The 1991 Gulf War broke out while I was leading some students on a trip to Japan. When we boarded our NRT>SFO 747 flight back to the States, we were delighted to see that there were so few people on board that we (I and nine students) could each have a whole row to ourselves.

I don't know how many people were on board, but everyone could have had a row to themselves if they'd wanted to. (There were some couples and some people with small children on board, so not everyone wanted to.)

I also flew shortly after 9/11, although this was a domestic RT. Here, too, everyone had a row to themselves.

Next time there is a terrorism scare, I will make a point of flying.

The security alert is heightened.. thus scaring the bejeebies out of the majority of the flyers..

The low prices restore confidence though.. and is a great opportunity to cash in some low fares..

Unfortunately, it takes a near global crisis.. like a nuclear plant meltdown or 9/11to have prices drop drastically..

I was on a flight from Dallas to Honolulu last year and up against a window.
There were a few empty seats in front of me.
Never bothered to look behind.
Rather large man sitting next to me really pushing my space up against the window.
About 1 hour into the flight, got up to use the restroom and noticed the back of the plane was just about empty.

I moved before you could say "Supersonic"

It was mainline on AA RIC-ORD. I'm tempted to say it was an MD-80, as the row I stretched out in was three-across and I believe the left side was two-across.

Wow! Great experience I'm sure!

March 2011 from DTW to CLT at 5 pm - 28 pax on Delta 737-800. Unless it is to another Delta hub, I normally find DTW flights are far from full.

June 2011 from ORD to CVG at 5:30 pm - 18 pax on United 757-200. (It was going to be a charter flight from CVG to FLL for the Cubs.)

I looked up my original res... it was actually on UA back in 2008. I had quite an interesting experience in the terminal beforehand. I was originally on another flight. I forget exactly why, but for some reason I was moved onto this flight. I don't recall if the new flight was UA or AA. I wish I remembered more of the details... I'm not even sure what kind of bird it was anymore, as this was about a year before I started taking flying and FF programs seriously. So at this point I was 100% kettle. But at any rate, it was the last flight of the night, I'm pretty sure it was delayed, and there aren't really many dining options at RIC, so I headed back out of the secure area to eat at the Chili's.

About 25-30 minutes before my flight, I went back to the checkpoint. The TSA had essentially shut it down and were getting ready to go home for the night. I asked them how I was supposed to get to my flight. They were sure there were no more flights that evening, didn't believe my boarding pass, etc. Then over the intercom I hear "Passenger javabytes, please proceed to Gate ___ for immediate boarding." The TSOs turned the X-Ray back on and let me through the metal detector.

When I got to my gate, about 20 minutes prior to departure, there was no one there. No GA, anything, and the boarding door was closed. There was literally no one else in the terminal. In retrospect, it was the strangest moment I've ever had in an airport. I was convinced the flight had already closed and was going to leave without me. There was still activity on the ground, so I was knocking on the jetway door, the window, etc., trying to reach anybody I could on the phone.

Finally a few minutes later, someone comes up the jetway and lets me in. I don't think it was a GA... I think it was one of the ground crew. I expected to see a plane full of people who I was holding up, you know, that guy who always gets on and they shut the boarding door right behind him and everyone on the plane thinks he's holding them up. To my surprise it is completely empty. And I think the flight attendants were just as surprised to see me as I was to see them. I can only surmise they needed the bird in ORD and that the crew wasn't expecting pax. So after a solid 15-20 minutes of panicking and wondering what the hell was going on, I got to enjoy 2 hours on my own private jet. Best. Flight. Ever.

Wow, amazing story ^ I would have loved to experience that. Maybe some day I will.

+1.. one of those angelic eerie feel good type happy endings..

I'm surprised the crew didn't have a manifest..

Everything about this seemed strange, even back then in my Kettle days. I believe it was a ramp worker who paged me and was then the same one who let me on the plane.

I was one of only 2 people on a regional carrier. Quite amusing and almost felt guility listening to my then "walkman" and felt I had to chat the whole flight to escape the silence!

What's a walkman?

My only experience with an empty cabin was this year heading to Hong Kong from Vancouver. The afternoon CX flight had no one besides dad and I in the first class cabin. One to one FA service, 2 suites each (one for sitting and one for sleeping). Outstanding flight for 13 hours!!

I remember the good ol days having one of those..

I thought they were the cutting edge in technology..

Whooa! I didn't think I'd ever hear of that flight having an empty F seat! My wife and I are taking that (and then HKG-YVR) next August - yea, I booked early to snag the F award seats using BA miles. I wonder what the chances of an empty cabin are??