Short answer as we all now is I am stupid :p

Anyway, I was off to Paris to watch the Rugby, I checked in online and had allocated seating. Went to the correct gate etc went out and walked to an aircraft, 2 planes were boarding at the same time, I went left and should have gone right!!

Note - I had to board the plane on the tarmac, so you go out the gate and walk up stairs etc

So I get in and show my boarding card to the stewardess and she says just down the way seat 6D, I get to the seat and there as someone in the seat, so we call a stewardess and she asks me to take a seat elsewhere for the moment, so I oblige and take a seat, then a third stewardess comes up to me after checking the manifest and asks to see my boarding card, and proceeds to tell me I can stay where I am. Super, I have an exit seat with more leg room, all has worked out well.

That is until I hear something over the speaker...

Note once I've taken my seat I put on my ipod with noise cancelling headphones and I am blissfully unaware of anything around me and reading a book. I take the headphones off for take off and put them back on once we level out and that's the way it was for an hour and a half or so, then I have to take my headphones off for landing, this is when the captain says welcome to Barcelona, BARCEL-f***ING-LONA!!! I kinda was in shock and called over a stewardess and she confirmed we were going to Barca.

They told me to stay on the plane until the very end and I'd need to explain myself to the head steward and captain, I was like how the f*** is this my fault, 3 different hostess all looked at my boarding slip! Even though I was angry I didn't act it, I was fairly polite in my opinion.

So, I had to wait on the landing thingo (the tunnel you walk through to get onto a plane - they had one at Barca) I had psycho Spanish customs or immagration people yelling at me in Spanish, that hardly helped :p I proceed to tell them the problem and they didn't speak clear English so they got someone else to translate, I said I have a valid passport etc just no return ticket hehe....

Meanwhile the captain was speaking with Dublin head office and they sorted me out a flight from Barca to Paris FREE of charge on ANOTHER airline (assume a partner one), so I was happy enough with that and it allowed me to get to Paris to see the rugby :) I even sat in the co-pilot's chair as the captain explained it all to me.

Then I got escorted through some 'special' customs area and had to explain myself to even more Spanish authorities.

So if you're still reading, am I just plain stupid for getting on the wrong plane OR is the airline incompetant?

Personally I think it's a case of both!

Still it's a good story to tell, but stressfull none-the-less!

For a flight that should have taken a little over an hour, I left home at 4:30am to finally arrive in my hotel in Paris at 5:30pm, tired but ready to watch an awesome game of rugby.

Bit of both.

Can you describe the chills you got when you realized you where in the wrong country.

HAHAH

that is awesome, i can't beleive you went to the wrong f***ing country.

Lynx I was fairly relaxed, I could have really lost it, I just kinda laughed... it might have been because I only had a couple of hours sleep and it hadn't registered yet!

All told it was around an hour or so after we landed when I knew the outcome, so there was plenty of time to panic! I even contemplated just staying in Barca and have a look around there as I've never been.

The first option, which I didn't mention above, was to take the same plane back to Dublin and get on a later flight to Paris (6pm GMT) but that wouldn't have go me there in enough time to see the match (9pm CET).

They said if I stayed in Barca I'd have to fund my own flight home and if I went through the customs area like any normal person they couldn't help me.

I was resigned to heading back to Dublin and watching the match on TV until the captain gave me the good news :D

haha nice, free travel rocks
did they stamp your passport for it?

lol retard

i think that after the third person looked at your boarding pass, it was pretty much their fault.

But if someone was in the same seat, i probably would've asked (if i knew there were two planes).

so all in all, a bit of both.

hahahahha !!!! funniest thing I've read in a while :D Something similar happened to me on Saturday. Long story short I had way too much to drink on Friday and woke up to myself on a tram in some strange area I've never been to before. It started to snow again and luckily enough I managed to hail down a taxi going past who dropped me off home. ok maybe not as good a story but it was scary not knowing how I got there and not knowing where I was

last edited by Le Infidel at 09:18:50 24/Nov/08

last edited by Le Infidel at 09:23:20 24/Nov/08

I've an EU passport along with my AU one, I use my EU one when tavelling in the EU

Yeah I made sure on the trip home I asked them if it was going to Dublin.

I think I'll be asking each time I have to go via the tarmac :p

Makes for a good story though :)

Last time I was in Belfast lucky I had my AU passport, skipped a queue of about 300 people waiting to get through security, no one was on the non EU one

lol

And yer, a bit of both but really the airline. It shouldn't be that easy to just walk onto another plane. I imagine that would be a breach of security from the airlines point of view.

The airline should have really picked it up when checking your boarding pass, isn't that why they have the boarding pass in the first place to ensure you're on the right plane?

yeah I take both and check which line is shorter as well

Bit of both really. Good story tho!

Were you drunk before boarding the flight? That could have contributed a lot :D I had a few days of stop over in LA a few years ago, ended up going out with some americans I met at the airport and woke up the next day in Mexico with no ID, wallet sleeping in the back of a Jeep Wrangler ... sometimes I think maybe I shouldnt drink so much

The airline should be responsible for making sure only those on that flight should get on that flight and no one else

I noticed when I boaded a QANTAS flight to Radelaide earlier this month that they scanned the ticket when I boarded - surely that would set of some alarms, or did they not even do that?

Wouldn't that just be procedure that if two people get allocated the same seat number, it raises alarm bells and they check the flight number?

Yeah, it's a tiny bit your fault, but honestly? Mostly theirs.

Segue to... few years ago my two bosses were coming back from Sydney to Melbourne, we had this unwritten rule that if you came back from Sydney, you had to bring Krispy Kremes. So Mr DG goes off to get Krispys, and Mr IH boards the flight. Turns out there's a massive line for Krispys, so it takes DG much longer than he thought it would, before he hears "This is the final boarding call for Mr H".
Gets to the gate, "Are you sure Mr H isn't on the plane, I'm his travel partner and I'm sure he's on the plane". Anyway they get him on the plane, looks at his ticket, he's got IH's ticket and IH obviously has his.


