I thought it was not possible, but in ORD one of our students, maybe jet lagged or language problems, got on and flew to the wrong city (CID, intended destination GRR). Just curious, with security and bad matching from INTL, I thought it was not possible but it happened, so wondering does it happen more than I thought (which is almost never).

At least he didn't head for Vegas....
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...plane-las.html





http://abcnews.go.com/US/boy-boards-...ry?id=20486346

Years ago, I was on a TGU-SAP-MIA flight with the now-defunct Honduran airline Sahsa. As we touched down at MIA and were taxiing to the terminal, the woman across the aisle from me said to me in Spanish, "Oh, Guatemala has really modernized its airport since the last time I was here."

So I'm curious...In such a situation, who pays to get the passenger to his or her intended final destination? The pax for mistakenly getting on the wrong plane, or the airline for mistakenly allowing the pax on and actually departing?

LOL... The airline gets the pax to their destination.

Eventually.

For a while I never understood how a wrong passenger gets through boarding pass check. At DFW on time, I saw an example of how someone can slip through the cracks. A non-English speaker was brought to the gate by an airport agent and told to wait for the NEXT flight. She tried to board the flight I was on instead. Boarding pass wouldn't scan OK, so one GA sent her to the GA at the counter. The GA at the counter talked to her and then yelled out "She doesn't speak English, just let her on." At this point a couple of us who overheard the instructions of the airport agent told the GAs that she's supposed to be on the next plane... Close call.

Bad GAs, both of them. They can't look at the BP and understand it is for another destination? Surely the GAs read English

Not airline-specific, so the next destination is TravelBuzz, for broader readership and discussion.

JDiver
senior moderator

Last year flying Air Asia in KL...upon exiting the gate there were 4 or 5 planes on the Tarmac boarding at the same time... With all of us exiting through the same gate at the same time it was utter chaos. Lost outside an Air Asia rep looked at our boarding pass and pointed us towards a plane.... The wrong plane. One heading to Manilla instead of Denpasar. Luckily we clued in when we found all of our assigned seat numbers were occupied, and found our way to our plane.

So it totally CAN happen!

This last is typical of regional airlines boarding several flights at once. I've seen it happen at my home airport. The more on-the-ball GAs and FAs make repeated announcements as to where this particular flight is headed. I've seen folks get up and leave the plane in a panic when they heard where the flight was going. At least the announcements seem to help. If none is made, I can see lots of folks winding up in the wrong place. Purely the airline's fault in this case. All the planes look the same, all are lined up on the ramp and all are boarding at the same time. Recipe for a screw-up.

I've never boarded the wrong plane before but I sometimes when I'm at the airport I look at the departures board and wish I was going somewhere else. Then I come up with a scheme in my mind how to board the plane there

I don't get how in the post-9/11 world, passengers can still get on a wrong plane (in North America and Western Europe anyway) unless there is a major cock-up on the part of the airline or airport staff. Even if a passenger cannot speak the language of the travel destination, there should be some assistance on hand to help her out. And a look on the boarding pass will usually give away the mistake.

So there must be some numbskull airport or airline staff in OP's case.

in san pedro sula, going to new orleans, got into the middle of the mob for the plane called for new orleans(including a number of acquantiances) when i could not find my duty free purchase(usually at the entrance door of plane). found the duty free employee. he pointed out the merchandise in front of another plane door that was the one going to new orleans. the wrong plane with some 100 misplaced people went to miami.

Yeah - but you gotta watch our for the FAs that don't make complete announcements My first segment was delayed so I missed my connection and had to be re-booked on the last possible option for me, which I still barely made. A bit out of sorts and not having done my 'check everything multiple times' routine when the FA announced this flight was 'Headed to Nashville with a flight time of x:xx." my heart stopped. I was supposed to be going to DTW! Crap! I quickly gathered my things, not knowing if I had time to make it to where I was supposed to be. I was about to get off the plane when the FA asked if there was anything she could help me with I said "No - I'm on the wrong plane. I'm supposed to be going to DTW."

"Oh, don't worry hon, we'll be headed there right after we stop in Nashville." After I sat back down she got back on the PA and said "And for those of you continuing on with us to Detroit..." and winked at me

If I hadn't been so rushed I would have noticed the flight time to DTW didn't make sense for a direct flight but it all worked out

So, if I was flying from CLT to CAE and got on the wrong flight, say FRA, and they flew me back, would I get the FF miles associated with this goat rope?