Got on the wrong flight - but how???
May 24, 2013, 1:26 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 477
Got on the wrong flight - but how???
I've just done something I thought was impossible in this day-and-age.
I got on a flight that wasn't mine to a destination I didn't want to go to.
Just how did I manage this?
I checked in for Virgin Australia online - and my gate was already printed on the boarding card. Kicked around in the Sydney lounge for a couple of hours, but for once in my life I didn't check the gate again and just rocked up at my original gate as pretty much the first in line, the boarding card reader went beep, I sat in my seat, and it was only when the very last passenger boarded and the door was about to be closed the last pax said he was in my seat - which he was! - and I realised I was on a plane going to Melbourne, not Brisbane as I planned!
And yes, it was entirely my mistake - but the gate had changed, and I often fly to Melbourne, so my mind on autopilot went 'yep, that's where you're going'.
The question that still remains though, is just how did I manage it in an age when computers are supposed to prevent people like be from being dumb?
Not something you would expect from a Velocity Gold - my most 'stupid on a plane' incident. Unless anyone can top it?
I got on a flight that wasn't mine to a destination I didn't want to go to.
Just how did I manage this?
I checked in for Virgin Australia online - and my gate was already printed on the boarding card. Kicked around in the Sydney lounge for a couple of hours, but for once in my life I didn't check the gate again and just rocked up at my original gate as pretty much the first in line, the boarding card reader went beep, I sat in my seat, and it was only when the very last passenger boarded and the door was about to be closed the last pax said he was in my seat - which he was! - and I realised I was on a plane going to Melbourne, not Brisbane as I planned!
And yes, it was entirely my mistake - but the gate had changed, and I often fly to Melbourne, so my mind on autopilot went 'yep, that's where you're going'.
The question that still remains though, is just how did I manage it in an age when computers are supposed to prevent people like be from being dumb?
Not something you would expect from a Velocity Gold - my most 'stupid on a plane' incident. Unless anyone can top it?
May 24, 2013, 11:25 am
#3
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: LON BCN SYD
Programs: BA, OZ, A3, VA, VS, DL, QF, former BD and others
Posts: 1,074
So just want does it mean when the BP reader goes beep - does it not check that you have a valid BP for that flight?
Did the crew not check the BP on boarding?
Did the crew not check the BP on boarding?
May 24, 2013, 9:42 pm
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 477
The crew at the gate, and on the plane both checked my BP, but none of them picked up on it either - the danger of just 'going through the motions' I guess.
May 25, 2013, 2:31 pm
#6
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Rio Rancho, NM - USA
Programs: DL, UA, WN, Amtrak, Hyatt, Accor
Posts: 1,793
Actually, with gate changes being so common and many flights being very long now (like 14 hours or more with extremely tired pax making connections), it's surprising this doesn't happen all the time. At least you realized the slip before the plane left the gate!
May 26, 2013, 10:05 pm
#7
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Aus
Posts: 16
I did indeed - but didn't make the flight I was scheduled for, and had to re-booked onto the next flight, after a bit of a fight where the ground staff argued I had already boarded, therefore I had lost the fare. It took a supervisor to sort that one out!
The crew at the gate, and on the plane both checked my BP, but none of them picked up on it either - the danger of just 'going through the motions' I guess.
The crew at the gate, and on the plane both checked my BP, but none of them picked up on it either - the danger of just 'going through the motions' I guess.
May 26, 2013, 11:48 pm
#8
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: SYD
Programs: QF WP (OWE), VA PLAT, EY GLD, SPG PLAT, Hyatt DIA, Hilton DIA, Hertz PC
Posts: 8,530
Doesn't happen on QF. Using my FF card I have attempted to board an aircraft that was 30 mins earlier by mistake, and the machine said something like 'Do Not Board'
May 27, 2013, 12:32 am
#9
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: MEL
Programs: VAG
Posts: 1,865
That would be a pretty dumb way to design a boarding pass reader, if that's true. A BP reader has, like, *one* job, and that's stopping people from getting on a flight without a boarding pass for that flight.
Jun 9, 2013, 7:03 pm
#10
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Canberra, Australia
Programs: QF, AA, BD, PC, HH, Hertz
Posts: 203
I have got on a qflink plane after scanning the wrong boarding pass. I scanned the syd cbr from the morning instead of the cbr syd. I knew one of the flight attendants and they knew I was on board so it was resolved reasonably quickly.