Family is flown 2,000 miles the wrong way

William Black wrote:

"tim....." wrote in message
...

"William Black" wrote in message
...
[]
Mind you, flying from India a couple of times makes you check everything
as a matter of routine because, well, people make mistakes...

I think you're in the minority.

I got from the desk, through passport control, security and to the final
gate without realising the numpty on the desk had given me someone else's
(business class) pass.

That's quite possible.

On the other hand I fly often enough to be careful, and so far, am
grateful that myself, my wife and all the baggage have, for the past three
years or so, turned up on time...

Things like baggage turning up on time are usually out of your control,
so that's luck more than anything else.

--
(*) of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate -www.davidhorne.net
(email address on website) "If people think God is interesting, the
onus is on them to show that there is anything there to talk about.
Otherwise they should just shut up about it." -Richard Dawkins

"David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*)" wrote in message
...
William Black wrote:

"tim....." wrote in message
...

"William Black" wrote in message
...
[]
Mind you, flying from India a couple of times makes you check
everything
as a matter of routine because, well, people make mistakes...

I think you're in the minority.

I got from the desk, through passport control, security and to the
final
gate without realising the numpty on the desk had given me someone
else's
(business class) pass.

That's quite possible.

On the other hand I fly often enough to be careful, and so far, am
grateful that myself, my wife and all the baggage have, for the past
three
years or so, turned up on time...

Things like baggage turning up on time are usually out of your control,
so that's luck more than anything else.

I know. And what's more I know the odds are starting to lengthen...

--
William Black


I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Barbeques on fire by the chalets past the castle headland
I watched the gift shops glitter in the darkness off the Newborough gate
All these moments will be lost in time, like icecream on the beach
Time for tea.

it's not entirely unbelievable that they thought Bodrum
was just the airport 'on Lanzarote' that they were flying to.

I can see myself blundering into exactly the mistake you described.
Of course, I also look at the postings at the gate, the departure
board, etc.; but we can also think of cases where the airport doesn't
have the city's name in its name and the three-letter code bears at
best an obscure relationship to either one. Maybe they figured Senor
Bodrum was some luminary of Lanzarote and they'd renamed the airport
after him.

This is no doubt why both gate agents and flight attendants
customarily announce the destination. But then, people pay
notoriously little attention to these announcements (especially if
they're dead-on-their-feet tired and/or distracted by family travel)?
One Delta flight attendant in Atlanta tried to make it stand out, and
succeeded: "If your plans for this evening do not take place in San
Francisco, you are on the wrong aircraft and this is your last chance
to get out."

(Don't get me started on the auditory clutter of both concourses and
cabins, a combination of mealymouthed standard verbiage; people who
seem to be trying to auction something off (and/or lull you to sleep)
rather than communicate; and endless-loop PA announcements (most about
security) mandated by somebody who thought he was doing some good...
all of them, all too often, made over a PA system that a burger joint
wouldn't have for its drive-up window. It's a miracle anybody
understands any of it. /rant)

The system is fallible. Twice I've been on a plane when it was
discovered en route that someone was on board who shouldn't have
been. One was an older gent who had stayed on board instead of
getting off and making a connection. The airline was quite chagrined
at this discovery, since aside from all the reasons you don't want to
send somebody's grandpa to the wrong city, it implied that their
through-count was wrong and nobody noticed. (Or they forgot to take
one -- it would've occurred before I boarded.)

The gate agents were, I think, in the clear -- he was supposed to be
on that plane, just not to *stay* on it for the second leg; and as for
his absence from the other plane, well, no-show passengers are a
frequent and unremarkable occurrence; at least in USAmerican domestic
travel, they page you a couple of times and unless you've checked
luggage before disappearing, or otherwise done something suspicious,
somebody gets called from the standby list and that's that.

I'm not sure how the other occasion arose, but it resulted in a kid in
perhaps his early teens, unaccompanied, going to the wrong airport in
the Los Angeles area, one a long way from where he was ticketed to
go. My impression was of a poor kid who did not have much experience
with air travel. A lot of discussion with the flight crew and
pondering of the timetable revealed that he was pretty much out of
luck that night for connections. I think they ended up calling a cab
at company expense for him, and informing the people waiting for him
at the intended airport of what had happened.

Like all the works of man, the system for making sure everybody is on
the right aircraft has flaws, and people's application of it
deteriorates over time...

--Joe

David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*) wrote:
Shawn Hirn wrote:

[]
Mistakes happen, but I am surprised no one in that family bothered to
actually read their boarding passes when they received them.

They claimed to have done that, but said that it simply said "Bodrum"
and they didn't know it was in Turkey. They knew they were going to
Lanzarote, but it's not entirely unbelievable that they thought Bodrum
was just the airport 'on Lanzarote' that they were flying to.

I worked at a company where there was an important meeting scheduled in
Taipei. The VP or marketing and VP of sales were both going. The VP of
marketing couldn't find his passport so he couldn't go. The VP of sales
was given a boarding pass for a flight to Shanghai and didn't realize
the problem until they were airborne. Needless to say, that company is
out of business.

