I am on my way to India today with my new boss. He is a good guy and we’re having fun. He likes cigars – someone to enjoy the occasional cigar with at HR events! I am on the Cathay Pacific (CX) flight from Hong Kong to Mumbai that touches down in Bangkok for less than an hour. During that time some passengers leave, some join us, the plane gets re-fueled and serviced. Pretty standard stuff.

Weird thing happened, though, on this flight. A man sitting across the aisle from me complained to the CX team that he had to get off the plane. I maintained staring at my Blackberry while eavesdropping. He started with this:

Passenger: I have to get off the plane because I am on the TG flight to Mumbai.

CX: That’s okay, our ground staff will still help you find TG.

P: But I have checked bags.

CX: Yes, the ground staff will make sure they get to TG, especially if the timing is tight.

So this debate went on for while and I kept thinking “what is this guy getting at?” Finally…

P: But how could this HAPPEN…

“Okay, HERE it comes,” I thought.

P: … that I have to get off the plane? Why am I not flying all the way with Cathay?

CX: I am so sorry, sir, I don’t know the answer to that either but our ground staff can help you. If there has been an error they will do everything possible to help you.

This went on for at least 20 – 30 minutes and the CX staff got more and more flustered that the airline was in error. But this was not the case, the guy clearly explained he had been ticketed to Bangkok on CX and on to Mumbai on TG. He had the boarding passes to match the flights.

P: But how could this HAPPEN…?

“Well this happened because your travel agent or secretary planned your flights this way,” I thought, along with, “I don’t think you fly much.”

P: I am a frequent flyer so I take this route all the time. It seems I am switching airlines and that is a mistake as I have now discovered Cathay flies direct to Mumbai.

Despite the fact he was digging a bigger and bigger hole for himself – if he really took this route all the time he would know that CX transits through Bangkok – the CX staff never went down the tunnel of suggesting he might be the one who was wrong. Instead, I guess they planned on leaving that to the ground crew.

We landed, he de-planed and never got back on. I was amazed the effort he expended to make CX look bad when it appeared they had done nothing wrong.