Flight passenger mistakenly boards wrong plane, lands in surprising country after many hours
A United Airlines passenger ended up in a different country after accidently boarding the wrong flight.
The passenger was headed from Los Angeles to Managua, Nicaragua, with a layover in Houston — but ended up in Tokyo, according to multiple reports.
A United Airlines spokesperson confirmed the incident to Fox News Digital.
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"We followed up with the airport to understand how this happened, reached out directly to the customer to apologize for his experience and offered travel credits and reimbursement," the spokesperson said.
"We always advise customers to monitor the signs at the gate and boarding announcements to make sure the aircraft they board is going to their intended destination," they added.
The passenger reportedly realized mid-flight that he or she was on the wrong flight — and asked the flight attendant why the trip to Houston was taking six hours, rather than just over three hours.
The person landed at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Japan — and stayed at a hotel for two nights while United sorted out a travel itinerary to the original destination.
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The airline allegedly first offered a $300 travel credit as an apology — but later offered $1,000 in travel credits, the blog "View from the Wing" reported.
A Reddit user posted the mishap in the "r/unitedairlines" forum, sparking a debate about users.
"Yeah… [if] by 6 hours you haven’t arrived in Houston, something is wrong," wrote one person. "I’d love to go to Japan by mistake, though."
Another person wrote, "Not saying it happened here, but several airports have two or even three gates connected to the same area. Once you scan your ticket, you can get onto any of the planes."
"They typically announce the flight’s destination at least one time before they close the door. Perhaps a lack of technology or a language barrier was involved here," said a different user.
A user wrote, "My childhood fear … I used to travel at that age and always checked the flight map on screen [to see if I was] going to the correct destination."
"How do you accidentally board the wrong flight? There are so many things this guy should've noticed," said one individual.
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Another user commented, "You would be surprised how clueless people are."