If one's departure airport is SMF and they're headed to HKG for a week, I'm guessing they'll want to check a bag along the SMF-SFO/LAX-HKG journey.

Yes, the boarding of multiple UX flights at the same time from the same gate is going to lead to misboarding. I must fess up and admit I missed boarded once -- but the FA announcement caught my notice (and one other passenger who had done the same). I will not say the GA/FA announcement always happens but it does seem to be regular procedure.

As for compensation, I think the $100 was OK, not great -- but the passenger needs to take some responsibility.

I believe common carriers are required to have an accurate flight manifest for each flight that goes out.

There is no way a passenger can tell where the plane is going from the looks of the plane, all the information he gets has to come from the FA / GA (UA staff). So if the passenger gets onto the wrong plane due to misinformation from the part of UA staff, then I do not think that the passenger has to take any responsibility. The passenger goes to the gate as instructed but beyond the gate, if he boards the wrong plane due to wrong directions given by UA staff, he should not be at fault if there is no way he could have known the error.

My home airport has been IAD for the past 20 years and I don't ever remember when the FA didn't announce the destination before closing the door. I have the same question, did the passenger ask to be re-routed?

Not to question the OP, but I agree with the above statement. I take a good number of Express flights including two yesterday. An annoucement has always been made at least once during boarding and again before the door is closed stating the destination city.

United could have made you pay for the flight you took when you got off the plane. Just like when people try move up to C w/o paying. But yeah was there really no final destination check? I have never been on a flight w/o one.

Me too - I've always heard an announcement as to destination - although quite often the wrong one which then gets corrected by a group of panicked passengers (me included). I agree that the boarding there can be confusing but I am not sure that United is at fault nor is compensation due.

KiwiPanda

OP here....
The passenger in question now admits to taking a snooze after boarding.
I'm sure they must have made the standard announcements before closing the door.
He might fly 3 RT's a year and is not a "seasoned" traveler.

- The flight was late in the evening - drive time to his final destination was 2.5 hours - much shorter than any possible re-route.
- I live in ATL and never fly UA - that said, EVERY time I fly a tarmac boarded CRJ flying a DL coded flight, I am asked for my BP by the FA upon boarding, even when we are the only plane at the gate.
- I find it amazing that the plane was allowed to leave with an incorrect passenger count. On every flight I've been on, a passenger count is made to make sure the number of passengers on board matches the number of BPs collected. If this was done, someone else must have made the same mistake and gone to CAE instead of SAV.
- If this is happening, why aren't they checking BPs at the door of the aircraft?
- I also think a $100 voucher is pretty lame - especially for someone who won't use it.

If he won't use the 100 voucher, would more money mean anything to him? What exactly do YOU expect for this non frequent, occasional traveller who is partially to blame for the incident? Also to blame is the fact that he didn't approach any UA staff upon arrival to say, oops - wrong destination now what giving them the chance to do something for him immediately.

Air NZ drives me batty requiring the bp upon boarding when you were scanned at the gate (this is for mainline) just up the jetway from the airplane door. I usually have just slipped it into my pocket or purse forgetting they'll need to see it so I have to pull it out again.

:)

Try ~20/day, hence 3 gates. One April 16, the schedule shows 21 flights: 1 to SFO, 3 to LAX, 5 to ORD, 12 to DEN. I've swapped out a COS-DEN-SJC routing on the fly to COS-SFO more than a few times.

But it is pretty much all jetways now, so the risk of boarding the wrong plane is reduced.

Over 90% of my flying starts/ends/or goes thru the A terminal at IAD. It can be very confusing, multiple flights boarding at same time thru the same INITIAL gate, but although most people don't pay attention, there are actually electronic signs above the individual doorways that are usually accurate with the destination, and at least one person "working the walkways" that you can ask.
In addition, because it is obviously different than most boarding experiences .... when reaching the top of the steps at the airplane door ... I always say to the FA at least one word --- the city I am heading to. I also cant recall a single flight out of there that the destination was not explicitly mentioned several times before the door closed. Not saying that all of these measures were in place for the OP's flight .... but that has been my experience with over 100 encounters thru there. All said ---- it still sucks and I would not be happy driving that rental car

He wants real money, not a voucher. I know that doesn't happen with these sorts of things and really have no idea of what's appropriate.
I don't feel too sorry for him, after all, he was at the Master's the next day.

In Denver late at night, the city signs were not working and the gates got changed. Agent tried to board us to different city, when we let him know we had misconnected and could he get us on the flight which was listed on the sign as our destination. Cities sounded similar. Then we found our gate which had a different city listed. We almost took off with a military person on the plane, who was going home to the base that was listed on the sign, but the plane was going elsewhere.

I am going out on a limb here (and I am not trying to be sarchastic) but: Real money..... There is absolutely ZERO chance of UA doing that.