I guess there are some mitigating circumstances. As the Times points out it isn’t just the codes that are similar but the city and airport names too. One commenter on the Times claims that “the country is clearly stated … on the documentation and airport departure board”, but it’s not as common as you’d think on tickets and unheard of on departure boards – just the city and/or airport name is more usual.

Sounds like TC have agreed to compensate, which is good.

PS: Anyone else get a laugh out of picturing the taxi driver’s face?

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I agree 100%! I’m not sure this lady should even be traveling out-of-country if she can’t even read her booking documents or even the dozens of signs (newspapers, receipts, etc) at the airport! How the heck did she not even notice when checking in and boarding the plane to Puerto Rico?!
In any case, I don’t think she’d be my choice of travel partner to any destination on Earth

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No, quite possible. Our mates up the road booked someone to Santiago and mixed up Santiago Chile and Santiago di Compostella. Some of it is brought on by clients, Message: do not use three letter codes unless you know them. Typical are FFM, not Frankfurt but Fergus Falls Minessota, (our) Birmingham is BHX not BHM which is B’ham Alabama or worse BIR which is in Nepal. One client, I booked to BIR because they were the army film unit (Nepal/ Gurkhas) it was only when changing in Islamabad was noted that client picked up on it and said he wanted Birmingham (by rail)…. So yes, it is easily done. You would be surprised how many people just do not read their confirmations…

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Absolutely the consumer’s fault. There has to be some level of customer interest in the whole process. I am staggered that she was in a taxi in the country before she noticed – there must have been announcements and signs at every point in the airports at both ends. It is easy for anyone with the best of intentions to type in a wrong date or code, such as the agent. There must be some duty of self-responsibility.

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@Mark H It is no way the customers fault. Yes she should have realized before getting on the plane that something was wrong, BUT even if she had realized when getting to the airport, she would still have had the hassle of trying to sort it out through the Travel Agent, who was the one that screwed up the booking.

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I made a mistake “once” thinking I had booked a flight arriving at 11:00 AM and it was 11:00PM! No one to blame but myself!!! I do try to triple check now, but sometimes a person reads what they want to read not what is there.

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I almost went to Turkey by accident once. They changed the gate on me after I arrived at the gate. I was halfway down the ramp to board the plane before the woman who had checked my boarding pass came running after me.

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Hi Darren
as a travel agent, I have to take the view it was the agents fault. The customer used a travel agent to get professional service, and the agent’s responsibilty is to ensure all elements of the trip are booked correctly, and the customer is aware of the T+C’s etc.

Surely the agent should have asked – have you checked if you need a visa for x before you book? This is flight booking 101, its important if the flight is very restrictive and has high or 100% cancellation charges, that always check visas before booking (if they don’t get the visa then the money is gone)

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It seems highly unlikely – but then what are the odds of two submarines colliding in the Atlantic Ocean?

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I am firmly of the opinion we shouldn’t get into the business of ascribing blame to one side or the other.

It’s clear from the article that both sides made mistakes – the travel agent should have known where the customer whats going and the customer should have checked she got what she paid for well before she even boarded the plane – let alone landed.

@ Dean, it’s not always practical to get visas before you book the flights. Here in Switzerland, for example, visas for China can only be issued a certain number of days before you’re due to arrive in China. By which time the flight prices will be well beyond what people on a reasonable income are likely to be able to pay.

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@Dean

The visa question would work if a country requires a visa, unfortunately most countries do not require British travelers to have a visa. It is also hard without being there to get the idea who’s fault it is, but at least there is some responsibility by the traveler, to check there details. All UK agents ask customers to do this as things like spelling mistakes and not always understanding the person you are talking to (eg, S and F when spoken) unlike the USA the strength of accents here along with the range means this happens more often.

One thing that I was recently asked about. A Travel agent had booked someone a trip to the USA and the customer had not realized that they had asked for 91 days, so when the travel agent said “your aware that you can only travel visa free for 90 days” they did not understand the point of the question, they also did not understand when the agent told them to check visa requirements with the US Embassy in London, (they checked that they qualified for a visa waver up to 90 days) so when they they got to check-in the customer was denied boarding for not having a visa, he felt it was the travel agents fault for not being clearer. (Keep in mind this is the customers side of the story, I have not heard the agents).

