Commercial Fixed Wing
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Communication Breakdown; Confusion; Situational Awareness
Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Returned To Clearance
Human Factors; Procedure
On the LONGZ 1 Arrival into DEN; ATC said they had a reroute for us and to let them know when we were ready to copy. I as the PM (along with the PF concurrence) said 'go ahead.' ATC said 'proceed direct to HIPPE and then pick up the FLATI 1 Arrival to DEN.' He phonetically spelled out the intersection to proceed to; and I read back (or thought I read back) HIPPE. The PF put HIPPE into the FMC and I verified before execution and said it was correct; he executed and then started programming the FLATI 1 into the FMC. At that point; ATC asked where we were going; and I said to the intersection 'HIPPE;' and repeated it out phonetically and he said it was 'HIPEE' and repeated it phonetically. We programmed HIPEE into FMC; executed and then put FLATI 1 Arrival into the FMC and proceeded to DEN. ATC did not say that there was any loss of separation; and we proceeded to DEN and landed uneventfully. These two intersections sound exactly alike and are both in the region. Maybe one of these intersection names needs to be changed because I could see this mistake happening again.
Air carrier Captain reported a track heading deviation during arrival to DEN airport after confusing similar sounding fixes HIPPE and HIPEE.