Woman flew almost 5,000km in wrong direction after United Airlines failed to inform her of gate change

[CaliCat 3,957]

16 hours ago, ccneat said:

SHE flew the friendly skies — in the wrong direction.

United Airlines admitted it failed a woman who boarded a plane in Newark for a flight to Paris — but ended up in San Francisco instead, WABC-TV reported.

Lucie Bahetoukilae said she took her boarding pass — marked “Newark to Charles de Gaulle” — to the gate, where a United rep scanned it before she boarded the plane.

“When she went to sit, someone was sitting there already,” said her niece, Diane Miantsoko, who translated for the French-speaker.

But she said the flight attendant looked at her boarding pass and simply sat her somewhere else.

Ms Bahetoukilae, who speaks no English, said she never realised United made a last-minute gate change without making an announcement in French or notifying her by email.

“If they would have made the announcement in French, she would have moved gates,” Ms Miantsoko told WABC.

“Of course, because she speaks French, she would’ve moved to another gate.”

Instead of a 7.5 hour flight to the City of Lights, Ms Bahetoukilae flew almost 4,800km to the City by the Bay, where she languished for 11 hours at the airport before being rerouted to France.

 

 

The passenger’s niece Diane Miantsoko said her aunt could’ve “been a terrorist”. Picture: ABCSource:Supplied

When she finally arrived in Paris, she had been travelling for more than 28 hours.

Ms Miantsoko said that despite the hassle, the family was more worried about the airline’s apparent security lapse.

“With everything going on this country, people have to be more careful,” she said.

“They didn’t pay attention. My aunt could have been anyone. She could have been a terrorist and killed people on that flight, and they didn’t know they didn’t catch it.”

United has apologised for the fiasco, saying it “mistakenly put her on the wrong flight.”

And even though Ms Bahetoukilae didn’t seek a refund, she received one for the airfare, hotel accommodation in San Francisco and a voucher for another trip, the station reported.

“We deeply apologise to Ms Bahetoukilae for this unacceptable experience,” the air carrier said in a statement.

“When she arrived in San Francisco, we ensured she got on the next flight to Paris and refunded her ticket. Our customer care team has reached out to her directly to ensure we make this right. We are also working with our team in Newark to prevent this from happening again.”

The beleaguered airline has made headlines recently for a number of incidents, including the violent ejection of Dr David Dao from an overbooked flight on April 9. The Kentucky doctor settled his claim against United last week.

On April 19, the airline came under fire again after the death of a giant rabbit, named Simon, in the hold on a flight from London. United has reportedly reached a five-figure compensation with the rabbit’s breeder.

 

The real crime here is that they put her on the next flight to Paris. They should have given her a night out in SF.

Edited May 9, 2017 by CaliCat

[Amica Nostra 4,803]

1 minute ago, CaliCat said:

 

Good for her. The weather in the Bay Area has been nice recently. I hope she enjoyed her free night in SF.

yeah I am sure she slept well knowing that United was taking her home

[CaliCat 3,957]

15 hours ago, Mr&Mrs G. said:

Other than having to deal with the hills and no Eifel Tower she would have felt right at home in San Francisco. 

 

She most certainly would. SF is arguably the most beautiful city in America, and for the French it's always appealing because of the food and the people. 

[MacUK 983]

I must say, been to France a few times, my brother's lived there for 20 years so I've visited a few times and driven extensively through France with work. I've never met a single French person who speaks absolutely no English at all. I've met many who refuse to converse in English but they've all had at least some basic understanding of English. Just the same as I was taught (very) basic French at school.

 

I'd have thought even with a minimal understanding of English she might have recognised the words "United" and "Paris" over the announcement system and maybe wondered if it concerned her flight.

 

 

But ultimately United were seriously negligent in allowing her to board the flight, and then when she queried her seat being occupied they still failed to spot the mistake. You'd have thought the computer would have flagged it up when they scanned her ticket at the gate.

 

If it's that easy, next time I'm down at Gatwick to catch a flight to Glasgow I'll just bimble straight passed that gate and find one heading to Bali or the Maldives.

