Ticket and Boarding Pass to Gdansk, flys to Malta

[Ancient-Mariner]

Polish father-of-five, 75, who caught wrong Ryanair flight at Leeds Airport and ended up 1,000 miles from home only realised he was in MALTA when the taxi driver didn’t understand him
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6595059/Polish-father-five-75-caught-wrong-Ryanair-flight-Leeds-Airport-ended-Malta.html

Ooops!

[172_driver]

That was just one passenger not knowing where he's going. Worse situation is when your Operations Center hasn't got a clue :D

https://standbynordic.com/plane-flies-to-wrong-airport-in-sweden/

[Hot 'n' High]

Or this absolute classic. Scene: packed combined departure lounge in Bournemouth some 10 years ago with 2 x 737 worth of pax waiting to jet off to sunny climes. The place was heaving – maybe the 737s were both delayed – it was very, very busy! I was simply early awaiting another flight deadheading so I was watching on – relieved I was not part of the melee. The two 737s duly arrive to whisk said holiday makers off to sunny climes - one Ryanair 737 and one Thompson/TUI(?) 737 which were both turned round and were ready for boarding at exactly the same moment. The teams at the one Gate (you just walked out to your plane in them days – may be different now) went into a huddle and I could guess what the conversion was - “How do we get 2 plane-loads of pax on board asap without causing chaos? Anyone got any bright ideas?!”. After a few minutes conversation a lightbulb lit up above the Gate staff – clearly a solution had indeed been devised.

Over the Gate PA “Ladies and Gentlemen, Ryanair would like to announce that Flight 425 to “somewhere sunny” is ready for boarding and Thompson/TUI(?) would also like to announce that Flight 265A to “somewhere else sunny” is also now ready for boarding…...” and then it continued with the classic ending – as a very firm instruction “Would all passengers for “somewhere else sunny” note that you are in the blue aircraft! Thank you! - CLICK!”.

Well, that was it. The departure lounge erupted as everyone got up and piled out the Gate and 2 streams of eager pax headed for the 2 737’s and up the front stairs with an approx 50/50 split. So far so good, but I was counting off the seconds for the inevitable. Almost at the moment that the first pax reached the top of the 2 sets of steps, chaos ensued, as probably 1 in 5 of the pax were subsequently dispatched back down the stairs against the inbound flow of pax – clearly having been told by the increasingly frustrated cabin crew “No Sir/Madam, this flight is to “somewhere sunny”. For your flight to “somewhere else sunny” you need the OTHER blue aeroplane!!!!!!” - or the reciprocal instruction on the other 737. So there were now 3 flows; 2 from the gate to the 2 737’s and then a contraflow system between the 2 737’s! I have no idea if anyone actually ended up at the wrong destination – I suspect not – but the sorting out was a scene to behold! I bet there was a final PA on board each 737 once loaded just to check no strays had somehow made it on board the wrong aircraft! I felt so sorry for the respective cabin crews who, initially, must have thought the pax had gone completely and utterly nuts …. until they probably started to piece together just what the Gate staff must have said to cause such mayhem! Happy days, eh ... except not for the 2 sets of cabin crew on that particular day! H 'n' H

[vikingivesterled]

Are not all boarding passses scanned at time of boarding now. If the scanner used is not online to the backend database of the airline it raises questions around the security of the number and identity of passengers on board compared to passengers checked in on system. And hence the validity of the warning to immigration since passenger data now is preforwarded to receiving countries authorities. After all, the in the article alluded to airport security only checks that people have a boarding card or ticket somewhere for that day. Maybe they at the gate now just checks that passport name is like on boarding card, and the onboard count matches the boarded number from the gate, to improve ontime performance. Would be interesting to find out how often this happens on a company wide basis.

[er340790]

Don't they have Polish taxi drivers in Malta??? :E

[virginblue]

The real cracker is:


Mr Lawreniuk was shocked to discover he was in the wrong country while attempting to order a taxi after being told by staff at a tourist information desk: 'I am sorry sir but I don't speak Polish.'

So you would deboard in Malta into Mediterranean sunshine, walk all the way through a terminal with nothing remotely Polish in it and only find out that you are not in Gdansk when you try to order a taxi in Polish? Quite surprising ignorance for a retired engineer.

[andrasz]

So you would deboard in Malta into Mediterranean sunshine...

To give the benefit of doubt to the poor chap, a miserable rainy winter morning in the Mediterranean is not all that different from a miserable rainy winter morning in the Baltic...
Obviously it was a bit too early in the morning for the unfortunate crewmember who was checking the boarding passes at the door.

