Travel operator send UK holidaymaker to wrong destination

A holidaymaker from Britain who booked an exotic three-week trip ended up on the wrong side of the Caribbean because her travel company got the airport codes mixed up when booking the flight.

Thirty-three-year-old Samantha Lazzaris was anticipating a once-in-a-lifetime experience in Costa Rica, known for its spectacular rainforests, beaches and volcanoes.

She ended up on the island of Puerto Rico, however, and to eventually get to Costa Rica required three additional flights, found her £800 out-of-pocket and caused her to lose four days of her holiday.

In the beginning, the trip seemed to be going according to plan. The holistic therapist, a resident of Bedminster, arrived at JFK airport on 16 January and boarded her connecting flight to the Caribbean.

Her first realization that something wasn’t right was after her arrival when her taxi driver told her that there wasn’t a hotel by that name in Puerto Rico.

Lazzaris said: “I asked the taxi driver to take me to this hotel I’d pre-booked, he looked in amazement, speechless, then laughed and said, ‘This is not Costa Rica. It’s Puerto Rico.’”

What had happened was that the Thomas Cook agent used the airport booking code for San Juan, Puerto Rico, rather than the code for San Jose, Costa Rica – her intended destination.  She purchased the £500 return ticket at the Cribbs Causeway branch of Thomas Cook last November.

Thanks to www.thisisbristol.co.uk for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

www.thomascook.com