I’m not sure where this falls on the scale of “cute joke” to “this is how misinformation spreads,” but please indulge me for a minute…
In this post:
The Vienna Airport Austria vs. Australia claim
Over the years, I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen social media posts with a quote along these lines:
“If your [sic] having a bad day, just remember Vienna Airport has a desk for those who arrived in Austria rather than Australia.”
You can find them on just about every social media platform, and some of the posts have been viewed tens of millions of times. Just take a look at the below grid, when searching “Vienna Airport Australia” on Instagram (at least this search also returns a Shawn Mendes photo?).
If you look at the comments on some of the super viral versions of the post, you’ll find very few people questioning if it’s true, and you’ll even see people saying things like “as a resident of Vienna and have used the airport alot, I can sadly confirm this is true.”
Yesterday, a non-travel acquaintance sent me a picture with that quote. I (virtually) chuckled, and then gently asked if he realized that wasn’t actually true… and he said he thought it was true.
So to state the obvious (or perhaps not obvious, to some?), there’s zero truth to the above, and it’s totally made up. For that matter, the claim doesn’t even make sense:
- If someone travels to the wrong place, there wouldn’t be one “desk” that could handle that, since it would all depend on the airline you’re flying
- If you’re going to end up in the wrong destination, odds are that you’d fly to a city with the same name in a different country, rather than to a country with a similar name; people book tickets to Sydney or Vienna, not to Australia or Austria
Anyway, this is an innocent joke, or white lie, or whatever you’d like to call it. Though perhaps this is reflective of the bigger issue of misinformation on the internet, and how many people will believe everything they read and see online, and even share it, without doing any sort of fact checking.
I also find the premise to be kind of odd, when you think about it — “if you’re having a bad day, just remember this completely made up claim.” I’ve gotta be honest, that doesn’t make me feel better about whatever issue I was having!
People do sometimes fly to the wrong destination
To give some credit to the concept behind this claim, though, let me note that once in a while — exceptionally rarely — people do end up flying to the completely wrong destination and country.
You’ll hear of someone who intended to fly to Sydney, New South Wales (Australia), only to end up in Sydney, Nova Scotia (Canada), or Sidney, Montana (United States), or something along those lines, thinking they got a screaming deal on a flight.
However, when that happens, it’s generally a global news story, because it’s that rare, funny, and unusual. These kinds of mix-ups don’t happen with nearly the level of frequency people assume, and certainly not enough to warrant a desk at any airport.
Bottom line
No, Vienna Airport doesn’t have a desk for those who accidentally end up in Austria rather than Australia. It’s a cute quote that has been shared endlessly online, but there’s zero truth to it. People do once in a while end up flying to the wrong destination, but it’s very rare, and it’s typically to a city with the same name as the intended destination, rather than to a country with a similar name.
There were, however, quite a few people who booked hotels in Vancouver, WA, instead of Vancouver, BC, for the Vancouver Olympics. It was on the news here in PDX.
There is a difference between accidentally booking to the wrong destination and actually arriving there.
Vast majority of flights into VIE are operated by low-costs airlines and Lufthansa Group, neither of which gives a damn about assisting their passengers, so it's clearly fake :)
...and in the photo montage toward the top of this entry, the lower left-hand photo shows a man standing in front of the Palacio Salvo in Plaza Independencia in...why of course, Montevideo, Uruguay.
So why don't you put out the actual truth, Millions stranded each day arriving in Austria airport instead of Australia without a dedicated support desk.
I'm actually surprised that some vendor hasn't set up a shop to cash in on this.
There's a desk in Dublin Airport, Ireland for those who actually wanted to go to Dublin, Ohio.
They tell you, even if unintentional, you have ended up in a much better place and send you on your way.
You wanna have fun? All the mis booked flights to or from St John, USVI
SJO vs SJC.
I once met a group of guys who attempted to go to Playa del Carmen, Mexico (beautiful beach city) only to land in Ciudad Carmen (not a beautiful city). Also, via bus from Mexico City there is a Tepoztlan and Tepozotlan if I remember correctly.
Ben, I used to work at the Australian Consulate-General in Los Angeles. I can assure you that some travellers, particularly non-English and non-German speaking people, have gotten VERY close to getting on a plane to Austria instead of Australia. As a matter of fact, in some cases involving those who can participate in the Visa Waiver Agreement, there was nothing to stop them from making that mistake except a friend of theirs who is bilingual...
Ben, I used to work at the Australian Consulate-General in Los Angeles. I can assure you that some travellers, particularly non-English and non-German speaking people, have gotten VERY close to getting on a plane to Austria instead of Australia. As a matter of fact, in some cases involving those who can participate in the Visa Waiver Agreement, there was nothing to stop them from making that mistake except a friend of theirs who is bilingual and careful enough to notice the itinerary.
