travel

The booking mistake that led to this woman being the only passenger on an entire plane.

There are so many mistakes you can make when booking flights. You could book for the wrong time. Or the wrong date. Or the wrong destination.

You could type too quickly because you’re just really excited about escaping your everyday routine for a little while and enter your surname as “Clrak” instead of “Clark” on your ticket and then spend two hours on hold with the airline trying to fix the issue caused by a few fat, hyperactive fingers.

Point being, more often than not, booking errors do not fall in the traveller’s favour.

Unless, of course, you are Reddit user shadybaby22, who found herself travelling on an ENTIRELY EMPTY PLANE when she was given a ticket for a flight meant for airline crew only.

woman on empty flight
Image via Reddit.
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The woman explained the error had occurred after her earlier flight from Rochester, New York to Washington D.C. (an hour and a half trip) had been cancelled.

Forty-five minutes before her new flight's departure, she noticed something was off when she was the only person waiting in line to board.

"One of the airport agents came over while I was waiting and asked if that was the flight I was waiting for then said, 'I knew this would happen'," she explained.

"When my flight was cancelled about eight hours earlier, a confused agent gave me and half the passengers a seat for the plane in the pic before another agent realised everyone could go on an earlier flight.

"They made an announcement on the speaker but I'd already left to go back to my parent's house nearby to wait for the next few hours. I was never contacted about the flight change."

And so, she ended up on the plane that was intended only for moving airline staff.

LISTEN: Why you should never, ever recline your seat back on a plane (if you want to be a good fellow passenger).

Other Reddit users were quick to ask if she took advantage of being the only passenger on board.

"Get all them pretzels girl," one user wrote, while another added she should have asked for all the snacks the airline would normally give to other passengers.

Others offered horrifying observations about the in-flight safety demonstration.

"So was there an attendant present and did they do the whole spiel about emergency exits with the hand movements and everything?" one asked.

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"Oh god, she’d actually have to make eye contact whilst pretending to watch. Worst nightmare," said another.

flight safety air hostess cabin crew
When you still have to do your job, even though no-one's really watching... Image via Getty.

For the record, yes the safety demonstration was completed (at "double the speed of the sound recording") and yes, the two did make awkward eye contact.

"The attendant was nice and we both kept breaking into awkward giggles," the passenger wrote.

For the most part, though, shadybaby22 was happy to just sit back, relax and enjoy the sweet, sweet sounds of silence during her short flight.

"It was a short flight so I didn't ask for anything," she said.