Seat Confusion
Monday, December 17th, 2007Friday I flew from Los Angeles International Airport to Philadelphia International via Phoenix on US Airways. Boarding was relatively easy and, as inconsistency has it, US Airways got it right this time and let the first class passengers board before the Zone 1 passengers. (Sometimes it is a mad rush including all Zone 1 and first class passengers at once).
While waiting to board, I was talking to a few fellow passengers; one was connecting through LAX from Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific Airways. I asked how he liked the new business-class seat and he looked at me and said “You would find it cramped.” He went on further to say the seat was too narrow and too small, but the flatness really helped him sleep on the flight. The other guy was on a simple return flight from LAX, but was planning a trip in January on South African Airways. Once on board, I handed them both copies of Global Traveler for their reading.
The funny thing - the returning Cathay passenger encountered the same thing I did last month in first class on a US Airways flight. A passenger with the same name was sitting in his seat, and this guy had to go through the “What’s going on and am I going to get my seat?” game as they tried to figure out the situation. Again, like me last month, the passenger in his seat was to be in economy class row 19. This raises a real security question for me - how did this person get the wrong (duplicate) boarding pass and why does the system allow this?
On my connecting flight, more musical chairs in first class as a passenger came on with a duplicate seat number. The guy with the dupe was told to sit in an open seat in first while they checked the system - it turns out he was going to Newark, not Philadelphia! Now, how did he get on the plane at all with the wrong ticket and how could he have walked on without anyone checking? Furthermore, if the plane had not been full, I don’t think the ticket agent would have figured out that he was on the wrong plane. When would he have figured this out - in the air, in the terminal in Philadelphia, in the parking lot looking for his car? Funny stuff, but leads me to question US Airways’ policing of their tickets and boarding!
-Fran Gallagher, publisher and CEO