There is absolutely no Australia desk at Vienna airport. Complete garbage.
when you book a flight you select a city NOT a country. Vienna Australia ?
However there are people who have booked Melbourne Florida or Sydney Nova Scotia, Manchester New Hampshire or San Jose California instead of Costa Rica
“If your [sic] having a bad day, just remember Oakland Airport has a desk for those who arrived in East Bay rather than New Zealand.”
This is TikTok and social media frying the brains of an entire generation.
Who needs news when social media can provide everything you need (to be stupid).
It's an American problem.
The average American has no idea about geography, even about their own country. Their ignorance is astonishing.
I'm surprised no one has brought up the decades old Denver/Dulles mixup with DIA/IAD mix up
Too busy lawyer up OAK/SFO identity.
But Vienna is a far more popular destination for international travel than even Sydney
I've been able to establish SYD at 16.4 million international pax/year. I don’t have the number for VIE. Do you? VIE's busiest international route is about the size of SYD's 9th ranked.
A little off topic, but I had the Dallas-Dulles name issue when I was working in tech support.
I also had Jamaica NY vs Jamaica the country, Springfield MA vs IL, Ontario California vs Ontario Canada, Hyde Park NY vs New Hyde Park NY
My home is in Rochester NY so I always make sure to doublecheck when booking so I don't end up going to Minnesota
You can thank the stupid settlers who just keep naming after something somewhere far far away or his father.
At least some were smart enough to put "New" as a prefix rather than putting "Jr." Or "III" as a suffix.
New Donald sounds much better than Junior.
lol, tell me about it.
I can take a trip down the interstate highway in New York and pass places named Attica, Warsaw, Geneva, Rome, Syracuse, Dresden, Liverpool, Vienna, Amsterdam, or Rotterdam to name a few.
Lest these villages in NY are small enough not to have their own airport to confuse with the respective major world cities while Syracuse NY has one but Syracuse Sicily does not.
It is my understanding that it is quite common for travellers to either Dallas or Dulles end up at the wrong destination.
Witnessed this happen. I was at DFW in Dallas, and saw a very confused and distraught non English speaking older Chinese lady looking for her family. My wife speaks Chinese and spoke with her, turns out she was expecting to be at Dulles...
One of the very few things I remember from 90s sitcoms, which rotted my brain at the time, is an episode of "Full House" in which the kids, who, live in San Francisco, decide they want to fly to Oakland. They go to the SF airport and board a flight... to Aukland.
Oakland passengers who end up in Auckland have happened in the past. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-04-03-me-28522-story.html
I have read of some brits booking flights from from Florida to Manchester New Hampshire instead of Manchester England and wondering why the flight back to Manchester was so much quicker than on the way out.
Once I heard on the news of a woman who ended up in the idalnd of Grenada, when she wanted to visit Granada (Spain).
I have heard of people booking flights to Antigua and Barbuda when they intended to go to Antigua, Guatemala (which you have to fly to Guatemala City to reach).
I've read a couple of stories about people flying Air Canada and ending up in London, Ontario instead of the English one to where they thought they'd been travelling.
Well, it is possible to wind up in Austria instead of Australia if you forget to make that left turn in Albuquerque.
What's up, Doc?
There was once an ad for a Salzburg-based intercom company (Commend) at Salzburg Airport whose tagline was "Sorry, this is Austria not Australia! Need help? Please press the button."
This is where some of the misinformation originated.
I've heard plenty of times people accidentally booking a flight to Panama City, Florida (ECP) when they mean to fly to Panama City, Panama (PTY) or viceversa.
Sounds like one of those travel-related urban legends people like to tell each other.
One you often hear in Canada is how American tourists will often turn up at the border bundled up in a parka in the middle of summer, thinking it will be cold — which I always find very hard to believe. Maybe it happened once upon a time before weather apps and websites are a thing…?
Well, tourists routinely still turn up in San Francisco in summer wearing shorts and T-shirts, so I can totally believe the same ones would show up at the Canadian border in summer in parkas...
The Grand Canyon in early April can be chilly - we got snow while there. Local staff told me it's common for people to show up in shorts and t-shirts because they checked the weather in Phoenix and assumed it was the same, even though it's a couple hundred miles away and a few thousand feet lower in altitude.
MYJ airport in Japan and TSA airport in Taipei shares the same name in Kanji / Chinese ( 松山 ). While it’s not common for people to fly to the wrong airport, searching on OTA in local language has a tendency to serve up the wrong airport
Heard before. That's why I always say, you have to know the NATO Alphabet so you can correctly name the Airport you wan't to fly to.
The Pentagon has a desk for commanders in chief who think Azerbaijan has border disputes with Albania, not Armenia.
I got a good laugh out of this one! Thanks for the chuckle!
