We Were Denied Boarding To Australia – Here’s Why

Well, that didn’t go as planned.

A few days ago we shared details about an international trip we were about to go on, visiting Australia and South Africa, with quick stops in Singapore and Qatar along the way – see this post for more.

Unfortunately things didn’t work out as they were supposed to which meant that we weren’t allowed to travel to Australia. We managed to make the best of a bad situation though and have ended up in Mauritius instead of Australia and we’ll still be going to South Africa.

Here’s what happened.

We’re Making A List, We’re Checking It Twice…

We started planning this trip in spring 2022 and had everything sorted out. Passports are valid. Flights are booked. Accommodation is booked. We know how we’re getting from airports to hotels and so on and so on.

Unfortunately there was something I’d neglected to do – apply for our tourist visas for Australia.

We discovered this when trying to check in for our flight at the airport when the agent asked for our ETA (Electronic Travel Authority). I’d assumed I’d sorted this out long ago like I had for previous trips to Australia, but sadly I hadn’t. The check-in agent said this wasn’t a problem, because we could download the Australia ETA app, apply now and we should get our visa confirmation by email within minutes. Sounds great.

Except it wasn’t.

While Shae worked on her form, I worked on mine. We completed our applications at a similar time and I got an almost instant approval email. Shae also got an almost instant email, except hers wasn’t an approval – they wanted more details.

This seemed strange and it was even more concerning when we saw that they wanted a copy of our marriage license. We were at the airport in Texas, while our marriage license is in a firebox back in Virginia with Shae’s mom who was away from home for a few days herself. Shae completed the details as best as she could, explaining that we didn’t have a copy of our marriage license on us.

At this point there was no way of knowing how long it would take for them to process that, so we went back to the Qantas check-in agent. She got on the phone to someone to ask what the problem was with Shae’s visa and they stated that Shae had answered ‘Yes’ to one of the questions asking if she had a criminal conviction.

That was obviously unintentional, so we asked if there was a way to fix that. The person on the phone said we could Google ‘Australia immigration contact us’ and we’d get a phone number to call them. I’m not sure why she couldn’t just give us that number herself, but we eventually found what seemed to be the correct number, only for them to say that there was nothing they could do over the phone. Uh-oh.

There was a form we could fill out that corrects information on visa applications, so we did that, but again – there was no knowing how long it would take for them to process that form. The clock was ticking as our flight was due to leave in less than two hours. Our one remaining possible solution was to try applying for a visa for Shae again, this time making sure that all of the checkboxes asking if you have a criminal record were checked ‘No’. That sadly didn’t work either; their system must pick up duplicate applications even if the answers are slightly different as the automated reply said that they needed more information.

Out of options, we came to the realization that we weren’t going to be able to make it to Australia. Even if we got a visa approval the next day, the ability to book flights to Australia with miles can be hard to come by which is why we’d booked our flights when there was that possibility about 9 months ago. If we wanted to get our miles back for the flights we were supposed to take, we needed to cancel them within the next hour, so I got on the phone to get that done, thankfully getting through to an agent about 30 minutes before our flights were due to depart.

We were fortunate that nearly all our accommodation, activities and rental car were refundable too, other than our one night stay on Rottnest Island. Despite that not being refundable, Shae emailed them anyway and explained what had happened. They were very graceful and refunded the vast majority of what we paid, only keeping a small deposit. We also had to pay ~$200 to redeposit our Singapore Airlines miles for the flights we’d been due to take from Australia to South Africa, so all-in-all we were only out of pocket by about $250 which wasn’t bad at all considering how last minute we had to cancel everything.

We were distraught at this point and didn’t know what to do next. We knew we wanted to still go to South Africa, but what would we do for the 2.5 weeks in the meantime? It was unlikely that we’d be going anywhere that night, so I booked another night at the Hyatt Regency DFW Airport using points seeing as we’d stayed there the night before and we could walk to it from the airport.

Our Plans

After having dinner and drowning our sorrows a little, we discussed possible options. One of Thailand’s islands, Mexico, Dominican Republic, somewhere sunny in Europe and more. While all of these would sound good at any other time, we were so bummed out at not being able to visit Australia that none of them sounded exciting.

