Be careful when booking flights back home...

[preiffer]

From this article

Call it a Manchester mix-up. A British man left Los Angeles Tuesday morning on a flight to Manchester - Manchester, England, he thought.

Well, Jim Hourihan got a big surprise when he got off the plane in Manchester, N.H. Hourihan thinks the mix-up occurred when he called Continental Airlines to ask for an earlier flight.

Hourihan got on a plane home to Manchester, England Tuesday night.

Manchester airport in New Hampshire recently changed its name to the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport, but that still didn't help him get to the right place.

[HighFlyer]

Im sorry, but that is funny!

Thanks,
Sarah

He probably didn't realise that there are no direct flights to LAX from Manchester anyway with any airline. Still funny though (with no disrespect to the guy who ended up lost).

Surely you would realise before boarding. There cannot have been many Mancs in the departure lounge for starters. There has to be at least one bloke in a football shirt on every flight to Manchester (Sorry if I offended anyone)

[HighFlyer]

Originally posted by VS075
Still funny though (with no disrespect to the guy who ended up lost).

Yes, as Queenie said "We can't go around punishing people for being stupid ... !"

I guess as most of us here are FF we would have known instantly although i guess your average Joe isnt that travel savvy so i guess it can (and obviously does) happen.

Im still not convinced that there wasnt an announcement along the lines of "Flight X to Manchester (New Hampshire) ..." although again, he might have thought that was a home county.

Bless!

Thanks,
Sarah

[preiffer]

What concerns me even more is that he actually had TWO opportunities to spot his mistake:

There are no direct flights with Continental, so he'd have had a connection! [:0]

[mcmbenjamin]

And the airport codes are different

And what about immigration - no need to use a passport to go to NH?

[mcmbenjamin]

Originally posted by MarkJ
And what about immigration - no need to use a passport to go to NH?

Correct Mark. Gotta love New Hampshire's state motto of 'Live free or die'....

[preiffer]

Ah, but to be fair - he was probably asked for his passport by way of ID. [:?]

What about the pre take-off announcement about - 'Our expected flight time today is 5 hours!!' - That would have rung some alarm bells with me.

Phil

Yeah I think we are all agreed - the guy was a complete doofus!![:w]

Reminds me of my mateÕs experience he was a CSD on BA. Doing a walk round through the cabins pre-departure a gentleman in Y with a heavy North East accent asks if there are plenty of taxis at the arrival airport.
Trev says "sure, where are you heading"
Pax replies "Playa de las Americas"
By this time the aircraft has pushed back,Trev asks the pax to come up to FC with him sits him in a suite and then tells the captain they have a little problem, aircraft heads back to the gate and PAX is off loaded.
The flight was going to Tel Aviv not Tenerife.
The stag week Geordie had missed his Luton EZ flight, headed to LHR and been sold the TXL ticket by a BA agent who misheard his stong accent,At the time BA didn't fly to Tenerife.

Correct Mark. Gotta love New Hampshire's state motto of 'Live free or die'....

Mentioning death on a license plate is a little grim though lets be fair.

I got a chuckle out of the Tenerife/Tel Aviv mix up. I once flew into Prague (about 1990 I think) on SAS from Germany and was told by the FA when I stood up to de-plane that they didnt actually let pax off there they just re-fueled.

I got off in the end and was met on the tarmac by a jeep full of armed soldiers...what a way to start a 12 month contract.

I know of a mix up where someone wanted to fly to Oakland (CA), and got booked to Auckland instead!!! Only found out at check-in!