Oh, do I ever know what you mean!

I've been through that UAX nest at IAD for numerous years and what I have always done is upon arriving into the plane, I confirm the destination with the flight attendant.

As well as the pit at IAH

I once got on a plane where the FA announcement went something like this:

"Welcome aboard this flight to JFK. If your destination isn't JFK, well, it is now..."

Years ago I heard a similar announcement shortly after boarding and saw a guy literally jump out of his seat and run off the plane.

Great story!

How deluded was this guy? Did he not get suspicious after say 3+ hours flight?

I like the Sidney vs Sydney confusion as reported by the 2nd largest German news magazine SPIEGEL. German only ... but translate will do... and the story is simple. Guy wanted to visit his girlfriend in Australia and booked a cheap ticket to Sidney and only got suspicious when he was asked to board a turboprop in Oregon .... for what he though was a tanspac to come...

Reminds me of one time coming home to LA from Vegas on (IIRC) Hughes Airline (remember the flying banana). There was one passenger who was obviously drunk on this sold out flight. As we were pulling away from the terminal, the FA announced "Welcome to flight ??? to the Hollywood/Burbank Airport". This guy screams at the top of his lungs "THE HOLLYWOOD/BURBANK AIRPORT!?!?!". He was on the wrong flight. Everyone broke out laughing. They turned back and let him off. We didn't mind. Never forget that.

Well, I'll trump you with the story of an English couple who though they got a great deal to Sydney and got a shock when they got off the plane at Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada.

No, it's not an urban legend, and according to this story it happened before

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Dallas and Dulles, we get a lot of that......foreign accents are a challenge for all involved......"sir do you mean Dallas, TEXAS or Dulles, VIRGINIA ?" usually met with a blank stare..... but we always figure it out.

Just remembered a time when I worked in cargo......."what are you shipping?"......the answer was rocks.
Me: "Like in stones, boulders ?"......Him: Yes.
Me - after looking at the shipment -- "Oh you are shipping RUGS".
Him: Yes, rocks.

I didn't know what TalkMail was until I realized it's been going into SPAM for the past how many years. So thank you for the enlightenment! Happy 2014!

UA flies to both SPI and SGF from ORD. I've never had someone board the wroing plane for that, although people routinely try to board the flight at the gate when they have boarding passes for the next departure at the gate. In most cases it is becuase they haven't adjusted their watches to time zones or are oblivious to the fact that an RJ takes 25 min max to board vs 1:25.

A Travel Agent once told me about the time that a customer on the phone was incensed that she was asking him about having a passport when he was trying to book a hotel in Capetown (South Africa).

"Why the heck do I need a passport? It's in the same state!"

It turns out he actually wanted to go to Provincetown (on Cape Cod, MA).

Hey, we're told we aren't guaranteed the seat on our ticket, we're not guaranteed the type of plane we purchased the ticket for, we're not guaranteed our preference in food. I don't think it unreasonable they can at least try to make sure we've gotten on a plane heading towards the destination on our ticket.

If we have to get serious about this, things can get confusing at airports, with gate changes, plane changes, delays etc. And how many of us haven't at some point arrived at an airport in a state one level above or below zombie?

Even though the passenger does have some responsibility (a lot of responsibility, actually) to navigate themselves through the airport and onto the right plane, there are so many ways for the airline to catch someone who's in the wrong place at the right time that I suspect they (the airline) would be as embarrassed about things as the passenger, and the mutual state of embarrassment would result in as pleasant-as-possible parting of the ways. Everybody apologizing, no hard feelings, passenger ends up where they're supposed to and if an overnight is required, a hotel voucher is kindly supplied. Smiles all around in the aftermath. No compensation per se but lots of goodwill by all parties.

Great year end mileage run idea.

Same thing happened to us at SEA a few years back, but found "our" seats were occupied & in sorting it out discovered we should have zigged instead of zagged; fortunately there was enuf time to backtrack to the proper plane.

Oh, it happens all the time on AA. Just ask Kevin McCallister.