ryanwc wrote: ↑Wed Feb 15, 2023 1:24 pm
In roughly 2005, I got on a flight only to discover someone in my seat. Well into the digital era, the problem was that we both had a valid boarding pass for the same seat. Fortunately, the flight wasn't full. I don't remember who got the ticketed seat. It was all handled amicably by the two of us and the flight attendant. Strange though. Not exactly relevant to rail, but a story I thought worth telling.
Heh, reminds me of a short story I wrote in the middle of
No Novel November (a contest where you write short scenes each day of November). In (even) shorter (and more "normal"*) form, one of my odder (in relation to this board) characters was flying from northern California back to Baltimore on a red-eye off two tickets (because of how odd they were, they requested adjacent seating). One of said tickets was bumped, and the other landed them between two obese people that should really be hibernating for the winter... with no room to even sit. The character objected and complained to the flight crew, who escorted them off the plane to try to accommodate. That's when the computer booking error was found.
Said character ended up getting a ride back home on a retired F-15E double-seated Strike Eagle via a specialty airline... and eventually owing their own train engine/consist (see link in signature for that).
(* Note to say in my circles, there's a heavy dose of sci-fi taken and transgender issues are largely resolved. I've avoided use of the character's shi/hir pronouns here)
Now that we've thoroughly derailed this topic...