The Wrong Birmingham!
#1
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Jul 2013
Posts: 143
The Wrong Birmingham!
Couple from Birmingham UK books holiday to Vegas from Birmingham AL in error...
Couple pick 'wrong' Birmingham in holiday blunder - BBC News
Couple pick 'wrong' Birmingham in holiday blunder - BBC News
#2
Heading for Poppyland
Joined: Jul 2007
Location: North Norfolk and northern New York State
Posts: 14,543
Re: The Wrong Birmingham!
Opening up the Internet to hoi polloi was not a good idea. If these people had gone to the travel agents in the high street, this could all have been avoided.
Or, they could have gone to Skegness instead.
Or, they could have gone to Skegness instead.
#3
Bloody Yank
Joined: Oct 2005
Location: USA! USA!
Posts: 4,186
Re: The Wrong Birmingham!
A German crew providing translation services for a United Nations conference on development financing went to the wrong city.
The crew members showed up in Monterey, Calif., rather than the meeting site more than 1,500 miles away in Monterrey, Mexico, red-faced United Nations and Mexican officials said today.
The crew members, from Brähler ICS, a German company, ''planned their trip from Germany and their travel agency erroneously sent them to Monterey in California,'' an official said.
The crew members showed up in Monterey, Calif., rather than the meeting site more than 1,500 miles away in Monterrey, Mexico, red-faced United Nations and Mexican officials said today.
The crew members, from Brähler ICS, a German company, ''planned their trip from Germany and their travel agency erroneously sent them to Monterey in California,'' an official said.
Know the Way To Monterrey? - NYTimes.com
As a kid (pre-internet), I had to prepare a school report about Vancouver. I wanted some photos, so I went to a travel agency and asked if I could get some pictures of British Columbia.
After looking through the file cabinets, the travel agent came back empty-handed: "I looked all through our South America files and I didn't find anything!"
#5
Banned
Joined: Dec 2015
Location: california
Posts: 6,035
Re: The Wrong Birmingham!
Well ne'er mind eh? Who'd want to leave Brummy land in the first place anyway?
#6
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Jul 2015
Location: Watford
Posts: 1,147
Re: The Wrong Birmingham!
Isn't this just a little scary!!??
#7
Re: The Wrong Birmingham!
I read that in the paper today. Sorry, but I would be so embarrassed about my mistake that I'd never put it in the paper! Obviously I feel sorry for them, but it wasn't the travel company's problem so I can understand them refusing to refund. If the drop-down list says 'Birmingham UK' and then 'Birmingham, Alabama' then it couldn't really be much clearer. I'd have thought the price for the flights would have told them it wasn't Brum UK, it'd be way cheaper to fly internal USA.
We once arranged to meet my sister to go to The Reindeer Centre near Ashford, Kent. She travelled down from Nottingham and I never thought she'd make a mistake because she had been to Ashford with us before to The Rare Breeds Centre. She booked her ticket to Ashford, Surrey and didn't realise until she got there that she'd got it wrong.
We once arranged to meet my sister to go to The Reindeer Centre near Ashford, Kent. She travelled down from Nottingham and I never thought she'd make a mistake because she had been to Ashford with us before to The Rare Breeds Centre. She booked her ticket to Ashford, Surrey and didn't realise until she got there that she'd got it wrong.
#8
Re: The Wrong Birmingham!
I remember some of my first trips to the US were to visit friends in DC. I think I double triple quadruple checked I was flying in to Washington DC not Washington State and still panicked a bit.
#9
Re: The Wrong Birmingham!
Since attracting media attention, the couple have been offered a free five-day holiday to Las Vegas by Virgin Holidays.
#10
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Joined: Jul 2013
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Re: The Wrong Birmingham!
Does make you wonder why they put it in the paper. Catastrophic!
#11
Heading for Poppyland
Joined: Jul 2007
Location: North Norfolk and northern New York State
Posts: 14,543
Re: The Wrong Birmingham!
There was a similar story a while ago, people from UK wanted to fly to Sydney in Australia for a holiday of a lifetime. It never occurred to them that a flight via Halifax, Nova Scotia was an odd itinerary. At Halifax, they got on the next flight ( a little prop plane) they still didn't realise something was wrong. They got to Sydney, NS, and apparently had a very nice holiday.
#12
Heading for Poppyland
Joined: Jul 2007
Location: North Norfolk and northern New York State
Posts: 14,543
Re: The Wrong Birmingham!
Omg I just googled it and it looks like a good proportion of folks who fly in to Sydney NS actually think they are in Sydney, NSW (the one with the harbour bridge and the opera house.)