Booooring

"Gregory Morrow" a écrit dans le message
de m...

"Chad and Olga Chu-Choo" wrote:

From The Times
July 22, 2008
Family is flown 2,000 miles the wrong way
Jack Malvern

A family setting off on a five-star holiday travelled 2,000 miles out
of their way after they were given boarding passes for the wrong
flight.

Charlie Coray, his wife, Tania, and daughter, Phoebe, 9, were caught
in a mix-up at a check-in desk before their week's holiday in the
Canary Islands.The family realised the mistake only after the plane
landed and the air stewardess announced: "Welcome to Turkey".

An investigation was started after it emerged that the family were
given the wrong boarding passes at Cardiff airport for their holiday
-----------------------

GM replies:

And here all along I thought these sorts of cock - ups normally happened
only at Manchester, viz...:

http://www.airlinequality.com/main/forum.htm

http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/malta.htm


AIR MALTA review : 22 July 2008 : by M Willis

"My friend and I experienced severe delays travelling with this airline
via
Lat Charter. We travelled from Manchester/Corfu return. The outbound leg
was
delayed by hours and once on board we were told it was due to cabin crew
going sick at the last minute. The return journey was hell. On arrival at
check in at 18.00 hrs local time we were greeted with a sign on the desk
advising of an approx 6 hour delay. This transpired into excess of 10
hours,
finally departing at 4.40am local time. The reasons were explained again
on
board the aircraft this time being due to technical failure of the
aircraft
the day before, and in addition having to wait in Corfu for the airport in
Venice to open at 06.00am to land for fuel en route to Manchester. In
addition to this massive inconvenience there was no meal service on board
on
either flight, only bacon rolls on offer which had to be paid for. I would
not recommend anyone to book a cheap ticket with this airline...."


http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/turkish.htm

TURKISH AIRLINES review : 15 July 2008 : by A Ahmed

"MAN-IST round Trip. The plane hadn't been cleaned properly. Food one of
the
plus points, was quite good - Turkish on the way there and more standard
European food on the way back. There are two choices usually chicken or
pasta and whilst all meals are halal, no vegetarian option seems to be
offered. The main problem were Turkish Airlines staff. The male stewards
were by in large friendly and helpful. The stewardesses however on both
flights, were moody, and unapproachable - God help you if you're a muslim
woman wearing headscarf though, I was travelling with my mum and sister,
the
stewardesses seemed to take exception to this and as a result seemed to
treat them with contempt and rudeness. This blatant prejudice, has put me
off flying with them again. All staff on the flight had a poor grasp of
English, speaking with little clarity - announcements were rarely
understood. Also they seem to have a problem understanding that some
people
take milk with their tea, I know its not the done thing in Turkey, but one
would assume they are well travelled personnel and should be used to such
requests. Turkish Airlines have the equipment and means to be a good
airline, but are let down by staff who spoil an otherwise good journey.
They
are a poor reflection on the Star Alliance, if this is the quality of
service they deem satisfactory..."

/

--
Best
Greg

" I find Greg Morrow lowbrow, witless, and obnoxious. For him to claim
that
we are some
kind of comedy team turns my stomach."
- "cybercat" to me on rec.food.cooking

On Jul 23, 11:59 am, "Ian F." wrote:
"David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*)" wrote in . uk...

People must fly to places like Santorini on charter flights all the time
and not have a clue about the trigraph. I know it's JTR, but I'm a bit
of a geek...

I'm puzzled as to why the tearing-off-the-boarding-pass staff at the gate
didn't spot it.

I guess they don't look that closely all the time. A few years ago, my
partner was en route to Washington DC and managed to get on the wrong
plane - there were two flights to DC leaving (I think) LHR at around
the same time.

To be fair, the airline took the failure of their system very
seriously in that case.

On Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:51:48 -0700 (PDT), Chad and Olga Chu-Choo
wrote:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/tra...cle4374973.ece

From The Times
July 22, 2008
Family is flown 2,000 miles the wrong way
Jack Malvern

A family setting off on a five-star holiday travelled 2,000 miles out
of their way after they were given boarding passes for the wrong
flight.

Charlie Coray, his wife, Tania, and daughter, Phoebe, 9, were caught
in a mix-up at a check-in desk before their week's holiday in the
Canary Islands.The family realised the mistake only after the plane
landed and the air stewardess announced: “Welcome to Turkey”.


Where these people in a deep coma from the moment they entered the
airport? Or functionally illiterate, dyslexic or some other thing
that prevented them from noticing what was printed on the boarding
pass, announced on the tannoy, probably listed at the gate etc?

I continue to wonder how such people manage to produce children, let
alone eat without harming themselves.

I thought we Americans had the world lock on bone stupid people who
gave up all ability to think/read/reason in some distant past..seems
we have competition.

Jim P.