A shocked Ryanair holidaymaker only realised she had boarded the wrong plane when she woke up in Benidorm instead of Paris. Jem Maybank arrived at Leeds Bradford Airport at 5am last Saturday [22nd June] after planning a short city trip to Paris, France.
After passing through security without any problems, the 30-year-old walked to what she thought was the correct gate for Paris-Beauvais Airport. There, the staff scanned and read her boarding pass.
Jem boarded the plane and was confused to discover that her seat number, 34A, did not exist, but she says the cabin crew told her that this could sometimes happen when the plane was switched. She says that even when she was told the flight would be two hours instead of the usual one, she shrugged it off, putting it down to turbulence.
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After being reassigned, Jem says she didn’t hear the announcement and quickly fell asleep throughout the flight. It wasn’t until she woke up and saw the palm trees and mountains outside as they landed that she realized she had accidentally taken the wrong flight – to Alicante.
The property worker admits she has never been to Alicante and only knew it was ‘Benidorm’ because it is the airport Britons travel to for the famous holiday destination.
Ryanair blamed Jem for the error and said it was ‘each passenger’s responsibility to ensure they board the correct aircraft’.
Jem, from Leeds, West Yorkshire, said: “I was having a bit of a mad holiday rush. I was looking for the gate to Paris Beauvais. I saw it was gate 6 or something like that, but this was from a distance. I walked to the gate and just waited in the queue.
“The staff scanned my boarding pass and the QR code and they read it. They just let me go through the gate. I didn’t see the sign or anything, I don’t think I was paying attention, to be honest.
“I had seat 34A and it didn’t exist. I showed it to a cabin crew member and said ‘can you help me as I don’t have a seat’. She just said ‘sometimes that happens when we change’ on the plane the neighborhood, but fortunately there is a no-show.
“They gave me seat 27, so I thought ‘fine, I’ve got a seat, cool’. I was sitting on the plane and I couldn’t really hear the announcement. They must have done one saying ‘this flight is going to Alicante’ but I didn’t hear it. I thought it was weird that it was a two-hour flight but I thought ‘maybe it’s the turbulence’.
“I fell asleep, woke up and all I saw were mountains and palm trees and I thought, ‘This doesn’t look like Paris.’”
Jem waited until everyone had left the plane before speaking to a member of Ryanair’s cabin crew at the end of the plane. The staff quickly helped her arrange a flight for later that evening, but she was still confused as to how that happened and suspected she had misread the gate number as six instead of eight.
Jem said, “I was waiting for everyone to get off the plane and said, ‘Hey, so I’m not supposed to be here, I’m supposed to be in Paris.’ She said, ‘How did you not know that? ‘ The staff was very confused and they said it had never happened before.
“I went through the border control in Alicante and thought ‘I don’t want to be here, I have a hotel in Paris’. I’ve never been to Alicante either, but all I know is that it’s Benidorm. They got me a free flight, which was good. I don’t know how it happened. Maybe the gate number changed while I was waiting
“The number 6 also looks a lot like the number 8 from a distance, so I think that’s what happened. Who knows? We’ll never know.”
At 11pm Jem finally arrived in Paris, Beauvais, but had to take an hour bus journey to the city center where her hotel was. She is now urging other holidaymakers to pay more attention at the airport and listen to all safety announcements – even if they find them ‘boring’.
Jem said: “Alicante was much better than I expected. I went to see a castle. I was there for about seven hours. When I got to Paris I just wanted to make the most of it. I left the hotel thinking I had no time to waste so I went sightseeing and shopping.
“I can’t believe it’s happened. My advice to other holidaymakers would be to just stop using your phone at the airport. Take note. It’s so easy to get overwhelmed and stressed at an airport, but try just relax.
“When you get on the plane and they’re making the safety announcements, just listen to what they’re saying. It’s so boring standing in line and all that, but that’s what gets you. Also try to keep an open mind because Things can change at a drop of a hat.”
A Ryanair spokesperson said: “This passenger was booked to travel from Leeds Bradford to Paris on Saturday 22 June, but went through the wrong gate and boarded a flight to Alicante instead.
“It is the responsibility of each passenger to ensure that they board the correct aircraft. There are several points of contact that inform passengers of the aircraft’s destination, including gate signs and announcements before each flight departure.
“On arrival in Alicante, this passenger informed the crew that he was on the wrong flight. Ryanair immediately arranged for the passenger to be transferred onto the next available flight to Paris, which was due to depart from Alicante later that same day (22 June).”