They had a similar story involving lost passports on an international flight, but I'll save that for another time.

i do that too when im over there. take both EU and Au passports. just be careful though. if you enter a country on one make sure you leave it on the same one. is a night mare trying to explain to a customs officer why it says your still IN Ireland, when clearly you arent.

i do that too when im over there. take both EU and Au passports. just be careful though. if you enter a country on one make sure you leave it on the same one. is a night mare trying to explain to a customs officer why it says your still IN Ireland, when clearly you arent.

do they really do that? i've left on different passports just to see if it works

I had psycho Spanish customs

Catalunyan customs

Interesting Annon, I've left and returned on different passports more then once and haven't had trouble.... yet

this is when the captain says welcome to Barcelona, BARCEL-f***ING-LONA!!! I kinda was in shock and called over a stewardess and she confirmed we were going to Barca.

AHAHAHAHahahah awe haw hea hwe hahweahehahewahehwahewh

I was always worried that'd happen for trains because sometimes I was a bit casual about checking what platform I was leaving from, but it's amazing given all the bulls*** security stuff that its possible to get on the wrong plane!@#!@# Absolutely incredible.

That'll teach you for not learning another language while in EUROPE!

but ey..free plane ride, I wouldnt be complaining

Happens here as well, I was on a QANTAS plane from Syd to Brisbane sitting on the tarmac with the doors closed about to leave when they jammed the brakes on and strolled back in. Turns out some frenchy got on this plane by accident and they realised (luckily) at the last second.

Hehe, nice work Heardy! Definitely a bit of both in regards to who's fault it was though, but moreso the airline simply because people are stupid and they should be prepared to deal with stupidity like that (and yes, you're one of the stupid people they need to be prepared for :p)

haha, try taking out your earplugs once in a while and you'll see there are sounds and visuals around that tend to help indicate where you're going.

this goes for half the people on public transport too for that matter :)

awesome story. i can't wait for the movie.

haha, shouldnt have headphones on till after teh captain has turned off the fasten seatbelt sign. least you got home free.

mate and i where flying out of barc back to london, he wanted to get his barc stamp. dont know the particulars, but he ended up having to board the wrong flight. he was like "shouldnt someone notice..." he got on and was allocated a seat and then he told the stewart he thought he was on the wrong flight.

last edited by mooby at 12:28:29 24/Nov/08

I am just wondering if they scanned your boarding pass? I know they almost always scan my pass as a matter of course at each gate I go through. Then again maybe the scanner just note if the ticket is valid and nothing else.

Funny story though and I am glad to hear you made it in the end and still got to see the football.

I am just wondering if they scanned your boarding pass? I know they almost always scan my pass as a matter of course at each gate I go through. Then again maybe the scanner just note if the ticket is valid and nothing else.

I assumed it's one of those thing where:

1) Both planes are from the same air line
2) Both planes boarded at the same gate and same boarding pass scanner machine.
3) Both planes using the same boarding style, i.e. passengers walking on the tarmac to board the plane

That's why he said he should've turn right instead of left. Easy enough to you when you're a noob like HeardY LOL

I've nearly done the same thing myself. It's easy enough to do because at a lot of modern airports there'll be multiple flights leaving from the same departure area and the ticket check is on the way into the area not on the way out (so they're not checking for the correct flight only one of many correct flights).

Thankfully your anxiety will put me on alert for my upcoming Euro travels though.

prob an easyjet or ryanair flight, and no they dont scan boarding passes. dont even think ba or bmi did.

haha pretty funny man.

I'd say it was more the airlines fault than yours. But if there were two planes on the tarmack and you weren't sure which plane to get on, I would have asked where the plane was going when I got to the door.

Lucky that you left yourself enough time to get to the game though.

Makes for a great story

Anyone else see the irony in the Irish man asking if he is stupid?

haha awesome story dude.

I think you're a bit silly for getting on the wrong one but in the end it's the airline staff's responsibility to make sure people are where they should be.

Wow... my heart would have sank to my feet hearing that i was in the wrong country!

last edited by Joanna at 12:46:37 25/Nov/08

It's Heardy ... how on earth can anyone think the airline is to blame ?

Wow... my heart would have sank to my feat hearing that i was in the wrong country!

I'm amused Heardy :) Bit of Part A and Part B really. No biggie really, Europe travel time is dick all to another country but they should have checked your ticket betterer. Funny will read again!++

thats the hosties fault..

anyway back to an even more awesome story..

i was on a flight to cairns and i noticed that on the TV display which shows your destination that we were headed to Darwin..

i was watching this for about 10 mins and indeed we were still tracking to darwin.. so i call the steward over and tell her.. she says its probably a mistake on the video.. she heads off to the cockpit anyway.. about 10 mins later we do a large bank and resume a new course.. and the TV screen changes to Cairns

i was a little dismayed

lol

They must have programmed the Navman wrong.

oh man, i peak out mega when i miss my stop on the train

LET ALONE ANOTHER COUNTRY

All of work paid me out big time :/

haha what a good day

haha Superform that's another awesome story.

I would love to get on a random plane not knowing the destination, that would be an awesome adventure! Though I don't really understand how you could not realize you were heading to the wrong city. But that might just be me, I tend to be very aware of my surroundings.

In some European countries the trains do a bit of transformations where one half goes to one destination and the other half to another. This happened to me once and I was sleeping in the wrong train ... Ended up going 300km towards russia when I meant to go to the capitol.

hm id say for wasting a day it would be worth sitting in a copilots seat