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I flew from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) to Tampa International Airport (TPA) this week. The aircraft arrived on time, the crew were on board, and the plane was cleaned so that we boarded on time. The plane completely boarded and the door did not close. We waited and it still did not close. The captain came out and made an announcement that we were waiting for a passenger and that it would not be much longer. She eventually came, he carried her bags, put them in an overhead bin, and then we took off. I’m still trying to figure out why a full plane needed to wait for one passenger.
I was seated in 1C, so I had a perfect view and was in earshot of all conversations. The flight attendants were questioning what was going on. I asked and they said they had no idea but that it was weird and not like anything they had seen. The gate agent came down and said that they were struggling to reissue her ticket and that they had to cancel it and have her buy a new one at the gate. This made me realize that we were not waiting for a non-rev or an employee that was deadheading. The woman did not seem like she held ConciergeKey status from comments she made when she boarded, but the captain fawning over her made me feel like they knew each other.
I took to X and made a joke. American asked me to message.
The chat agent insisted that the flight was held waiting for crew. This was just not true.
Anthony’s Take: In the grand scheme of things, it was a minor delay but annoying that we just had to wait for one passenger. I’m not sure what happened, but it was an odd scene to watch.
(Featured Image Credit: American Airlines.)
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
2 comments
Could be the captain’s passrider.
Would they cancel her ticket and make her buy a new one? From the way she acted when she was on the aircraft it did not seem like she flew often.