many of the places I had wanted to try had just changed from their winter menus to summer ones. So, this means that many of the items I had picked out were no longer being offered. Further to this, I visited an out of the way bakery, as I had read that they are very famous for their lammingtons. Once I finally found it, they told me that they only make lammingtons certain times of year. You’d think they’d have this info on their website, instead of just advertising that their lammingtons are famous.
A second problem I ran into is that although a place may close at 4pm, they do not serve food until that time. This was the case with a couple of the cafes I visited. They told me that because I was visiting during the last hour of business, they could only serve me coffee. This seemed quite strange to me, because in Canada, if a restaurant operates until 4pm, you would expect their entire menu to be available until that time.
However, I’m quite fortunate and any bad luck I have usually turns around. This was the case in Brisbane one night when I called a restaurant to place a takeout order. When I arrived at the restaurant to pick up my order, the manager came over and told me that as soon as I placed the order, they realized that they had sold the last one of the item I ordered. However, the chef came up with something else and they weren’t going to charge me for it. I was slightly disappointed because I had been looking forward to trying this dish, but what can I do? After waiting around for a bit, one of the waiters brought my food out and he thought I still owed for the meal, and I had to explain that his manager had spoken with me and offered to let me have it for free, due to the fact that they ran out of the item. But it was at that point that the waiter said I did get what I ordered, so we were all very confused with what was happening. In the end, I felt very strange leaving the restaurant without paying, but I guess I had some good luck in me that night.
Second item of bad luck – Travel.
The first unfortunately incident for me happened as I was trying to leave Tasmania for the mainland. The hotel I was staying at had arranged for a shuttle bus to pick me up at 2:15pm to take me to the airport, so I arrived back at the hotel with plenty of time to wait for the bus. By 2:35pm I still didn’t see a bus, so I asked the front desk, who then called the shuttle company to confirm. The shuttle company told her that they thought someone had already come, but they would send someone over right away.
Not 5 minutes later, the girl who had originally booked my shuttle ran up to me frantically and said that the shuttle company is now denying responsibility and will not be coming, so she has called a taxi for me instead. I was a bit annoyed at this as originally, I was only thinking of paying around $6AUD to take a bus from the bus station, but when the hotel offered the shuttle for $15AUD, I thought it would be worth paying to not have to lug my suitcase to the bus station. Now, I’m suddenly needing to pay for a $35AUD cab ride, not to mention the added stress of ensuring I get to the airport on time. But I always try to count my blessings and if $35AUD can help me get onto that plane, then it is worth it.
My second set of travel woes started on the day I left Melbourne. I had a 3:45pm flight booked to Sydney from Avalon, which is a small domestic airport about 50 minutes from Melbourne. I was set to arrive at Avalon airport by 2:30pm, but as soon as I boarded my shuttle bus, the driver announced that there had been a huge accident on the highway and it might take us 3 hours to get to the airport. This was bad news for me as my flight would have departed before I even arrived at the airport.
Since Avalon is such a small airport, with Jetstar being the main airline that flies from there, everyone on my bus was in the same situation. Some of us were on the 3:45pm flight but most people were on the 5:45pm flight. In the end, it didn’t matter because everyone ended up missing their flights. It took a total of 4 hours to get to the airport, when it should have taken 50 minutes.
During the bus ride, the driver would give us updates periodically as the bus company had been communicating with Jetstar. One of the things he told us was that Jetstar was willing to re-protect the people on the 5:45pm flight if we arrived before a certain time. However, we were given the impression that people on the 3:45pm flight wouldn’t be re-protected. Hearing this, some people on the bus decided to purchase a ticket for the 8:00pm flight to be safe. I decided to take the chance instead of paying well over $200AUD for the 8:00pm flight.
When we finally arrived at the airport around 5:40pm, there was a mad dash to the check in counter as everyone tried to update their tickets to the 8:00pm flight. I was quite surprised that Jetstar was willing to change everyone’s flights for free.
I was one of the unlucky ones near the back of the line, and the 8:00pm flight filled up with about 8 of us left. Jetstar was nice enough to offer us a flight from the main Melbourne airport. The only catch is that we would have to make our own way to the airport, since it wasn’t their fault that we missed our flights. It worked out well as I joined 3 other people and we just took an uber to the airport for about $27AUD each. I was pretty happy with this decision as it turned out much cheaper than buying a new ticket earlier.
