There’s nothing better than booking a spontaneous holiday, but this story might serve as a warning to spend a few extra seconds scanning your itinerary breakdown before you click pay.
Richella Heekin decided to surprise boyfriend Ben Marlow with a trip to Las Vegas for his 30th birthday. She booked non-refundable flights for £1,200 after putting money away for the best part of two years, and everything was looking good.
There was just one problem. The couple turned up at Birmingham Airport all ready for their Sin City jolly, but when they looked at the departure boards there were no flights showing up. Only then did Richella realise that she’d booked to fly from Birmingham Alabama, not the UK’s second city.
As you can see, they’re hardly neighbours.
As it turns out, there is only one letter that separates both airport codes. BHX is Birmingham, UK; BHM is Birmingham, Alabama. Unfortunately for the couple that one letter distinction also represents around a 4,200 distance.
Ben told the BBC that he was mainly disappointed for his girlfriend, who was obviously distraught about what happened.
“Richella’s face has just gone red and she’s in tears,” he said.
“I was like – we’re not going to Vegas then.
“I was more gutted for Richella than myself because it was a surprise.”
26-year-old Richella booked the flights on Lastminute.com, and said that she’d been looking everywhere on the website for the best deals. Afterwards she received a confirmation email and assumed BHM was the correct code.
Lastminute.com said they did try, and fail, to find alternative flights for the couple that were available at the time, but ultimately denied that there was any error on their behalf.
It’s not all bad news, though. As they’d already booked time off work, Ben and Richella decided to go to Amsterdam instead. There are worse Plan B’s.
