Have you accidentally booked the wrong flight?

[Mattg]

Have you ever tried to check in for a flight, only to realise that you booked the wrong direction (such as MEL-SYD instead of SYD-MEL), the wrong month, or made some other kind of silly mistake?

If so, what did you do?

I once accidentally booked a 6am flight instead of a 6pm flight. I couldn't change it so ended up just taking it (at great inconvenience!).

 

[JohnK]

Yes.

Booked OOL-SYD in September for travel on Sunday morning when it should have been Saturday morning. That was a costly mistake but could have been a lot worse as we were travelling overseas next day. We would have made flight but lose hotel and car hire booking.

 

[Forg]

I once booked a CDG to LHR flight for myself & two mates, not noticing that I’d forgotten to adjust the date on that day of our schedule … we’d changed plans, one of said mates was trying to impress one of his sister’s friends so we’d had a 1000km diversion in the rental-car to drop her off at FRA. Only realised I’d booked the flight a day too early when we were packing to leave the hotel in the morning, checked the printed docs I was carrying with me, and had something of dummy-spit over my stupidity.

Was Saturday of a long weekend in the UK, so short of paying ~$1500 apiece (in 2001 when that fare was normally around $100) we had to wait ‘til Tuesday to get a train ticket.
Still, there are much worse places to be stuck an extra 3 days than Paris.

 

[Beer_budget]

Sure did. Booked BNE-CBR return on Red e-deal. I haven't lived in Brisbane in 20 years, oops!

Lucky for me, I was booking the flights with an Amex travel credit. Once I'd finished having a minor heart attack, I checked the Amex Travel terms and took a gamble on the 24 hour cancellation for a full refund overruling the Red e-deal terms. Luckily for me that worked and I rebooked, very carefully.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

Thanks, Matt, you've made me paranoid enough to check all my upcoming bookings for accuracy

 

[VPS]

Sure did. Booked BNE-CBR return on Red e-deal. I haven't lived in Brisbane in 20 years, oops!

Lucky for me, I was booking the flights with an Amex travel credit. Once I'd finished having a minor heart attack, I checked the Amex Travel terms and took a gamble on the 24 hour cancellation for a full refund overruling the Red e-deal terms. Luckily for me that worked and I rebooked, very carefully.

Welcome to AFF

 

[AuSammy]

Not the same but similar date mixup. Booked around the world fare with tours in four different countries. At the end on one tour before flying out I booked two nights at a BnB.

We had just booked into the BnB in Tokyo and logged into the WiFi and saw I had received a check-in request from LH. I looked at the date and then the date on my phone and went oh sh.it, the flight is first thing the next morning. I had miscalculated dates. We hadn’t organised transport to NRT and had planned a couple of things to do on the “intervening” day. A relaxing evening turned into a hectic quick readjustment of plans and loss of prepayment for an accommodation night.

 

[DC3]

Have you accidentally booked the wrong flight?

Probably, accidentally. But never purposely booked the wrong flight. It would only be accidentally.

 

[Forg]

Have you accidentally booked the wrong flight?

Probably, accidentally. But never purposely booked the wrong flight. It would only be accidentally.

Oh, believe me, I intended to book that Deathstar flight …

 

[clifford]

Thanks, Matt, you've made me paranoid enough to check all my upcoming bookings for accuracy

Yes indeed. I'm always a bit paranoid when booking a connecting flight to a long haul flight arriving the day after the day of departure.

 

[jastel]

Booked a cheap non changeable flight to Charlotte, North Carolina, instead of Charlestown, South Carolina once at some late hour...probably clicked the wrong one in a drop down menu.

Went to Charlotte, got hire car and saw NASCAR museums and other stuff and then drove to Charlotte a few days later.
My intentions were the reverse, go to Charlestown get car THEN end up at Charlotte to fly back.
At least I figured it out before booking the car or hotel...so no harm done.

