Gate Agent Pulled Wrong Coupon on the Outbound; What Grief on the Return!
 

Have you ever had a gate agent pull the wrong flight segment coupon?

My business associate and I traveled EWR-ATL southbound on CO and back home on DL. In EWR, the CO agent pulled my associate's DL coupon. My associate didn't notice the problem until he arrived with his CO coupon at the DL podium in ATL. The DL gate agent sent my associate to the customer service counter, where DL instructed him to file a lost-ticket claim and charged him $743 for a replacement one-way ticket home in coach.

Now that he's back home, my associate doesn't relish the prospect of coordinating communications among himself and two airlines to get his $743 back.

This is one of the benefits of eticketing. Back when everything was still paper, I used to get the wrong coupon pulled frequently. The first time I didn't notice until I almost boarded, at which point the gate agents went back and had to search through the stack to find it. Afterwards, I ALWAYS checked my tickets after checking in.

Something similar happened to my husband in June on AA JFK-LHR. At JFK, the ticket agent lifted the return coupon (LHR-JFK) instead of the outbound, and we didn't find out until the next day in London. A quick trip to the airport solved the problem, and we weren't charged anything. In fact, the AA agent at the LHR said that this problem usually occurs once or twice a day.

I had the wrong segment coupon pulled once... I was using etickets and flying US. I was a little worried when I realized what happened (I didn't realize it until I got to my connecting airport) but it was no problem. They issued me a new ticket (no charge) & all was well. http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...orum/smile.gif

So, not only are etickets good, but pay extra attention if you are flying different airlines on paper tickets....

I also had a UA e-ticket EWR-SEA pulled out of order flying with a connection in SFO on a rare domestic trip at the dawn of e-tickets. The initial segments were 1-2-3-4, and on beginning my return trip, the computer showed x-2-x-4 (segment 3 was pulled instead of 2). It took about 15 minutes or so for UA to straighten out the mess.

I always pull the coupon myself and hand it to the agent.

FoothillFlyer wins the common sense award.

This happened to me on a Groupo Taca flight.

Since I was not returning for a few months I decided to call the respective offices at the airporta.

After much explaining what happened, after a few weeks the airline sent back the wrong coupon to my airport. I went to the airport and exchanged coupons with them.

At lot of hassle. No fun.

Traveling since 1981, I have NEVER had the wrong coupon pulled.

Before they call for boarding, I always open the ticket envelope, pull out the boarding pass/ticket for the flight I'm about to board and hand it to the agent or feed it into the gate reader.

RAD

Rad, you could have the wrong coupon stapled to your boarding pass (at an airport where they still do that). I used to always pull the coupons out directly and hand them to the agent. Also, the once every 5 years I check luggage, I look at the tag before the bag goes down into the "special place where bags go." Also, sometimes agents accidentally pull extra coupons, so make sure you have all remaining flight coupons before you leave the counter.

As these flight coupons are almost like cash (depending on the airline, fare basis, etc.) and endorsable to other carriers, I can understand the airline paranoia, because ticket stock theft and fraud is historically common. That said, I would think that when the day is over, and a flight coupon has been collected at the wrong airport for the wrong segment, that PNR would be documented with an "oops, I did it again" notation - or in this case, a call to the other airline.

One time I flew TWA from the USA to somewhere in Europe. Once there, I had a connecting TWA flight. However, the coupon needed was apparently pulled In the USA. But I was allowed to board the flight without too much of a hassle. What were thay going to do...send me back to St. Louis? http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...orum/smile.gif