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A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

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Re: A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

#261

Post by spcebar »

I had travel plans to visit a friend in Wisconsin in I believe 2018. My flight left at around 5:30am so I was a bit groggy when I got to the airport. I went to the counter to check-in and get my ticket, and couldn't remember where my connection was, so I told the woman at the counter my name and that I was flying to either Chicago or Detroit. She said "you're flying to Detroit, and your plane isn't leaving at 5:30, it's leaving at 5" (which was 10 minutes from now). I hauled ass to the security line and told a TSA agent that I was about to miss my plane. They hustled me to the front of the line, I took my belt and my shoes off and threw the contents of my pockets into a bin. I went through the body scanner, and ran to the gate, which, thankfully was within site of security. With my belt and shoes still in hand, I gave my ticket to the gate agent, who told me, you're in luck, they're right about to close the doors.

So I got on the plane, and, unrelated to the story, met a fellow who introduced me to AWK and Hacker News. In the last 10 minutes, I took out my phone to see what gate my connection would be at, and saw that it would not be in Detroit, but in Chicago. The woman at the check-in desk had given me a ticket to the wrong flight.

I told a flight attendant, "I'm on the wrong flight," and she said "what do you mean you're on the wrong flight?" I explained the situation, and she told me to speak to the gate agent when I got off the plane, and that they would sort it out. I got off the plane and started explaining the situation to the gate agent, and as he was trying to figure it out, a flight attendant came off the plane and said to him, "you better be giving this guy free miles, and free upgrades, and free drinks." They put me on a connecting flight from Detroit to Wisconsin and I got in a few hours early. All in all, an interesting experience and a fun story. They didn't give me and free miles or drinks though.

To this day I have no idea how I got on that plane--whether it was a colossal blunder by the gate agent or, if, perhaps, by some coincidence, another person by my name (which is a fairly common name) was supposed to be traveling to Detroit from that airport that day and missed their flight.

Re: A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

#262

Post by nonfamous »

yongjik wrote: post #168
RegnisGnaw wrote: post #4

I lived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada (eh?) for 23 years and we have similar stories. There is an island that is part of Nova Scotia called Cape Breton with a city named Sydney (so Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada) with population of ~30K. Every few years we get a tourist that confuses that with Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. They generally realize something is wrong when they switch planes in Halifax from a Jet (B…

Not as impressive, but there used to be two stations in Seoul's circular subway line 2, named Sinchon and Sincheon, on the opposite corner of Seoul. In older Romanization scheme it was worse: Shinch'on vs. Shinch'ŏn. (I guess it didn't help that they sound almost identical to an untrained English speaker.) Sadly (for me), they renamed one station, so they aren't confusing any more. Boo.

The Chicago “El” subway system has three stations named “Chicago”. None are in the downtown core. I always wonder about tourists hopping on the Blue line at O’Hare and where they end up.

Re: A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

#263

Post by tecleandor »

lhoff wrote: post #249
tecleandor wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ha! I've got a friend who, on his very early 20s, wanted to stay for a while in Ireland to learn English while working (Madrid, Spain, here). He had a big farewell party, drank a bit too much, and missed his flight early in the morning, only to find that he had booked a flight to BERLIN instead of DUBLIN. He was so lucky to miss it, imagine that hangover-y arrival to Berlin imagining it's Ireland.

How does one mix up Berlin and Dublin? Because of Pronunciation?

shrugs In Spanish the accent for both Berlin and Dublin is in the last silabe, so it sounds a bit more similar than in English. This plus being naive, young and careless, I suppose... :D

Re: A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

#264

Post by InitialLastName »

swiley wrote: post #211
smabie wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can be a more expensive mistake than you think... I would sometimes see Chinese tourists get off at Newark station and always wondered if a) they made a mistake b) they ended up okay. Newark isn't a fun place to be at night.

Man that sounds like something I would do. I'm born here and ride Amtrack often too.

I had a brief panic about it the first time I took the train to NYC (in high school) because all I knew was that I had to get off the train at "Penn Station" and I saw that on a sign as we were pulling out of the Newark station.

Re: A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

#265

Post by madcaptenor »

fennecfoxen wrote: post #237
yongjik wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not as impressive, but there used to be two stations in Seoul's circular subway line 2, named Sinchon and Sincheon, on the opposite corner of Seoul. In older Romanization scheme it was worse: Shinch'on vs. Shinch'ŏn. (I guess it didn't help that they sound almost identical to an untrained English speaker.) Sadly (for me), they renamed one station, so they aren't confusing any more. Boo.

