Couple ends up on wrong continent after Turkish airline's error

[whatmeworry]

I am sure they would have noticed something was wrong on the in-flight flight tracker channel?

Sandy Valdiviseo and her husband Triet Vo were intending to fly from Los Angeles to Dakar in Senegal with Turkish Airlines. However, instead they ended up about 11,000km away – on an entirely different continent – in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, after the airport codes were mixed up, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Read more: Couple ends up on wrong continent after airline error
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[cmon0005]

Imagine the Original route credits for that!

 

[whatmeworry]

Imagine the Original route credits for that!

Lol I was thinking the same and it also looks like they will get some compo!

 

[Boris spatsky]

Had a friend go on AA to San Jose, California not San Jose, Puerto Rico because of a ticketing stuff up. She even left the terminal wondering why everyone sounded american - it was only when the cabbie couldn't find her hotel that she clued on!

 

[NM]

I am sure they would have noticed something was wrong on the in-flight flight tracker channel?

That is exactly how they found out ... after sleeping for a while.

 

[whatmeworry]

That is exactly how they found out ... after sleeping for a while.

At least they found out near the end of the flight rather then at the start. Imagine the feeling when they did find out!

 

[Aussie_flyer]

how is it Turkish's fault is what I want to know.

 

[eric2011]

They've been offered economy tickets...I would be holding out for J class at minimum

 

[Fruitcake]

how is it Turkish's fault is what I want to know.

The LA Times article says that Turkish waited until they reviewed the call centre tapes before offering the pax any restitution. Thus my guess is that the ticket was booked on the phone. Presumably the passenger asked for tickets to Dakar, and the phone agent booked flights to Dhaka.

So "fault" probably lies with the Turkish phone operator for not taking the booking correctly. Perhaps the agent fat-fingered it, but maybe the pax didn't specify 'Dhaka, Senegal' clearly enough on the phone. In any case they obviously didn't review their itinerary especially closely.

However, the fact that Turkish apparently felt red-faced enough that they offered the pax restitution fairly quickly implies they felt a bit of responsibility.

 

[NM]

The LA Times article says that Turkish waited until they reviewed the call centre tapes before offering the pax any restitution. Thus my guess is that the ticket was booked on the phone. Presumably the passenger asked for tickets from Dakar, and the phone agent booked flights to Dhaka.

So "fault" probably lies with the Turkish phone operator for not taking the booking correctly. Perhaps the agent fat-fingered it, but maybe the pax didn't specify 'Dhaka, Senegal' clearly enough on the phone. In any case they obviously didn't review their itinerary especially closely.

However, the fact that Turkish apparently felt red-faced enough that they offered the pax restitution fairly quickly implies they felt a bit of responsibility.

From the article published by news.com.au:

Once on the ground, they claim it took several hours for the airline to confirm the mistake after tracking down the recording of the booking, proving that Valdivieso had requested a trip to Senegal.

This would indicate that they had requested to fly to Senegal and not to Bangladesh.

 

[Aussie_flyer]

thanks the Age article wasn't really showing why it was the airlines fault... seems it was then. Still, didn't the itinerary specify the city?

 

[sergeyvzn]

and I am flying them back to Sydney from St.Petersburg, Russia in July. Hope I won't end up in Sydney, Canada

 

[moa999]

While the pax may very well have said Dakar, Senegal,
they presumably also failed to note.

Information sent on itinerary.
Check in screens
Boarding gates
All of which would have had the incorrect spelling

Or been triggered by flight time, visa checking (maybe) or even the major nationality of passengers boarding the plane (I suspect Bangladesh would be somewhat different to Senegal)

 

[AIRwin]

and I am flying them back to Sydney from St.Petersburg, Russia in July. Hope I won't end up in Sydney, Canada

If TK launches flights to YQY by then...

 

[sergeyvzn]

If TK launches flights to YQY by then...

they are rapidly expanding

 

[Aussie_flyer]

While the pax may very well have said Dakar, Senegal,
they presumably also failed to note.

Information sent on itinerary.
Check in screens
Boarding gates
All of which would have had the incorrect spelling

Or been triggered by flight time, visa checking (maybe) or even the major nationality of passengers boarding the plane (I suspect Bangladesh would be somewhat different to Senegal)

yes, lets just say this couple weren't particularly 'bright'.

 

[Fruitcake]

While the pax may very well have said Dakar, Senegal,
they presumably also failed to note.

Information sent on itinerary.

I think that's the big one (until the trip actually commences) - personally on the rare occasion I need to make a phone booking (typically only VA 2-for-1s) I go through it with a comb when the itinerary turns up. And most of those transactions are with the luxury of of a phone operator located in Australia speaking native English, as do I.

I have no idea about TK's set up but the likely combination of a noisy environment for the call centre agent, accented English and over-enthusiastic compression on the IP phone system mean that I personally would assume they've made a mistake until I could confirm otherwise.

 

[ozmille]

When I was working at the airport back in BRU something similar happened. A guy went to the ticketing desk of Brussels Airlines asking a ticket to Dhaka, SN does not fly to Dhaka so the ticketing agent assumed the pax was asking for a ticket to Dakar, that pax however did not notice until he arrived in Dakar Senegal...

 

[777]

The passengers actually said that in transit they were surprised by the Dakar -- Dhaka confusion presumably on announcements and potentially on signage and put it down to Turkish translation. Assuming you're not particularly looking out for it/ aware that there is another place with a similar name that is actually understandable when dealing with an airline whose native language is not your own. Every now and then i get correspondence from a range of European airlines where words in English are mangled slightly and i simply assume that i know what they mean.

 

[harvyk]

The passengers actually said that in transit they were surprised by the Dakar -- Dhaka confusion presumably on announcements and potentially on signage and put it down to Turkish translation. Assuming you're not particularly looking out for it/ aware that there is another place with a similar name that is actually understandable when dealing with an airline whose native language is not your own. Every now and then i get correspondence from a range of European airlines where words in English are mangled slightly and i simply assume that i know what they mean.

I have to agree, I've seen some pretty weird English translations in my time. I have also seen some interesting translations of English proper names into other names (sometimes with no bearing on the original naming) So I could easily understand why someone would look at Dhaka and assume it's the same as Dakar.

Evidently since the phone call recording was enough to make the airline change the flights at no cost, one would assume that if the airline did not feel at least some part to blame, that would not have happened, airlines these days are not always known for their compassion when a mistake happens, esp if they feel the mistake was the pax's.