LOL

Yet another reason to avoid a US airline when traveling abroad.

Like any of us every expected anything different

Well, you know, there are tons of North Koreans traveling from the New Jersey to Cancun, so I could see how they might make that mistake.

Oh wait, did I say "tons"? My bad. Unless New Jersey is the middle leg on that Pyongyang->Cancun flight they were talking about setting up, I meant to say "none, ever, in the history of international flight."

@92BuickLeSabre: real klassy response. and yes, spelling 'c' words with a 'k' makes them more klassier...

I had a similar issue once, flying from Portland to San Juan, Puerto Rico. My husband and I were headed there for our wedding, as I am from there.

You do not need a passport to travel to PR, as PR is part of the US and we are all US citizens. I have traveled back and forth virtually all my life and am familiar with the requirements.

When we arrived at the ticket counter, the agent insisted that we needed passports. I explained that we do not, PR is part of the US, we have US passports, etc etc, and he would not budge. Even though I was feeling half fearful of losing an important flight, half angry that the guy could be making this mistake, I kept my cool and asked for a supervisor. After several more minutes of this back-and-forth, it comes out that they are confusing San Juan, Puerto Rico with San Jose, Costa Rica.

Fortunately, in my case they were very apologetic and tried hard to accomodate the seating requests we made prior to our little misunderstanding.

@realjen01:
A little joking about the absurdity of it all suddenly lacks class in your book? Seems not out of line with most other posts on the site -- actually, a bit funnier than some.

And it's not blaming the victim, although I'm sure someone will figure out a way.

The same idiots probably warn people about visas and New Mexico.

@KJones: There's a NEW Mexico? That's the most ridiculous thing I've heard since someone told me there is a "West" Virginia now... sheesh

This reminds me of a roommate I had in London who thought Ireland was part of "England," but that Scotland was a different country than "England" and was very upset she couldn't get "Scottish" money.

After an hour of going round and round, I convinced her to take her passport with her to Ireland "just in case."

@realjen01: Who cares if his comment was claßy?

@Eyebrows McGee: Guess she didn't try hard enough to get the Scottish currency.

@Eyebrows McGee: Actually, she could have gotten Scottish money - the Bank of Scotland issues currency that's clearly marked "Bank of Scotland" and (generally) interchangeable with English money.

I say generally because the absolute ANGEL who worked in a shop in Glasgow's Central train station warned me that I might have trouble with them when we got back to London. Sure enough, when I tried to buy some groceries in Sainbury's, the clerk asked her supervisor "Do we accept these??"

@92BuickLeSabre: You'd think people in, of all places, North Jersey would know the difference between the two Koreas. Christ, they even have a town named Fort Lee (which, appropriately enough, has probably the largest Korean diaspora this side of LA).

@Eyebrows McGee: For what it's worth, Scotland *does* print its own pound notes. It's worth the same as the kind they have in London, but just saying.

@Eyebrows McGee:

Well, there are Scottish pound coins, for example. As for Ireland, none is part of England, but part of Ireland is part of the United Kingdom.

England=England
Great Britain=England, Scotland, and Wales
United Kingdom=Great Britain and Northern Ireland

I and I though Continental was one of the better ones. Now I need to avoid all US carriers. Sheesh.

Golly, I guess I should have been way more clear! I realize Bank of Scotland prints it own notes. She didn't think her UK money would be any good in Scotland because it was a "different country."

And as my sister lives in Dublin, I'm pretty clear on the Irish political situation. :)

Last time I try to be concise for the nitpicky consumerist crowd! ;)

@Jim (The Canuck One):

The reason they don't like to take Scottish notes in England is that they are far easier to forge than Bank Of England notes ... I always try to spend my before going over the border.

@hc5duke: You would be surprised at how many people have no idea that West Virginia is a state. When I tell people I live here, many, many times they start talking about having been in Norfolk or Richmond or somewhere else in Virginia that is 300-400 miles miles away from Charleston, WV, and seem surprised when I tell them that WV has been a separate state since 1863.

