A New York man heading off on a dream holiday to Sydney, Australia, to take a cruise got the shock of his life when he looked out of the plane window to see snow-capped mountains rather than the golden sands of Bondi Beach.
“I saw a mountaintop covered in white snow. At that point, I knew I was in trouble,” Kingsley Burnett, 62, told local TV channel KTVQ after he realised he had booked and caught a flight to the tiny Montana city of Sidney rather than the Australian city.
“It’s a matter of acronyms. The S-Y-D as opposed to S-D-Y. Somebody has to fix that,” Burnett said, explaining how a mix-up over airport codes had led to his unfortunate mistake that had landed him in Billings, Montana, as a tiny jet waited to make his connection to the wrong Sydney.
Burnett also admitted to the TV station that he had been trying to be frugal for his trip and been pleasantly surprised at the cheapness of the flight he had found for his planned trip halfway across the globe.
Burnett ended up in local hotel the Boothill Inn while he waited for a return flight, where the manager, Shelli Mann, revealed this was not the first time this mix-up had happened.
“This is the second time we’ve had a guest that was trying to get to Sydney, Australia,” she told KTVQ.