So, a friend of mine recently bought, online, a plane ticket for his father. With short notice, his father had to go to Melbourne on business. The son sees an incredible, oh-my-god-it-can’t-be-true, offer on the internet: A ticket to Melbourne International Airport priced so much lower than one would expect that he immediately pounced on the opportunity!
Dad was delighted, and very proud of his son for finding such a great deal! Dad boards a plane in Detroit bound for Atlanta. In Atlanta he has a brief layover then boards his connecting flight to Melbourne.
All is going perfectly. The Melbourne flight pulls away from the gate on time and is taxiing in preparation for take-off. The pilot announces, “Folks, sit back and relax. We’ve got a three hour flight to Melbourne, Florida.”
Dad leaps up! “FLORIDA??? Stop the plane! I need to go to AUSTRALIA!!!”
So they stop the plane. All the good Floridians are delayed as my friend’s father deplanes and retrieves his luggage.
But, in all fairness, who knew there was a Melbourne in Florida? Not just a town called Melbourne, but a town with an international airport???
Yes, there had to be many many other signs that he was not in the midst of international travel, the whole ordeal was quite silly and Dad and Son are entirely at fault- but it makes for a pretty funny story that they will never live down!
P.S. This is the second air-travel related Thread I’ve started in less than a half hour. Find the other one and you win a donkey!
:eek:
Really? A whole donkey? I’ve always wanted one of those.
Heh, yeah, I stay in Melbourne (Aus), so I’ve had my share of mix-ups with Melbourne, Florida. Usually it involves booking a hotel, because when you do an online search, “Melbourne, Florida” always seems to be one of the top few in the list.
HA! But did the airline give him a break on the Australia tickets? Did he get there on time? Was he able to fly directly from Melbourne, FL to Melbourne, Australia? Were there more layovers? Did he have to waste even more money on hotels waiting for an Australian flight??
Well, he did get off the plane in Atlanta, and got back to Detroit the same day. Purchased a ticket for Antipodean Melbourne, now at the very last minute which ended up being quite expensive.
Different Airline for the Australia flight so of course they felt no obligation to give him any break on the price. Don’t know what happened with the airline that flew him to Atlanta and back, I don’t know if he tried to strong-arm them into giving him a credit or refund, of course it really was his fault- not theirs- so they might have been reluctant to credit him.
I’m buying most of this except that a flight from Atlanta to Melbourne, FL can take three hours. Unless he was in a crop duster it should be a 1-2 hour flight, tops.
Also, this reminds me of a story back about 15 years ago where I guy in LA boarded a flight for Auckland because the Kiwi accent made him think that they’d said Oakland. Apparently he figured it out fairly early into the flight, but they made him fly all the way to NZ, then turned him around and sent him back.