The ultimate holiday mess: An Australian couple’s Eastern European getaway goes awry when they confuse two similar-sounding cities and realize it too late.
- Australian man booked the wrong flights for a surprise trip
- He bought tickets to Bucharest instead of Budapest.
- The traveler decided to take the mishap of the trip lightly.
An Australian man who planned a surprise vacation with a female friend was humiliated online after he booked flights to the wrong country.
Sophie Alice was delighted when Ben Kennedy flew halfway around the world to visit her and then announced that he had booked an extra trip for them last weekend.
Ben had intended to take Sophie to the Hungarian capital, Budapest, but mistakenly bought tickets to the similarly named Romanian capital, Bucharest, almost 900km away.
The couple decided to make the most of the situation and produced a TikTok video captioned: “When you thought you booked flights to Budapest.”
In the video, which has received more than four million views, Sophie is seen standing on the tarmac about to board a RyanAir plane to Romania.
Australian man Ben Kennedy (left) had intended to buy flights to Budapest, Hungary, but accidentally bought tickets to the similarly named Bucharest, Romania, nearly 900km away.
The camera zooms in on a boarding sign showing their alternate destination as the pair repeatedly utter the word s*** in voiceover.
Asked repeatedly online if they were going ahead with the trip, Sophie replied: “Yes we went, of course we went, it was great.”
‘It was amazing, I have a lot of videos to show from Romania, so follow me and you’ll see. But yeah, absolutely brilliant, I loved it.’
The couple decided to make light of the situation with a TikTok video captioned: “When you thought you booked flights to Budapest.”
Among the highlights Sophie shared online were a trip to Bran Castle, often known as Dracula’s Castle, in Transylvania, eating delicious food and attending a concert.
Many commentators said that inadvertently going to Bucharest instead of Budapest was a good mistake.
“Honestly, Bucharest is nicer than Budapest,” said one.
“Budapest is overrated and no one speaks English,” agreed another.
“Bucharest is one of the wildest party spots and totally underrated,” said a third.
Others said they knew people who had made similar travel mistakes to similar destinations.
‘My boyfriend and I went to Budapest last year, he was flying a day before me and he missed his flight for the same reason. He queued for Bucharest’, he wrote.
‘My mom nearby made this. Trying to buy flights to San Diego in California and almost ended up in Santiago, Chile,” wrote another.
Sophie shared special moments from the vacation, including a trip to Bran Castle in Transylvania (pictured), where she ate delicious food and even attended a concert.
‘That happened to us on Valentine’s Day, we sat waiting for Budapest on the Bucharest line. We never ran away,” commented a third.
‘Haha… my husband thought he booked a flight to the Bahamas and after two hours found out he was headed to Bermuda instead! You are not alone!’ he wrote a fourth.
The mishap comes just weeks after a New York man made the mistake of booking a flight to Sydney, Montana instead of Sydney, Australia.
Kingsley Burnett had chosen to fly into the airport with the code SDY instead of SYD.
“I saw the little plane with 9 passengers and I wondered ‘how is that going to get me to Australia?'” he told The New York Post.
It was then that I realized the mistake I made.