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I would imagine this is more common than we would like to think. I know of a prominent businessman who accidentally flew to Burlington, Iowa instead of Burlington, Vermont one time. Wasn’t he embarrassed!

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That’s very hard to believe. I can certainly see the issue with the tickets and the agent. Even the consumer getting to the airport without noticing the tickets, but she actually arrived in Puerto Rico without knowing? Wow. There are announcements every 10 minutes. Not to mention, she had to look at the tickets to get the gate number. I think she may have wanted to have her cake and eat it too. Travel to Puerto Rico then return home and receive a refund claiming it was the wrong destination.

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…another confession (probably other agents have done this) Portland Orgeon and Portland Maine PDX/ PWM… Delta fly both and were kind enought to put the people on a flight to the right Portland, free of charge. Apparently it happens all the time. It’s not really a matter of “blame”, it can happen and it does. One gets on at a faceless airport into a metal tube and gets off somewhere “foreign” and to many, one place “foreign” looks pretty much like another. Three letter code errors are very easy. Interesting, point: If I sell widgets and you take it home and it doesn’t work, you take it back and exchange it, simple. If in travel, you make a mistake you have someone sitting (worse, a family sitting) in one country rather than another. Big responsibility – errare humanum est.

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Am completely confused about how this happened. This is not your average Thomas Cook holiday and with hiking in cloud forests etc and it seems it must have been a lengthy, tailor-made booking. If it was done via one of TC’s tour operations, didn’t anyone notice there?
It does highlight the state of mind you get into when you are travelling on a trip someone else has organised. I’ve been on press trips where some travel professionals or journalists have lost all sense of self-responsibility and follow some young PR around like sheep, wanting to be spoon-fed the whole way and told exactly what to do!

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Ah! Flight only. That would make sense. Puerto Rico (I assume one means Bolivia not the one in Columbia) is either SJU (San Jose) which is the main one or PCC for the little one in Columbia. Puerto Rico is SJC (San Jose – only one letter different from SJU in Puerto Rico). This mistake, given a flight only is very easy to make – especially if (wth all due respect) it was booked via one of the younger members of our profession – usually in a multiple agency (not always, though).

The client, if inexperienced, may not have spotted this until quite late on, both countries speak more or less the same language, more or less look the same (Latin American) and have many similar features (rather like Buenos Aires, looking on the seafront, looks a bit like Fuenguirola). Even with a holiday, the client may have thought Costa Rica was the capital of Puerto Rico or vica versa, so
I can imagine this happening – even if it was a holiday booking and from examples given above, before all the booking people jump up and down – let this be a salutory lesson. never assume that the client knows enough to be correct – even that the cleint really knows where they want to go!

Always check this could be a simple code error iot could be the cleint getting confused about where they wanted to go in the first place. Emily, you, if you are a seasoned agent should understand this. This is a mistake that can be made even by the best. Why should anyone at TC spot it? Frankly, this is a press report and we would really need to know the full facts but I suspect it is along the lines I have suggested.

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…. sorry SJO is, of course, Costa Rica! SJC is of course, San Jose, California – See – even I get my wires twisted!!

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Murray

I am sure no one will take Advantage of your mistake.

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I was on holiday in the Gambia many years ago and met an old lady who had been there a week and thought she was in the Canaries. She was very put out when I informed her she was actually in Africa.

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This isn’t the first time. A few years ago a British couple booked a flight to Sydney, Australia, and ended up in Sydney, Nova Scoita, Canada. Believe me, there is nothing even vaguely similar about the two cities. They didn’t realize the mistake until they landed.

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@Murray

Ditto on the Portland problem. I used to be a TA at Council Travel. One day the agent next to me got a frantic call from a student she booked on a flight to Oregon instead of Maine. The airline let the student fly back the same day.

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When I was 15 I was an exchange student in Germany and I spent Christmas with family in London. My uncle took me to the airport to catch the flight back to London and I promptly boarded the wrong flight – the Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt rather than Stuttgart. Nothing remotely similar in the names but I was young and heard them calling a Lufthansa flight so I assumed it was mine. I didn’t realise until I actually got to Frankfurt. At least they are in the same country and Lufthansa, realising no doubt that they had an unaccompanied minor on their hands and it was partly their fault for not checking the boarding pass, did put me on the next plane from Frankfurt to Stuttgart.

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I wonder if anyone booked a ticket to DXBai but ended up in a wet and windy DUBlin.

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