If you were able to relive one day from the last 12 months, which day would it be — and why?
Given the chance I would relive 25th November 2014. The was the day my husband and I embarked on our 6 week Canadian adventure. We were so excited. However on arrival at Sydney Airport I became suspicious that our tickets were incorrect, so I asked at the check-in counter.
“Are these tickets correct, we are going to St John’s Newfoundland?”
“Yes they are correct they just used the abbreviation” replied the counter attendant.
So I settled and didn’t think about it again.
Then we arrived in Vancouver for some reason I became suspicious again. I checked with the baggage handler only to be given the same response, so again I settled and we continued on our journey across Canada.
By the time our flight arrived in Toronto, we had been up for more than 24 hours and were exhausted. Being smart travelers we decided to check which gate our connecting flight went from before getting food or drinks. We wandered to the departures board where I discovered our flight number and destination didn’t match. Then I realised my gut instincts had been right. The travel agent had booked us flights from Sydney to St John, New Brunswick and not our destination—St John’s, Newfoundland. We were devastated. The only good point was that we solved the problem before either our bags or we bordered the flight.
The gentleman at Air Canada’s service desk was excellent. After about an hour he had made a plan to get us to St John’s as quickly as possible via Halifax arriving 24 hours later than we originally planned. To add humour to this difficult situation he told us this destination was a regular mix up for overseas visitors. The other common problem is people flying into Sydney, Nova Scotia when their destination was Sydney, Australia—a much bigger problem.
The moral of this story is mistakes are easily made and part of the journey. Trust your gut instincts, triple check your airline tickets early and always pack your sense of humour when traveling.
Photo Credit: Google
Considering how much sleep deprivation you must have been suffering from, you handled the situation with a lot of grace and good humor.
Yes we were proud of ourselves. The situation was what it was we just got on with it and decided not to let it ruin our holiday.
Wow!! So glad that you were on top of it from the beginning! I haven’t had this happen (yet), but it is great advice to triple check everything and of course to always have a sense of humor:)
One letter can make a big difference —Sydney NS or Sydney NSW or St John’s or St John. Hoping it doesn’t happen to you.
My friends once had a similar problem when returning home to Japan after Christmas, except it was with the times. Their tickets said 7:00, and they showed up at the airport to find that of course that meant morning, not evening (07:00 vs. 19:00). They had to purchase new tickets in a rush to be back in time for work. It’s too easy when paying attention to other stuff and dealing with sleep deprivation to make those kinds of mistakes!
It certainly is.
That was cutting it close!
Yes