Sunday Travelers Tales, Episode 15. Cairo, Egypt and some travelling tips

[My dear readers,

last week I was on the go so it was very difficult to post a new episode. I am really sorry for that but I was far and away from home for two weeks! I hope though that you enjoyed the gallery from Paris fashion week. I sure did! 

So this week basically the new episode will be about some of my experiences in booking flights and possible mistakes that might happen during that procedure. I wanted to share with you some of this because they might end up in a very stressful situation. 

Well first of all I would suggest that if you book your flights on your own, to do it directly from the official airlines site and not other sites that might have offers and seem more attractive at the time. Please pay attention to this as these sites might not inform you about changes in the flight that you have booked or even a possible cancellation. Or if you do book a flight via another web-page keep track of your flight. Do check in reasonable time before your flight so that you have time to react if something changes.

Another bad experience I have had recently in booking a flight was the spelling of my surname. Yes that's right! I know it looks like a very silly mistake to make but after so many years of booking flights and although I can really be freaking careful with these kind of staff, I misspelled my surname. 

Well in my defense when I was trying to book the specific flight there was a problem with the system and I had to complete the form with my data too many times. So I guess at some point the mistake was not so difficult to occur. Now what was really outrageous is that I did not notice the mistake! And even though I tried to login to my reservation many times and the system did not let me because I typed my surname correctly and it wasn't in agreement with the reservations surname! I called the airlines to check my reservation and it was perfectly okay. They said that sometimes it happens and the page might be under construction etc. It didn't even cross my mind to check the spelling. I could not even think that I had made this mistake. So long story short, I realized it one day before my flight. 

What can you do in this case other than panic? I ask you...well just call the airlines and it really depends on the airlines policy. In my case they could change up to three letters with a fee of 60 euros. If the mistake was bigger than three letters the operators from the call center could not do it. You must call during office hours of the airlines. So if my flight was during the night (which it was) then I could do nothing about it if the mistake was bigger. 

Now what could be a bigger mistake than three letters and not notice it before? Maybe the name. Some names have a shorter version that we use to call the other person but in the passport it's written in the big version. So be careful and don't just write the name without thinking twice about it! 

If you have internet problems while making a booking (as I did) prefer to stop and make the booking after a while. Always check what you have written before pressing the next button. And if you have doubts about a name check the passport/ identity before booking! Otherwise you might loose your money and flight! Also as this little story telling tells us check your data after you have made the booking. It's better to locate a mistake one month before travelling and have plenty of time to correct it rather than accidentally finding out about it a few hours before travelling. I can assure you that it is a very big rush...much unneeded!! 

Finally a last tip for today is to be very careful with the hour and date of your flight. Especially with flights after midnight. Don't be reckless. Take the time to think it through. Just because you see a date on the ticket it doesn't mean that it's during the day! Sometimes if you book a flight a month before you will forget about the flights details. Or you might remember  just the date. Well make a note in your mind or somewhere else about the flights time! Because it might be early in the morning of that day (after midnight) and you have to be at the airport from the previous day than the one you remember! Been there done that! Believe me it can be very stressful! You don't need that much time to make a suitcase but it is really not necessary to go through it!

So this sums up my travelling tips for today! Be extra careful when booking flights and check before and after booking your data. Also check the expiration dates of your passport/ identity in regular time frames so that you have the time to renew them before travelling. I hope that these tips are helpful. Please write your comments and follow me if you like my blog! :)

Our destination for this week will be Cairo, Egypt's capital but there is not much to recommend as I visited Cairo too many years ago. It was part of a cruise I made with my parents, which begun from Limassol port (Cyprus) with destination Cairo. I remember that the pyramids where very fascinating and imposing. It's worth once in your lifetime to visit the pyramids and also the modern city of Cairo. I can definitely say as much! 

Hope you enjoy this weeks' destination and have a lovely week everybody!! Until we meet again in one of our travelling locations, wishing you my very best!

MK]

PS. Please visit my profile on Instagram to have a look at the photo gallery from Sunday Travelers Tales destinations --> sundaytravelerstales and hit the follow button if you like what you see! xx

PS1. Also I keep my personal account under mariaklavariotiart which is now exclusively about my painting progress and artwork. If you are interested take a look there as well.