The reason it’s such a rarity in the US is that anytime a plane is lightly occupied, they have no compunctions about cancelling the flight because they won’t make enough money on it.
An exception might be if the plane had to return to its hub anyway. Otherwise, policy is to screw the ticket buyers.
Better one:
Excuse me, stewardess? When do we arrive at Space Station Five?
Happened to my wife once flying from a regional airport to Chicago O’Hare. The whole flight crew was waiting for her at the gate and let her know she was the only passenger.
Sounded great, but she couldn’t sit anywhere she wanted. Since the plane was mostly empty, she and the crew had to sit at the back of the plane, apparently for weight distribution. Maybe not an issue on a larger jet like a 737.
I’m sure this airline would have cancelled if it made logistical sense. I wonder if the reason they didn’t is that they would have to compensate not only the Lithuanian, but also the travel agency that bought the other tickets.
Anyway, if a flight is this empty, I don’t know that I would fault an airline for cancelling it. I don’t really like the idea that literally nothing else matters because €50 has changed hands. On the other hand, airlines are such assholes in every other way, it’s a bit rich if they’re suddenly all reasonable in the one situation where that works against customers.
They’ve also just gotten much better at adjusting ticket prices so as to fill planes. That’s why the ticket prices change day-to-day… (They also don’t mind overbooking a flight, though, and counting on a few no-shows or incentivizing people to take a later flight to make it all work out).
I don’t think any of that was possible pre-1978 deregulation, but I wasn’t alive, so what do I know.
I had a similar experience in the 1970s. I think I was the only passenger, but I dunno. Apparently they needed the aircraft at the destination or they would have cancelled. In any event, I didn’t get any extra attention; only saw a flight attendant once, when she lobbed a pack of peanuts at me.
When I was a young lad, we had a flight screwup (too long ago and/or I was too young to grok all the details). My family spent most of the night in the Atlanta airport, until we got a flight home. We were the only passengers.
Not really any more interesting than the other stories already posted, but I should mention that the Atlanta airport subway tried to rip my little brother in half. Ok, I exaggerate a tad, but he didn’t pass through the double doors quickly enough, my father tried to stop them from closing by physically blocking them with his arm as one would an elevator, and the doors kept closing anyway. My brother was snatched out of the way with no harm done.
I love watching 2001 and seeing which predictions were spot-on (seatback TV screens, video calling, tablet computers), which were wildly optimistic (widespread commercial space travel, high-level AI), and which were stuck in the 60s (the video calling is via non-mobile payphones, the tablet computers only show broadcast network television, Pan Am is still around and flying empty flights because airline deregulation never happened, the AI runs on IBM mainframes)…
I’ve heard stories from a commercial pilot relative of flying in nearly empty planes to shuffle around crew and planes to their next job.
I’ve never had a whole plane to myself, but for a while back when my previous before last job entailed mind-numbing air miles, I somehow got accidentally upgraded to my employer’s executive travel program. I was no executive, but no way did I protest as I got the first class treatment for a couple of months. Alas, it didn’t last. Either it was a quirk in the system where they had extra slots that got handed out by mysterious and possibly random allocation, or it was just a bug someone finally fixed. C’est la vie.
Not a subway story, but sliding doors never the less: Many years ago when I was a be suited corporate type I was in an elevator with the doors closing as someone ran up to catch it. I stuck my portfolio between the doors, expecting them to re-open . Instead, they clamped around my portfolio, and it started to descend (with respect to me). I frantically tugged and slammed and managed to extract it before any damage was done … I was pretty cool back in the day.
I had a similar experience as a be-suited techie visiting a secure data center after normal business hours. The shoulder strap on my laptop bag got caught in an automated revolving security door, which did not rotate again once the system indicated a person had passed through it. So, with my bag in one section and my body in another, I called multiple co-workers for help. It took about an hour for one of them to reach security and have someone get me out.
A travel agency …
Well there’s yer problem!
I think you’re looking for "The Langoliers:
Imagine the hell it would have been if he was that guy who can’t shut up talking to his new “best friend” for the entire trip.
In the nineties, I flew out to Japan on Aeroflot with a stopover at Moscow, so I could visit my sister on the way back. Aeroflot was cheaper, so I could go first class and still save. On the leg from Moscow to Tokyo, I had the first class section of a Jumbo to myself, with four attendants. I quickly found such attention weirded me out. I would make a lousy dictator.
One thing you can say for the 738 and 739, they’ll get you on the ground faster than anything else in the air.
still around and flying empty flights
I mostly agree with you, except the book makes it clear that Floyd was on a special, top secret flight, which was why the Russians on the space station were so interested in what was going on.
There’d be enough free seats to politely invite the gremlin on the wing inside from the cold. No wonder he was so cranky.
Never saw the movie, but I enjoyed the story!
EDIT: Oh wtf 3 hours long? Gandhi isn’t that long!
