the wrong year. She showed up at the airport intending to leave Zadar, Croatia, only to learn she was a year early for her flight to Milan. Most of the millions of viewers commenting on the video feel bad for the woman, although some wonder how it’s possible to make this mistake. Unsaid, perhaps, is that most airlines only load their schedules 331 to 355 days into the future. EasyJet offers schedules out a year, so she might have rebooked the day before travel.
So what do you do if you show up to the airport with a ticket for the wrong day?
- Check in online at least you’ll discover what happened before making it to the airport. If you learn of the problem the day before you’ve got more time to sort out the issue.
- Many airlines no longer have change fees on most tickets, and even basic economy tickets may be upgradable to regular economy. I just helped someone with an international basic economy ticket change their dates of travel – United charged $100 to buy out of basic economy, and then a $75 difference in fare for the date change (I got them to waive the fee for taking over the ticket from the online agency which issued it).
- Plead your case. If the first person you speak to isn’t helpful, hang up and call back.
On the one hand this seems more challenging dealing with a low cost carrier like easyJet. On the other hand – as long as they have a flight at the day and time you show up to the airport for, and the flight isn’t sold out, the ticket might not be that much to purchase brand new (the worst case scenario).