 

[markis10]

Sure did. Booked BNE-CBR return on Red e-deal. I haven't lived in Brisbane in 20 years, oops!

Lucky for me, I was booking the flights with an Amex travel credit. Once I'd finished having a minor heart attack, I checked the Amex Travel terms and took a gamble on the 24 hour cancellation for a full refund overruling the Red e-deal terms. Luckily for me that worked and I rebooked, very carefully.

You would have been covered by QF regardless

https://www.qantas.com/au/en/manage-booking/cancel-for-any-reason.html

 

[Haplo]

Booked the return flight one week later than the actual date, luckily my coworker checked the flight about 2 days before departure and we managed to changed the ticket to the correct return date for just a $200 change fee.

 

[TheRealTMA]

I booked BNE WLG on QF J in March, half rewards and half paid. Then realised I had booked a week later than intended. Rang Platinum line and transferred to a consultant who was very efficient and managed to change all the flights for 4 people to the new dates.

Must say I was very impressed with the QF service.

 

[Haplo]

Sure did. Booked BNE-CBR return on Red e-deal. I haven't lived in Brisbane in 20 years, oops!

Lucky for me, I was booking the flights with an Amex travel credit. Once I'd finished having a minor heart attack, I checked the Amex Travel terms and took a gamble on the 24 hour cancellation for a full refund overruling the Red e-deal terms. Luckily for me that worked and I rebooked, very carefully.

Yes I vague remember they use a US travel agent and under US law there is a 24 hours free cancellation policy.

 

[Beer_budget]

You would have been covered by QF regardless

https://www.qantas.com/au/en/manage-booking/cancel-for-any-reason.html

That's handy to know for direct bookings, thank you!

 

[Gladstone Tim]

Last year (oops, 2024) did my first ever North American trip predominantly to the Canadian Rockies and an Alaska cruise hence used a travel agent to counter time zone changes, varied check-in requirements etc. I actually discovered she had mucked things up having booked the flight into Anchorage for the afternoon a day after she should have. Thankfully I noticed this before clicking the, “l have read and checked all details and accept full responsibility for their accuracy (under threat of huge change fees)”.

 

[Scarlett]

Well, I have turned up to the BA J check in desks (flying Y) at LHR and been told my flight was yesterday!

Now, this was of course not my fault your honour. I had submitted travel dates and timings to our travel staff some weeks beforehand. I had transferred to the departure airport, flown outbound legs and hadn’t noticed anything amiss. It was only the check in agent informing me my flight out of LHR was yesterday that prompted me to inspect my itinerary more closely and sure enough there it was.

Now, maybe it was because I was QF WP at the time and the oneworld Emerald meant something to BA, or I had a sufficiently flexible ticket, but the desk angels did their best to get me on that days flight - and get on it I did! Even more surprising was that the flight was oversold and they had a sign to that effect on the check in counters.

My lucky day.

 

[kpc]

A near miss...I asked our corporate travel agent to book me a flight from Man to Ams on a specific date and time. She replied she couldn't find the exact time so booked the closest flight to the time I requested.

Puzzled, I checked and confirmed that the flight I requested was still available to book on the airline's website...then I discovered she had booked Ams to Man instead!

 

[tdimdad]

Once I blindly trusted a TA who accidentally had fat fingers. The draft flight itinerary for two people was all good and I gave the agent green light to book. Cue in the check-in time a few months later when I'm puzzled of why I can check in my partner but not myself. Turns out, the agent had accidentally booked my connection to a day later than planned. Should have proof-read the ticket with a magnifying glass when it was issued... A frantic call to the agent and they managed to move my partner's connection by a day and we got an accommodation and an extra day in Singapore out of it. One of the better places to get stuck in.

A few weeks ago I did a direct booking on QF and my connections were all within the MCT's. But then I realised that I had wanted longer connection times to cover for delays, slow transfers, etc. At hour 23 from the initial booking, I was on the phone to QF and got the changes through using the 24-hour change of mind rule.