I guess no one is safe of some kind of travel mistake when you are dealing with miles and points. In this posts I am going into the detail into the issue we faced on our way to Australia. This is also a cautionary tell to not just assume. So what did I do?
Australia requires a travel authorization visa before you can board any flights to Australia. Problem was I didn’t sign us up for those beforehand. We literally got to the airport and were told that our passports were not registered. Oh boy, you should have seen the look on my face. Pure horror and my heartbeat was at an all-time high. Luckily however Cathay Pacific was really accommodating and offered that they could apply for us right now. Based on their experience the confirmation should be instant and we could board our flight to Hong Kong and then onwards to Sydney. For the convenience they would charge us $50 each. I couldn’t say “yes please” fast enough.
Ah wouldn’t it be great if it was that easy
So we handed our passports and credit card over for them to go to work in the back. At this stage it was less than an hour before scheduled departure. While waiting at the counter we did our own research and were hopeful that things would work out. The helpful agent had to come back and check a few times to ask for some information to complete the application. It certainly felt like an eternity.
A long 15 minutes later
The agent re-appeared with some news. Elli was all set and ready to go. My application however was not automatically approved. Checking our emails confirmed this. It stated that a random additional check would need to be performed for me and that I should hear back within the next 72 hours. Our flight was leaving in 45min, so three days seemed stretched.
Again Cathay Pacific was just outstanding and laid out a couple of options for us:
- We both fly to Hong Kong now and hopefully my visa cleared and we can continue on
- We both fly to Hong Kong, Elli continues on, while I wait got my Visa to clear
- Re-book us on the next Cathay Pacific flight that would leave tomorrow
They also stated that their supervisor in Hong Kong would call on my behalf to get the approval/additional review expedited.
Keeping our fingers crossed
Based on the information we had, we decided to roll the dice and board our first flight. Hopefully 15 hours would be enough for it to clear and we could fly onward together. I was certainly somewhat stressed at this point. Obviously the easiest way to cope with this is to crack some jokes from my end. Elli likes to ignore the issues and occupy her mind with other things and made some phone calls when we got through security. While waiting to board and within 30min of the deflating first news I got a second email from the Australian government. I was approved!
A quick visit to the Boarding counter luckily confirmed that the system was updated as well and they were able to hand me my second boarding pass. Crisis averted, but what a 45 minute of angst. Thank you Cathay Pacific you really came through!
Summary
Have you really lived if you haven’t cut it this close? All joking aside, I certainly could have done without this to start off the trip. Once on board my heartbeat was quickly back down to normal, but a glass of champagne was in order to officially start our vacation. At the end it all worked out, which makes this a better story to tell.
Any crazy story that you want to share?