Jetstar (at Avalon) had put me on a 9:00pm flight from Melbourne, just to give me enough time to get to that airport. However, we arrived shortly after 6:30pm and at that time, I asked if I could be put onto an earlier flight. I was pleasantly surprised that they were willing to put me on a 7:00pm flight, even though it was already 6:40pm and I still hadn’t checked my luggage or gone through security. I later found out it is because the 7:00pm flight was delayed and they felt I still had enough time.
Well, I definitely had enough time because although the initial delay was only to be 30-45 minutes, a storm decided to blow into Melbourne and as soon as I got to the gate, all operations ceased because of the storm. In the end, the 9:00pm flight left around the same time as ours (if not earlier), as I didn’t end up taking off until almost 9:30pm. We were also partially delayed because there was one traveller that brought a guitar onto the plane. The airline told him he needed to have purchased a second seat for the guitar, as he could not store it in the overhead bins. In the end, one person didn’t show up, so there was one extra seat and the traveller was lucky enough to be able to place it there. Otherwise, he would have had to get off the plane and they would have had to pull his luggage, causing further delay.
One of the most shocking things to me is that we pulled into the gate in Sydney at 10:33pm. The flight attendant came onto the intercom immediately and asked for cooperation in disembarking as they needed everyone off of the plane in 4 minutes. They explained that there were people waiting to fly to Melbourne, and because there is an 11:00pm curfew in Sydney and planes cannot take off after that time, they needed us off so that they can onboard everyone that was waiting. It was especially crucial because I was traveling on the day before the Melbourne Cup, which everyone was going to Melbourne to watch.
Sadly for those people, it did not work out as the pilot seemed to have issues parking the plane next to the gate. We were stranded on the plane for another 15 minutes or so and I fully expected to see a bunch of disgruntled and angry passengers inside the gate arguing with the staff, but to my surprise, when I stepped into the gate, it was empty. They must have sent everyone home in that short 15 minute span. It was quite interesting eavesdropping on the flight attendants and some of the passengers talking about how one little incident could cause a trickle-down effect and cost the airline thousands of dollars. In our case, the traveller with the guitar likely caused a small delay, and then the pilot’s inability to pull up to the gate probably caused another delay, which resulted in the plane not being able to fly back to Melbourne that night. This means hotel costs for the airline staff and the re-protection of all passengers for the next day, so it’s easy to understand why it would be so costly.
I bumped into one of the girls that I had taken an uber with, so that is how I know our flights ended up arriving around the same time (she remained on the original 9:00pm flight). Thank goodness the train from the Sydney airport into the CBD is so quick and efficient. I was in the CBD shortly after 11:30pm and as I hadn’t eaten much all day, I stopped to pick up some food outside the subway station. From there it was a short 10 minute walk to my hotel.
I did experience some good luck this night as well. I arrived at the hotel around 11:50pm to check in, and found out that had I arrived 10 minutes later, the reception area would have been closed and I wouldn’t have known what to do. I did notice a sign on the door the next day, saying that there are additional charges if I need to check in after midnight, but thank goodness I made it just in time.
My last little bit of bad luck happened during my travels back to Canada. I had booked a strange ticket that included both Air Canada and WestJet segments, and since those are competitor airlines, I did wonder if I would have issues. Upon check in in Sydney, the gate agents were quite confused as to whether my baggage tag should include my final destination, or whether it should just include my first touchdown point. In the end, they tagged my bag all the way to the final destination.
When I arrived into Vancouver, I was told that my connecting flight was cancelled and I had to be put on another one 2 hours later. I was not happy as I had just gotten off of a 14 hour flight with barely any sleep. When I finally arrived home, I did not see my luggage come out of the carousel and had to spend about 10 minutes lining up to talk to the baggage people. I kind of had a feeling that something would go wrong with my luggage as I was flying in on Air Canada but connecting on WestJet. I’m sure it didn’t help that my WestJet flight was cancelled and I had to take a later one.
In the end, it worked out better than I expected, as my bag did end up at the airport that same night and they were able to deliver it right to my house shortly after. I’m glad to say that I still believe there is always a bit of good luck at the end of all the bad.
0 comments on “I Used Up All My Bad Luck On This Trip” Add yours →