Summary
- A birthdate mix-up caused a 101-year-old woman to be mistaken for a baby on American Airlines.
- Computer glitches resulted in airport staff expecting a child instead of an elderly passenger twice.
- System errors prove problematic for elderly flyers and their companions, causing inconvenience.
As first reported by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the national news outlet of the UK, a 101-year-old woman was repeatedly mistaken for a baby because of an error with an airline’s booking system. The passenger explained that this issue had occurred before.
Why does this issue keep coming back?
The broadcasting outlet explains the issue: American Airlines‘ systems need help understanding why the woman was born in 1922 rather than 2022.
This is what she told the British news outlet.
It was funny that they thought I was only a little child and I’m an old lady!
The centenarian explains that although she can take the larger lightly, she would need it fixed as soon as possible. It has caused her some problems in the past.
She explains how, 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 was flying with her daughter, Kris.
My daughter made the reservation online for the ticket, and the computer at the airport thought my birth date was 2022 and not 1922,”
The same thing happened last year, and they were expecting a child, not me.
Patricia’s seat was booked as an adult ticket. However, the airport computer system cannot process a birthdate so far in the past – so it defaulted to one 100 years later.
On a previous flight, Patricia and her daughter waited inside the plane after other passengers had left, as airport staff had not arranged a wheelchair for her.
She says having her actual age acknowledged would also be beneficial for Kris.
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.
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Computer glitches can sometimes hurt flying experiences.
Last year, Ieuan Davies, who traveled on Lufthansa, reportedly lost almost $1,500 due to a supposed computer glitch. Davies booked a return flight to attend the Euro 2024 qualifier against Croatia on March 24th, but when he tried to check in for his return flight, Lufthansa informed him that he had missed his flight. The airline’s app also no longer displayed the flight information for his booking, causing confusion and frustration for the Wales football fan.
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In 2021, there was a weather data outage across the Southwest network due to a nationwide weather data outage from Southwest’s third-party weather provider. The outage occurred at around 21:00 local time and led to extensive problems. As a result, the weather data required to fly aircraft safely could not be transmitted, and over 500 flights had to be canceled, stranding thousands of customers across their network of destinations.
What are your thoughts on this unfortunate glitch? Have you been affected by IT issues during your travels? Let us know in the comments below.
