Confused traveler thought she booked an American Airlines flight — but was in for a shock at the airport: ‘I totally missed something’

It’s a fowl, it’s a airplane, it’s a….bus????

A New York lady who thought she booked an American Airlines flight was flabbergasted after a bus rolled up instead. She detailed this mom of all transit mishaps in a TikTok video with over 2 million views.

“POV: When your American Airlines ‘flight’ is actually a bus,” person Alex (@she_is.turning into) wrote in the textual content overlay on the video of her sudden journey.

The mode of transport was particularly complicated as there was a “flight icon” on her boarding cross, she famous in the caption.

Alex explained in a follow-up video that she lives in upstate New York and sometimes departs from Scranton, Pennsylvania, out of comfort. So when the time got here to journey to her buddy’s wedding ceremony in Colorado, she determined to stick to her routine — Alex used Google Flights to ebook a flight from there to the Centennial State by method of Philadelphia.

The upstate native then navigated security and arrived at her gate, noting that the flight board confirmed her American Airlines flight quantity and an airplane icon, and that vacationers boarded according to their group numbers.

It wasn’t until it got here time for Alex to board that she observed one thing was severely awry. “I look at a woman nearby, and I say, ‘Do you know how long this flight is?’” the flabbergasted traveler said. “And she says, ‘Do you mean the bus?’”

That’s when it dawned on her that her airplane journey was really a “two-and-a-half-hour” bus journey from Scranton to Philly.

Alex said she was particularly confused as while American Airlines makes it abundantly clear that the journey’s first leg includes a bus, Google Flights is a lot more cryptic about it. They merely write “bus” in small textual content under the airline identify sans any giant distinction between the modes of transport.

“I did go back through and see if I totally missed something, and I didn’t,” Alex explained. “It is not clear on there at all.”

“I also just wanna add to that that when you are looking at a website called Google Flights, I think it’s pretty reasonable to expect to be looking at flights,” she declared.

American Airlines notes on its web site that it’s companions with the Landline Company, a motor coach service that connects Philadelphia Airport with regional flights hubs in New Jersey, Philadelphia and Delaware.

Passengers both verify their baggage and go through security at the “bus station,” whereupon their suitcases shall be transferred from the motor coach to the airplane. Best of all, flyers can earn AAdvantage miles on these terrestrial hauls the same method they might on airplane journeys.

While the preternaturally long “flight time” between cities ought to’ve tipped her off, Alex famous that she’d had a long day of journey with three different airplane journeys, and therefore wasn’t in the clearest of headspaces.

Thankfully, she has since realized to see the humorous facet of her Landline odyssey, which admittedly was more luxurious than she anticipated — with roomy seats, telephone chargers, Wi-Fi and a rest room.

“I thought it was honestly hysterical. Like, the entire bus ride, I was just laughing,” said Alex. As compensation for her journey fiasco, American Airlines gave her a $75 journey credit, although she claims it’s unlikely that she’ll use it.

In mild of the ordeal, Alex is warning other vacationers to be further vigilant and make sure to read the tremendous print while reserving journeys through third-party web sites.

Commenters had been fast to commiserate with her no-flight plight. “How can they do that?” said one. “Never heard of this…wild.”

“Well, shoot can I have the travel credit?” said another. “These Thanksgiving flights ridiculous.”

Meanwhile, a third noticed, “This can happen with any airline. United Newark to Allentown can also be a bus. I’ve taken the bus to Philly before and the gate is in the basement and the bus sitting outside is also a dead giveaway.”