I have been travelling for many years and it is inevitable for me to amass services that end up in my Travel Black List. Services that I will not be using again. It might come in useful to help fellow travellers like yourself avoid some pitfalls as well . Luckily I have had more good experiences than bad ones but do check back here before your trip. Here’s to a smooth journey in your travels.
Note: This post contains affiliate links where I may earn a commission from at no extra cost to you. I promise that I am only endorsing products I use myself and trust in. This support in turn helps me sustain this website to bring you more travel tips. Win-win right ?
Table of Contents
Flight companies
Lufthansa
While on a company business trip, I flew on Lufthansa who delayed my luggage. I had a connecting flight on United Airlines to Austin on a Saturday but did not know that my luggage did not travel with me. Upon arrival waiting endlessly at the conveyor to collect my luggage which did not show up. I filed a report to the only counter open, which is United Airlines – they gave me a care pack and number to call back the next day. I filled up a lost luggage documentation.
The next day I had to go shopping as I had a presentation the following day – and came back to read an email from Lufthansa that my luggage has been delayed and will arrive late Monday evening. After I came back , I filed a claims report with Lufthansa and they refused it with the reason that I did not file a lost luggage report with Lufthansa when I arrived at Austin airport. Even after I explained there was no Lufthansa counter only United which I did make a report with.
I followed up for several months and always received the same response – even though I submitted and wanted to claim back with receipts that required me to purchase clothing and amenities for my presentation. Since then Lufthansa is on my black list and I don’t travel with them any more.
Rental Car Agencies
OK Mobility
We rented a car from Barcelona airport to Girona. The process took quite a while due to the long queue and we received a Peugeot 308 which was quite a comfortable car with Navigation.
Everything went relatively smooth until our second day when we went sightseeing. On the way back almost reaching our Hotel – we had problems with the clutch and could not change the gear mid-drive. It was a pretty dangerous situation as we encountered it when we were in pretty heavy traffic. The lucky thing was we were one turn away from our Hotel. We went into our parking spot in the garage but the car stalled and we had quite a stressful situation as we were blocking another car park. With the assistance of some other guests we managed to get the car into a better position.
I made calls to the rental car agency and they were quite helpful stating that they will get a tow truck to get the car. For the rest of the evening , we were waiting for a call to let us know when the tow truck will show up and we had to co-ordinate with the Hotel reception to open the garage gate for them. All this effort took up till late in the night.
The following morning the Rental car agency sent us a taxi to bring us back to Barcelona airport to get another car. It took a while to process again and we had to pay for another car which the counter informed us pending investigations from the workshop, they had to determine that the clutch problem was not caused by us! They mentioned they will return us the money depending on the outcome! – this was a pretty bad situation as it was clear that we did not cause the clutch malfunction and rather we were stuck for hours trying to rectify the situation and we were not able to continue our holidays without another car. Begrudgingly we paid for the second car which was a Skoda Kamiq and continued on with our holidays.
The situation unfortunately did not resolve when we returned the car and the company stated that they did not have a report back from the workshop and we will be informed which of course we weren’t. After returning from our trip, I tried to call them to which I was not successful. I was not able to reach the division that took care about these topics – and incurred more costs on myself.
After a year without any news and no way to reach them – we received an email stating that they will now release the money that was reserved on our credit card! without any further information about returning back the amount we paid for the 2nd vehicle rental: we essentially paid twice the amount for the rental car.
So, no I do not recommend OK Mobility for the fact that they are not reachable for claims or complaints.
Eateries
Dondue (Ponta Delgada)
It is a real pity when a potentially good place is marred by bad management. This is one of the few breakfast places open in the center of Ponta Delgada and we wanted to start the day with good coffee. The place was quite practically full when we got there but if only we had known it was more due to the service was really slow and chaotic. We waited for over an hour for having two cups of cappuccino. The waitress forgot orders and didn’t bother to even ask us. We only got our coffee when I went up to her annoyed that we wait now too long just to get 2 cups of coffee we already ordered and paid for. If it was not paid I would have left long ago. It also was NOT good coffee.
The problem was not so much in the amount of people but rather they should inform or warn the people that it will take some time before they get their order and not let people wait endlessly.
Just Pin It!
