I just got off UA 1552 SAN-EWR. As we were preparing for landing the passenger beside me turned on his phone and asked "Are we landing in New York?". He was flying to Houston and had got on the wrong plane. His flight was supposed to have left from the gate beside us in SAN. Ironically our flight was full and his seat number for SAN-IAH was the only empty one on our flight.

How can this happen in 2013? Especially as they seemed to have extra security in place in the SAN airport this morning.

Oof. So much for the destination check.

The gate scanner should caught this but when the scanner has a habit of malfunctioning the GA may ignore the error. The backup mechanisms are the seating problem, the destination announcement and the passagner count. My guess the combo of inexperienced passenger and the holiday rush and human frailties all contributed a bit.

It is not that unknown -- I would say once a year I see a near case of this. That is, one caught late in the process -- on board the aircraft.


not sure what airport security has to do with this, it was a gate boarding error.

Gate reader error? OOPS.

So does UA fly him to original destination at no charge?

when the pilot announced the time of flight to be 4 hours and change, how did this guy think that was right for SAN-IAH? i guess people tune out the announcements more so than i even give them credit for doing.

This reminds me when I was on a SJO-SAL flight and this guy gets all fired up because someone "was" on his sit calls the FA.

He yells out his point to which the FA grabs his boarding pass and says to him:

"You are correct sir, that is your sit number, however this flight is going to SAL and you should be on the CUN plane right next to our gate."

The laughs of the other passengers that were close to witness this and the expression on the passenger was priceless.

Come on, this is FT. Do you get miles for both flights, plus compensation??

About 20 years ago I was on an prop commuter from BWI to PHL. On climb out the pilot announced flight to JFK. I thought it was a mistake but the flight path was pretty far offshore for a PHL flight. I thought I got on the wrong flight so I asked the guy across the aisle and he said PHL also. No flight attendant so leaned forward in my seat and started tapping on the curtain and eventually the copilot pushed the curtain aside and pushed his headset off one ear. I said his announcement said said JFK but we were all going to PHL. He just nodded and pulled the curtain back. About ten minutes later we bank left and change course about 40 degrees.

I asked a friend who worked for the airline when we landed and he said the pilots got on the wrong plane and picked up the clearance to JFK for their originally scheduled flight number.

Any chance this person was "confused"?

I can't believe I'm going to admit to this, but I was at IAD headed to ORD. It was afternoon, and I arrived late at the gate. The agent rushed me, opened the black door to the jetway bridge and I walked onto the plane. The flight was light and I sat in the bulkhead aisle in coach, the two seats were empty next to me, a gentleman sat across the aisle from me.

I closed my eyes, I was exhausted, and we took off. I hear the pilot say his thing and "....we will be in Rochester..." I opened my eyes and started to panic a little trying to register what I heard. I turned to the guy across the aisle from me and asked him:

"Is this plane going to Rochester."
"Ahh, yes."
"Minnesota or New York?"
He looked at me like I had three heads, "New York"

I took me EIGHT hours to get home. UA did accomodate me and I had to fly to Buffalo and then to ORD.

So I guess it does happen from time to time.

Agreed! That was PRICELESS. Awesome to witness something like that . . . someone acting like a clown and making a scene. It'll happen at a stadium once in a while, but the reaction is always priceless in my case, "You are in the wrong section, your seats are over there." In this case, you the FA could have just pointed to another plane altogether!

Whoa . . . someone admitting on FT that they are human and make mistakes themselves, and it not just airlines and airline employees? Refreshing! You sir, get a gold star. Oops . . . no gold star, how about a thumbs up then? ^

Who flys ROC-BUF? Don't tell me you connected in PIT...

Even better when it's "your seats are waaaaaaaaaay up there."

I did that once -- DRIVING!

I was flying into ROC but had to drive to Elmira (100 miles or so). Well, one time going back to ROC I programmed my GPS to Rochester and off I went (I had only driven 3 or 4 times so I didn't know the area and all of mid NY looks the same). After about 2 hours I was thinking "I should be seeing Genesee signs about now..."

I looked at my GPS and it said I had 45 hours left or something -- programmed for Rochester MIN!!

I called the airline,l got a later flight (and a laugh) and turned the damn car around -- all told 5 hours driving.