27 Aug, 2025
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16 Aug, 2025 @ 15:00
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1 min read

Don’t trust ChatGPT: Spanish influencers stuck in airport nightmare

by
Ironically, an AI image. Not real people

A Spanish influencer couple’s dream trip to Puerto Rico descended into chaos after they blindly trusted ChatGPT for travel advice – and ended up stranded at the airport.

In a viral TikTok clip, which has smashed past 6.1 million views, tearful Mery Caldass is seen sobbing while her partner Alejandro Cid tries to console her.

“I always do research, but I asked ChatGPT, and it said no,” Caldass wailed, referring to whether they needed a visa. “I don’t trust that anymore.”

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It is true that Spanish citizens don’t need a visa for Puerto Rico, but they do need an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ESTA) – a tiny but crucial detail the AI apparently forgot. The result? Stranded influencers, online ridicule, and a stark warning about relying on robots for real-world travel planning.

TikTok users were ruthless. “Natural selection, I guess,” one wrote. “If you’re taking a transoceanic trip and rely entirely on ChatGPT, you get what you deserve.” Others noted the couple may have phrased their question wrong, but the message is clear: AI is no substitute for official sources.

Adding insult to injury, Caldass joked the AI might be exacting revenge for her past insults: “Sometimes I call it useless – maybe this was payback.”

This isn’t an isolated case. A 60-year-old American was hospitalised for three weeks after ChatGPT told him to swap table salt for sodium bromide – a toxic chemical. Doctors confirmed the AI still recommends it without warnings.

Experts warn: “AI is only as reliable as the data it’s trained on,” said Dr Elena Torres, digital ethics researcher at NYU. “Blind trust can have real-world consequences.”

Despite the fiasco, Caldass and Cid eventually made it to Puerto Rico in time for a Bad Bunny concert – but one thing’s for sure: ChatGPT will never get their travel trust again.

Click here to read more Olive Press Travel News from The Olive Press.

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Dilip Kuner

Dilip Kuner is a NCTJ-trained journalist whose first job was on the Folkestone Herald as a trainee in 1988.
He worked up the ladder to be chief reporter and sub editor on the Hastings Observer and later news editor on the Bridlington Free Press.
At the time of the first Gulf War he started working for the Sunday Mirror, covering news stories as diverse as Mick Jagger’s wedding to Jerry Hall (a scoop gleaned at the bar at Heathrow Airport) to massive rent rises at the ‘feudal village’ of Princess Diana’s childhood home of Althorp Park.
In 1994 he decided to move to Spain with his girlfriend (now wife) and brought up three children here.
He initially worked in restaurants with his father, before rejoining the media world in 2013, working in the local press before becoming a copywriter for international firms including Accenture, as well as within a well-known local marketing agency.
He joined the Olive Press as a self-employed journalist during the pandemic lock-down, becoming news editor a few months later.
Since then he has overseen the news desk and production of all six print editions of the Olive Press and had stories published in UK national newspapers and appeared on Sky News.

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