Kinda off-topic, but haing once worked in the customer service area of air travel, I’ve always been of the opinion that if 1st and/or business class isn’t full then there out to be a drawing consisting of all occupied seats in economy class and let the winners upgrade for free.
Thanks
Q
Red eye from San Diego to Baltimore, many many moons ago. I had a 747* all to myself. Me and the 6-7 person crew.
They still made me sit in the economy seat I had paid for though. . . :mad:
A note from the Celtling:
:dubious::(:D:cool::eek:
:):mad::rolleyes::p;):D:o:dubious::p:pbbgjjgbkmcj
TruCelt,
If it had a bulbous looking top beginning with a taper about midway and two rows of windows, it was a 747.
Cute from the Celtling. Anything to the letters, or are they just random? 
Q
So far as I remember, all the 747s I’ve been on have been laid out 3-4-3 in economy (2-3-2 in business). I think 767s are the only ones that are typically 2-3-2 in economy.
Nope, just random.
Whatever it was, it was much too big to be so empty! LOL! Luckily though I could at least raise the arm rests and lie down to sleep.
I initially sat by the window, and when I lay down to sleep I was across three seats, so maybe it was 3-4-3? I really don’t know.
The wife and I took a small puddle jumper from Denver to Lubbock, Texas once. I can’t remember if we were the only two passengers or if there was a third. I think there was a third pasenger. Small plane, just to props, but a United flight IIRC. This was way back before we were even married.
In 1989 I took a 16 seat puddle jumper from Springfield, MO to St. Louis with four other passengers, all of whom were known to me, though none of us planned to take the flight together at all. The pilot came back and arranged us in seats to balance the plane properly, or so he said.
Back in the 80s when I was working overseas. JAL from Honolulu to Tokyo. Big-ass 747 with about 25 passengers total. I was treated like a king because the stewardesses were bored. They were cute, too. I bet I could have joined the mile high club if I had tried.
Oh, well.
Thinking about it more, as for regular jet service there was one flight from Hong Kong to Bangkok that was pretty empty. A late-night flight, true, but the air crew expressed surprise about how few passengers there were. Got plied with more wine than usual, because they had nothing better to do.
I was once on a deadhead 747 on JAL from Narita to the Osaka-Kyoto airport, and they just let us go in and wander around and sit wherever we wanted. There weren’t even enough people to fill business class. This was maybe the last flight I had booked by a travel agent, in 2003. It was an early evening flight, I don’t remember what day of the week.
Once in 1984 I was on a KAL flight from SFO to Honolulu (then through to Narita, Japan). That first leg was empty enough I could stretch out and sleep on the 4 seats in the middle between the two aisles.
Roddy
Slightly off topic, but I was taking a flight from Berlin to London and the plane was about 3/4 full. However, when my flight attendant stopped by we both looked at each other and laughed - she had been one of my ESL students (and not all that good) and desperately needed to learn English to fulfill her life-long dream of becoming a flight attendant. It took a LOT of work, but she finally passed that English test and got the job.
As a thank you, she said, “Would you like to sit up front?”
I thought she meant in first class and said, “Sure!”
Now, mind you, this was in about 1983…
She took me to the cockpit!
I got to sit up there with the captain and his co-pilot (there was a small seat behind them).
I got to sit there all the way until about 10 minutes before we landed.
As someone who hates to fly, it was a good experience to see what goes on, and I have to admit, the view from the cockpit of a huge jet like that was pretty amazing.
I was on a flight from New York (JFK) to Moscow back in February 2001, during the Gulf War, that was certainly only about 15% full. The plane was a 747. I remember parking my carry on luggage in a row of three and then taking a whole row of 4 seats to sleep in/watch the movie (Memphis Belle). I was with a group of 9 other high school students and our teacher and we all had that much space. That was my first time on a 747, so it spoiled me a little.
I was also the only passenger on a charter plane for a few island hopping flights in Hawai’i. Not a Cessna but a plane that sat about 6 or 8.
Minor (pardon the unfortunate play on words) hijack.
The skies were closed for several days – someone else will be along to tell you exactly how long. I posted this six days after 9/11. In that thread Even Sven said she had flown “a couple days” previously. My flight into Toronto was a 737 with "less than 20 people.
I’m flying again this afternoon, and the fear and scrutiny are but distance memories. What a difference a decade makes.
I’ve been the only passenger a couple of times on a Learjet. I spent part of these flights kneeling in the aisle between and slightly behind the pilots, asking them questions and enjoying a great conversation. They would offer to do things like rattle everybody’s windows for a few miles around. I once asked if they would do a roll, but they wouldn’t.
I flew from DFW to Lawton, OK on a tiny maybe 8-seat prop plane. It was only me and the other poor sap heading off to basic training at Ft. Sill. We climbed done the steps from the terminal, entered the third plane on the right, and climbed in. The flight attendant made sure we were buckled, stepped off the plane, shut the door, and we were on our way.
Back in 1991, I was basically commuting to work each week in Southern California (from the DC metro area). I usually flew American Airlines, and changed planes either in Dallas or Chicago.
A number of times, the flights from California were at most 1/3 full (these were 727s). Which was great - I’d been working pretty hellish hours in California. I’d get a full row of 3 seats to myself and could stretch out.
Never had that happen since then (sigh). Best we’ve done since then was flying from Baltimore to Phoenix on Christmas day a few years back; there were actually a few empty seats on that flight. The return (on New Year’s) was not so nice; it was jammed. Fortunately I’d had the foresight to injure myself while on vacation, so we got to preboard with all the other gimps and small-kid groups, or there’s no way we’d have gotten seats near each other!
Atlanta to St. Louis, March 1990. The economy was in the tank, and the airline I was on (Eastern, IIRC) was in serious financial trouble.
There were six of us on a 747. We all sat in first class.
If you count charters, I’ve been the only passenger on a flight several times. As others have said, I’ve been the only one on the originating puddle jumper flight several times but more boarded along the route. I was once one of three on a puddle jumper that no one else boarded from start to finish so I suppose two other than myself would be the real answer.