All our lives we’d been walking around with the mistaken impression that when they scanned your boarding pass at the gate, they were making sure you were getting on the right plane. We assumed this for two reasons: 1) Because an airport isn’t like a movie theater, where you can buy a ticket for a G-rated movie and go see “Killer Naked Women From Planet Sex And Violence.” 2) To prevent people from accidentally ending up in New York when they were trying to get to Long Beach, CA.
Our friend, travel expert Christopher Elliott has opened our eyes this morning with the story of Wendy Watkins. She was scheduled to fly from Oakland to Southern California, but accidentally boarded an nearly identical-looking flight to New York. Her flight was scheduled to leave a 1:00 pm from Gate 9, the New York flight left at 1:00 pm from Gate 9a.
How could this happen? How could JetBlue scan Wendy’s boarding pass and not notice that she was on the wrong flight?
From Elliott.org:
I went to what I thought was my gate, and waited for them to call my boarding class. When the line died down I walked up to the ticketing area, gave them my ticket, they ’scanned’ it, and gave me back my half.
I then got on the plane and off we went. About a half hour into the flight I looked down at the landscape and thought it looked a little odd. I took my ticket out and the lady next to me looked at it and said, “That’s not good, this flight it going to New York.”
I couldn’t believe it! How was I able to get on this flight? They took my ticket and supposedly scanned it but still let me on the flight.
I guess where I got confused was the fact that there was a gate 9 and 9a and they were both leaving at 1 p.m. I didn’t even think twice about it. Also, the ladies next to me said that it was weird how they never mentioned that we were taking off to New York, like they usually do. It was a string of unfortunate events.
JetBlue flew her back, but is unwilling to offer additional compensation because it was “human error.” Wendy also says the supervisor she spoke to was condescending and rude. Hey JetBlue, can’t you do a little bit better? Yes, she made a mistake, but in this case, human error was a two-way street.
“The worst travel experience I’ve ever had” [Elliott]
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@glass: “Duh, I are going to Boston, but the sign said Dallas. I thought they had my name up there, but just spelt Dumbass wrong.”
I don’t disagree that it seems like a security failure that she was put on a plane she didn’t have a ticket for. But that’s the ONLY thing the airline did wrong, and that in no way is the airline wronging the passenger, so it would in no way entitle her to any compensation. The security failure isn’t the airline doing anything wrong to her. All they did was fail to stop her from putting herself on the wrong plane, which, as others have pointed out, is FAR more service than you’re entitled to. The airline was very generous in flying her to her destination for free, and it’s laughable that she’s trying to extract a gift from them because she can’t be arsed to listen to the announcements.
Incidentally, I do not believe for one instant that the whole “and then the ladies next to me mentioned how odd it was that they never said where the flight was going!” thing ever happened. Absolutely do not. You think the lady next to you is going to spontaneously recall the entire run of pre-flight announcements in the terminal and on the plane and suddenly realize that no one ever said “New York”? That is ridiculous. At most, the ladies were trying to sympathize and were SURMISING that apparently, they must have forgotten to say “New York” fifteen times like they ALWAYS do during the boarding and takeoff process, because otherwise, how could you possibly be IN THE AIR and not know where the plane was going? You think that the one time Wendy happened to not notice that she was getting on the wrong plane was the ONE time nobody said anything, ever, at any time, about the destination? That is simply not credible.
I diagnose the same problem as many others: she had headphones on, she wasn’t listening to the announcements, she didn’t pay attention, she didn’t notice the difference between “9″ and “9A,” and she made one of those staggeringly stupid mistakes that everyone makes at some point in his or her life, but that most people have the good sense not to martyr themselves about. Everybody’s done something about which they later say, “I cannot believe I did this, but.” Usually, they don’t ask somebody to pay them hundreds of dollars in compensation, though, so I’ll give her points for moxie.
Why complain about it, you got a MYSTERY VACATION!
At least the TSA made sure it was you and not an evil terrorist tho right?
Stories like this kind of remind me why airlines still explain how a seat belt works.
Or why my canister of peanuts says “CONTAINS NUTS.”
What “additional compensation” is required? They flew her back, what else should they do? Pay for a basic reading course?
I almost always check the board to see that I’m at the right gate. If I’m running late (TSA likes to do the latex glove check on me lately,) I’ll ask the person at the door if this is flight xxxx to wherever. I’ve assumed enough other things in my life and learned exactly what happens when you assume.
