Travel Rant

On a recent trip back from San Francisco, I had an incident that happened to me that makes me question the airline industry even more.

I was the 4th person to board the plane on the red-eye back to Minneapolis. Two of the women in front of me in line made it through just fine. The 3rd, was called out of line as the system came up "red" and that she needed a paper ticket. Even though she clearly had a printout of her boarding pass already. As i get into my seat I can hear the two women behind me (first two on the plane) chatting. Finally as one sits down, the other asks "I'm in 6a, where are you?" - "Well, I'm in 6a." OH NO, they double booked us!

One of these women then turns to the lead attendant and tells him "we're both in 6a". He proceeds to tell her, "well, you will need to go back up to the gate agent, as there are only 4 flight attendants on the plane and that is the FAA minimum once passengers are on board. We're not allowed to leave the plane."

With this information, they both decide to sit down and wait, for what I don't know. Another flight attendant walks by "Ma'am, we're both in 6a." "I'm sorry ladies, you'll need to check with the gate agent as there are only 4............." With this SAME information, they both again decide to sit down and wait. In the meantime, 6B shows up. "I"m in 6B." "Well, we're both in 6a." and the don't move. So 6B is stuck standing while they wait.

Now the co-pilot comes walking by, "Excuse me sir, we're both in 6a." Now, don't you think this gentleman has better things to do with his time then resolve a seat issue since he's about to fly a couple hundred people across the country? "I have to go get the passenger list anyway right now, I'll stop back down when I have it so we can figure out what's going on." "Oh, thank you sir."

In the meantime, the lead attendant gets on the overhead and says the usual "Welcome to flight xxx service from San Francisco to the Minneapolis, St. Paul airport. Full flight, put your bags in right, blah blah blah.... and again, this is flight xxx service from San Francisco to Minneapolis, enjoy your flight."

Finally as the co-pilot boards the plane, "OK, which one of you is Mary?" "OK, great, you're in 6a. Can I see your boarding pass ma'am?" "Sure, it's right here!" "Well Jane, you're on the wrong plane, you're going to Detroit and this flight is going to Minneapolis." "OH MY GOSH, I can't believe I did that, is that plane still here? Where is it boarding from? Oh, I'm sorry!!!"

So the issues that bother me about this entire scenario are as follows:

- 3 members of the flight crew were approached by these women and not one of them looked at both of their boarding passes to verify that they were in the right seat or ON THE RIGHT PLANE!

- On this flight, only Platinum members were getting upgraded. So here are two women that fly in excess of 75,000 miles per year on one airline, and yet with all of their travels, she doesn't know enough to verify she's at the right gate or getting on the right plane?

- When the flight attentdant comes on and painfully announces that the plane is going to Minneapolis more than twice, does it not register that you're not going to Minneapolis?

- The biggest issue of all is how in the world did they let her get on the plane in the first place? 2 of the first 4 people on the plane had the same seat assignment and they let them both on?

- What's the point of having the strict security if you can just present your boarding pass to get on any flight from the same airline?

- Shouldn't these boarding system verify the flight is actually the one they are boarding?