@Eyebrows McGee: Reminds ME of the time my mom was visiting me over there--I was studying in England, and we were in Edinburgh for a couple days. My mom, like many Americans, grew up using the words "English" and "British" interchangeably. She's an intelligent lady and can certainly explain the differences, but old language habits die hard.

She needed to exchange some dollars for pounds. The bank teller gave her Scottish pounds. Knowing we were headed back across the border soon and that English pounds would be easier to use there, she said, "May I have British pounds instead?" The teller looked down her nose, over her glasses, and witheringly intoned, "Madam, we arrrre all citizens of the Queen herrrre. Those ARRRRRRe Brrritish pounds!"

Needless to say, Mom never got the words mixed up again.

@SOhp101: Considering that most Americans can't even name all 50 states and their respective capitals, why would this come as a shock?

@FLConsumer: When it's your job to accommodate the needs of international travelers, a modicum of international geography is quite reasonable to expect. Would you expect a taxicab driver in NYC to be oblivious to the location of Times Square? Even if most Americans can't name all 50 states and capitals, I would still expect the receptionist at the terminal to have to capability to distinguish between similarly named states, (N.Carolina/S.Carolina, N.Dakota/S.Dakota, W.Virginia/Virginia, etc)

For all those with state issues in the US try being from New York THE STATE.

I have to explain to most people that there is more to New York than a giant city. Usually I get this head cocked slightly sideway look of "what the heck do you mean you're not from New York the City?".

On another note, I did move to Texas and nothing personal but I've heard more people ask me where Australia (NOT AUSTRIA, believe I didn't think people were that dumb either) is in Europe. The look on their face when you tell them Australia is a Continent AND a country no where near Europe is priceless. Then again I took 2 years of "Global Studies" in NY they take 1 year and have courses like "The History of Texas"

@crzdmn:

I hear you on Austria/Australia. It's a fight for my mom every year to make sure my relatives' xmas gifts don't get sent to the land of kangaroos and excessive beer consumption rather that the land of Alps and exported genocidal dictators.

@FLConsumer: To be fair, most of the 50 states are, for lack of a better, kinder descriptor, inconsequential. A butterfly flapping its wings in Idaho isn't going to cause a Tsunami in Kentucky, if you will.

The Korean peninsula and the North/South divide, on the other hand, is of great political import. The US and the Koreas are all major players in East Asia, and if Kim Jong Il gets drunk and presses a few wrong keys, or if the Seoul stock market goes into the tank again, that actually matters to us.

@crzdmn: Stop pretending. I live in New York, and we all know there is nothing more to New York than Manhattan. "The City" is just a quaint term made up by the people who live in that part of New Jersey to the east, particularly in Queens and Kings County, NJ or Long Island (1/2 NJ & 1/2 Connecticut).

Of course "West New Jersey" does have it's own charms, particularly for the excellent Korean food mentioned above, and that's where we like to keep our football teams and our refineries.

The rumored "Upstate" is largely myth.

(How's that for classy?)

The U.N. currently recognizes 192 sovereign nations. Just FYI. Ran across that fact just the other day, and look! it's already useful in proving me a complete nerd.

Lets just hope the pilots know the difference between North Korea and South Korea, or someone is in for a rough vacation.

South Korea is the one with the Mt. Rushmore thingy, right?

This wouldn't be a problem if more American's had maps.

They booked a flight on an US airline.

What did they expect? Service?

@stickystyle: or knew what to do with their apostrophes.... :P

Anyone from NY State who does not live in the major metropolitan area of NY City will gladly trade said city to New Jersey for some cash and a player to be named later. However, we aren't interested in Fort Lee.

Christ, even vendors send me seminar alerts for events in NYC. I live in Rochester, generally I could get to Cleveland before I could get to the Jacob Javitz Center in NYC.

Then again, we're talking about Jersey folk here, you know, they call it "The Garden State" so clearly they don't even recognize their own surrounding properly, either that or they are pretty bad liars.

If you enter the VIN number for a Hyundai or Kia that was built in Korea, it will tell you that it was manufactured in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, which is North Korea. Obviously, the cars are built in South Korea, as it doesn't take a genius to figure out that we don't export to or import from North Korea.

I'm always frustrated to hear references to Americans' incompetence regarding European culture. Europe is made up of several countries, each with distinct traditions.

