How you can end up in Bangladesh,Asia when you thought you booked for Senegal,Africa

[Aarian]

Sandy Valdivieso and her husband intended to fly from Los Angeles to Dakar, Senegal. They ended up almost 7,000 miles off-course in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

 

How something this bizarre could happen illustrates how a single mix-up on an airline's part can cascade into a travel nightmare of epic proportions.

 

Travel nightmare: Dakar, Dhaka - what's the difference? :

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/may/17/business/la-fi-lazarus-20130517

 

Aarian.

[+ Gar1eth]

Travel nightmare: Dakar, Dhaka - what's the difference? :

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/may/17/business/la-fi-lazarus-20130517

 

Aarian.

 

The article says Turkish Airlines offered the people two free economy class tickets to wherever Turkish Airlines flies-

1) I'm surprised after the screw up they didn't offer the couple 1st class

2) shouldn't the airline have offered the couple 2 'round trip' economy class tickets to anywhere they fly -otherwise the couple will be stuck at their destination.

 

Gman

[Samai139]

Granted the airlines made a mistake but anyone who travels internationally should pay much more attention to details than this couple did. This story should be like an Aesop Fable---read it, listen to it, and apply the moral to your future travels. My sympathy to the couple and if there is any saving grace in the story it is they have a story to tell for the rest of their lives.

[fedssocr1]

It's not hard to see how this happened. But who books on the phone? And who doesn't check fares online and get some idea of schedule and available flights? Typically your itinerary spells out the city (and often country) in addition to listing the airport code. I think the biggest issue is TK stringing them along after the fact telling them they would look into and then never doing that or following up hoping they would go away. They did get them to where they wanted to go on the next available flight so it's not like they were stranded in Bangladesh. For an error where the passengers shared some responsibility I think free economy class tickets is about right.

[rvwnsd]

Clearly, the airline screwed up. However, the traveler could have looked at their tickets and easily found the mistake.