Back in the day before boarding passes were scanned by a computer before you get down the jetbridge, it was common enough for somebody to get on the wrong flight. If it wasn’t full, the seat assignment for the correct flight might still work on the wrong flight, or the two folks mistakenly both in 14B would sort out a solution with or without FA involvement, but in any case with nobody updating any computers.
So one day in a raging snowstorm we launch off from the hub bound for Cancun 3 hours late. For us it’s fly down about 4-1/2 hours, hang out 90 minutes on board the plane then fly the same plane back. So planned for about a 12-hour workday including our pre- and post- duties. Plus the delay = 15 hours. We don’t deal with immigration or customs at all as long as we stay on the plane.
We get about halfway there and the FA notifies us we have a passenger aboard who was going to Des Moines, not Cancun. I corrected her: “Nope, he’s going to Cancun, then back to the hub, then to Des Moines.” This came to light when they started passing out the Mexican immigration / customs entry forms and the passenger freaked out. Of course, being a generic American who’d never want to travel internationally he has no passport. Not just not carrying one on his person, but has never had one issued in his life. Pre-9/11 & pre-TSA that was real common. We notify Cancun we’ve got this problem coming their way.
On arrival our ground team tells us to identify the passenger before they let anyone else off. Our staffer is accompanied by two armed officials who looked exactly like every cheapo movie’s idea of a corrupt 3rd World customs / border policeman. Bad moustaches, big intimidating hats & badges, too much firepower, etc.
They escort the passenger off while the rest of the crowd ogles this major international crime figure being taken down. Before northbound boarding began this guy was the very first person aboard, escorted back onto the airplane by the same two goons. I found out later the pax spent the 90 ground minutes locked in a small concrete cell in the terminal.
We get the guy back to snow country in time to miss the last flight to Des Moines. And of course since the airline is disrupted, by that hour the local hotels are full of other disrupted passengers. Last I heard he was planning on sleeping in the terminal.
So much for fun in the sun for him.
How’d he get on our flight? The flight to Des Moines was originally supposed to leave from that gate at about the time we did. But we were late and the Des Moines flight had been moved elsewhere. He never checked the terminal gate info screens, just trusted his paper boarding pass issued many hours before at whichever airport he had started his day at. He also paid zero attention to any of the many PAs during boarding. This was all before fancy phones, text messages, airline apps, and all the rest.
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