Spanair - in wrong flight!
 

Last week I entered Alicante airport to board a flight to Barcelona, then Frankfurt and continuing to DUS, all 3 C-class tickets.
The ordeal already started at the check-in counter: one massive line for Economy and an even longer one for Business! The lines weren't moving at all, finally, after one hour I get to check in, barely making the required time for my bag. The entire hall was a mess of tourists returning and Spanair did not appear to make a difference between cheapo flyers and premium passengers. After I rushed through security I looked at the screen to learn about departure gate (there was none on my BP) and it clearly stated "Gate 3", where there was already another line of PAX squeezing through the door. The overhead screen simply said "Aeropuertas Alicante", without destination. My BP gets scanned and I enter the Airbus, getting seated in row 1, when a FA asked me about my BP, stating that their manifest showed no one in row 1. I showed it to her and returned to my seat. There were no announcements regarding destination (and I am fluent in Spanish), the flight took off and after landing I hear "welcome to Madrid" - I was on the wrong plane!
I am asking you: my BP was seen TWICE, I am above-average IQ and have flown a massive amount of flights around the world without ever experiencing this. Madrid took 2 hours out of my life to reschedule everything, needless to say, my luggage took 3 days to re-route and by that time I was back at LAX.
My mileage statement is a mess: the flight I was supposed to take I never took and the one I took, I was never on the manifest! I still have the BP for the flight I was supposed to take, which one am I going to send in to M+M?
There is no Spanair forum for me to vent out....

Oh dear, that sounds like fun!

I am always worried about people getting on to the wrong flight when they don't use a check-in machine but just tear-off the BP stub manually.

I guess you weren't at a window seat or it was cloudy, otherwise you would have realised that you are not flying over the sea:

http://gc.kls2.com/cgi-bin/gc?MAP-ST...PEED-UNITS=kts

SmilingBoy.

I do hope you get the mileage for the flights you were supposed to take AND the ones you actually took. A whole new concept of a mileage run...

Doesn't really say much for all the security measures (like scanning and limiting liquids and other nonsense) if pax can still get on the wrong flight.

Well, it only says that the touri... I mean terrorists can bomb the wrong flight.

But don't worry, exploding food and liquids appear to be limited to British a/c. After the recent "expoding Curry" incident in a BA microwave, I finally understand why the liquid ban originated in LHR.

[QUOTE=Rambuster;7805919]I do hope you get the mileage for the flights you were supposed to take AND the ones you actually took. A whole new concept of a mileage run...

Actually this happened to mein Air Lingus but without taking the wrong flight...
I was flying Kerry-Dub-Manchester, and finally, once in Dublin, I re-routed to Dublin-London, and both miles Dub-Manchester and Dub-Lhr were posted, ;)

Unfortunately it was when there were no alliances, and the EI miles expired :td:

I did wonder why the plane went westbound after takeoff and I never followed the shoreline.....and that it was a 35min flight vs. one hour. But also I was buried in reading and working materials and I trusted to be in 'good hands'

And I guess it will be a while before you trust this way again... :rolleyes:

Moving the thread to the other european airlines forum.

Kiwi Flyer
M&M moderator

and may I ask which one?

LOL! Good one! :D

I now begin to understand how you ended up in the wrong plane. :p ;)

Wait a minute, old friend. Remember that even if I am a newfie to this forum I am not new to the world of travels.
It seems that the warden of this forum "redirected" the thread as if I were lost in an airport. He or she must be working alongside Spanair..
Immer mit der Ruhe....

...and is there a SpanAir forum. No. It goes to the "other airlines" thread and I never bothered even looking. Now I am paying attention.... ha ha LOL!

I am thinking a step further: suppose that the check-in procedures aren't followed by the book, who knows about the technical procedures and checks to be performed on the aircraft we fly with?

doesn't this more scare you than Terrorist's bombs and hair gels on the carry-on luggage?

I'm not scared, but I also don't fly Spanair. ;)

I've gotten on the wrong AS flight at LAS before. They had to go back to the gate and let me off. This was after the FA looked at my BP and made the guy in "my" seat move to another one! I suppose it can happen anywhere.