I’m really trying to understand how someone who was supposed to get on Plane A but ends up on Plane B might somehow be a security threat. I’m sure there’s a reason, but it seems like a bit of hysterical specuation, a la BUT THINK OF THE CHILDREN as an emotional kneejerk response. Regardless of the plane being boarded they’ve already gone through the TSA checkpoint and are (hypothetically) safe as the passengers who boarded the correct flight.
Even if they *had* announced what the destination of the flight was going to be, do you really think you would have heard it? Any casual or frequent flyer will totally zone out while the flight attendants are doing their spiel these days.
I say congratulations to her, for locating an empty seat on a cross-country flight. Did someone else have to sit on the toilet?
Seriously though, was there magically a seat available that was exactly the same one she was assigned on the other flight? Spooky! How did that work?
@cccdude:
I’m a fairly frequent flier, and while I absolutely zone out during the spiel, I imagine I’d perk up in absolute terror if I heard them say “New York” when I was supposed to be going to Mailbu.
@B: Good luck finding a flight from LaGuardia or JFK to Newark. Or at least a non-stop one.
A similar mix-up occurred in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Wendy should have held out for a suite at the Plaza.
@dantsea: “BUT THINK OF THE CHILDREN”
Ah, the Helen Lovejoys of the world…
I nearly did this once. I was taking a 7am flight to Chicago. I got there extra early and sat down at the gate. Later, people started arriving, they called boarding for the flight to Chicago, and I got on. Except I was the row 28 and the flight only had 22 rows. So I walked back out and the attendants said, “Yeah, we just saw your ticket stub, this is the wrong flight.” My flight was leaving from that gate 30 minutes later; this just happened to be a Chicago flight from the same airline leaving from the same gate a little earlier. I was so tired that I didn’t even notice the difference.
@ForrestWhitakersLazyEye: @Hawk07:
To be fair, jetBlue (and AirTran, and US Airways) have this huge spiel where they shill their credit card and other random crap such as the fact that they’re “always taking delivery of new planes” (even though they’re also selling planes…), so many travelers just tune them out. It’s still the pax’s fault, but I can see how it’s easy to miss the announcement.
Another reason Wendy is in need of being Darwin’d out of the genepool: The default screen for the LiveTV that’s in-fucking-front of each pax is loaded with Google maps and unless she also fails at geography, she could have seen that the planned route doesn’t exactly involve going to SoCal.
Or she could have just noticed that the wings were drooping a bit much – indicating a ton of fuel being in the tanks – for a corridor flight…it’s so easy, a caveman could do it.
In the meantime, I heard that jetBlue got together a special display just for her:
Who wants to take up a collection for Wendy? I’ll organize it….
Here’s the catch: the money has to be used to tattoo the word STUPID on her forehead.
The IT angle is interesting… it means that those nifty scanners aren’t necessarily online – which is actually the case in a lot of bar-code applications that don’t involve UPC codes and retail stores.
@windycity: I’m starting to suspect that those scanners just do a seat-number check for duplications on a local database. I can’t see how any system that connects to the actual passenger list would fail to return a blip on entry.
RTA. There was no announcement.
This is not only a Jetblue Error. I got on a flight from NY to the Dominican Republic on Delta, but i was flying American. They still let me in. I realized the error when i saw a friend on the same plane and said to him if he was going to my town. There was a guy with the same names as me, just 20 years older, and it was an E-ticket, so i didn’t have a paper trail to check also i didn’t book it, so i was told it was delta, so to the delta terminal i went. After that i called American and they said it was ok to get on the next flight out. It seems to me that the Scanning system checks for you on the airport and not just on that flight/plane. Maybe it is a security hole, since I got into a different Airline, on a different terminal.
Something to ponder.
PS: i do admit it was my fault for not re-checking with the person that got me the ticket.
@SportsCentre: “KEVIN!” I hope this isn’t the type of thing that’d be considered a junk comment now, because I love it.
As Judge Judy says, “put your listening ears on.” And your looking eyes. I’d give this oblivious woman nothing.
@Ben Popken: As a fairly frequent traveler (on JB no less…between Oakland/SFO and JFK to boot), this would be the first I’ve ever heard of them just not stating a thing between boarding and take-off regarding their destination. I’m not saying the person who sent this to you is lying, there’s no way to ever prove that. I’m saying the claim is an awfully convenient way to cover up a situation that needs a total, complete lack of attention on her part to transpire.
