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Mix-up lands Spain-bound gran in Caribbean

Alex Dunham
Alex Dunham - [email protected]
Mix-up lands Spain-bound gran in Caribbean
It wasn't until well after take-off that Mrs. Kingdon discovered she might have to wait a bit longer before visiting her dream destination. Photo: Juan Buchelli

62-year-old British woman Lamenda Kingdon had been longing to visit the Alhambra in the Andalusian city of Granada. Little did she know she was booked on a flight to the Caribbean island of Grenada.

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Mrs. Kingdon had planned the visit to Granada’s Alhambra palace as part of her “bucket list”, having been diagnosed with breast cancer and a brain tumour.

She used her late husband’s air miles to book the trip over the phone and boarded the British Airways plane last month without a second thought.

It wasn't until well after take-off that she discovered she might have to wait a bit longer before visiting her dream destination.

Having struck up a conversation with the person sitting next to her, she spoke of how much she was looking forward to visiting Spain.

"Not on this flight you won’t be," replied the fellow passenger.

She then grabbed the elbow of a passing stewardess and told me: "This lady thinks she’s going to Spain," Mrs. Kingdon told the UK’s Mail Online.

Disbelief turned into reality when Mrs. Kingdon checked her ticket and spotted the one letter difference: it wasn't Granada but Grenada.

"I had noticed the departure and arrival times were vastly different, but I presumed that had something to do with the time difference," Mrs. Kingdon explained.

Ten hours later, the perplexed pensioner got off the plane on the Caribbean island of St Lucia.

British Airways and Avios, the air miles travel firm that had booked her flight to the wrong destination, apologized profusely for the mix up.

They reimbursed her points, put her up for a night in a hotel in St Lucia and booked her on a flight back to the UK for the next day.

On the bright side, Mrs. Kingdon not only made it to Granada after a two day delay; Avios also gave her enough points for her next dream destination: New Zealand.

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