You guys will LOVE this one...

[ducklite]

DH was on an early flight this am--Southwest from MCO to PHL. The flight originated in West Palm or someplace down in South FL. The actual origination doesn't really matter, it was someplace down in south FL.

He got on and took a seat and was getting settled in when a 20 or so year old woman appeared and took the middle seat between DH and the guy in the window seat. They thought it was bit odd, as there were plenty of aisle and window seats further back, but .

She starts pulling books out of the seat back--her books. OK, she had obviously been on the first leg of the flight and was returning to the seat she had previously occupied.

She pulls out her cell phone and calls a friend and tells her that her flight will be landing earlier than she had thought--could the friend pick her up at 10:30?

They take off and the three start chatting about how cold it's been, and the terrible storms, and DH says something about how he hopes he can get his car out of the park and fly in Philly.

The girl looks at him with an odd look on her face. The other guy says something about how his wife would normally pick him up at the airport but will take SEPTA home to the northern Philly burbs so she doesn't ahve to drive as far as som roads are still pretty sloppy.

Now the girls eye's go buggy and she asks where the plane is going. My DH and the other guy say "Philly."

The girl says she's supposed to be on a plane to PIT!

I have NO idea how they managed to not count an extra passenger over what the manifest showed they were supposed to have, how this girl got back on the plane with a BP for a PIT flight, and how she missed the announcements before they left the gate about it being a PHL bound flight.

Either way the FA talked to the captain and they had her rebooked on a PHL to PIT flight before they landed. I'm sure the friend who ended up waiting four hours at PIT to pick her up wasn't so pleased though...

Anne

 

[hmp2z]

That is so odd, especially in these days of the extreme Homeland Security precautions. No water allowed, but random passengers can get onto flights! Crazy...

I don't see how she could have missed the destination before boarding the flight; usually that's posted prominently in the boarding area. Perhaps she was educated by the Florida public school system, where they're too cheap to even provide us teachers with paper

Cheers!
Heather W

 

[safetymom]

I can't tell you how many flights I have been on where there have been people on it that shouldn't have been.

I used to think it was funny when they announced where the flight was going. I figured everyone knew but now I like to guess how many people will get up.

Twice while talking to people waiting to board in the jetway they found out they were going to the wrong plane.

Obviously gate agents aren't looking very carefully at the boarding passes.

 

[kaytieeldr]

I was preboarding a flight last September, and one of the Flight Attendants asked where I was going. I said, "Orlando". She (very pleasantly ) said, "We all are - what seat are you going to?"

 

[bavaria]

On every United flight I am one, the gate agent comes on board just before the door closes for a 'destination check'

Now, I have been on more than one flight when the purser or the captain said 'we are flying to XYZ' when the actual destination was 'ABC'. Each time an entire plane load reacts with a collective 'huh?' and another crew member quickly corrects the purser or captain.

 

[tchrrx]

Well....that's one good thing about wearing my mouse ears on board. No one has to wonder whether or not I'm on the right flight!

 

[Pugrpooh]

DH was coming back from Tokyo a few months ago on American Airlines. He was supposed to change planes in LA to go to Dallas. He found the correct gate, the sign said it was going to Dallas, and he decides to go to the restroom. I don't know how long he was in there! When he came out, he noticed everyone was boarding the plane so he ran to get in line. They scanned his boarding pass, he found his seat (it was the only empty seat on the plane and it matched his boarding pass).

He realized during the flight that something wasn't right and when he got off the plane, he was in San Antonio! It turns out that at the last minute the flight to Dallas had changed gates. But he must have been in the restroom a long time for all the San Antonio people to get to the gate!

I asked a friend who used to be a pilot for American Airlines how that could happen, and he didn't know. He said when they scanned his boarding pass, it should have kicked it back out. The weird thing was that the only available seat on the plane was his seat number for the Dallas flight!

 

[Lostgirlz]

It's scary what is sometimes not throughly checked. We are in a issue with a certain airline for letting someone check in DAYS before we were even to leave MCO under us and someone flew on my DH name, and it was certainly NOT him. It's scary cause what IF someone is taking your name for something horrid. Just really bothers me if it's that easy.

 

[SueM in MN]

We always preboard when traveling with DD because she uses a wheelchair and can't walk. We are pretty careful to check and double check before we get settled because once boarding starts, we can't move DD.
Quite a few years ago, we were sitting in our seats when another family came up to us and said "You are in our seats; you will need to move." No pleasant conversation or "Excuse me", just a demand that we get out of their seats. DH checked our tickets and said "I think there must be a mistake because these are the seats that are on our tickets." The people said, "You need to move because those are our seats. We will get the flight attendant and she will make you move."
The wife stayed, while the husband got the flight attendant, announcing loudly, "These people are in our seats and they refuse to move."
We handed our tickets to the FA, she read them and said to the people, "The people who are sitting here have tickets for these seats. It looks like a mistake was made. Let me see your tickets and then we'll find other seats for you." The husband kept saying things like "if anyone has to move, it won't be us," but he did hand his tickets to the FA. She started laughing and said she had found the problem. Our plane was going to Minneapolis, but their tickets were for somewhere else.
The people slunk off the plane (with a lot of people laughing at them because they had been so loud and demanding). As they got off, the FA made an announcement that this plane was going to Minneapolis and anyone who wasn't planning on going there better get off right away.

 

[snowbunny]

As to the stepped up security, that is mostly window dressing.
Did you read about the 9-year-old boy who flew from Seattle trying to get to Dallas (after driving to the airport himself), no ticket no nothing. Talked his way onto two flights by saying his mom was on the plane.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16673691/

 

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

Apparently those boarding pass scanners scan it and determine that the passenger checked-in and that the pass is valid, but the computer does not know what gate you're at when it's being scanned. So the computer does not know your pass says you're going to City A when in fact you're at a gate going to City B. Of course that's no excuse that when the physical count of passengers on board does not match the manifest, they don't check further. On the other hand, if they count 65 passengers on the plane and they scanned 65 borading passes, they wouldn't know how many passengers are supposed to be on the plane; with cancellations and standby's, etc.

Hmmm, interesting. I think I'm going to buy a cheap ticket to somewhere and then use it to check-in for that trip to Paris!

BobK/Orlando

 

[manning]

I use to work for a major oil company. We had operations in Egypt. An Egyptian national came over for a visit and continued on to Houston. He had a thick accent and the airline was American.

This was in the days when had threats of hi-jackings for ransom.

Well he says his good-byes and heads to the airport. About three hours later I get a call from the airline and the police who are holding him under arrest.

He got on the plane for Houston...he thought. He actually got on a plane to New York. When the plane got into the air and the polite announced the flight time to New York this guy went into a panic and ran up and down the aisle screaming he wanted to go to Houston.

We had to go to the airport and put him on the right plane.