Had a slightly scary situation on AC 725 last Friday. The plane was completely full. One passenger came to his seat, only to find another passenger was already sitting in the seat. Upon further inspection, it was noticed that the passenger sitting in the seat was on the wrong plane!

How is that possible in these days? I know there is just a rapid bp-check at the gate, and apparently nobody collect bp:s, there's no electronical scanning etc. But it doesn't give very much confidence! I consider it a serious security breach that I doubt would happen on European airlines, where all boarding passes are scanned.

Is this common in US/Canada?

This happened to my wife and I on an AC flight in August. We were in LGA heading to YYZ and our flight was delayed close to the departure time for the next YYZ flight. They started boarding for our flight and when we got onto the plane, there was a man and a woman in our seats. They were supposed to be on the next YYZ flight, so same seats, but wrong flight #. Both the passengers and gate agents clearly weren't paying attention.

Sounds like a fun new game! Book a cheap evening Rapidair flight to gain airport entrance, but arrive earlier in the day. Decide you wish to go to YVR and find a flight. Board last in line and just wave a random boarding pass. If there are empty seats at this point, just take one!
Document your heroics and become an instant Youtube hero.

*Note to terrorists: please do not try this. We'll ask you nicely, pretty please.

It happens all the time on the Dash-8s. People are out on the tarmac at the same time and get lost.

There was a thread recently about the FAs checking BPs as people went on and how this annoyed some pax - shows the reason why it's a good idea to check and double-check!

As to it being a security breach, I don't really think so - the person would have already cleared security and be scanned as necessary for the country of arrival.

I gave the GA the wrong boarding pass this morning (still half asleep); the only reason she caught it was that she needed to pull the cert. I guess they rely on us to be not entirely stupid (perhaps not a wise assumption).

No Big deal, it happens. Major security breech, no way, you are in a secured area already! You need the financial means to buy a ticket, or have someone buy it for you, you need to be able to get to the airport, or have someone drive you, you need to communicate effectively at the ticket counter to get a boarding pass, or someone can help you. You need to get through security, this is a non help zone. You need to match the gate and flight number on the piece of paper in your hand to the oversized numbers/letters throughout the depature terminal or you can have someone help you. Many checks in place but there is no requirement for any kind of IQ test!

I can see how someone can confuse TORONTO with MONTREAL or QUEBEC CITY as they all have vowels and such, they are all in Canada (yes Montreal and Quebec City are Canadaian) so I can see how someone can make that error!


...I guess when you been flying your entire life its easy and there are many who flying is not a common occurance so it can happen. That last check at the door of the plane is the safety net!

...2 gates side by side in calgary...one flight to the 'peg one to saskatoon...passenger boards our flight to saskatoon when he was meant to go to the 'peg...not only that the 'peg flight left about 5 min. prior to ours...so not only did he get on the wrong plane..he missed his flight.

Which validates the reason for politely asking to see ones boarding card at the door threshold. It's simply a final check, not meant to be an inconvenience or intrusion.

I wonder what would have happened if the passenger on the wrong plane would have had luggage? Do they match the number of suitcases with what the passengers on the plane have checked in? Is it btw possible here that if I spend too much time in the lounge for instance, that my suitcases fly if I'm late from the plance (checked in but missed boarding?)

The passenger wanted to go to Montreal, instead of Toronto where the plane he was on was going.

Yes - that is pretty scary.

If you check in a bag but don't show up at the gate, we will 'sequence' your bag. That means, we will track down (approximately) where it is in the plane and pull it off. 9 times out of 10 if you show up DURING the sequencing process, the gate agent will allow you to board to minimize the delay, but if you show up after the bag as been pulled, you aren't getting on that plane. Please do yourself and your agents a favour and be on board at least 10 minutes prior to departure!

I don't see what the problem is with keeping your boarding card out and ready for inspection on the plane. You're only going to have to dig it out again when you find someone occupying your seat

But that's just it! How do you know if a passenger is on the plane or not? There's no scanning of the BP, you don't collect any parts of the BP. In this case the gate agent just looked that the names on the BP and ID matched.

My favourite was a few years ago on a flight from YHZ-YYZ and two people apparantly were assigned the same seat, anyway after some digging they realized that one of them was Mr. "Joe Smith" and the other person was Captain "Joe Smith" and somehow the checkin system ignored the prefix and put their seats as one. I'm sure it wasn't amusing for either of them.. but quite the rare situation (I suspect)!

Usually gate agents do scan the boarding pass.

However sometimes if the scanner does not read, then they enter the sequencial number or maybe seat number. At which point they should match the name in the computer.

Still I don't mind if upon boarding an FA asks for my boarding pass or checks I am going to the right destination. Would be embarrassing to find oneself on the wrong plane...