12-29-2006, 01:01 PM
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#1
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Platinum Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Merced CA
Posts: 2,338
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Typo takes tourist 13,000 km out
BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) -- A 21-year-old German tourist who wanted to visit his girlfriend in the Australian metropolis Sydney landed 13,000 kilometers (8,077 miles) away near Sidney, Montana, after mistyping his destination on a flight booking Web site.
Dressed for the Australian summer in T-shirt and shorts, Tobi Gutt left Germany on Saturday for a four-week holiday.
Instead of arriving "down under", Gutt found himself on a different continent and bound for the chilly state of Montana.
"I did wonder but I didn't want to say anything," Gutt told the Bild newspaper. "I thought to myself, you can fly to Australia via the United States."
Gutt's airline ticket routed him via the U.S. city of Portland, Oregon, to Billings, Montana. Only as he was about to board a commuter flight to Sidney -- an oil town of about 5,000 people -- did he realize his mistake.
The hapless tourist, who had only a thin jacket to keep out the winter cold, spent three days in Billings airport before he was able to buy a new ticket to Australia with 600 euros in cash that his parents and friends sent over from Germany.
"I didn't notice the mistake as my son is usually good with computers," his mother, Sabine, told Reuters.
Copyright 2006 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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12-29-2006, 01:16 PM
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#2
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Diamond Member
Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 8,195
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ha ha. This is actually a great fear of mine that I have every time I strap myself into an airline seat.
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12-29-2006, 01:21 PM
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#3
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Rooting for the laundry
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 21,342
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Wow. and Montana of all places....that's some pretty bad luck right there.
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12-29-2006, 02:00 PM
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#4
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Diamond Member
Join Date: Feb 2001
Posts: 4,629
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Nice to see the airlines step up in the holiday spirit. Sheesh. It was an honest mistake. Fly the guy to Australia for free, get good publicity.
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12-29-2006, 02:49 PM
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#5
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Rooting for the laundry
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 21,342
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ocelot_ark
Nice to see the airlines step up in the holiday spirit. Sheesh. It was an honest mistake. Fly the guy to Australia for free, get good publicity.
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that's a good point. One lousy free flight, and you would get a whole news story about how nice you were...but noooo
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12-29-2006, 03:30 PM
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#6
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Diamond Member
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Hippie Hollow
Posts: 3,128
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Casserly.
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Back up in your ass with the resurrection.
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12-29-2006, 03:39 PM
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#7
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Diamond Member
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 9,222
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You guys don't get it. The point of this story is that there is a guy out there named Tubby Gut.
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12-29-2006, 04:48 PM
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#8
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Diamond Member
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Miami, FL
Posts: 6,655
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lol, good stuff, Dirkadirkastan.
Being I work in this field, I've had a couple of co-workers make that mistake, but short of going through and issuing the ticket. Once someone wanted to go to San Juan (SJC), CA, and was given the price for a ticket going to San Juan (SJU), Puerto Rico. Another time I made a reservation for a passenger to Santiago, Chile (SCL), and when the passenger called AA to confirm it with them, they told him I made him a reservation to Salt Lake City (SLC). I lost that sale!
And Airlines in general are pretty assinine, especially now in high-season, they're not gonna give tickets for free.
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Let's go Mavs!
Last edited by bernardos70; 12-29-2006 at 04:49 PM.
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12-29-2006, 05:02 PM
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#9
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Diamond Member
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Dallas, TX
Posts: 3,705
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Yikes. I'm always super careful not to do something like that to my boss. I would just DIE.
Dirkastan: Your pronunciation must've been a little strange...
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Last edited by Smiles; 12-29-2006 at 05:03 PM.
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12-30-2006, 03:16 PM
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#10
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Diamond Member
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Posts: 4,627
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Nice play to end up wrong in.. Montana. I mean, this time of the year? Pretty Bad luck, dude.
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