Reminds me of a story from eastern Canada a few years ago. As I recall, two students from England wanted to fly to Sydney Australia, but ended up buying tickets to Sydney Nova Scotia instead. They flew London-Halifax, Halifax-Sydney, but apparently only realized their mistake after landing in Sydney. Like, how bad does your understanding of geography have to be to confuse Canada with Australia?
Apparently, this mixup has happened at least three times in the last 11 years: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2010/07/08/sydney_mixup_couple_lands_in_ns_instead_of_australia.html
I become a *little* forgiving once travel agents are involved in the booking, but not much.
Key sentence on why it's TA's fault more than the couple's, I think: "Officials with the carrier insisted that they had to track down and hear the recording of Valdivieso booking a trip to Senegal before they could acknowledge that the wrong airport code had been put on their tickets."
I'm confused as to how they didn't realize what was happening as they were boarding the second flight. Wouldn't it have said "Dhaka" (not Dakar) on the sign at the gate? It's certainly TA's error if she called and asked to go to Senegal, but I don't understand the couple not realizing sooner...
I can totally see myself thinking when I saw it on the monitor in the stopover airport that it was simply spelled differently there. I'm trusting like that - I'd assume my tickets were correct. (Thankfully, my husband would not have been so stupid, which is why I keep him around.) As we've seen on TAR, lack of sleep also may have been a factor - remember that none of this would have presented itself until the stopover.
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Great title, Adam.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of those situations where Turkish Airlines should be required to refund the money, but the passengers shouldn't get it either.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of a story from eastern Canada a few years ago. As I recall, two students from England wanted to fly to Sydney Australia, but ended up buying tickets to Sydney Nova Scotia instead. They flew London-Halifax, Halifax-Sydney, but apparently only realized their mistake after landing in Sydney. Like, how bad does your understanding of geography have to be to confuse Canada with Australia?
ReplyDeleteApparently, this mixup has happened at least three times in the last 11 years: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2010/07/08/sydney_mixup_couple_lands_in_ns_instead_of_australia.html
ReplyDeleteI become a *little* forgiving once travel agents are involved in the booking, but not much.
Key sentence on why it's TA's fault more than the couple's, I think: "Officials with the carrier insisted that they had to track down and hear the recording of Valdivieso booking a trip to Senegal before they could acknowledge that the wrong airport code had been put on their tickets."
ReplyDeleteIf it's not a BA 747 or a Qantas A380, you are on notice that you are going to the wrong place.
ReplyDeleteAlso, having been to Sydney, Nova Scotia a couple of years ago, it would be depressing in any event.
ReplyDeleteI'm confused as to how they didn't realize what was happening as they were boarding the second flight. Wouldn't it have said "Dhaka" (not Dakar) on the sign at the gate? It's certainly TA's error if she called and asked to go to Senegal, but I don't understand the couple not realizing sooner...
ReplyDeleteRIGHT?!?!? One has lots to see, including a famous opera house... and the other has some tar ponds.
ReplyDeleteAnd presumably, the Halifax-Sydney NS trip was, what, an hour, tops? Did they really not realize until AFTER landing?
ReplyDeleteI can totally see myself thinking when I saw it on the monitor in the stopover airport that it was simply spelled differently there. I'm trusting like that - I'd assume my tickets were correct. (Thankfully, my husband would not have been so stupid, which is why I keep him around.) As we've seen on TAR, lack of sleep also may have been a factor - remember that none of this would have presented itself until the stopover.
ReplyDeleteApparently. Here's how it was described at the time: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2172858.stm
ReplyDeleteMy brother suggested I might like this blog. He was totally right.
ReplyDeleteThis post actually made my day. You can not imagine simply how much time I had
spent for this info! Thanks!
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And maybe they've just listened to years of Ofeibea Quist-Arcton saying "DAHKAH".
ReplyDeleteIs THAT how you spell her name? (I also don't know the correct spelling of Kai Rhysdahl.)
ReplyDeleteApparently: "Kai Ryssdal"
ReplyDelete