There are signs at the gate saying where each flight is going, there are flight numbers if a gate or scheduled departure are similar. JetBlue flew her back (presumably to LA, the post didn’t specify) free of charge. I’m not sure what else she could possibly think she deserves.
I honestly think the bigger story here is that JB’s system didn’t flag the error and let her get on the wrong flight. Huge security break right there; were she a terrorist she wouldn’t have shown up on the passenger manifest; were she a victim of the same no one would’ve known she was on board.
The original article has an updated response from JetBlue. While it’s no excuse for allowing her to get on the wrong plane, apparently they don’t use scanners in Oakland. But not only did they fly her back for free, they also paid for her hotel room in NYC.
I don’t believe she is owed any more compensation since the mistake was just as much hers as JetBlue’s. They seemed to have handled this rather well. Can you see AA or United doing this for a customer?
well did they accomodate her during her transfer?
Ideal compensation is some Gold Lounge treatment and a business class bump
@Overheal: JetBlue doesn’t have classes.
@cccdude: If that is the case where someone zoned out, then whose fault is it?
Hell, I hear police sirens all of the time (like 10 times a day.) What if I zone them out while I was driving and cross an intersection that a cop were zooming through and get side swiped? Can I blame the cop for running a red light with his lights and siren blaring because I hear them all of the time?
Get real, and start accepting the blame for your own mistakes people.
@Ben Popken: Where are we getting this info from that there was no announcement? If it was from Wendy, then I don’t believe it. I’m sure if you ask the flight crew of Jet Blue, that they would say that yes, there was a an announcement.
Cheapest NY flight ever. I knew a guy who used to do this all the time to get cheap fares for long distances. It’s good to know that even in a post nine eleven Amerika, you can still pull this off.
I also know a guy who discovered he had a folding knife in his pocket after he got on the plane. Good thing the TSA found his big dangerous bottle of water, though. I guess it distracted them.
Okay, okay, I’ve read enough of these comments and it’s time to interject (and yes I can read). I am the infamous ‘Wendy’ who got on the wrong flight and no I am not a ‘dumbass’. I have never had a problem locating a flight before and am a frequent flier. I think because I was so comfortable flying I did not pay enough attention…I will admit to that. I never fly on Jet Blue and was unaware that there were gates 9 and 9a. I looked on my ticket, saw 9, looked at the seating area which was full and pretty chaotic so I took a seat a little ways away from what i thought was my gate. When they began boarding the plane I kept my eye on the line and wanted to wait until it died down to head over. Because I was sitting near a different gate (due to lack of seats) I couldn’t hear the gate they were calling. In my recollection of the day I never said they didn’t call out the destination at the gate, I just was not in ear shot or couldn’t decipher it over all the other announcements neighboring gates were making. When the line was gone I walked straight up to the ticketing person. They took my ticket and gave me back my half and on the plane I went. The plane was packed, my seat was open, so no warning sign there. Like I said before I did not hear them say the flight was going to NY. After the fact, the ladies sitting next to me said they did not hear an announcement either. I have recently found out from a passenger, and these are in his words, “
I was ON that flight to JFK from OAK and they only made one announcement at the gate and the women said “JFK” right before she hung up the phone so it was cutoff. ” I know that I should have been paying attention but there are a lot of factors that went into me making this mistake.
Now none of this is really my problem with Jet Blue! My problem with JB, which a few of you have pointed out, is the fact that my bag, which I checked on, went to Long Beach with out me….big security breach. My problem with Jet Blue is that they took my ticket and still allowed me to enter a flight I did not have a ticket for. My problem with Jet Blue is that they did not do a passenger count to ensure the correct number of passengers were on the planes. My problem with Jet Blue is that even though they did put me up in the shadiest hotel I have ever been to and got me a flight home, will still not admit to the fact that they made a huge mistake. They have pretended like it was no big deal and I think it was a VERY big deal. I do not like the thought that I can be on a plane with someone’s luggage who never even boarded the plane. To me, that is scary. So say what you will about me and my ability to step on the wrong plane, but please also think about what this mistake says about Jet Blue.
Yes, they definitely SHOULD be checking that you got on the right plane. It’s a matter of security. The airline needs to know who is on the plane.
On a lighter note, am I the only one who realized that this plot is remarkably similar to that of “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York?”