Vent: the $12 airport lounge pass that ate 6 hours of my Bali trip
So I bought one of those cheap lounge passes at DPS airport last week thinking I'd get some quiet time before a long flight to Lisbon, and it backfired hard. The lounge was packed, the wifi kept kicking me off every 10 minutes, and I ended up missing my original boarding window because I was stuck waiting on a "free" shower that never opened up. I paid $12 for the pass plus another $180 to rebook because the gate agent said I showed up 4 minutes late. What got me was how fast that tiny convenience turned into a full morning of stress, and I lost a whole day of coworking time I'd already paid for in Canggu. Lesson I'm sitting with: cheap perks at transit hubs can cost you way more than the ticket. Has anyone else had a layover hack blow up on them like this, or is it just me picking the wrong lounges?
Tbh I read a whole thread on a travel forum about those cheap DPS lounge passes and the wifi complaints came up over and over. Turns out a bunch of them are third party resellers that don't hold a real spot for you, so you show up and it's chaos. Next time book direct with the airline or just camp out at a cafe near the gate, the free shower is never worth missing a flight.