Boarding the wrong plane
 

On Thursday LAX-EWR, one family and one woman got on the plane when they were actually going to Houston. The woman was stopped by the flight attendent right as she got to the plane, but the family got all the way on and put their luggage up. It caused quiet a commotion on board when they had to get back out as the plane was still boarding and the aisles were full. All in all, it was handled pretty well by the flight attendents and we got out on time.

I noticed that at the gate, when the crew called the elites, they told us to line up on general access side of the ropes, and started letting people in. Of course, then other elites started coming up the blue carpet. Then one of the agents started going up the line checking boarding passes to tell the non-elites to wait and she was tearing off the corners that have "Elite Access" printed on them. So when I got to the door, the agent just looked at that corner and said, "oh, she got you already".

If that was a new procedure, it wasn't working!

one time I was flying to SFO from EWR and the early flight to TLV was boarding at the same time at the next gate.... I was looking back and forth debating whether to get on the wrong plane, but I was sure that someone else was in 1B on that flight....

I'd swear that is one of the reasons they made kindergarten mandatory

A very long time ago, I missed a last-minute gate change annoucement... didn't find out until the, "you're in my seat" routine began... just made the correct flight. IIRC, I was supposed to be going to Seattle, and had boarded a flight to Denver.

This is why each Boarding Pass should be scanned when presented.

-Vincent

I have wondered in this day and age with all BP's being scanned how this could actually happen and when they might eliminate the onboard announcement about which flight you actually boarded and in if (final dstination) was not in your plans...

Guess they still need it.

BTW I know someone who, in the old days, actually boarded and departed on th wrong flight ending up on the wrong coast...

Yes, but most CO boarding passes aren't being scanned. At many of CO's non-hub stations, the boarding passes are still processed by hand, the old fashioned way. I haven't flown through LAX in a few years so I don't know if they have the scanners or not. But my suspicion is that they don't, otherwise this probably wouldn't have happened.

One time I was waiting for a flight in San Jose, California. A gentleman who did not speak any English got off the flight thinking he was in San Jose CR. I have also seen pax on occasion get off a flight when the FA announce the flight number and destination. Not necessarily all on CO.

I have seen them at station with scanners just do a bulk (they take them a bunch at a time then scan them), because they think it's quicker, but problems like getting on the wrong plane could be avoided by scan each BP at presentation.

-Vincent

I recently came across a confused gentleman who showed up at Term A at EWR when he should have been in Term C.

Of course, the guy didn't speak english... I guess security didn't look too closely at the gate on his boarding pass.

I recently saw some "poor" guy who I think had just come into EWR from HKG and was transiting to IAH (it was the flight that continues to EZE, so he might have even been going there...), miss a multitude of gate change announcements, and about five minutes before the IAH flight was supposed to depart he found out from the GAs that the IAH flight was moved all the way to the other end of the terminal. There was no way he was making that flight unless they held it for him. He didn't try to get on the wrong flight, but still, shows how important it is to check the monitors (the "wrong" gate information was printed on his BP).

And separately, I have noticed that even in EWR they don't always scan the BPs.
And even when they do, I imagine they could miss something like this -- somehow AA (who was scanning) let a woman on board a recent flight with a bad seat assignment (I had the same one -- in FC of course). I would have thought the machines would pick that up.

Once from JFK to AMS on KLM, I was assigned a window seat in the
front (Coach) when I got to the seat and I see someone else seating
with the same seat assignment. Computer assigned it, even the BP scan
at the gate didnt flag anything either. They upgraded me to Business First. :)

Back in 2000, I dropped off a friend all the way to the seat on
on an international flight @ JFK. no one asked me for a boarding pass
and no one asked me anything when I left the plane.

so I guess its not that hard to let someone on the wrong plane afterall...

scanners aren't always used
 

I'd say about 50% or more of my flights from LAX aren't scanned; this flight wasn't. I think all gates have scanners, they just don't use them. Wonder why.

WBC you meant right? Cause if KLM upgraded you to Bf then you were REALLY on the wrong plane :p

When you dropped your friend off what airline was that exactly?

-Vincent

You are right.. its was WBC... on KLM

It was Royal Jordanian @ JFK. Even my friend was surprised..

I reemmber back in the day when I was younger at the old T-4 International Terminal, there was this hall way you could get to that would take you from International Arrivals into the departure lounge, without going through security...

Those were different days gone by ...

-Vincent

AFAIK the scanners are only for the boarding passes printed from the kiosks. Web boarding passes are manually entered into the system. If CO is using a UA gate they are entering all the boarding passes manually.

Web boarding passes have the same barcodes as the kiosks. In my experience, BPs are scanned nearly 100% of the time. Then again, I'm almost always going to/from large airports & hubs.

Yesterday at SFO my BP was not scanned, but that was because I walked down the EA lane after the rest of the EA pax had already gone through. As a courtesy, they ripped my pass and let me proceed right through rather than waiting to scan it. They were scanning ALL of the others, though. I've not had a BP not scanned right away in a LONG time.

Then again, it's scanned into the same computer which let them assign duplicate seats in the first place ;)

My flights generally go from EWR to a non-hub. In the non-hubs I rarely see a scanner. Big mess at MCO the other weekend where they don't have scanners. Because of weather delays three CO 757's going to EWR at adjacent gates were makeing announcements at the same time with very close actual boarding times. People got on the wrong plane and some where approaching hysterics. Some ended up missing their flight as they wonder over to the incorrect gate as I assumed they looked at the monitors incorrectly and didn't know there flight number (very few elites at MCO)

I was a NW flight HNL-SEA a few weeks ago where BPs were scanned, and a pax ended up on my flight when she should have been on another flight. She didn't figure this out until we had just started pushing back. They didn't let her off. Not sure what her destination was supposed to be. She kept asking the FA how the GA let her get on the wrong flight especially since her BP was scanned.