I've seen a few threads on this topic on FT ...

today I had the pleasure of being the only passanger on a Continental flight from MIA to TCB. The Beechcraft 1900 operated by Gulfstream was totally empty except for the 2 pilots and me.

The plane was picking up a full load at TCB going back to MIA so I guess they had to fly it.

They'll even fly empty if the aircraft has to be at the destination for its next flight. Rearranging things on the fly to eliminate the need for "positioning flights" isn't practical, even with today's route optimization software. Too many dominoes.

a few yrs ago my AA to BA connection at LHR was cancelled by BA since there was ONLY 2 1/2 hrs between flights and BA said anything under 3 hrs was not a legal connection. So AA puts me on an ATR JFK-BOS with an A-300 over to LGW for the connection via LGW on BA. There wasnt even a dozen of us on the flight. but we went any way, eventually AA cut the flight as it wasnt making any $$- they were hoping to get some cargo biz that didnt materialize. That was some weird flight an Fa per passenger. Since there were confirmed people in both F & J, we still rode in the back but who cared since we had like dozens of rows per pass back there.

I recall reading a story in the UK papers about 10 years back re: British Airways. I think it was a flight from Japan back to London and there was some serious problem at the time. Anyway, they rebooked a whole 747 worth of pax onto other flights to get them to LON, with the exception of 1 woman.

She ended up being the only pax on the original flight when it finally took off, something like 24hrs late (and they didn't even let her sit in F!)

I was one of only 3 pax on a 737 on Aer Lingus from Dublin to London some years back. We were all invited up to F, and the flight attendant sat and chatted with us for the flight and brought first-class goodies (there were no booked pax in F).

If i were the only one on a large a/c I would sneak into FC and sleep soundly. I would tell the flight attendant that I'm feeling a bit under the weather etc. I bet they would let me up in F/C and who knowes maybe they would have some meals catered. You know as they say a free upgrade to F/C brings more business to the airline. So if they lost money on this trip I would upgrade next time. It's like when you sample coffee you are mroe than likely to buy the brand of coffee like at Starbucks.

Plus what else is a flight attendant supposed to do in F/C? I would have the time of my life having many flight attendants cater to my needs. Hell I bet the pilot would let me up front during the flight if I'm the only passenger and I ask nicely. And the cool thing is my luggage will be off the plane in no time.