‘I saw a mountaintop covered in white snow. At that point, I knew I was in trouble’
An American man setting off on a dream holiday to sunny, Sydney, was shocked to later discover 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 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 where temperatures on Sunday range from 22C-28C.
When he touched down in Billings last week, the snow and the small Cape Air jet waiting to take him to Sidney, Montana, were the giveaways that spoiled his dream holiday. Kingsley was set to join a dream cruise from Sydney
“It’s a matter of acronyms. The S-Y-D as opposed to S-D-Y. Somebody has to fix that,” he said, referring to the airport codes used for each destination (SYD is Australia, and SDY is in eastern Montana.)
The 62-year-old told the TV station that he was trying to frugal on his trip and was happily surprised at how cheap the flight from New York was.
Burnett ended up in local hotel the Boothill Inn while he waited for a return flight.
The manger there, Shelli Mann, revealed to KTVQ, that Kingsley wasn’t the first person to make the mistake.
“This is the second time we’ve had a guest that was trying to get to Sydney, Australia.”
But all what not lost.
With no need to head to Sidney, Burnett went to the American Airlines ticket desk in Billings and met Carol Castellano.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CoIgOBCAOl1/
“He was really funny. Kingsley came, and he goes, ‘I’ve got a problem,’” Castellano told the TV station.
She later booked him a return trip home at Kingsley couldn’t make his cruise on time. The cruise is now scheduled for June.
“For Carol, it was not a paycheck. It was a human being she was dealing with,” Kingsley said, of his new friend.
“Montana didn’t have kangaroos. It had Carol. And that was good enough for me,” he said.
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