And SJD.

And often from adjacent gates.

Sorry for your misfortune but that's my favorite story here!

I've thankfully never boarded the wrong flight, but I have seen others. But they've always caught it during the destination check. "This is UA XX to XXX- if XXX isn't your destination, you're on the wrong flight." So the guy 1 row behind across the aisle freaks out that he should be going somewhere else. Except the plane was already moving! So they had to head back to the gate, wait, open the door, and then "re-fuel" the tiny bit they had used

The famous incident was a person IIRC at LAX trying to go to OAK who misunderstood the local regional accent and boarded a flight to AKL. That would be an expensive ticket home!

This was in 2009 and I thought it was a US Airways commuter which then connected to a UA night flight to ORD.

I made a mistake, I left at 3pm from Dulles and arrived 11pm-ish into ORD. I remember it being eight hours.

I did indeed!

Thanks for the ^
One of the joys of travel is the unexpected and the more I know, the more I know I don't know. Admitting to making mistakes is part of living life.

PS Happy 2014!

Auckland is AKL. Here is the story: http://articles.latimes.com/1985-04-...urope-vacation

Now that NZ flies SFO-AKL (and is my preferred route to do MSP - WLG), several times a year I have a conversation with people in Minnesota where they ask "how do you get from MSP to WLG", and I say "well you fly to San Francisco, and then to Auckland." Then a look of puzzlement comes over their face and I know they are hearing "Oakland" instead of "Auckland".

My parents tell a great story from about 25 years ago. It seems they were flying USAir from IAD or DCA to BOS to be with my mother's family for Christmas and arrived at the airport very early, as my mother likes to. The ticket agent asked them to take an earlier flight to BOS and they said that was fine, so she had them hurried through the terminal because that flight was about to depart. They just made it onto the plane to which they were directed, were told to take any seat, the door closed, and it pushed back almost immediately. My mother caught a glance of the itinerary of the man next to him, which referred to a hotel in North Carolina, so she asked him where the flight was going. He said it was bound for CLT! She rang the FA call button, and the FA came over apologizing, saying she knew they'd been asked to board the wrong plane but that there was nothing to be done because the flight had pushed back. USAir accommodated them from CLT to BOS, but this was of course before cell phones were commonplace, so her family was losing their heads up north.

Some of the details have the feeling of one of those apocryphal stories to me, but it's unlike my folks to tell that kind of story, so I think it's likely this, or something very like it, did happen! I'd find it an interesting adventure, but y'all better believe that's not how my dear high-strung mother remembers it .

I can only imagine the goat-rope he had to go through with UA to get to his final destination.

I got stopped by the buzzer in DCA earlier this year. Boarding was in process, and I confidently strode through the group 1 lane and handed my BP over in front of the lowly group 3's waiting to board, and got the dreaded buzz. I can't even blame a gate change. My flight had always gone out from this gate in the past, and I just wasn't paying attention. It's a lesson I have to relearn every couple of years.

COPA GA's often just take the BP and not scan, and I always double check with the flight attendants when they do that.

I wonder if anyone has flown from LAX or SFO to the wrong place in Asia

That is a common mistake to mix up Costa Rica with Puerto Rico... and San Jose with San Juan...

Happened to me only last month. Gate change at boarding in GRU announced only in Portuguese. They just waved me through at boarding. I only found out I was on the wrong plane when someone wanted my seat. Made the correct internal connection, but close one.

I always think about this when FAs or GAs only say "Dulles" and not like "Washington DC's Dulles airport." Half the time it sounds like they're saying "Dallas" and I could see how someone who's never been to DC wouldn't know what "Dulles" is.

Also had many flights where FAs and even Pilots will confuse Dulles and Reagan but they usually correct themselves after some confused looks from passengers.

Yup, if you've seen Juan, you've seem 'em all

What a hilarious thread. Thanks UrbaneGent for that honest story; this should be in TalkMail for sure :-: ^

Yup. I've been at an F gate a couple of times that has served both Springfield, IL and Springfield, MO at about the same time. I'm always impressed when everyone gets on the right plane when this occurs.