Travel Mishaps and Oddities

I have traveled quite a bit since moving to Finland last September. I've had many adventures, some mishaps involving luggage, and spent countless hours trying to find the best flights, hotels and things to do. I've gotten lost when I exit subways. I've gotten confused with tipping rules in different countries. I've been approached with every scam in the books.

But something I never expected happened Sunday at the Stockholm airport before my flight back to Finland. Nobody checked my identification. At all.

Granted, since I was flying within Europe and not overseas, I didn't have to go through Passport Control. I had checked in online in my hotel before I left for the airport. At the airport, I used the automatic machine to confirm my seat assignment and check one piece of luggage. I proceeded to the counter, where the man scanned my luggage sticker but didn't even pick up my passport.
 


I proceeded to security, where the agent scanned my ticket but didn't open my passport. Same thing at the gate before I boarded my plane.



Have our systems become too automated? It's too easy to scan a ticket -- but aren't they supposed to match the name on the ticket with some I.D.?

It's the same with booking flights. Living in rural southwestern Finland, it takes creativity to get the best flights for the best price in the shortest amount of time. But it's even crazier when you have to book a flight in a different language just to get the best price.

Keep boarding passes until you get
credit for your  FF points

I am flying to Lyon, France, with a friend next week. She and her husband have a home in Lyon but live here in Finland. Our husbands work for the same company. She booked her flight on one of the many online travel websites and told me which one. And she used the French version of the site.

Almost all companies that do business in different countries have different sites in different languages. That's just good business.

When I went to the English website of the same company, my flight was listed at twice the price of my friend's ticket. Unbelievable, right? I next checked multiple travel sites, including Kayak and Skyscanner, but the prices were all high.

On a whim, I went to the French version of the site my friend used to book her ticket. Sure enough, there was the flight at the price she paid. Fortunately, I understand enough French that I could navigate the site, and I booked my ticket there. No problems.

I understand that companies buy blocks of fares, and that different sites will have different prices. I've booked legs of flights separately just to get the best price, or to get frequent flyer points on my preferred airline (especially when an airline in the Star Alliance doesn't give me credit on my preferred airline just because the class of fare isn't in the right category. But that's a whole other issue).

But for the same company to offer different prices just because they are in different languages? Very strange.

Then there are the luggage issues. In all our years of travel, we have never had our luggage lost. Until we moved abroad. We've had luggage lost three times in eight months. We've had luggage arrive soaking wet. We've had holes punctured in our luggage. Nothing stolen, yet, thank goodness.

The most ridiculous case of delayed luggage occurred when my husband flew from Charlotte to Frankfurt, then Frankfurt to Helsinki in January. He had an hour before he had to catch the last bus from the Helsinki airport to the town where we live, which is a four-hour bus ride. Everyone stood around waiting, but the luggage never came out. Not just my husband's luggage, but everyone's luggage. They kept asking, but no one could give an adequate reason, other than it was weather-related.

Come on! They've been dealing with harsh weather at this airport for years! And they can't move luggage a short distance from the airplane to the terminal in a reasonable amount of time? My husband and his fellow passengers stood there for two hours before the luggage came out! Which meant he missed his bus and had to spend the night in Helsinki. The airline refused compensation, since they said it was weather-related, but they also told him to write the airline after he got home. So he sent them an email, and to their credit, they did mail him a check to cover the cost of his hotel.

The lessons from all this?

* If someone at the airport doesn't ask for your identification, politely ask them if they are going to check it.

* If you can't find an airfare at a good price and you can navigate in another language (or use a web translating site), try that angle.

* If your luggage is lost, and you believe you deserve compensation, keep trying, even if you don't get anything at the time of the incident.

Happy travels. I'll post a Stockholm trip report and photos soon.