<BR> A friend of ours rang an flight booking agency for a last minute return flight to Havana. She was told she would have to change flights at Atlanta, which she thought was odd. The tickets arrived and to her horror the destination was for Savannah.Result,no holiday and a fight to get her money re-paid for the tickets.<BR><BR> Has anyone else any examples of misunderstanding.

<BR>I read on CNN that many people booking internet tickets have made mistakes: The example given was using LAF as the airport code for Lafayette, Louisiana - when it is really West Lafayette, Indiana.<BR><BR>Apparently this happens so often that Northwest offers a discount airfare between West Lafayette and Lafayette (1000 miles apart)<BR><BR>

There was a well documented case recently where a couple from England purchased what they thought were bargain tickets for their trip of a lifetime to Australia.<BR><BR>It was only after the plane had landed in Sydney, Canada, that they realised they had made a mistake with their internet booking.<BR><BR>They did say that some of the convesations, which they had with fellow passengers about their destination, were a bit unusual.

Back when I was in college, I wanted to go stay at my friend's parent's vacation home on Cape Cod. My friends told me to fly into Provincetown, MA but instead the airline booked me to Providence, RI. instead. Luckily for me, the mistake was caught before I left home b/c we were all too young to rent a car...

My sister desperately needed some cash, so I went to Western Union to wire the money to Granada, Spain. Three days later, when nothing had shown up at her bank, I went back to Western Union. They had helpfully wired the money to Grenada, West Indies. This was before Reagan's &quot;invasion&quot; of that island, and I had never heard of the place, but I had to wonder how such a dumb mistake could have happened.

A story on the news a while back: A traveler from Europe boarded a plane that he thought was bound for Oakland CA USA, Turns out he went to Aukland NZ. I guess in less crazy times the gate agents back then didn't scrutinize that well.

The route thru Atlanta should have triggered a red flag. It's probably not too often people purchase tickets to Havana from the US. There was a thread a while ago if it was even legal to purchase a ticket.

When I was in college, I worked at both PeopleExpress and Continental Airline. This would happen all the time with people intending to go to Portland, unfortunately, they wanted the one in Oregon, not Maine.<BR><BR>I once had to help a passenger that had gotten on a flight in Atlanta that came into Newark. He then connected to his flight to Albany. The people in Albany sent him back to Newark (where I met him) when he thought it was odd that several inches of snow would be on the ground in Albany, Georgia. Apparently, he wasn't aware of the town of Albany, New York.

I heard a twist on the same story.It was an American student returning from London on the AirNewZealand flight making a stop on LA.On arriving at the gate,the FA announced that passengers continuing on to &quot;Auckland&quot; remain seated that the flight would be continuing in an hour.Sincetheguy was headed for 'Oakland&quot; he stayed in his seat.Three hours after takeoff,he questioned the flight attendant.He thought &quot;Oakland&quot; was an hour or so from LA.Thats when he learned he was indeed on the wrong flight.

I made a reservation for Daytona Beach, FL. many years ago. When I got to the airport, my ticket read Dayton, OH. Shudder.

I've had just a little thing like that, but no harm was done (luckily). It was the agent's fault, also, and done by phone. I booked a rental car at Columbus, Ohio airport and when I got there the agency had reserved it for Columbus SC or somewhere (there are tons of Columbus's). I clearly said Ohio and it doesn't even sound alike, but that was their computer fault probably. Luckily, there was a car available like I wanted and they honored the cheaper rate that they had quoted (as SC is cheaper than Ohio), so I came out ahead.

I used to work at a hotel in College Station, TX. Several times people would come in with &quot;reservations.&quot; We didn't show a reservation for them but when we put their confirmation number in the system, it seems their reservation was made for State College, PA.

I'd love to have past or present rez agents chime in here -- I've heard some howlers from them.<BR><BR>My favorite: woman calling in because she was confused by the itinerary printed on her ticket -- she was particularly worried about the last stop, because it seemed to be one stop past where her brother lived. &quot;How do I get from Void back to my brother's town?&quot;

Over on the U.S. board, someone was having a problem with priceline. The person wanted to go to San Jose, Coasta Rica but priceline sent the person to San Jose, California.<BR><BR>Also on the U.S. board, someone was going to Charleston, West Virginia (didn't put state name in request) and was getting info on Charleston, South Carolina.<BR><BR>My brother went to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Several of his coworkers thought he was going to the country Mexico and were asking questions about passports and pesos.<BR>

My neighbor's daughter got her first job as a travel agent and was excited about sending off her first clients to Canada. She told me, I hope they like the view of the Pacific from their room it was hard to find one in Ottawa.... <BR><BR>I never did find out where she had sent them.

<BR>When I lived in Minnessota a few years ago there was a truck driverwho had driven from Ohio to Duluth Minn. Trouble was when he arrived and looked at the full address his load was suppose to goto Duluth Georgia!!<BR>With the price of fuel these days that<BR> would be a costly mistake.

I will always remember an article I read about a group of translators who were going to an international conference in Monterrey, Mexico. They ended up in Monterey, California instead.

I remember the story in the paper about the guy who got on a plane in Los Angeles that he thought was going to Aukland and ended up in Oakland. Or was it the other way around???<BR><BR>And I was once on a plane going from Miami to San Francisco and the pilot came on the intercom and started giving us all the information for our arrival destination of New York. We all went into panic until we saw a flight attendant head into the cabin, then he corrected himself.

I had a colleague a few years ago who flew into Geneva, caught a train for his conference in Fribourg and, after a couple of hours, started wondering why he wasn't there yet, learned he was on the way to Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany).