101-year-old woman mistaken for baby on American Airlines flight

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NEW YORK, April 29: On a recent American Airlines flight from Chicago to Marquette, Michigan, cabin crew received a surprise when they found a 101-year-old woman seated in the designated infant seat. According to a BBC reporter who was also on the flight, the centenarian, identified only as Patricia, had originally booked the seat for an adult.

Despite the mix-up, Patricia took the incident in good humor, laughing it off with the confused cabin crew. “It was funny that they thought I was only a little child and I’m an old lady!” she told the BBC. However, this wasn’t the first time American Airlines had made the mistake of mistaking her for a baby.

Explaining the error, Patricia mentioned that the airline’s booking system seemed unable to process her birth year of 1922 instead of 2022. “My daughter made the reservation online for the ticket, and the computer at the airport thought my birth date was 2022 and not 1922,” she explained.

This wasn’t the first time such a mix-up occurred. During a previous trip, airport staff had mistakenly expected a child instead of Patricia, leading to some inconvenience. “The same thing happened last year, and they were also expecting a child and not me,” she recalled.

As a result of the glitch, Patricia had to wait on the plane until all other passengers had disembarked while they brought her a wheelchair. Reflecting on the inconvenience caused to her and her daughter, she expressed her hope that the airline would rectify the issue. “I would like them to fix the computer as my poor daughter had to carry all our luggage and apparel almost a mile from one gate to the other,” she remarked.

American Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider regarding the incident.

While airlines increasingly rely on automation to streamline operations, glitches like this one can occur, impacting passengers with special requirements. Such technological errors have previously caused significant disruptions to global travel, highlighting the need for continued improvements in system reliability and accuracy.

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