If you think airline ticketing has reached such technical heights that you would never be sent to the wrong place, this will prove you wrong. American dentist Edward Gamson is suing British Airways for sending him to the Caribbean island Grenada instead of the Spanish city Granada.
Gamson told the Independent that he and his partner, who were getting a vacation for the first time in two years, didn’t realize they were going to the wrong place until they saw the in-flight map on the video screen. Rather than heading south from London, the plane was heading west, towards the Atlantic.
Nine hours later, the couple were in the tropical paradise of Grenada instead of seeing the castles in Granada.
At first, British Airways apologized and offered to take them to Spain. However, they never got there after three days and the airline refused to reimburse them the £2,650 they spent on first-class tickets.
“I have a lifelong interest in Islamic art. I’m also of Spanish Jewish heritage so it was something I had always wanted to do to visit Granada and the Alhambra,” Gamson told the Independent. “I made it absolutely clear to the booking agent I wanted to go to Granada in Spain. Why on earth would I want to go to Grenada in the Caribbean if I was flying back to America from Lisbon?”
According to TIME, Gamson filed a lawsuit against BA in American courts, seeking $34,000 in damages.
BA has not commented on the situation. It is alleged in the suit that the error was made by Gamson’s travel agent in Florida and the tickets only said “Grenada,” without referencing the airport code for either destination.