My fault, that should have been LGW - MAD

I'd strongly adivse against it.

No pre-assigned seating, if anything goes wrong you really are on your own (i.e. no reroutes if there is a serious delay / mech, no delay compensation, no food or drinks on board [BMI/BA would offer a few drinks and food], the list goes on and on).

BMI (www.flybmi.com) offer tickets for £76.80 inc. tax LHR-MAD Return (or £43.40 one way). This includes meals on board, star alliance miles and lounge access if you are a star gold.

Regards,
Alex

My Aunt Luisa did that once. Was planning on going to PVR from GDL (25 minute flight), ended up on a flight to LAX instead (over three hours). One hour into the flight she was wondering why they weren't descending to land. Of course, she wasn't carrying her passport, so they shipped her back in the later flight back to GDL.

The funny part is that she had no excuse. She's from GDL, and her native (and only) language is Spanish. We still laugh about it 15 years after.

A couple of snafus -- the first, minor one:

My mom and I (I was 14) were visiting Detroit, and had a flight out of Detroit to ORD then to MIA. We got there in time for our 7:45 departure... however, that was actually the arrival time in ORD! We just made it on time (luggage arrived home a day later).

The second one involved my dad. He purchased tickets for my husband and I to travel from PBI to Dublin, Ireland in April, to meet them for a week there (they were coming from SFO). He booked them on Travelocity, and mailed them to me. I glanced at them when I received them, but not closely enough.

Evidently, when he booked them (PBI to JFK to DUB), he had hit the back button somewhere... and instead of April 19th, they booked for January 30 (the day after he bought them online). Of course, I found this out a week before flying, when doing my pre-trip confirmations! Luckily, as we were listed as no-shows, they gave us credit towards the new flights. However, it was at 3 times the cost, as that is when the snowbirds fly back up to New York from south Florida! I managed to get it down to just $100 more each by breaking it to PBI to ATL to JFK.

Then, the flight out of ATL was delayed by 1.5 hours due to mechanical problems (lovely). We arrived in JFK about the time our connection (on another airline!) was leaving (never letting dad book tix again!). We couldn't land for about a half hour anyhow, as a big storm was on. We waited in line for about 2 hours for reconnections, and finally got one two hours later, connecting in LHR. We were supposed to arrive in DUB at 6am, instead we got there at 2pm. This was fine, as the parents were arriving at 4pm, but my luggage took longer to catch up with us http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

I saw one other post regarding the problem with February...because it's (usually) 28 days long, the DAYS of the week are the same if you accidentally switch to March. This is especially easy when booking online and doing it in a hurry.

The first time I managed this I was on Midway (RIP) from BOS-MCO. They could find no record of my reservation despite my holding a confirmation, and apparently neither they nor I could read http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif cause they let me on the plane with no problem. Sometime on the trip I actually _read_ my itinerary a little more carefully and realized what I'd done--no getting out of it on the way back. Had to pay the fee.

I actually did this to a co-worker as well when booking his arrangements, but he/we noticed it immediately and changed it without a fee.

I always triplecheck these things, now. Have yet to get screwed up with international date line, time zones, and AM/PM, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time as my international travel increases, right? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

While one of my three goofies has happened to another poster, I'm kinda embarrassed to see my second one and third one are unique to myself ...

#1: Connecting in LAS to CLE coming from LAX I left my watch at LAX time - and only was spared from missing the plane because push back was delayed due to ATC congestion - by 40 minutes. (I usually get to the gate after general boarding is completed when I'm on a plane with a light load).

They actually reopened the A/C door for me! 30 minutes after boarding was completed!

#2: Booked a ticket from PIT to LAS instead of LAX. It was a last minute online-booking so I didn't get the e-ticket receipt in time, unfortunately. They rebooked me free of charge and even op-uped me cause Y was full. This was on US Airways where I have no status. (They saw my two other elite cards though.)

#3: I once did a weekend NW mileage run CLE-DTW-BHM-MEM-BNA-MEM-STL-DTW-CLE that I fit in to just meet my CLE-DTW-AMS-ZRH flight on a for purpose trip.
This was an extremley important last-minute mileage run needed to qualify for the KLM "we'll give you plat and match all your miles" promotion.
Everything went well until STL, where I did an overnight break. I ordered my wake-up call, set my cell phone to wake me and went to bed. I woke up when I heard the alarms, showered, grabbed a cup of coffee, took the shuttle and went to check-in. Deserted, except for a few agents chatting. How surprising, an hour before departure. Then I find out my flight was pushing back right that moment - I had missed the time change! Since I live in Europe we switched to summer time two weeks earlier, and I didn't have a clue! Beeing a Plat I was given really good treatment. The agent was nice, friendly and helpful. He said right-away that he'd waive the fee for me. (Don't forget - a mileage run. Non-refundable, non-changeable!) BUT, every single flight out of STL was overbooked to the rim. He even checked other airlines to ALL NW and KL destinations !!! The only flight that had one (!) first class seat empty (and coach was overbooked!!!) went to MEM seven hours later. Lucky enough, there was a 9 something PM flight to AMS that had open seats. (Not as nicely overbooked in Y with open seats as my originally booked flight, but I really didn't care at this point). So he confirmed me on this one and waitlisted me for all other possibilities. (Also a couple of AA flights). I bought a AA club room day pass since the first waitlist was in 2 1/2 hours, and it was worth it. I didn't get on any of the three flights I had waitlisted for, and ended up cancelling an important meeting in ZRH. I did get all the segments and miles for my two tickets after faxing in - I guess he did some "involentary" magic to my booking. I do feel lucky, and don't expect similar luck in the future.

About a year and a half ago, I showed up at MSP at about 10:15 for my 11:10 a.m. flight to MDW on AirTran -- oops that's my 9:40 a.m. flight -- arriving in MDW at 11:10. They were understanding and put me on the next flight without a fee.

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Joe
NWA Silver