[racedo]

To give the benefit of doubt to the poor chap, a miserable rainy winter day in the Mediterranean is not all that different from a miserable rainy winter day in the Baltic. And it could have been in the evening darkness...

Er was a 6.50 am flight. Think the diff in Temps he would have known.

OTOH it is out of his comfort zone so he may just have strguggled.

[KelvinD]

What about the business of counting heads before take off? Surely, if that had been done, there would have been a discrepancy?

[pettinger93]

A few years ago I boarded an Aer Lingus flight at Dublin for Gatwick. Chap sitting next to me was settling down, with seatbelt on, when another man arrived at the last minute. Both of them had a boarding pass showing the same seat number and some 'animated discussion' followed. After intervention by the cabin crew, it turned out that the seated man had a boarding pass for an entirely different Aer Lingus flight, that had left 30 mins beforehand. None of the boarding checks had picked this up, and, had the seat not been booked, the seated man would never have known his mistake until after takeoff. (Have no recollection where he had actually intended to go)

[meleagertoo]

The real cracker is:



So you would deboard in Malta into Mediterranean sunshine, walk all the way through a terminal with nothing remotely Polish in it and only find out that you are not in Gdansk when you try to order a taxi in Polish? Quite surprising ignorance for a retired engineer.
Not really. In my experience most Poles fly at least half a litre of vodka down. Perfectly understandable in such circumstances.

[rifruffian]

One day I checked in (with family) at LHR for flight to Trinidad. We were in a fully loaded bus speeding across tarmacs to embark for the Trini adventure when the Caribbean grannie next to me said: 'excuse me does this bus stop at Clapham' ?
Uhm, bit of a shock. I really checked to ensure I was on the right bus;....(she wasn't)...

[racedo]

Not really. In my experience most Poles fly at least half a litre of vodka down. Perfectly understandable in such circumstances.

What an entirely crass statement. As someone who flies in and out of Poland 10-12 times a year I have never found it like that. Amazing number of Poles arrested for issues on board flights vs Brits where alcohol is concerned, seems its the Brits with the issue.

[ve3id]

Don't they have Polish taxi drivers in Malta??? :E
and its impossible to get good egg and chips, too!

[Intrance]

What an entirely crass statement. As someone who flies in and out of Poland 10-12 times a year I have never found it like that. Amazing number of Poles arrested for issues on board flights vs Brits where alcohol is concerned, seems its the Brits with the issue.Same experience. I fly into and out of Poland at least once a week, usually more. While we are generalizing, I have more issues with Brits pissing off the rest of the pax with their loud drunk stag party behaviour than any Polish pax causing issues or being drunk on board or before boarding :rolleyes:.

[UPP]

No, they don't.

[andy148]

Quite a few years ago a group of us were flying to Dallas Fort Worth with BA, for some reason this day they were busing us out to the airplane. As standard we were late to check in and get through to the bus and we were with the stragglers. I was in the middle of the group walking up the stairs, when I got to the top the guy in front of me, who was part of my group handed over his boarding pass to the lovely FA. Looking quizzically at him, then at us. Then at the rest of the people from our bus walking down the very busy 747. Where are you going she asked? 'Dallas fort worth' he replied. 'Are you sure'? She asked. Being a member of HM finest, we generally know where we're going...sometimes. Only this flight wasn't going to Dallas, it was going to some part of the Caribbean, and now with a few extra pax wanting to stay on board. Unfortunately they wouldn't let us stay on board, and finally making it to Dallas. Followed by a few miserable weeks trudging around US training area dreaming about what could have been.

[512]

As a bit of a dinosaur, I always hold my boarding pass up in front of me as I board the aircraft. More often than not, it is ignored as I greet the cabin crew just inside the door. I know that some of them do check it, can see their eyes move from my face to boarding pass and back again. When it does not, I think “What else is not checked today?”

[4turbines]

Just happend to me once in my whole career as a pilot to have all pax on board for an other destination then the one I was planned to. Glad I did an announcement during taxi to the runway! We could resolve the problem quite quickly on the holding bay and get to the new destination without big delay. (Fuel was fortunately no problem)

[old,not bold]

Quite surprising ignorance for a retired engineer.Why? What's surprising?

[Mac the Knife]

Direct flight from Luqa to Gdansk? I don't believe it.

