I flew to Phuket and Phi Phi for the weekend, and again and again, and again, I was taught the lesson: never pay in advance. At least this seems a wise move when traveling in unstructured environments in Asia.
I paid in advance $76 for a night at the
Phuket Airport Hotel. Paying in advance was not a good move. The hotel itself is actually excellent and one of my continued favourites.
I booked three nights at the
Phi Phi Palms Residence hotel on Phi Phi island through
hostelworld.com, paying 10% in advance with a $2 fee that allowed rooms to be cancelled without loss. That was not a good move, I learnt later.
I tried to buy a ticket from Saigon to Phuket on
Air Asia. It is a great deal with round trips as low as $100 (I paid $125), and the flight is just one hour. But they wouldn't let me pay in advance because I was trying to book online less than 24 hours in advance. Well, that was annoying. But when I missed my flight, it turned out to be good that I did not pay in advance. Not so fortunate for the stuff paid in advance. I lost $76 on my Phuket Airport Hotel payment. Also, the fine print on my hostelworld.com deal meant that I could be billed the full $75 for my first night at the Phi Phi hotel if I didn't turn up without enough notice. Missing my flight didn't really give me enough time to give that notice, so I still don't know if that $75 fee will end up on my bill. Still, I told them by email I wouldn't make it for the second night, but would be there for the third night (I never got a response from them, and hostelworld finally responded to me by the time I was back from my vacation).
I finally did end up going to Phuket, two days later, and yes, I still bought my ticket online and paid in advance. And yes, I ended up paying another $76 for a room at the airport hotel. In the end, I could have turned up unannounced with $152 to figure out accommodations for the night. And I was rather annoyed that I had to pay $6 for a taxi to the hotel even though I had arranged for them to pick me up at the airport (that was another case of advance planning not being helpful, although it was free, and I got my money's worth). Still, to be fair, the first night and the second attempt at a flight out did not go badly despite being paid in advance.
However, when I took the 45 minute, $15 bus ride, from the airport hotel to the Phuket Town ferry, I turned down the offer to arrange the return ride the next day. That was wise. I had learnt that any random noise in plans was going to cost me money, far more than any discount could address.
When I went to the pier and bought tickets on the spot for the boat to Phi Phi, I wisely turned down the opportunity to pay in advance for my return trip. I was starting to appreciate how nice it was to have no up front financial commitments in Thailand. The boat cost $25, which was $3 (each way) more than it had to be, but the peace of mind was worth it. On the way to Phi Phi, when they had engine trouble, I felt good knowing I did not have to take the same boat back.
When I got to Phi Phi, it turns out the Phi Phi Palms Residence hotel did know I had a reservation through hostelworld.com for that night. But they had decided to give my room to another guest who wanted to stay longer. So much for any benefit from paying in advance. I got shuffled off to another hotel, miles up a hill, and overlooking the island's waste disposal operation. To get to and from the hotel I had to walk to the far corner of the inhabited part of the island, beside the septic system, across a ripe stream of sewage. Will I ever learn! I paid for this room in advance at the Phi Phi Palms Residence before they took me to it. The actual room ended up being nice, and had a good view. But I would not have booked it if I knew the details, and would have turned back at the sewage stream. I went along with this because, in the back of my mind I was not too sure what was going to happen to that $75 first night fee and did not want to rock the boat too much, and I had already paid 10% in advance for my room.
Because I was in a hotel (booked in advance, even if just an hour in advance) that was far from the pier where the ferry left (up a mountain side, across a sewer stream, etc.), I felt obliged to book my return ferry at the hotel, so they would arrange for someone with a cart to carry my bags. I booked a 1:30 boat to give me a chance to do some shopping in Patong on Phuket island before flying back.
Of course, booking in advance still wasn't smart. When I arrived at the pier, I found I was holding an expensive, pre-paid, ticket for a boat at 2:30. I was at the boat at 1 pm, ready for my 1:30 boat trip. But I could not get on. I could not get a refund. I had paid in advance. Don't do that. How could the hotel have sold me a ticket to leave at 2:30, on a company that does not even have a 1:30 ferry, and still have had me taken away from the hotel at 12:30 as if I had a 1:30 trip ahead of me as I had asked? It is hard to say if it was fraud or stupidity, but it wouldn't have been a problem if I had refused to pay in advance. Oh, and of course, I had paid $5 in advance to the ferry company for a bus to Patong because it was supposed to be cheaper and more seamless. Perhaps you can guess by now, but that was not a good move either.
So, I faced with the choice of leaving later using the 2:30 ticket I was holding, giving up on my Patong shopping sidetrip and going straight to the airport (and of course, losing out on that smart pre-paid bus to Patong), or buying a whole new ticket on the spot for $25 and abandoning the $30 I had just spent. Reluctantly, I decided to just go an hour later.
The later boat looked nice. It had cool air conditioning and really comfortable seats. But looks were deceiving. The boat left about half an hour late. It stopped in the water with engine problems. It crawled along at slow speed for a while. Then it eventually gave up, and we all got piled into another boat that came along. It was much smaller, and both the boat operators and we passengers were concerned that it could capsize. We were late upon late upon late. And none of it would have happened if I had refused to book in advance.
I could have had one last lesson by missing my paid in advance return air ticket. But I did manage to make it with about fifteen minutes to spare. However, I did finally note that I would have had no trouble buying a ticket at the counter without an advance purchase. The price would have been the same, and the airplane was almost empty.
In future, I am going to try doing things paid on the spot a lot more. I will not go crazy and start buying $3000 counter tickets across the Pacific. But I will start winging it a bit more. And when things cost extra, I will remind myself of all the ways that planning in advance and getting discounts can turn around and bite you.
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