Link to original post: [drupal=760]Warning: Rage Ventilation in Progress - How not to travel to OoS tourneys[/drupal]
OMFG, booking accomodation and flights for more than just yourself has been one of the most stressful things I have ever done. I just finally finished making bookings for myself and 5 other people for an out of state tournament being run by our beloved CAOTIC, and now I am posting here to retell my tale of woe and angst.
It all started probably a month ago. It was about time I got my debit card in order so I could order plane tickets for myself and one other person (everyone else was making their own arrangements). So I sent away for them. A few days, a week, I call the bank up, and it appears they have the wrong address in their records. Despite me telling them I'd moved recently, they still manage to **** it up and send it elsewhere.
Well I couldn't wait around for my debit card, for fear of having to pay for even more inflated prices. I decided to do a direct funds transfer, and had to wait and wait for that to go through. In the fine print it reads that direct funds transfers not processed before a certain date (2 weeks out) from the scheduled flight would result in cancellation of the transfer.
I was ****ting myself, I had done it on a friday after the banks were closed, and the day after on a FREAKING SATURDAY was the due date. I called Jetstar, and some asian lady told me everything would be fine, it should go through that night.
I waited, and waited. No email confirmation. Monday I called them again, and this guy tells me it's not yet gone through, but fortunately, the deadline was this wednesday. I was like 'WTF well whatever' and so I waited. Monday, Tuesday, and it was wednesday morning that it finally went through.
OKAY, so that was done. By the skin of my teeth, but still, done.
Accomodation was next. I, vyse, will be the first to proclaim that I am an utter idiot. How in the world was I supposed to book the exact accomodation I needed so close to the date? Ludicrous!
The hostel we had been directed to by the TO was almost fully booked, and after a lot of looking around, I managed to find another hostel that was very close by and seemed to fit what we needed.
Problem.
I made the booking. But I think I screwed it up, or wanted to rearrange it to fit people better. Good thing I'd opted for the cancellation protection fees. Oh well, it's just a few dollars wasted.
Problem.
I remade the booking, and one of the people I'd booked for tells me not to include him. Good thing I'd opted for the cancellation protection fees. Oh well, though, I don't like how much I'm wasting money-wise.
Problem.
I'd booked double bed rooms, meaning people would have to share beds. Now I wasn't particularly afraid of being attacked by whomever I was sharing mine with (fortunately Sirias was NOT coming with us), but I (stupidly) decided 'Hey, as long as I have cancellation protection (which btw, just means I can get a refund on my deposit's which go towards my next booking), I may as well change it so we have beds to ourselves.
So I cancelled my booking and went to made the new one.
It was stolen right from under me. Somebody in that 5 minutes had made the booking before I could do anything.
WTF!
Compund all this with my internet at this point dropping out every 5 minutes, I was getting seriously frustrated.
OKAY, so I was just about to remake the booking I'd just cancelled when it came up that my old booking had been taken by someone else as well.
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
No words can do justice to the rage I was going through by then. I've neglected my traineeship work just to sort this **** out.
I *****ed and moaned about how people weren't keeping in contact with me and whatnot over MSN for about an hour. Add to that a whole lot of other bull**** with it. For some reason IE was showing prices that were lower than what Firefox was on the same page! WTF IS THIS **** IT DOESN'T MAKE ANY ****ING SENSE.
Then, somehow, the single bed share rooms came up free again.
I shot straight in there and booked them for our group, and as of now, everything is finally set.
I was soooo ****ted off there for a while, so I had to vent it somehow.
TL:DR - Do you absolute best to have travel arrangements done at least a month in advance, and if you've never done it before, don't agree to make bookings for more than yourself and maybe one other person.
*head desk x40*
OMFG, booking accomodation and flights for more than just yourself has been one of the most stressful things I have ever done. I just finally finished making bookings for myself and 5 other people for an out of state tournament being run by our beloved CAOTIC, and now I am posting here to retell my tale of woe and angst.
It all started probably a month ago. It was about time I got my debit card in order so I could order plane tickets for myself and one other person (everyone else was making their own arrangements). So I sent away for them. A few days, a week, I call the bank up, and it appears they have the wrong address in their records. Despite me telling them I'd moved recently, they still manage to **** it up and send it elsewhere.
Well I couldn't wait around for my debit card, for fear of having to pay for even more inflated prices. I decided to do a direct funds transfer, and had to wait and wait for that to go through. In the fine print it reads that direct funds transfers not processed before a certain date (2 weeks out) from the scheduled flight would result in cancellation of the transfer.
I was ****ting myself, I had done it on a friday after the banks were closed, and the day after on a FREAKING SATURDAY was the due date. I called Jetstar, and some asian lady told me everything would be fine, it should go through that night.
I waited, and waited. No email confirmation. Monday I called them again, and this guy tells me it's not yet gone through, but fortunately, the deadline was this wednesday. I was like 'WTF well whatever' and so I waited. Monday, Tuesday, and it was wednesday morning that it finally went through.
OKAY, so that was done. By the skin of my teeth, but still, done.
Accomodation was next. I, vyse, will be the first to proclaim that I am an utter idiot. How in the world was I supposed to book the exact accomodation I needed so close to the date? Ludicrous!
The hostel we had been directed to by the TO was almost fully booked, and after a lot of looking around, I managed to find another hostel that was very close by and seemed to fit what we needed.
Problem.
I made the booking. But I think I screwed it up, or wanted to rearrange it to fit people better. Good thing I'd opted for the cancellation protection fees. Oh well, it's just a few dollars wasted.
Problem.
I remade the booking, and one of the people I'd booked for tells me not to include him. Good thing I'd opted for the cancellation protection fees. Oh well, though, I don't like how much I'm wasting money-wise.
Problem.
I'd booked double bed rooms, meaning people would have to share beds. Now I wasn't particularly afraid of being attacked by whomever I was sharing mine with (fortunately Sirias was NOT coming with us), but I (stupidly) decided 'Hey, as long as I have cancellation protection (which btw, just means I can get a refund on my deposit's which go towards my next booking), I may as well change it so we have beds to ourselves.
So I cancelled my booking and went to made the new one.
It was stolen right from under me. Somebody in that 5 minutes had made the booking before I could do anything.
WTF!
Compund all this with my internet at this point dropping out every 5 minutes, I was getting seriously frustrated.
OKAY, so I was just about to remake the booking I'd just cancelled when it came up that my old booking had been taken by someone else as well.
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
No words can do justice to the rage I was going through by then. I've neglected my traineeship work just to sort this **** out.
I *****ed and moaned about how people weren't keeping in contact with me and whatnot over MSN for about an hour. Add to that a whole lot of other bull**** with it. For some reason IE was showing prices that were lower than what Firefox was on the same page! WTF IS THIS **** IT DOESN'T MAKE ANY ****ING SENSE.
Then, somehow, the single bed share rooms came up free again.
I shot straight in there and booked them for our group, and as of now, everything is finally set.
I was soooo ****ted off there for a while, so I had to vent it somehow.
TL:DR - Do you absolute best to have travel arrangements done at least a month in advance, and if you've never done it before, don't agree to make bookings for more than yourself and maybe one other person.
*head desk x40*
