A 101-year-old woman was mistaken for a baby due to an error in the American Airlines booking system. Ms. Patricia, who prefers not to reveal her last name, was born in 1922, but the airline's system records her birth year as 2022. The glitch led to a comical mix-up on a recent flight between Chicago and Marquette, Michigan.
“It was funny that they thought I was just a little kid and an old lady,” she told the BBC. The error caused her inconvenience, such as airport staff expecting a baby to be transported and no transportation waiting for Ms. Patricia in the terminal.
Ms. Patricia's daughter made her ticket reservation online, but due to a glitch in the airport's computer system, her year of birth was mistaken for 2022 instead of 1922. This led to Ms. Patricia being mistaken for a child during check-in, causing a similar incident from last time to be repeated. years in which she was involved. Despite booking an adult ticket, the airport computer defaulted to a year of birth 100 years later as it could not process dates that far back.
Ms. Patricia and the cabin crew laughed at the misunderstanding. However, she hopes the airline resolves the issue soon, she added. Ms. Patricia was traveling with her daughter Kris and hopes for smoother trips in the future. “I would like them to fix the computer as my poor daughter had to carry all our luggage and clothes from one gate to another for almost a mile,” she said.
On another trip, Ms. Patricia had to wait on the plane after everyone else had left because the flight crew didn't know she needed a wheelchair. According to the BBC, Ms Patricia, a retired nurse, flies every year to visit family and avoid harsh winters.