Man flies to wrong Sydney in unbelievable travel fail

The man ended up almost 14,000km off his intended destination after mistaking Sidney, Montana for Sydney, Australia. Photo / Google Maps

This article was one of Herald Travel’s best-read stories of 2023

Oh, the difference a letter or two can make.

A New York man’s dream of escaping to Australia took a major detour after he booked flights to the wrong destination.

Instead of flying to Sydney in Australia, 62-year-old Kingsley Burnett flew to Sidney, Montana instead.

Burnett was thrilled to find spectacularly cheap flights, which he described as a “bargain”. A round trip flight from New York to Sidney is, on average, around $1000, while Sydney would cost closer to $3500.

Despite one destination being domestic and the other international, both destinations take around 20 hours to reach by plane.

It wasn’t until he saw mountains covered in snow as the flight prepared to land in Billings, Montana, that he started having doubts, New York Post reported. From there, he would have needed to board a small Cape Air jet to take him to Sidney, a town with just 6000 people.

For reference, Sidney boasts just over 6000 people while Sydney’s population is 5.3 million.

Burnett said the mix up was caused by the two location’s similar airport codes.

“It’s a matter of acronyms. The S-Y-D as opposed to S-D-Y. Somebody has to fix that,” he told Montana TV station KTVQ.

Unwilling to trade his Australian adventure for a Montana one, Burnett quickly made his way to the American Airlines ticket desk in Billings. There, an agent named Carol Castellano came to the rescue.

“Kingsley came, and he goes, ‘I’ve got a problem,’” Castellano said. Since the New Yorker would be unable to make his Australian cruise in time, she booked him accommodation in Billings for the night and a return flight to New York.

According to hotel manager Shelli Mann, Burnett wasn’t the first to make such a mistake.

“This is the second time we’ve had a guest that was trying to get to Sydney, Australia,” she said.

Around the world, other travellers have been tripped up by similar sounding Sydneys. In 2017, 18-year-old Milan Schipper from Vaassen, Netherlands, accidentally travelled to Sydney in Nova Scotia, Canada, instead of the Australian city.

Wasted money and missed cruises aside, Burnett said he was thankful Castellano was kind and helped him out.

“Montana didn’t have kangaroos. It had Carol. And that was good enough for me,” he said, adding that his Australia trip had been rescheduled for June this year.

This article was originally published on February 8, 2023