Travel company sent Bristol holidaymaker to wrong country
Samantha Lazzaris was looking forward to the experience of a lifetime in Costa Rica, the Central American country famed for its rainforests and volcanoes.
But she ended up in the US territory of Puerto Rico – and getting to her intended destination left her around £800 out of pocket after taking three extra flights and losing four days of her holiday.
All seemed to be going according to plan on January 16, when the holistic therapist from Bedminster got to JFK airport in New York, and boarded the connecting flight she was booked on.
She first realised something was wrong was when she left the airport and asked a taxi driver to take her to her hotel, only to be told she was in the wrong country.
Sam, 33, said: "I asked the taxi driver to take me to this hotel I'd pre-booked, he looked in amazement, speechless, then laughed and said, 'This is not Costa Rica. It's Puerto Rico. "I didn't believe him. I was in shock. I looked around the airport, saw posters of Puerto Rico everywhere, and thought: What am I going to do? Where is Puerto Rico? Where am I?"
It turned out her travel agent Thomas Cook had used the booking code for San Juan, capital of Puerto Rico, instead of San Jose, capital of Costa Rica, when she bought the £500 return ticket from the Cribbs Causeway branch last November.
The confusion appears to have arisen because the name of the main airport in San Jose is Juan Santa Maria, which is very similar to San Juan where she ended up.
The airport codes are very similar as well, with just one letter between them; SJO for Juan Santa Maria in San Jose, and SJU for the main airport in San Juan.
But while Costa Rica borders Nicaragua and Panama on the Central American mainland between the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean, Puerto Rico is an island between the Caribbean and the Atlantic, standing between the Dominican Republic and the Virgin Islands.
Miss Lazzaris said: "What I realised from all this is that no one listens to you, people are on auto-pilot. I went to Thomas Cook several times before I left and always said I was going to Costa Rica, and I remember saying it at the airport."
Her e-ticket only stated the airport and city as destinations, not the country, and she said the same was true on the flights and departure boards.
Miss Lazzaris has extensive travelling experience, having spent two years travelling in Australia, New Zealand and Asia, and has lived in Spain.
She was travelling on her own for this trip, to hike through tropical rainforests and spend a week at a spiritual retreat on the beach for meditation and yoga.
She had also arranged a week of volunteer work with the charity Working Abroad, helping people of the Boruca tribe in the south-west of the country build a village.
The qualified therapist had been saving for the trip for some time, and had chosen Costa Rica because she had never been to that part of the world.
But arriving in the wrong country was just the start of her travel nightmare.
American Airlines advised her to fly to Miami and then call Thomas Cook in the UK to sort the problem out, so she bought a flight for around £115 and waited two hours.
Miss Lazzaris said: "I arrived at Miami airport at 11.30pm.
"All the booking desks were closed, and they would not be opening until 6am when the next flights flew out.
"There was nobody to help me from American Airlines or any other airline, and the tourist information desk was closed.
"I was very scared, over-tired and feared falling asleep for fear of being mugged as there were many unsavoury characters hanging around the airport."
Finally, at 6am Miami time, she called Thomas Cook at Cribbs Causeway and spoke to a member of staff. She said: "I was told I signed the terms and conditions of the legally binding contract for the itinerary and therefore was accepting them.
"I had trusted Thomas Cook had ensured San Juan was the name of the airport near San Jose in Costa Rica, which is why I never questioned it.
"I believe it is not my responsibility to know the computer codes when booking flights, but the responsibility of the professional travel agent. This is what I am paying for.
"I asked if she would authorise with American Airlines to put me on the next flight to San Jose, Costa Rica, as they had a seat for me.
"She said that it is not in the policy to have an emergency bank account to assist in matters as such as these, but she would be prepared to phone a family member or friend.
"I thought that was disgusting, I didn't want to worry my family.
"At this point, I was very distressed as I was a female, solo traveller at an airport late at night which is very unsafe.
"I asked her did she realise how much stress I had been under in the past 48 hours, with little or no sleep due to fear of being mugged.
"She responded by saying that 'No, I don't know because I'd never travel alone, I wouldn't do something as stupid as that'."
"Then it got all too much all of a sudden, so I started crying as I suddenly felt like Tom Hanks in the movie The Terminal.
"Left alone, abandoned, and nobody cares."
Miss Lazzaris was left with little choice but to arrange for emergency funds from her bank so she could spend an extra £450 on a flight from Miami to San Jose.
As her return flight was incorrectly booked from Puerto Rico she also had to book a flight from San Jose back to San Juan, costing a further £200.
In all, Miss Lazzaris forked out £1,300 to take seven flights instead of four, and flew an extra 2,300 miles on top of the 11,000 miles the trip should have been. She finally landed in Costa Rica 28 hours after leaving Heathrow.
Miss Lazzaris said: "I am wanting to share my experience with the general public to alert them of the potential appalling treatment they would receive from Thomas Cook.
"I have never been treated so appallingly in my entire travel life."
Miss Lazzaris said she intended to write to the company and the chief executive in a bid to have the extra flight costs refunded.
A Thomas Cook spokesperson said: "We fully understand and sympathise with the situation that arose as a result of the similar airport codes and place names of each destination.
"Assistance was offered to Miss Lazzaris by our staff once we were made aware of what had happened. Although there is an onus on passengers to check their flight and ticket details carefully, we will be fully investigating this complaint and discussing it with Ms Lazzaris as soon as possible."
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