united airlines is once again at the stoplight because of a major mix-up when a woman passenger landed up at the wrong destination. She had to suffer a 28-hour ordeal when she boarded the wrong flight and, instead of landing in Paris, she found herself in San Francisco.
The facts of the case
According to New Zealand Herald, it was another goof-up by United Airlines. It has admitted to the incident and has labeled it as a failure on its part that resulted in the woman passenger boarding the wrong flight. She had to suffer a 28-hour ordeal because of her inability to speak English.
She was under the impression that she was boarding a flight from Newark to Paris, but the flight she boarded was headed to San Francisco, and she realized this only when she landed at the destination.
It seems after getting on the plane; she discovered that someone else occupying her seat, so she contacted a crew member with her boarding pass to get clarification. But, the crew member took the matter lightly and directed her to another vacant seat. If he had been more attentive, the error would have been detected immediately and would not have led to the embarrassing situation.
The passenger did not know that the United Airlines had changed the gate number and there was no announcement to that effect in French, neither had they sent any SMS to her about the changed gate number.
The ordeal of the woman passenger would be evident from the fact that after traveling 5000-Km in the Wrong Direction, she had to wait for 11 hours in San Francisco before she was able to board a flight to Paris.
Slipshod methods of United Airlines
United Airlines has, apparently, settled a confidential lawsuit. It has awarded the woman passenger a refund, has given her a voucher for another journey and is taking steps to ensure that there is no repetition of such an incident when someone bound for Paris is taken to San Francisco.
The airline has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. One of these related to the offloading of a passenger Dr. David Dao. When footage emerged of him being dragged off a plane in Chicago, it sent shockwaves across the world. The chief executive of United has admitted that it was a "mistake of epic proportions."
To add to its miseries, there was more negative publicity for it when Simon, a giant rabbit died during a flight from London, and the company had to pay an enormous monetary compensation.
As to arriving at wrong destinations, there is the actual story of a Dutch teenager who went to the wrong Sydney – he wanted to go to Sydney in Australia but, instead, found himself in Sydney, Nova Scotia. This is a recent incident and happened because of duplication of city names.
