Victor Calderón, who booked a flight from Los Angeles to Managua, Nicaragua, with a layover in Houston, accidentally boarded the wrong plane and ended up in Tokyo, Japan.
Calderón only realized the mistake hours into the flight when he asked the crew why they had not landed in Texas. Neither check-in staff nor ground personnel had noticed the error. Unable to divert the plane, he had to complete the long flight to Tokyo.
He spent the night in a hotel in Tokyo and booked new flights back to the U.S. and then to Nicaragua.
United Airlines said it is investigating how the error occurred and why ground staff missed it. A spokesperson said the airline reached out to Calderón, offered financial compensation, and apologized. “We always advise customers to follow gate signs and boarding announcements to ensure they board the correct flight," the spokesperson added.