[Mr&Mrs G. 903]

1 hour ago, ccneat said:

yeah I am sure she slept well knowing that United was taking her home

How did she know she was on the correct flight the second time? 

 

Maybe they escorted her to her seat and strapped her in just in case she got lost a second time 

[Ban Hammer 13,637]

maybe she didn't say anything for fear she'd be "involuntarily re accommodated"

[bcking 3,157]

Even if someone speaks absolutely no English, French is a latin language that uses our alphabet. Paris is spelled the same in French and English. The destination is written on the board at the check in gate.

 

I'm not saying the airline didn't mess up, they seriously did and I agree with the family that their problem is mostly with the obvious lack of security. However, I'm also not really sure this woman should be travelling alone if she can't notice the difference between "San Francisco" and "Paris". Even if she didn't know what "San Francisco" was, she would know it isn't Paris and it definitely isn't "Charles de Gaule" (The airport), so she should have questioned it.

 

I've travelled a lot in countries where no one speaks english. As long as they write things in our alphabet I can usually muddle my way through. I've never gotten on the wrong plane/train etc... in that situation. Now if we wrote things in an entirely different alphabet then that would be different (and similarly I've run into trouble abroad in that situation). Cities especially in different languages are rarely spelled significantly differently in the Roman alphabet. I don't know how they spell "San Frnacisco" in French but I doubt it is that different since it is a proper noun which doesn't change much.

Edited May 9, 2017 by bcking

[IAMX 3,055]

4 hours ago, MacUK said:

I must say, been to France a few times, my brother's lived there for 20 years so I've visited a few times and driven extensively through France with work. I've never met a single French person who speaks absolutely no English at all. I've met many who refuse to converse in English but they've all had at least some basic understanding of English. Just the same as I was taught (very) basic French at school.

 

I'd have thought even with a minimal understanding of English she might have recognised the words "United" and "Paris" over the announcement system and maybe wondered if it concerned her flight.

 

 

But ultimately United were seriously negligent in allowing her to board the flight, and then when she queried her seat being occupied they still failed to spot the mistake. You'd have thought the computer would have flagged it up when they scanned her ticket at the gate.

 

If it's that easy, next time I'm down at Gatwick to catch a flight to Glasgow I'll just bimble straight passed that gate and find one heading to Bali or the Maldives.

Would make fantastic spontaneous vacation plans. 

[Dashinka 24,864]

17 hours ago, Jacque67 said:

This is outrageous  and typical of the patriarchy!!! Wimmin are invisible... She needs to lawyer up. No time for some weak c'est la vie attitude!!!

 

Is Gloria Allred busy?

[Jacque67 7,328]

50 minutes ago, Bill & Katya said:

Is Gloria Allred busy?

Lol! Charlotte E Ray is on the case!!!!

[OriZ 3,157]

5 hours ago, bcking said:

Even if someone speaks absolutely no English, French is a latin language that uses our alphabet. Paris is spelled the same in French and English. The destination is written on the board at the check in gate.

 

I'm not saying the airline didn't mess up, they seriously did and I agree with the family that their problem is mostly with the obvious lack of security. However, I'm also not really sure this woman should be travelling alone if she can't notice the difference between "San Francisco" and "Paris". Even if she didn't know what "San Francisco" was, she would know it isn't Paris and it definitely isn't "Charles de Gaule" (The airport), so she should have questioned it.

 

I've travelled a lot in countries where no one speaks english. As long as they write things in our alphabet I can usually muddle my way through. I've never gotten on the wrong plane/train etc... in that situation. Now if we wrote things in an entirely different alphabet then that would be different (and similarly I've run into trouble abroad in that situation). Cities especially in different languages are rarely spelled significantly differently in the Roman alphabet. I don't know how they spell "San Frnacisco" in French but I doubt it is that different since it is a proper noun which doesn't change much.

Yuppers. Like I said she could have easily avoided it had her head not been apparently in the clouds. Look at the friggin boards, they're everywhere. Really, that's all it takes.

Edited May 10, 2017 by OriZ

[IAMX 3,055]

7 hours ago, bcking said:

"San Frnacisco"