Did you have a bad travel nightmare? I would say no, you have had an adventure you haven’t planned for. But is that bad? I would say no. I have traveled over five continents and had my part of non planned experience. Have I loved them? No, I sometime have hated them at that moment. But looking back I can laugh at most of them. So what is the three most common travel nightmares?
Lost luggage
You was at the departing airport three hours before departure to make sure you had time to check in and make sure you luggage was checken in. At the arrival you stand at the luggage carousel and see everyone else pick up their luggage. But yours aint coming out. Finally the belt stop and you are the only passenger left. I have been there several times. My worst memory connected to this was when I flew between Copenhagen and Östersund in leather pants and a white well used t-shirt after a pride and should start a new project the day after. I arrival around 10:30 pm and should start the workshop at 9 the next day. My luggage stayed i Copenhagen by some reason so I had no working clothes at all.
Is this a travel nightmare? I would say no. Lets be honest, luggage get lost, they disappears. At the same time, most lost luggage will reach its owner the same day or day after. So mostly your nightmare is to buy some underwear, toothpaste and some deo. In worst cases as above you need to buy some new clothes and send the bill to your insurance company. Thats not even close to be a nightmare if we are honest.
Destroyed luggage
The second travel nightmare is related to the first. Your luggage shows up but the bag is totally broken. This happened to my partner last september. We had departed from Rio and was heading back to Copenhagen airport. This time the luggage did arrive, but the suitcase was wraped in plastic and totally broken. Well this did make us a little upset if Im honest. But it was not a travel nightmare. What happened was that we collected our things and went to SAS arrival service. At less then five minutes we got a new suitcase in the right size and could repack. So it meant a little extra work but its nota travel nightmare.
The lost booking
Usually travel bookings don’t disappear. But it happens and when you arrive the hotel is fully booked or you cant check in. Well both have happened to me. The solution to this travel nightmare is to keep al your confirmations. Thats solved my husbands problem when he couldn’t check in on a flight between Malmö and Stockholm. He just showed the confirmation and made sure that the check in assistent got on the phone and computer to find it, It took half an hour but finally they did find it.
For me it didn’t go so well when the nine hours hostel at Narita couldn’t find our reservation. At that time I was more of newcomer to the travel world and didn’t bring the confirmation with me. In this case it was just to surrender and ask if they did have a free room anyway. i was lucky and yes they did, but not close to each other. But we accepted it. The reserve solution here was to book another hotel or in worst case sleep at the airport. It would have been uncomfortable but not a nightmare.
So what would a travel nightmare look like?
To be honest, as long as no person are seriously ill or past away I can’t think on some? Most things is possible to fix. Maybe not on the way we first planned, but they still get fixed. It can get a little more uncomfortable and take some extra time. But thats not a a travel nightmare. Instead should we see al of the most common travel nightmares as possibilities to learn and in some case an opportunity for free shopping.