Narrative:

At this time departure instructed us to turn to a heading of 330 degrees and cleared direct seattle when able. I was expecting some sort of clearance like this to enable us to get by the brasilia but was a little surprised that he had cleared us all the way to our destination; so I made sure to read back 'cleared direct seattle' to ensure I had heard correctly. His response was 'that was correct' and asked what our heading for seattle was. I replied '340 degrees.' he then instructed us to contact ZLA. When I checked on with center; I told them that we had been cleared direct to seattle. Approximately 2 minutes later; the controller asked us what our on-course heading was and I told him 340 degrees. To this; he replied 'I don't know what kind of crosswind you have; but there's no way that's the correct heading.' I rechecked the FMS and saw that was the correct heading for seattle. I asked him 'where are you showing us cleared to?' he said seattle and spelled it phonetically 'C-east-a-north-O.' I then realized that we were saying/hearing different things. I told him that I had heard and read back 'seattle.' he then recleared us ceano which at this point was about 30 degrees to our left. He then recleared us to sns and told us that he had not realized before how similar 'ceano' and 'seattle' sounded. We were on a course that was different than ATC expected us to be for about 3 minutes. I didn't realize that there was an intersection on our route that was pronounced similarly to our destination airport. I had not heard the intersection 'ceano' said on the radio before as it was the first time I had been cleared there because of the preceding slower traffic that we were being routed around. The controllers were saying and hearing one word and I was hearing and saying another.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier Captain reports being cleared direct Seattle and reads that back. ZLA questions heading and reporter discovers the clearance was to CEANO intersection.

Narrative: At this time Departure instructed us to turn to a heading of 330 degrees and cleared direct Seattle when able. I was expecting some sort of clearance like this to enable us to get by the Brasilia but was a little surprised that he had cleared us all the way to our destination; so I made sure to read back 'cleared direct Seattle' to ensure I had heard correctly. His response was 'that was correct' and asked what our heading for Seattle was. I replied '340 degrees.' He then instructed us to contact ZLA. When I checked on with Center; I told them that we had been cleared direct to Seattle. Approximately 2 minutes later; the Controller asked us what our on-course heading was and I told him 340 degrees. To this; he replied 'I don't know what kind of crosswind you have; but there's no way that's the correct heading.' I rechecked the FMS and saw that was the correct heading for Seattle. I asked him 'Where are you showing us cleared to?' He said Seattle and spelled it phonetically 'C-E-A-N-O.' I then realized that we were saying/hearing different things. I told him that I had heard and read back 'Seattle.' He then recleared us CEANO which at this point was about 30 degrees to our left. He then recleared us to SNS and told us that he had not realized before how similar 'CEANO' and 'Seattle' sounded. We were on a course that was different than ATC expected us to be for about 3 minutes. I didn't realize that there was an intersection on our route that was pronounced similarly to our destination airport. I had not heard the intersection 'CEANO' said on the radio before as it was the first time I had been cleared there because of the preceding slower traffic that we were being routed around. The Controllers were saying and hearing one word and I was hearing and saying another.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.