FlyerTalk Forums - Is it Really Possible to be on the Wrong Plane?

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Only last year I was boarding at LAX for my flight to SFO at gate 54 and the scanner was broken and the GA let me on through. Well, there are two gate 54's; 54A and 54B. I was supposed to be at 54B and I was boarding at 54A. I caught my mistake as I was walking down the jetway. Almost ended up in JFK.

This is how my buddy ended up in ANC instead of SJC from PHX. He fell asleep after the flight took off (I don't know if they neglected to state the destination in the announcements or he was simply not paying attention) and woke up several hours later. When asking the person next to him how much longer, he received "should be about 3 more hours". Since PHX-SJC isn't that long to begin with, he was rather confused.

Needless to say, he's not too travel savvy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MSPeconomist (Post 18921476)

There was a famous case in the news a few years ago of someone boarding a plane to--and arriving in--Ackland when they wanted to go to Oakland, which was a short distance from where they started. Apparently it was something in the accent that was making the announcements versus their own pronunciation of the two cities that caused the problem.

And we all felt relieved when Danny Tanner, Uncle Jesse and Uncle Joey were there to pick up the girls when they got back to SFO.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MSPeconomist (Post 18916719)

One time someone even announced that we were about to land at the wrong airport.

One of my favorite experiences was actually being awake for an "initial descent" announcement. Pilot got on the PA and said something like, "We're beginning our initial descent into....umm....(aside) hey Steve, where are we going?... (back into mic) I guess we're heading into Jacksonville today...." Didn't know whether I should've been :p or :confused:

Quote:

Originally Posted by chunky649 (Post 18921050)

I've also seen multiple times people who got on the wrong flight and didn't find out until they're physically on the plane. I suspect the bar-code on the boarding pass doesn't contain a lot of information other than name and seat number... Perhaps someone smart enough to know bar-code can figure it out...

This should prove interesting: http://shaun.net/2011/05/whats-conta...-pass-barcode/

In the comments there are links to online tools that will decode barcode images that you upload. I did a couple of mine and there's some nifty stuff. Apparently I've been the first person to check in to a couple of my flights. :D

Quote:

Originally Posted by andrewbashuk (Post 18926430)

And we all felt relieved when Danny Tanner, Uncle Jesse and Uncle Joey were there to pick up the girls when they got back to SFO.

lol, was thinking the same exact thing