Mac (lived in Malta for 5Y)

[Council Van]

What about the business of counting heads before take off? Surely, if that had been done, there would have been a discrepancy?
A bit old school in this day and age.

​​​​​​It's was also potentially a bit of a bugger at one outfit I used to be at when the cabin crew miss counted 3 times as the ops manual said that was it, punters off, bags off and start again. The only time it happened to me that seemed to get overlooked as they eventually found someone who could count and the skip was happy to go.

[DaveReidUK]

Direct flight from Luqa to Gdansk? I don't believe it.

Ryanair flies twice weekly MLA-GDN.

[Airbanda]

Around 1985 we were flying LUT-AGP with Monarch on a 757, first rotation of the day, departure around 08:00. Cabin crew were up an down aisle several times and it was clear to those who know how these things work that there were either more or fewer bums on seats than the stated in manifest. Eventually we were all asked to show our boarding passes and one young female left the aircraft. She was on plane to right destination but her booking was with Britannia.........

[davidjpowell]

Dublin Airport were trying their very best to organise this last year.

The airport and its departing services were in something of a mess due to a storm. Our flight to Manchester was the only flight scheduled to depart on time, so that was of course the stuff of dreams.

One of our allocated gates (we were allocated 9 gates over the course of the evening) was boarding a flight to Oslo and the gate staff getting irate at defending their gate from Manchester travellers... The reason for this of course was that the all the monitors etc told us mere passengers that the gate was boarding passengers for Manchester.

When they eventually checked the monitors a few choice words were exercised...

[mmcp42]

father-in-law was in a wheelchair, so had to be loaded through the galley
sat down
offered GnT
after a few minutes
"can we see your ticket please?"
oops we're going to Moscow!
(he was booked on a flight to Australia)
"never been to Moscow!"
but they unloaded him and sent him off the another flight!

[MurphyWasRight]

A few years ago I boarded an Aer Lingus flight at Dublin for Gatwick. Chap sitting next to me was settling down, with seatbelt on, when another man arrived at the last minute. Both of them had a boarding pass showing the same seat number and some 'animated discussion' followed. After intervention by the cabin crew, it turned out that the seated man had a boarding pass for an entirely different Aer Lingus flight, that had left 30 mins beforehand. None of the boarding checks had picked this up, and, had the seat not been booked, the seated man would never have known his mistake until after takeoff. (Have no recollection where he had actually intended to go)

Many years ago (pre 9/11) a friend who worked at a business consulting firm (lots of short notice trips etc) woke up late and just made it to the gate in time to board, when he got to his seat there was someone in it with same # on boarding pass.
Flight attendant sorting it out ended up telling my friend "sir you have this seat tomorrow, this gentleman has it today". Instead of almost late he was a day early. I believe the boarding pass came from in-house travel agency, but not sure.

He also once (again pre 9/11) made a flight by getting out of his car in passenger drop off zone and running in to the terminal, policeman yelling at him "you will be towed" etc. It was worth the fine and storage fee to not miss a meeting, basically valet parking by state trooper.

Of course if you tried that today you would at best be tasered and tackled...

[possel]

Many, many years ago I boarded a flight from Luton to Belfast City (remember Capital Airlines?). Just as we started up the cabin staff announced "welcome on board this flight to Dublin"! Much panic ensued until she corrected herself. Another time at LHR, BMA gave me and someone else the same seat on the same flight - I was there first, and so she was given 1C as she wanted to get off quickly on arrival.

[jpta]

Happened to me a few weeks ago, flew to Eindhoven instead of Charleroi.

Morning 6am flight, both Wizzair from Budapest (external boarding gates with variable fences) next to each other. Was almost last pax, ran to the plane, apparently the wrong one. Flight was half empty, I realized after doors closed. As my destination was Antwerp (halfway between the two airports) I was like lets see whats happen :)

Nothing happened (both EU airports with no border or passport control), but got a good story.

Wizzair cabin crew since a few months DO NOT check passes when boarding. Mistake in my oppinion but everything for the turnover time.

[nicolai]

A couple of years ago the handling geniuses for Easyjet at Amsterdam Schiphol marked a passenger as offloaded during the gate boarding pass scan but gave him back his boarding pass. He obviously didn’t know that and boarded with all the rest of us.

After two head counts and a pass of the cabin to check everyone had a boarding pass for this flight - which of course they did - the crew had to resort to walking down the aisle with the passenger manifest doing a roll call like in primary school until they found the extra.

The crew were clearly displeased with the ground muppets.