Woman, 101, keeps being mistaken for a baby in airline mix-up
A 101-year-old woman keeps confusing cabin crew staff when they visit her seat expecting a baby to be sat there.
Patricia keeps being put down as a one-year-old baby because American Airlines’ systems can’t understand that she was born in 1922, and not 2022.
And while Patricia, who didn’t want to share her surname, takes the situation in good humour, it has caused problems while travelling in the past.
On one occasion, airport staff did not have transport ready for her inside the terminal as they were expecting a baby who could be carried.
Patricia and her daughter were waiting inside the plane after other passengers had left, as airport staff had not arranged a wheelchair.
Having her real age acknowledged would also be beneficial for her adult daughter Kris, who travels with her as her eyesight has begun to fail in recent years.
‘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 said.
The most recent glitch happened when Patricia was flying between Chicago and Marquette, Michigan, with Kris, the BBC reports.
‘My daughter made the reservation online for the ticket and the computer at the airport thought my birth date was 2022 and not 1922,’ Patricia said, explaining that her seat had been booked as an adult ticket.
‘The same thing happened last year and they were also expecting a child and not me.
‘It was funny that they thought I was only a little child and I’m an old lady!’
It appears the airport computer system can’t process a birthdate so far in the past – so instead it defaulted to 2022.
Patricia flies every year to visit family and escape the cold winters.
The former nurse says staff at American Airlines were kind and helpful both times the issue came up.
And she says she’s still looking forward to flying in the future, with her next flight planned in the autumn – when she’ll have hit 102 years of age.
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