A Bethesda, Maryland dentist is suing British Airways for sending him to the wrong destination.
The man had planned a trip to Portugal for a conference and figured stopping in Granada, Spain along the way to do some sightseeing would be a great plan. However the man, Edward Gamson (and his partner) were sent to Grenada in the Caribbean by way of London no less.
Gamson said that he did not notice the mistake due to his e-tickets failing to contain the airport code or duration of the trip. 20 minutes after the stopover in London he noticed the mistake while looking at the in-flight map!
After close to three days of travel, Gamson made it to the conference but his plans were ruined.
British Airways offered him and his partner $376 each and 50,000 miles. However, this is just a drop in the bucket since Gamson says he pre-booked hotels, trains and tours costing over $34,000.
Gamson is now suing British Airways, representing himself even though he has no legal background.
While reading the story, I was a bit confused with some of the details and as to why BA is fully to blame. The article states that flights were booked using 375,000 miles to fly in first class. Even if his flights were booked over the phone, why didn’t Gamson check his itinerary online to confirm where he was flying?
It seems to me that he was busy planning an overly pricey vacation while failing to look over the details for one of the most important elements of his trip- the international flights!
Find out more in the NBC News article here.
I remember a young lady who was crying on the phone in the Wichita Falls, TX airport. She was supposed to meet her fiance who was in Wichita, KS. He bought her ticket. Oops.
There are a number of holes in the man’s story. First, e-tickets do contain full details of destinations and flight times. That might give a clue. Second, you normally have to look at flight times so that you can figure out hotels etc. – did he not? Third, BA does not offer First Class on the services he flew on. Fourth, at some stage, while connecting in London, did he not notice any destination board or sign indicating that the flight was to Grenada, not Granada? It seems unlikely. It sounds like opportunism to me, but I’m sort of amazed that he’s not too embarrassed to admit it. Remind me not to use him as my dentist.
I think that there’s a real danger in cases like this for the “travel enthusiast” community to overestimate the ignorance of the average traveler. Most people don’t babysit their itineraries like we do, so this sort of thing is bound to happen once in a while. In fact, it probably happens fairly regularly, but we’re able to hear about it more now as the barriers to communication have dropped.
To underscore this point: ACRP way-finding research indicates that a significant portion of travelers arrive at the airport knowing only their destination city – not even the airline on which they’re flying.
Just the other day someone on FT posted this: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/airberlin-topbonus/1587155-ab-operated-substituted-germanwings-possible.html
I don’t know how people go through life with such little attention to detail…
Paul- LOL. Potayto, Pohtahto
BillyBob- HAHAHA- a bit harsh but… maybe you’re right. I just can’t understand why he didn’t once check his reservation!
As Bugs used to say, “What a Moran!”
Let’s hope for his patients’ sake that he isn’t holding the tooth chart upside down…
You say Granada and I say Greneda…