My parents tell a great story from about 25 years ago. It seems they were flying USAir from IAD or DCA to BOS to be with my mother's family for Christmas and arrived at the airport very early, as my mother likes to. The ticket agent asked them to take an earlier flight to BOS and they said that was fine, so she had them hurried through the terminal because that flight was about to depart. They just made it onto the plane to which they were directed, were told to take any seat, the door closed, and it pushed back almost immediately. My mother caught a glance of the itinerary of the man next to him, which referred to a hotel in North Carolina, so she asked him where the flight was going. He said it was bound for CLT! She rang the FA call button, and the FA came over apologizing, saying she knew they'd been asked to board the wrong plane but that there was nothing to be done because the flight had pushed back. USAir accommodated them from CLT to BOS, but this was of course before cell phones were commonplace, so her family was losing their heads up north.

Some of the details have the feeling of one of those apocryphal stories to me, but it's unlike my folks to tell that kind of story, so I think it's likely this, or something very like it, did happen! I'd find it an interesting adventure, but y'all better believe that's not how my dear high-strung mother remembers it .