Planes can have an incorrect passenger count. Even mainline aircraft can have up to certain number (don't want to say how many for security) off on passenger count. Not much, but it would be easy to have one passenger end up on the wrong jet and the FA/CSR/Pilot wouldn't double check the numbers.

I have often wondered why the baby regional jets can't have a destination board like buses and trains on the door itself, or perhaps at the bottom of the stairs or jetbridge, like the mother and father gates for the grown up planes in the main terminal. :)

I'm surprised the FA didn't do a destination check / announcement. Every single UX flight I've taken out of IAD (and unfortunately there have been quite a few of those), the FA has announced the destination prior to closing the door, as a quick way of making sure people were on the right plane.

Once, a wheelchair pax had been boarded by a skycap ... onto the wrong plane (IIRC, we were headed to CRW). :eek: And, in the interim, her flight (to DAY) had taken off. :mad:

IMHO, though, in the OP's situation, any compensation is out of order (even the $100 voucher), as it was the pax's mistake, not UA's. And wow, that's the worst car rental deal I've ever heard of. :eek:

I was headed home to visit family in Grand Rapids, late 90s, and upon landing (from ORD on a 737,) a passenger realized he was supposed to be in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.

I believe it was the last flight in. He was talking with the FAs as I was deplaning and they seemed to be helping him out.

On that same route I've heard FAs emphasize Grand Rapids MICHIGAN. Still to me... i can't understand...

What makes you think he/she didn't? Considering maybe 2 people on any given plane actually listen to the FA announcements, I wouldn't make any assumptions about it. Plus, in post #24, the OP says he did drop off upon boarding...

I agree your colleague should have tried to sort it out on arrival at SAV with UA airport customer service. Generally a problem like this, and nearly any problem, is better sorted out in person on the spot, rather than trying to write letters or call in later on where you are dealing with people not familiar with your situation who have to try to guess exactly what happened, etc.

Incidentally I wonder how the ATO reroutes the pax if say they have used the last coupon of their e-ticket. Do they just print/write a manual on-line coupon (looks a little bit like a fim) and reference the original ticket number?

I find it hard to believe that the car was 350$ except he returns it a few days later. Hope he got at least an upgrade though :D

A taxi might be cheaper than that !

Also I would have contacted UA at SAV in order to ask for help. Maybe they could hae gotten him a rental car or a reroute, even IF this would result in a delay. To get to the car rental/lot takes a while too and then the drive...

If he dont want that I would say tough luck as they would have most like accomodated him somehow. The decision to rent a car instead going directly to a GA was his own. Did he tell the FA that he was on the wrong plane? Most likely not, otherwise they could have contacted SAV in advance to organize something.

Sometimes it's better to jump over your shadow and admit your mistakes. I would say UA/pax have 50/50 responsibility for this !

I don't know the whole story on the car rental - I think he kept it 2 days and returned to Columbia.
You need to understand that this is Masters week - you cannot find a hotel with less than a 7 day min stay in Augusta or any room at all within 100 miles - those you do get are very expensive and booked far in advance.

Thanks for all your comments - I had no idea that UA doesn't check BPs at the door as DL does - it does leave more room for error by not making this final check.

That's funny, given that you can't buy a ticket to Grand Rapids MN on UA or any carrier for that matter. It's a little dinky town Northeast of Duluth MN.

Each time I fly from ORD to SGF, the GAs and FA are very careful to announce several times that the flight is going to Springfield, MO, not Springfield, IL. Come to think of it, I don't believe I've ever seen flights for SGF and SPI boarding from the same F gate at ORD. I suspect UX had pax boarding the flight to the wrong Springfield often enough that they realized it would behoove them not to schedule flights to the different Springfields out of the same gate at or near the same departure time.

Out of curiousity I looked it up last night after I posted that. I didn't see it listed either. Maybe UA Express flew there in the back then. Or he bought his ticket to GR michigan and never was the wiser.

Orbitz shows a same day rental 1 way between those airports at $125. So aside from the rerouting and double checking... the OP's co-worker is not a very good shopper.

IAD can get confusing, with multiple boardings happening coincident with one another, as well as the aptly-described "zoo" milieu.

But I have yet to take a UX where there is not a "destination check" multiple times ... we all know the drill "If Bermuda is not in your travel plans, this would be a good time for you to inform the crew" or some wise-cracking variant thereof. Late boarders might have missed the announcement. Or they may have their ipod or BOSE "noise"-cancelling headphones on. Or they may be one of those annoying self-important blowhards with a bluetooth headset and simply not heard the announcement.

I would say, to some extent, caveat flyer, in case someone misses the announcements, and in case UX's pax count doesn't catch the error.

On the other hand, I am shocked and astounded that he didn't talk to United upon landing and having them reaccommodate him, nor that they didn't do anything for him on the spot.

Finally, I would question your colleague's judgment. I just popped onto www.hertz.com ... certainly Hertz is not known for being the cheapest, and with no corporate discount, no AAA discount, no frequent flyer discount, the one way same-day rate is $134.70, including all taxes and fees (all he'd have to add would be half a tank of gas). With any frequent flyer card, the cost is at least 10% less. Even if you rented a luxury car, paying for unnecessary insurance, having the car rental company refill the gas at $8/gallon, you still wouldn't make it up to $350. What was your colleague smoking?

Seems to me I always hear at least one announcement of the destination of the plane before they close the door, either form the pilot or the FA. But it's easy to tune that out.

I posted it here before, but I had a pax on FL come to Denver when he was supposed to go to Orlando. Don't know how that happened, but the guy was a little confused coming off the plane. We sent him back that way, but he footed his hotel bill.