An Australian traveller whose passport was stolen in Italy has warned other Australians not to make the same “silly and costly mistake” she made.
Steph, who posts videos of herself renovating and selling properties on social media, offered her cautionary tale of the journey to save others from the same fate.
In addition to a lot of trouble and hassle, losing his passport ended up costing him $4,500.
“My passport was stolen, but that’s not the worst part. Then I made a really stupid mistake,” she said on TikTok.
She called the Australian embassy in Rome and was advised not to board a plane without a passport, so she took a ferry from the island of Sardinia to the Italian capital.
Once he got there, he said: “The embassy was very helpful and got me a passport within 48 hours.”
But having to take the ferry and wait two days for an emergency meant that Steph missed his flight home to Melbourne.
Searching online, the best deal she could find for a replacement ticket was a $1,700 booking that had two stopovers, including one that required her to pick up her luggage and return to check in for another flight, which was her “dumb mistake.”
Australian traveller Steph (pictured), whose passport was stolen in Italy, has warned other Australians not to make her costly and “silly mistake”.
Although Melbourne was the final destination of the trip, it consisted of two separate bookings.
‘I didn’t realize that one of the stops was actually considered the destination and that’s where you pick up your luggage and check in again.
“When I read that I had to pick up my luggage, I thought, ‘I don’t care, I’m going to save $600,'” she recalled.
But collecting your luggage and moving from arrivals to departures means you have officially entered the country, and many do not allow passengers to do that with an emergency passport.
When Steph arrived at the Rome airport, she was not allowed to board her flight, so her $600 savings proved to be very costly.
“That resulted in $1,700 being wasted and I had to book another flight,” he said.
‘So if you ever have an emergency passport and are booking a flight home, make sure it’s with only one airline and that the stopover is definitely a transit, and at no point do you have to search for your luggage.’
He ended up paying a total of $4,500 to return home, plus the cost of replacing his stolen passport with a temporary emergency one.
Steph had travel insurance and is waiting to find out if it will cover at least some of her unexpected expenses, even if some of them were due to her own mistake.
Commenters on her post thanked her for pointing out what happened so they can prevent the same thing from happening to them.
In addition to a lot of trouble and hassle, losing her passport ended up costing Steph (pictured) $4,500.
“That’s not an obvious mistake at all, I’m a very experienced traveller and would have done the same thing without realising this could happen. Thanks for pointing this out,” one wrote.
Another poster asked how his passport had been stolen.
“I had my bag on my shoulder and a guy ran up behind me and snatched it off my shoulder,” Steph responded.
“I think the best thing is to have those little wallet or passport bags that are used to store trash.”
