I agree with Phildo74

I checked in at Gatwick about 7 years ago for an Air 2000 (First Choice now) flight back to Malaga, and was given a boarding card to Palma! There were several flights checking in at the same time to different destinations, and all the desks said 'Air 2000 - all flights'. Luckily I noticed before I walked too far from the desk, and my suitcase hadn't gone down the chute. Obviously I wasn't booked on the Palma flight, so I would have thought it was impossible that the system would have allowed a boarding card to be issued. The lad on the check in couldn't (or wouldn't) offer any explanation for this happening, but now, every time I travel, they check the boarding pass with you before handing it over.

As a regular viewer of Airport reality programs I check absolutely everything three times an hour and trust no-one but myself.

Control freak, much?

Taking this story at face value, why is everybody focussing on the family and what they should and shouldn't have noticed? This saga started because they were apparently given boarding passes for the wrong flight by the check-in clerk. Their biggest mistake was assuming that said clerk knew what they were doing and trusted them! Experienced travellers might well know that that is an assumption you can't rely on but surely it wasn't unreasonable, in this era of heightened security, for them to assume that the check-in clerk knew what they were doing and would make sure that they didn't issue boarding cards to people who weren't booked on that flight? Let's hope that some action ha been taken about this carelessness on the clerk's part!

SM

Something similar happened when we flew to Corfu from Bristol airport in May 2006. We had all taken our seats on the plane and just before the doors closed, we heard bits of panicky conversation from a couple a few seats behind us, when out of the blue the stewardess announced - for your information please be aware that this is the flight to Corfu and not to "..........." (can't remember what country, think it was Ibiza). This couple jumped out of their seats and said they were on the wrong plane. Luckily, we hadn't moved and they were able to disembark. I remember hubby and me looking at each other stunned - we couldn't believe how that could have happened. We had a fit of the giggles then

We always fly with First Choice even as Air 2000 ,and have noticed that them and most other operators just have desks that go to all the destinations and just one que to check in.This is at Manchester and Gatwick. It may have been a case of check in clerk putting in the wrong airport code or not changing it from the last passesnger?
I must be a total geek then because I always know where Im flying to and also the flight code!

When I arrive at the airport I check the boards first. That tells me what desk I book in at and possibly any delays.

Having booked on flight number ab1 then if my boarding pass said xy3 then I would query it. My tickets says ab1 so why is it not the same on the pass?

If the story really is true - the media they only publish the part they want so the truth may be something else - then the passenger is as much to blame as the person who issued the ticket.

Some of the stories related here show that mistakes can happen but people normally do check.

Strikes me another case of it is always the fault of someone else as usual.

As for going straight to sleep...

fwh

I must be a numpty then as I rarely check my boarding card except to see what seat number I have. Will have to be more diligent in future.

luci

I must be a numpty

only joking

To err is human (er see my earlier post ) but I'm suprised the IT systems at check in would have allowed this to happen.

The falling asleep could well be true. If they had check in at 0430, the parents might not have gone to bed the night before and would therefore be tired enough to fall asleep.

IMO, the check in clerk should have checked their tickets and made sure they were issued with boarding cards for the correct flight.

The couple should also have checked boarding cards, it might not have helped though if they only knew which country they were flying to and weren't aware of the airport name. There's several cities where the airport has a name which doesn't relate to city name.

A couple of flights I've been on, they've announced 'this is the flight to xxxxx not yyyyy'. Getting on wrong flight is also possible if gate is changed at last minute and announcements aren't clear. I've known Ryanair to change gate at the last minute. Back in November 2006, I and all other passenegrs were waiting at gate for flight to Dublin from Stansted when announcement came that it was departing through another gate. Due to this, the first people on the plane were the ones who got to the new gate first, they didn't enforce the numbered boarding.
.

The fact that they boarded to Bodrum flight was because their boarding cards said Bodrum and they, and their bags, were checked in for that flight.
I can assure you that despite what the article said, it was not a comment check-in. The Arrecife and Bodrum flights were checking in next to each other, but on seperate desks. - Error No.1 - passengers in wrong queue.
These passengers at no point looked at their tickets that they collected on the day. Their tickets would've stated Arrecife, and the Arrerfice flight number. - Error No.2 - passengers did not check tickets were correct .(A requirement by the airline whether tickets delivered before hand, or collected on day) and did not note down destination and flight number, whose to say there wasn't more than one flight to Lanzarote on the same day.
The agent unfortunately did check them in onto the wrong flight, however there was plenty of oppurtunity to have spotted this mistake well before getting onto the plane. - Error No.3 Agent did not check tickets correctly and manually entered names in system

Experienced travellers check everything because they're scared of messing up,
Inexperienced travellers check everything because they are scared of messing up,

Error No.4 - passengers took boarding cards, put them away and didnt check any details.

I for one find it very hard to believe that all 3 passengers fell asleep straight away, missing any annoucements from crew or pilots. Pilots normally comment on their routing, weather on the way and estimated arrival. This is also backed up by the live map on the screens. Alarm bells should've rang when they noticed they were going East instead of South.

Also,
Was it a coincidence that there were no genuine Bodrum passengers allocated the seat numbers that these three sat in. You'd think there would have been a bit of a fuss...."excuse me, but I think you're sitting in our seats...."

Shirley maybe the people ment for those seats on the Bodrum flight had got on the plane to Lanz by mistake , but was too embarrased to say anything to anyone?

I think Caaardiff sums it up very well.

A catalogue of errors on both sides - and I think with the "all falling asleep" a bit of artistic licence.

But as I have said before, the press very rarely print a story as it is, rather their version of events.

A good traveller's tale, but that is all it is. Now if they had finished up in Iraq or Afghanistan it really would have been newsworthy.

fwh