Originally Posted by
bankops
Were all 16 people on the list already on board? Was it a Pilot? Dispacher? FA? Ground Crew? Maintenance dept? Was the seat they took the "other" open seat? How do you know?
Employees travel for various reasons and especially if they are wearing civilian clothes, it could be because of about anything. Training, internal interview, meetings, death in family and the list goes on.
The responses make sense, and I agree, certainly valid possibilities. To respond to your questions above - BE was entirely seated except for 2D. As I mentioned previously, 17 folks on gate UG list w/ two open seats, I was first on list and boarded w/ BE cabin. About 15-20 mins later, the passenger w/ the badge came into BE. She was very well dressed, all smiles and laughter, displayed her badge prominently, went straight up front to say hi to the other FA and asked to say hi to Captain, which she quickly did, then took her seat in 2D. It was just VERY hard to miss, so it made me curious. Unfortunately, no way for me to know what type of employee she is.