The NYC subway frequently has multiple stops with the same name, e.g. “23 St” (at Lexington Av, Broadway, 6 Av and 8th Av). That’s not always a big problem in Manhattan, because they’re relatively close. But it gets more interesting when you try to get to DeKalb (L) towards the extreme north end of Brooklyn, while DeKalb (BQR) in downtown Brooklyn is the one people know.

Philadelphia only has two subway lines but still has this problem because they run roughly parallel, about a mile and a half apart, for a bit. As a result both lines have stops called "Spring Garden" and "Girard" named after streets that intersect both lines.

Re: A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

#266

Post by madcaptenor »

fma wrote: post #74
geocrasher wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just be glad they didn't send you to Paris TX or Rome, GA. Edit: I forgot Memphis, TN.

As a Georgia resident...we have Rome, Ga AND Athens Ga so you can take a nice trip through European cities a few hours apart. And a Gainesville, Ga not to be confused with a Gainesville, Florida. We also have a Houston County...which is not pronounced the same as Houston, Texas (it is pronounced like house-ten) Also a Decatur, GA not to be confused with Decatur, Alabama. That's all I can think of off the top of my he…

And Decatur isn't in Decatur County. It's in DeKalb county (and the L is silent).

Re: A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

#267

Post by madcaptenor »

InitialLastName wrote: post #16
ilamont wrote: post #3

There was a story some years back about a guy who got on the wrong flight to Oakland ... he ended up in Auckland instead. https://www.cnn.com/2017/12/27/us/wrong-flight-passengers-tr...

There is a similar classic (much less expensive) mistake between New York Penn Station and Newark Penn Station, which are consecutive stops on the Amtrak line NYC.

At one point they were thinking of renaming the big station in Philadelphia, 30th Street Station, after Ben Franklin, but they didn't do it. One reason I heard because they were afraid people would call it "Ben Station" and get it confused with the New York and Newark stations.

(Also, Newark, Delaware is on the same line! But not many trains stop there.)

Re: A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

#268

Post by madcaptenor »

geocrasher wrote: post #67

My first job was at a Staples office supply store in a town known for its tourism and glitz and glamour. Several times in my 15 months at that store, a German tourist would be seen wandering around the store, clearly lost. More than once they asked, in broken English, "where is the Milk?" staple /ˈstāpəl/ plural noun: staples 1. a main or important element of something, especially of a diet. "bread, milk, and other s…

I wonder if any Germans, thinking "surely this town has decent public transportation", wander into a Subway sandwich shop thinking it is an underground train.

Re: A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

#269

Post by [deleted] »

Clewza313 wrote: post #50
RegnisGnaw wrote: post #4

I lived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada (eh?) for 23 years and we have similar stories. There is an island that is part of Nova Scotia called Cape Breton with a city named Sydney (so Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada) with population of ~30K. Every few years we get a tourist that confuses that with Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. They generally realize something is wrong when they switch planes in Halifax from a Jet (B…

Extra bonus fun: Concur, everybody's favorite corporate flight booking engine, shows both Sydney, Nova Scotia and Sydney, New South Wales as "Sydney, NS" in the destination selection dropdown.

[deleted]

Re: A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

#270

Post by nataz »

drdeadringer wrote: post #110
nataz wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The more famous Smithsonian Air and Space museum is in D.C. right on the national mall, maybe 10 min from national airport (technicality in virginia, but right next to DC). You visited the udvar-hazy center which is out by Dulles airport in Chantilly. It is still part of the smithsonian, but more focused on displaying lots of different aircraft in a few large hangers. Very impressive and worth a visit, but not the ma…

Last time I was in DC, they had recently installed one of the space shuttles into the Dulles-area Smithsonian hanger. I was in "DC Central" and made a point to bus out to the off-site hanger for the space shuttle (and everything else there). Although I did my paranoid pre-trip research [partial thanks to dad], I can understand the confusion.

If you are only going to visit one location, or if you have young kids, or you want to hit up the other smithsonian museum's the Air and Space museum on the mall takes priority.

That said, I've been to the Air and Space museum a handful of times, and I only go back when I have visitors in town who want to do the tourist thing.

The udvar-hazy faculty is something I'll visit on my own over and over again. It's an incredible collection of important machines including the discovery space shuttle, an SR71 blackbird, the Enola Gay, etc.

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