N830MH

Those US couple who took wrong airport & wrong time. They make a big mistake. They should say Dhaka (DAC), but not Dakar (DKR). Oops!

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...32,full.column

Can't you guys believe that? This is ridiculous! They didn't do right. They did not pay attention what they are doing.

iamaho

TK did nothing wrong. The couple didn't know their geography and airport code. Their own fault. They had numerous opportunities to catch their mistake. But were oblivious. So I hope they enjoy Bangladesh!

HMPS

Both of you, did you read the report ? Turkish tracked down the voice recording of the booking and got them to Dakar at their own expense !

ashkale

Errmm the airline has failed at so many levels and you say its passengers fault???

starflyergold

Yes, these sort of tickets errors are quite common on most if not all airlines.

iamaho

I read the report. Just because the ticketing agent put in the wrong city, doesn't mean the passenger does not have any responsibility. From time of booking to boarding to connection to boarding the second flight, these <folks> had their chance to realize their mistake. They didn't bother to even look at the destination sign at the boarding gate. So they have themselves to blame.

G_G

from http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...32,full.column

"Valdivieso and her husband are experienced travelers, but neither had ever been to Senegal or Bangladesh. They had no idea that DAC was for Dhaka, not Dakar."

Experienced travelers who didn't know a country should at least check if all has been correctly ticketed.
On the ticket nowhere it's DAKAR in full letters

ashkale

Errmm the airline has failed at so many levels and you say its passengers fault??
sic

Phoenixtinct

I find it hard to believe that "experienced" travelers will not notice this mistake. They probably said that to save face. And if they didn't, they are definitely not "experienced" travelers. The first thing I do when I decide to go to a new place is look up the airport code - it's because I usually book my own tickets instead of having someone to do it for me. But let's say they didn't do that. After receiving the confirmation e-mail, they should have checked everything was in order - the dates, flights were the ones they wanted, obviously the departure and destination as well. They failed to do that. Furthermore, I'm surprised this was not caught at check-in at the airport. I'm guessing the visa requirements for both are different. Wouldn't a check-in agent have caught that the couple doesn't have visas for DAC? Unless they didn't require any, which makes it even more diabolic. Furthermore, once obtaining the boarding passes, the destination is clearly spelled out (at least on TK boarding passes). If you see Dhaka as opposed to Dakar, why wouldn't they ask about it? This could have been caught at LAX upon departure if not sooner.

Whereas this can be attributed to "lost in translation" and TK ended up issuing tickets to the wrong destination, there's absolutely no excuse for the couple not to check on what they've booked, especially, when flying to a foreign country - one apparently they've never been to previously. Since they didn't recognize the mistake, how is the airline supposed to? Once brought to TK's attention, they did the right thing and flew them to Dakar free of charge and upon further inquiries, ended up receiving 2 free tickets. The gull of that couple to place the entire blame on Turkish airlines. They should have been happy that they were transported to their destination free of charge after not catching the mistake earlier themselves.

I have experienced a somewhat similar situation twice. Since I always book my own tickets, I once booked a ticket from the wrong city - Sydney instead of Brisbane. Since I watch like a hawk for the e-mail confirming my ticket, within half an hour of booking, I realized upon receipt I booked the wrong city and called to correct it. Since it was an Australian trip and they don't have the 24-hour free cancellation enjoyed in the US, I was on the hook for the cancellation fee but was able to use the remaining balance for a new ticket with the correct origin and destination this time. The second time, the origin and destination were correct but the date was wrong - I had used Kayak to find the fare and since I used flexible days, I totally forgot that the lowest fare I selected may not be on the date I wanted. Once again, I caught my mistake within the 24-hour window when I called the airline to obtain my other confirmation code (the flight was operated by another airline). That's when the agent informed me the date was not what I wanted and I changed it. So, I have been somewhat unlucky when booking flights on Australian carriers. But bottom line, one has to be extremely careful when booking through a 3rd party - I avoid that as I like to see what I'm booking myself as opposed to someone doing it for me. A lot of airlines don't make available inventory by partners for awards online, so I have to call and have an agent to do it. Well, as soon as the call is over, I'm making sure the reservation is what I wanted. Clearly, mistakes happen, so one has to be very cautious and inspect everything. The couple didn't do their due diligence here, so I would place more of the blame on them in this case. And I think TK was more than accommodating. The certainly corrected their mistake and I don't understand what more the couple wanted - they are very ungreatful.

glennaa11

Wouldn't you check out some options online first before calling to book? So at least you have some idea what fares are out there as well as decent connections, etc? I can understand how a misunderstanding between two cities with similar sounding names could happen in a telephone transaction. Maybe I plan too obsessively but even when I have to call to book an award I always have checked availability and know flight numbers, etc.

TK obviously shouldn't have given them a runaround in the aftermath though.

Palal

First, they're not "Experienced travelers"
Second (and most important): did they get miles for all of the segments?
Third: can they earn miles on the free tickets?


In all honesty, I think it's the pax fault for not checking. If TK did make a mistake, they did everything they possibly could to correct it. Mistakes happen, but how you deal with them is what's important.

camsean

Amazing the way somebody is always ready to blame the victim

jackal

Any idea why they called to book the tickets?

Sounds like the whole thing could have been avoided if they had just booked online like normal people.

Was it perhaps an award that couldn't be booked online?

IAD_PersonFinder

One item from the article also sticks out to me as odd....they indicated falling asleep for 7 hours and then noticing they were over the Middle East. The flight is roughly 8 1/2 hours so that should put them somewhere over India around that time frame. Not a major issue, but their story does not add up.

ao747

I find it hard to believe that there are people in the world who are this stupid.

These people got on the wrong flight to a different continent, and of course it is everyone's fault but their own.

"It was only then that Valdivieso and her husband looked around and realized that the plane was full of people who looked Asian, not African." Yes, of course because they boarded with blindfolds on!

Absolutely idiots. No-one to blame but themselves, and they have the cheek to try and get further compensation after the pretty nice package that TK offered them.

Some people need to be banned from leaving their own home.