That desk is a joke.
Long time ago someone went there asking for WMD locations.
Still can't locate one till this day.
In Europe it's common for backpackers to mistake between Geneva (Switzeland) and Genoa (Italy, which is called Genova in Italian)
People used to confuse Dulles for Dallas and fly to the wrong airport.
AA used to have a flight that flew DCA-IAD-DFW (only pickup at IAD) - unrelated to confusion issue.
Well y’all, let me tell you about the time Anita Grits thought she was jetting off to soak up the sun in Athens, Greece. I had my flowy linen caftans packed, a guidebook bookmarked to the Parthenon, and I even practiced saying “efharistó” like I knew what I was doing.
I stroll up to the gate in Atlanta, clutching my boarding pass with all the confidence of a woman about to sip ouzo on the...
Well y’all, let me tell you about the time Anita Grits thought she was jetting off to soak up the sun in Athens, Greece. I had my flowy linen caftans packed, a guidebook bookmarked to the Parthenon, and I even practiced saying “efharistó” like I knew what I was doing.
I stroll up to the gate in Atlanta, clutching my boarding pass with all the confidence of a woman about to sip ouzo on the Aegean. Imagine my confusion when I see half the gate in red and black barking like they’re auditioning for Animal Planet. I thought, “Well, maybe this is just how Greeks pre-board.”
Forty-five minutes later, the plane lands and the pilot cheerfully announces, “Welcome to Athens!” My heart soared… until I looked out the window and saw a Piggly Wiggly, a Waffle House, and a giant bulldog statue.
Turns out, honey, I hadn’t booked myself to Greece. I’d booked Athens, Georgia. Go Dawgs.
Let’s just say I didn’t see the Acropolis, but I did see the inside of a Varsity and a tailgate that could rival any Olympic Games.
Hahahhahaha thanks for the laughter, you should write a novel
Nice story, but.... Athens Georgia is just 80 miles from ATL, and has no commercial flights...to anywhere!
I've been on flights with people flipping out because they are going to Rochester, NY instead of Rochester, MN three times. Every time it has been a foreigner headed to the Mayo Clinic. I dont know what they did after landing though.
The University of Rochester has a pretty decent clinic; maybe they ended up there instead?
Surprised these confused people didn't go to Mayo clinic to fix expired condiments.
I have friends who got married because she worked at the Austrian consulate and he worked at the Australian consulate and they kept getting each others emails.
Not as bad as the above examples, but I did make this mistake when renting a car. Arriving in Birmingham, the SIXT staff couldn't find my reservation. After going thru my e-mail and showing the confirmation, it turned out, I rented a car in Birmingham, Alabama.
It's modeled on the desk in Bucharest, where you go to get assistance after realizing you're not in Budapest. Id say, enjoy Romania, then rebook to your final destination.
Thanks. This annoys me too
If you're having a bad day, just remember Newark Airport has a desk for those who arrived in New Jersey instead of literally anywhere else in the world.
I used to work at Auckland Airport in New Zealand and we had a viral story pop up every few months about someone getting on a flight to Auckland (New Zealand) instead of Oakland (California). I always thought this was apocryphal, but this post just inspired me to research and it seems to be true.
It happened back in 1985, according to the LA Times: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-04-02-mn-19265-story.html
I recall some years ago a story about how someone traveling to Dakar (Senegal) ended up on a flight to Dhaka (Bangladesh), and didn't realize it until they were most of the way there. Iirc, contributing factors were (a) they didn't need visas for either destination, so that wasn't checked; (b) they were on Turkish Airlines, which at the time was the only airline that flew to both cities; (c) they fell asleep immediately after...
I recall some years ago a story about how someone traveling to Dakar (Senegal) ended up on a flight to Dhaka (Bangladesh), and didn't realize it until they were most of the way there. Iirc, contributing factors were (a) they didn't need visas for either destination, so that wasn't checked; (b) they were on Turkish Airlines, which at the time was the only airline that flew to both cities; (c) they fell asleep immediately after boarding their connecting flight in Istanbul; and (d) when spoken by a gate agent with a Turkish accent, apparently "Dakar" and "Dhaka" sound very similar.
Oh, and I can confirm that there are NO airports in Australia with a helpdesk for people who arrived in Australia rather than Austria!!
If King's Cross (London) can have a Platform 9 3/4, VIE can definitely set this up as an Easter egg-type thing. Might even draw connecting traffic to VIE for those who just want to see this.
I live in Melbourne, Australia (not Melbourne, FL!) and every now and then there are media stories here about people who were wanting to fly to Australia for some sort of sporting event or the like, but who bought a ticket into the wrong city (eg. Adelaide instead of Sydney) thinking that they could simply catch a taxi to their intended destination! Not sure how accurate the stories are, but the stories do exist.