It's a lot easier to become acquainted with the customs of another country when a trip across the entire continent it is closer than New York to LA.

There's a range of cultures here in the US, and we don't expect foreigners to know the difference between a New York and a KC strip steak, or the danger of cheering for the Yankees while staying in Boston.

Common courtesy is universal, but it's a big world out there, and expecting someone on the other side of an ocean to know the details of traditions ingrained for hundreds of years borders on ignorance itself.

My Japanese had the same problem about one month ago. An airline ( I can't remember if it was also Continental ) kept telling him he needed a visa to enter the U.S. from Canada. After much insisting, he was finally let through, but there was nothing resembling an apology, which shocked him because he's used to all the profuse "sorry"s and "thank you"s of Japanese customer service.

I see lots of errors in software as far as languages, time, dates and so forth. Having made a few mistakes myself, I can say, managers aren't always sympathetic to developers who suddenly reallize they need more time for making code 'international'. The amazing thing is, the errors sometimes stay in the code - for years or decades.

I was never required to take US or world geography in my academic years in Arizona. None-the-less, I've always loved maps and learning world geography. Perhaps I can enjoy it now, never having been tortured with it as a student.

I guess if I were in a beauty pagent and somebody asked me why Americans seemed to be geography 'illiterate', i'd have to say, 'perhaps we spend too much time watching sexy teen pagents and not enough time reading'.

@92BuickLeSabre: It's all those North Korean mileage runners trying to get elite status on Air Koryo.

@kc-guy: I'm under the impression that alot of our friends across the pond have the notion that because we all fly the same flag that we all have the same traditions, when that is clearly not the case. I know some of my fellow Americans have the same misconception about Western Europe.

Like KC-Guy said, there's differences between places in the US, just like there is in Europe. We also don't expect them to know the difference between a Southern and Texan accent (There IS a difference).

They trust their computers more than they trust their common sense. Oh wait, geography is sadly not part of American common sense. Damn.

@kc-guy: You're right. Confusing Australia and Austria is just like not knowing the difference between Western and Eastern Carolina BBQ.

Oh wait, it's not. For all the regional differences, the US is relatively homogeneous, at least from region to region. Stuff like customs and language and food, if you discount some minor quirks, are relatively similar whether you're in Maryland or Nebraska or Oregon. Sure, you notice the differences, but the differences are no more pronounced than, say, the differences between Provence and Normandy or Ruhr Valley and Bavaria.

Western Europe is pretty easy to figure out, no matter how different New England and Manhattan clam chowders are (that's your argument, right?). I mean, I'd understand getting confused over countries in Central Africa or some shit, but those countries in Europe that have been intact for the better part of the last century? There's no excuse for that type of ignorance.

The sad part of all this, beyond the ridiculous, is that over 36,000 US soldiers died on the Korean Peninsula.

@Jim (The Canuck One): Yeah, when I went to Edinburgh I got Bank of Scotland notes. It really confused me. After all Scotland and England are part of the UK so why would they have different money? When I got back to england, my sister explained that they're interchangeable.

As someone else pointed out, it's not the general geographic ignorance of Americans we're lamenting here. It's the fact that these people worked at an AIRLINE, taking care of INTERNATIONAL flights, and thus, you know, might be EXPECTED to know more about the world than someone who has no need of that knowledge might.

reread the article...ok it was a US to Mexico counter. (Technically international, but...) Still, it's an airline, so I stand by my comment.

It's still amazing that some people think that New Mexico is on the other side of the border.

In a similar vein, I was selling Japanese-imported DDR games on eBay a few months back. A buyer asks, "will this work in my Playstation", the typical question. I reply with the standard answer, "if you purchased your Playstation in North America and haven't modified it in any way, most likely it won't". The person's reply? (I quote):

"OK you said in north america what do you do if you got it here im florida (south)".

She must've moved to Continental since that time.

Miss Teen South Carolina should start doing advertisements for Continental Airlines.

meh. I get this once in a great while at the post office when mailing things to my in-laws in Seoul. It's easy to tell when they've entered the wrong country, though. The postage is about 10x what it should be.