G’day? Man Realizes Too Late He Bought a Ticket to Sidney – not Sydney

Something like this seems to happen every year (or, at least, show up in the news every year): someone accidentally flies to an incorrect destination pronounced (or even spelled) exactly like the place they intended to visit.

For example, one man ended up in the wrong Rochester (after being robbed, to boot).

Well, a New Yorker took an unexpected trip to Montana last week — when he thought he was on his way to a cruise leaving Australia.

According to KTVQ’s Hailey Monaco, Kingsley Burnett “said he was trying to be frugal when purchasing the tickets and should have focused more on the final destination rather than booking the cheaper flight.”

Well, yes, that generally helps.

He wanted to travel to Sydney, Australia. But when he “saw mountain top covered in white snow…(he) knew (he) was in trouble.”

That’s because he was landing in Billings, Montana — where he was scheduled to take a connecting flight to Sidney, which is also in the Big Sky State. Not Sydney, which is, you know, Down Under.

Here’s where the confusion becomes somewhat understandable: Mr. Burnett pointed out the respective destinations’ airport codes are comprised of the same letters: Sydney is “SYD” and Sidney is “SDY.” (“Somebody has to fix that,” he said. I’m not sure that’s quite as easy as it sounds.)

It sounds like he’s an inexperienced traveler (I know, I’m really going out on a limb there). Like, wouldn’t he check to see how long his connecting flight was? When (or if) he selected his seats, wouldn’t the fact that his plane was not a large aircraft maybe make him think something was afoot?

To his credit, he seemed to take it all in stride. He spent the night at a hotel in Billings — and apparently made friends along the way. Ms. Monaco reports his trip is rescheduled for June. Let’s hope his layover involves someplace is Los Angeles, California — and not Los Angeles, Texas.

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