28 April 2016

Birmingham (Alabama) or Birmingham (UK)? 5 embarrassing destination mix-ups

We saw today’s BBC news story about a young UK couple who mistakenly booked a dream holiday from Birmingham, Alabama (USA) – instead of Birmingham the Midlands. The young couple were heading to Las Vegas for a surprise birthday trip and had confused between the two airports when they booked, turning up at Birmingham Airport UK (airport code BHX), to find their flight didn’t exist.

An easy mistake to make? Well it’s certainly not the first time this has happened. Last summer another story made headlines, of a destination mix up between Bucharest and Budapest by a Jersey politician. He’d booked his flight to Hungary’s capital city rather than his intended trip to Romania – only realising the mistake when he got there.

And a couple of years’ ago, a UK couple found their flight to Granada in Spain seemed to be taking longer than expected. They were right: They were actually on a flight to the island of Grenada in the Caribbean.

There are many similarly-named airports and destinations, so this is something our Flight Team have to watch out for. An eye for detail is an essential skill when you’re arranging flights all over the world.

These incidents got us thinking about which other destinations could lead to an embarrassing blunder, due to their similar sounding names. There are many of course. But if you’re thinking of travelling to any of these, pronounce your words carefully, pay very close attention to your itinerary and make sure you’re heading to the right continent.

Budapest, Hungary OR Bucharest, Romania?

Flight time from London to Budapest, Hungary: 2 hrs 10 mins

Flight time from London to Bucharest, Romania: 3 hrs

Granada, Spain OR the Caribbean island of Grenada?

Flight time from London to Granada, Spain: 2 hrs 30 mins

Flight time from London to Grenada, Caribbean: 8 hrs 30 mins

Auckland, New Zealand OR Oakland, California?

Flight time from London to Auckland, New Zealand: 21 hrs

Flight time from London to Oakland, California: 10 hrs

Paris, France OR Paris, Texas?

Flight time from London to Paris, France: 40 mins

Flight time from London to Paris, Texas: 8 hrs 30 mins

Sydney, Australia OR Sydney, Canada?

Flight time from London to Sydney, Australia: 20 hrs

Flight time from London to Sydney, Canada: 5 hrs

Our detail-loving Flight Team will always make sure you’re heading in the right direction. For a personalised private jet charter price to these, or any other destination, contact us or call (24 hours) on +44 1747 642 777.