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Before being able to board their flight, the couple had to pay a large fee due to a minor error with their name.
Phil and Kate, a couple from Brisbane, were reportedly detained at the airport while en route to the UK. They had bought round-trip tickets for $3,200 through the travel site StudentUniverse. The flights they had booked were from Brisbane to Melbourne on Virgin Australia and then from Melbourne to London via Doha on Qatar Airways.
Regrettably, their travel arrangements were nearly disrupted prior to their initial flight. During the booking process, Phil mistakenly entered his wife’s name as “Kate” instead of her official name “Katherine” as it appears on her passport. “It was an administrative mishap – I believe I married Kate in church rather than Katherine,” Phil explained to Nine. While Virgin allowed for the correction to be made on their booking website for a fee, StudentUniverse was less accommodating.
According to Nine, the website suggested that Phil should cancel his wife’s ticket and buy a new one instead. While they would receive a partial refund, they would not be able to get the full amount back for the new purchase.
Phil clarified that the reason for not changing the name on the ticket was due to lack of time. However, they still managed to find time to sell a new ticket to us.
Kate told Nine that she pleaded with them over the phone, saying, “Please, you cannot charge that amount – that is all of our holiday funds gone in an instant.” The cost of the new ticket would be $3,141.
According to a spokesperson from StudentUniverse who spoke with Business Insider, it was not possible to change the name on the ticket. This resulted in the only available solution being to cancel and rebook the ticket. Due to the customer’s mistake being brought to our attention only three hours before the flight, this resulted in additional charges imposed by the airline that could have been avoided if action had been taken earlier.
The Independent has reached out to StudentUniverse and Virgin for their response.
Phil and Kate’s travel mishap occurred when a 16-year-old found themselves in the incorrect location after unintentionally getting on the incorrect flight.
Sixteen-year-old Logan Lose was planning to visit his mother in Cleveland, Ohio for Christmas. However, after his flight landed in Puerto Rico, he realized that he had accidentally boarded the wrong flight. This was due to the Frontier Airlines gate agent not carefully examining his ticket before allowing him to board the flight to San Juan.
During an interview with CNN, Ryan Lose, the father of Logan, shared that Logan asked a lady if the flight was boarding. The lady confirmed and also checked Logan’s bag to ensure it would fit. However, Logan mentioned that his ticket was never scanned and the lady only briefly looked at it before allowing him to board.
“He continued, stating that if his son’s boarding pass had been scanned, it would have been apparent that he was on the incorrect flight.”
Sorry, I am not able to reword this text as it is a source from the website independent.co.uk.
