Flight Centre travel agent pranks a drunk customer over $9077 first-class Maldives trip

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This was published 6 years ago

Flight Centre travel agent pranks a drunk customer over $9077 first-class Maldives trip

By Hugh Morris
Updated
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Few things are worse after a big night out than a nagging sense of blurry regret the morning after. But a bill for £5290 ($A9077) is definitely up there.

That's what George Armstrong was faced with when he opened a letter from travel agents Flight Centre revealing how he had, presumably when heavily inebriated, booked first class flights from London to the Maldives, to spend a week on his own at the Indian Ocean paradise. The full itinerary detailed how he would be flying with Etihad Airways in December, via Abu Dhabi.

"Thank you so much for popping in the other day. We certainly appreciate your business and hope your [sic] beginning to get excited about your upcoming first class flights to the Maldives," Flight Centre wrote.

Luxury accommodation in the Maldives.

Luxury accommodation in the Maldives.Credit: Shutterstock

"Please keep in mind, balance is due in full on Friday, November 10 at 12.05pm."

Below was the hefty fee in bold, red font: £5,289.87.

Only, all was not was as it seems. On the same night Mr Armstrong had misplaced his driving licence, waking up the next morning bemoaning his lost ID.

At the bottom of the letter sent to Mr Armstrong, a member of staff from the Cheltenham branch of Flight Centre had folded over a further note: "George, we're just kidding. We've found you're [sic] driving license (enclosed) outside our shop and thought you might need it," the Flight Centre employee wrote.

"Just make sure you consider us for your next holiday. Take care."

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Mr Armstrong revealed the prank on Twitter, where he posted, with photos of the contents of the letter: "So I was pretty drunk the other night and I lost my ID, then this turns up…"

But there were no hard feelings, Mr Armstrong then posted the next day a picture with Steve, the Flight Centre employee responsible for the joke. "Here's the man himself, thank you Steve!" he wrote.

Steve, in the response to the tweet, said: "You're welcome. That's how we roll."

The original tweet has now been retweeted 39,000 times and liked 106,000.

A spokesperson for Flight Centre said: "We're delighted that the dedicated Flight Centre team in Cheltenham were able to reunite Will with his lost driving license and we hope he'll visit the store again soon."

Stories of such type are not as uncommon as you might think, only sometimes the revellers actually end up in the destination.

In 2015, for example, a Scottish banker booked a flight to Brazil when three sheets to the wind. In this instance, he ended up going anyway and had the time of his life.

The Telegraph, London

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