It was getting late and Shae was especially tired as she’d been particularly excited about seeing the quokkas in Australia, so she went to bed. I’m a night owl and so I stayed up looking at options. We’d gone to Jamaica a few years ago and loved it there and Shae is always happy to go back, so I checked that out. American Airlines had nonstop flights to Montego Bay from Dallas the next day bookable for a reasonable number of miles, so that was part of the battle won. The next part was harder – finding somewhere to stay. All-inclusive hotels on Jamaica are expensive and although many can be booked with hotel points, it can be hard finding award availability. I got lucky though and found four nights at the Holiday Inn Resort and then six nights at the Zoetry, so that would be perfect.

I was on the verge of booking that when I got a message on Slack. I write part-time for Frequent Miler and I’d shared our travails with them. That message on Slack was Nick suggesting Mauritius because they have flying foxes (he knows Shae loves animal experiences) and because it wouldn’t be far from South Africa after that. He then told me to check out someone’s Instagram page because she’d been to Mauritius recently and there were some photos he thought might seal the deal.

Sure enough, he was right.

 

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A post shared by Caroline Lupini (@caroline.lupini)

Yep, those are sperm whales that you can swim with off the coast of Mauritius! I didn’t want to get Shae’s hopes up though, only to find out that we couldn’t get ourselves there and/or not be able to afford a place to stay. I managed to find some flights in business class the next day from Dallas to Mauritius that were bookable with miles, plus I could add on the short flight from Mauritius to South Africa for only 5,000 miles more – perfect!

Next up was accommodation. I was apprehensive when seeing the price of hotels (many were $300+ per night), but both Hilton and IHG had hotels we could book using points that would cover us for our entire time we’d be there – even more perfect!

It was about 2am at this point, but we needed to make a decision ASAP, especially if that decision would be Jamaica as those flights left the next morning. I woke up Shae and went through our options, showing her the photos of flying foxes and people swimming with sperm whales. As much as she’d like to go back to Jamaica, her choice was Mauritius which was great as that’s where I preferred to go too.

Despite our problems that previous day, there was something I hadn’t thought of, but thankfully Shae did. She asked “Do we need a visa to get to Mauritius?” I’m not sure how that had slipped my mind again! Luckily Mauritius issues visas on arrival, so there weren’t any issues on that front.

Now that we knew where we were going, it was time to book everything. Flights – check. Hilton – check. IHG – check.

And Here We Are

Thankfully the next day went off without a hitch. We flew from Dallas to Frankfurt, then Frankfurt to Mauritius. We arrived at the Hilton Resort at 10am and, despite being there several hours before the check-in time, we were able to check in early.

The hotel staff gave us a lovely welcome, we got upgraded to a room with an ocean view thanks to my Hilton status, a fruit plate was delivered as a welcome amenity and we get vouchers for two free cocktails every day. It’s a lovely property where we’ve been enjoying some down time after the stress leading up to our arrival. While we’re still incredibly disappointed not to be in Australia, we’re trying to make the most of being here, plus we have Kruger National Park in South Africa to look forward to after this.

See All Posts From This International Trip

• Lions & Quokkas & Scorpions, Oh My: A Month In Australia, South Africa & More
• We Were Denied Boarding To Australia – Here’s Why
• Flight Review: Lufthansa Business Class – Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) To Frankfurt (FRA)
• Flight Review: Eurowings Discover Business Class – Frankfurt (FRA) To Mauritius (MRU)
• Some Thoughts On Mauritius
• Hotel Review: Hilton Mauritius Resort & Spa
• Hotel Review: Le Méridien Ile Maurice (Mauritius)
• Restaurant Review: Sunset Filaos In Pointe Aux Piments, Mauritius
• 20 Fun & Interesting Things To Do In Mauritius (+ Many Bonus Ideas)
• Hotel Review: Holiday Inn Mauritius Mon Tresor
• Flight Review: Air Mauritius Economy Class – Mauritius (MRU) To Johannesburg (JNB)
• The Awesome Drive Between Johannesburg & Kruger National Park
• 50 Animal Photos From Kruger National Park In South Africa Taken With Our Phones
• Kruger National Park: 13 Tips For A Successful Self-Drive Safari
• Elephant Kisses – Meeting Tswale In South Africa
• Kruger National Park: 30 Photos Taken With Shae’s Nikon Camera
• Doing A Kruger Park Bush Braai With Royal Safaris
• Marloth Park: Like Living In The Best Zoo Ever
• Hotel Review: InterContinental Johannesburg O.R. Tambo Airport, South Africa
• Flight Review: Qatar Airways Business Class (Qsuites) – Johannesburg (JNB) To Doha (DOH) To Miami (MIA)
• Hotel Review: Hyatt Regency Oryx Doha, Qatar