Awkward sentences?

A businessman, his wife and two children had come onboard at 1.20pm yesterday and were congratulated by the captain.

While fares are no doubt cheaper, it is actually subsided by the number of people who bought tickets way in advance because they are cheap.


The above sentences appear in two separate news reports of a popular national English daily.

In the first sentence, an act (come) is said to have been completed at a given time (1.20pm yesterday) in the past and that has necessitated the use of a simple past tense instead of a past perfect tense. Consequently, the sentence should have been "A businessman, his wife and two children came onboard at 1.20pm yesterday and were congratulated by the captain."

In the second sentence, the word 'subsided' should apparently be 'subsidized' and the 'it' should be 'they' to be consistent. The whole sentence, therefore, should have been "While fares are no doubt cheaper, they are actually subsidized by the number of people who bought tickets way in advance because they are cheap."