mario

This one is good. A couple wants to go to Granada from Washington DC and end up in Grenada in the Caribbean.

They transferred from LHR to LGW and apparently only noticed that they were going to cross the Atlantic again on board the LGW-GND leg.

I would keep myself very quiet, just out of sheer embarrassment. Not only you're dim you also publicise the fact?

http://viewfromthewing.boardingarea....wrong-grenada/

710 77345

Wow, that's awfully mean. They telephoned BA, and asked for a flight from Washington Dulles to Granada Spain and back from Lisbon, Portugal to Washington Dulles.

The agent booked them to GND rather than GNX, and the ticket confirmation didn't refer to the country of destination, trip duration or even the airport code.

BA's lawyers then tried to wiggle out of making things right, even though BA weren't denying BA were at fault.

pipsi

I vaguely remember a story about a similar situation a few years ago when a lady booked a reward flight and ended up in the wrong one. Can't remember what happened but she wanted her airmiles back.

mario

OK, maybe they don't care about airport codes, spelling (Grenada/Granada), the fact that they were in F to Spain (on a shorhaul route), the (probably over-inflated) ticket price or that they had to transfer to another airport. I might understand that. But, wouldn't you find weird at least the flight departure/arrival times or the flight duration?

I'm sure it was a mistake, I once went to an SAA gate on my way to JNB from LHR and ended up missing my BA flight that departed at a similar time. But there were so many opportunities for this couple to spot that something was off that I stand by my original 'dim' assessment.

Jetstreamer

I can see how this could happen.

First of all they are American. I don't mean this as an insult, I mean that they are used to flying "F" on short routes, so I don't think there would be any alarm bells there. Also the flight times don't seem too out there either. LGW-GND departs 10:10 and arrives 15:30. With time difference to Spain that would not look too out there to the uninitiated. BA eticket receipts do not show flight durations, nor do they specify the countries the airports are located. You can forgive anyone for not knowing their airport codes. As for the transfer of airport ringing alarm bells, do you not have to transfer to LCY to get to Granada? What is the difference?

I had a chuckle at first but the more I thought about it the more I actually thought people could be genuinely caught out by this.

DYKWIA

Sydney, Canada?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ng-Sydney.html

pipsi

It was the same GND GNX confusion. The only difference being she'd paid with airmiles, I have a feeling she ended up in the Caribbean but wanted to be in Spain. The miles she'd paid were based on Spain so she was actually quids in from a cost point of view but still wanted a refund.

710 77345

The point is that the airport codes weren't given to the ticket purchasers (not that I would expect this to ring alarm bells).

Why would a normal person not expect F to Spain? Virtually all short-haul in the US has an F cabin.

What sort of price do you think F costs from IAD-GND vs GNX? I have no idea, but wouldn't be surprised if a sale I fare on the LGW-GND fare is not hugely different to J LCY-GNX. Remember the agent booked it as an open jaw, so they were only paying to come back from LIS.

Why would they be surprised at changing airport? Would you expect to fly direct from LHR to GNX?

The other point is that the flight durations weren't shown on the ticket confirmation - just the arrival and departure times. The 6 hour time difference between GND and GNX means the extended flight time appears reduced when you just have the local arrival time!


Sure, there's ways we geeks could have spotted the problem here. But let's remember there's a real world out there and this is not an obvious mistake to catch. It's rather nasty to call people dim when they're just trying to have their first holiday in a couple of years - and an airline screws it up through no fault of their own.

Jimmie76

I was going to give them an honourable mention, they at least saw the funny side of it.

Globaliser

Here's the thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...a-granada.html

Globaliser

So they say.

From where do you draw the inference that BA has admitted making a mistake?

orbitmic

+1

enzian

Plaintiffs state in their complaint that the BA customer service rep in Miami and the supervisor there admitted that the "ordeal" was BA's fault. BA has not filed an answer to the complaint yet so has neither admitted nor denied this allegation.

Speedbird876

Just for everyone else, obviously I know myself, is the one in Spain pronounced like the TV company?

And the Caribbean one is gre-NAY-da?

pauleeepaul

As a young lad on one of my first business trips I was intending to go to Greenville(Spartanburg), SC but I ended up in Greenville, NC. Picked up the rental car and couldn't figure out why the directions made no sense (pre GPS.) Figured it out and backtracked through CLT, arriving where i needed to be after lunch vs 10 am. The receptionist mentioned i was not the first visitor who had made that mistake- small consolation for the grief i got from my colleagues.