Long Flight, Empty Plane....SWEET!!

Last Thursday me, my wife and my daughter flew to Barcelona to visit my youngest son who is studying (or so he says) there this semester. We flew Delta out of JFK. Boeing 767, N194DN, was our plane and it was pretty crowded. Thankfully I had aisle seat so it wasnt so bad. We left today. My wife and daughter headed to Paris so I was flying solo. We breezed through check-in and security then parted ways. I arrived at my gate at 7:40 for a 9:55 depart (Who knew it would be so fast to get in). But the gate was deserted so I got to sit and watch the departures in the sun rising over the Mediterranean. By the time they closed the doors, Delta N1602 to JFK was quite empty. Everyone started moving around. The middle 3 seat row was very popular for people stretching out and sleeping. I grabbed a window seat and settled in. It was an 8 hour flight and to have no one cramped next to you for those 8 hours makes it much more tolerable. And it was nice and clear coming down the coast. I thought we would come over the Island for 22 on arrival but instead came west along the ocean side, lined up over the Rockaways and in we came!!

The only time that happened to me was JetBlue out of FLL for JFK last flight middle of the week at night. Everyone had a row to themselves. The crew said, here is ALL the food (they left the baskets of food out for the grabbing) and wear your belts OVER the blankets and we won't bother you until landing :-) It was great to stretch out in Coach!

I had that twice, once on a flight between SXM-CLT. I had the option of first class or the entire back of the plane to myself. I opted for an entire row rather then one big seat. Also on a flight from HKG-SIN, 777 was rather empty.

I was on an AA 777 from LHR to JFK and there were 34 people on the entire flight. The entire middle rows were empty. I think we had 1 flight attendant per 8 people or something like that. I was shocked they didnt cancel the flight. No way they made money on that!!

I was on a 247-seat 767-300 with me and 8 female flight attendants for work. This happened more than once. Just sayin.

What is CLT? You passed up F? Any decent service in F worth passing up?

Anyway, great to hear it was a nice trip Gerard.

We've experienced the same a few times as well:

-On 3 out of our 4 long haul trips on Air Tahiti Nuis 340s, on the way to Australia, we were the only persons in F class. The seats were already big and lie flat but F class was only one row of 6 seats. So it was like flying in our our private jet, with a personal FA and our own bar. That was wicked.

-Also happened on our first trip to Australia on Qantas. My then GF, now wife, and I split up for a few hours and each took our own row of 3 seats.

-This last one was most memorable. I took a trip to MIA in fall of 01. I was single and wanted to enjoy the flying so I took 4 different a/c types back and forth to MIA on NW, though MEM and DTW. The last flight home, the DTW-LGA was on a 757 with 43 passengers. That was nuts. It was just after 9-11 and I remember having to taxi bag to gate as there was a bag mismatch issue that was quickly resolved. But you were talking ROWS of empty seats. Everyone was laying out.

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Originally Posted by mirrodie

What is CLT? You passed up F? Any decent service in F worth passing up?.

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CLT=Charlotte I preferred the empty back on the 757 to F on that flight. I did opt for first from CLT to LGA.

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Originally Posted by eric8669

CLT=Charlotte I preferred the empty back on the 757 to F on that flight. I did opt for first from CLT to LGA.

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Looks like so far when I fly out to Reno at the beginning of June I will have first class all to myself on each leg of the trip! Man I hope it stays that way.

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Originally Posted by mirrodie

Anyway, great to hear it was a nice trip Gerard.

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THanks Mario. Barcelona is a beautiful city and the airport is gorgeous!! I believe it opened (reopened) last year. We left the hotel around 6:30AM and I was by my gate
within the hour. The security handling passenger screening were very nice as were the Customs officers.

This is wierd. I did a lot of flying in the 90's and was never on a nearly empty flight. Those were all domestics though.

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Originally Posted by Phil D.

I was on a 247-seat 767-300 with me and 8 female flight attendants for work. This happened more than once. Just sayin.

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lucky!
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i only got to do that once, was nonreving from FRA to JFK, had the last row center section all to myself on a A333. goodnight!! then again, also remember back in the good old days moving a couple UH-60s to Rammstein. i took my sleeping bag on that one and rolled it out on the floor and slept most of the way across the atlantic. we inflight refueled over newfoundland so the trip from Luke was done nonstop.

I flew a USX PDT Dash 8 on Monday to PHL and I was one of three on board.... Than again..... It's USX so............. A few years back I was on Continental 737-500 that had 18 people on board from JFK to IAH back when the service existed... That was nice.....

Sadly my best experience like this was also in about the smallest aircraft I have ever been on. Having been bumped from a CO Express EMB going CMH to CLE for a trip to GRR, they instead put me on the nonstop J31, CMH to GRR on US Airways Express, which at that point (1999) would have been Henson I guess? Anyway, it was the two pilots, a dead-heading FA, and myself. No first class to lay out in, but they left the cockpit door open and it was basically like flying with a group of friends. Excellent weather as well.

I flew BOS-LAX on New Years Eve one year & I was 1 of 8 passengers on the plane. Pretty trippy.

Was flying Virgina America from LAX-SEA last year and was the only passenger up in First Class for the trip. The back of the plane had about 25 people as well, so quite an empty flight. Great time chatting with the cabin crew who seemed to like the easy flight, and ended up walking away from the plane with a few extra snacks in my backup as well.

-Tad

Few years back, quite a few, flew Continental out of Honolulu to Vancouver one of only 38 on board. To this day i cant figure how it was financially viable for the airline to fly with low passeneger numbers but, hey, i aint complaining. There was only 4 of us for the entire rear seating section - it was 'take your pick' time! Being a night flight we all headed for the middle row of 4 and grabbed a few hours sleep. Never seems to happen these days, no matter where i fly in the world world.

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Originally Posted by flyby

Never seems to happen these days, no matter where i fly in the world world.

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I know what ya mean. I couldn't even get lucky enough to have my row empty on an 11pm flight from Philly to Providence. Plane was just about full :(

I only had a remotely empty flight once. We coming back from Hawaii, on the leg from LAX to JFK, the plane was quite empty. Unfortunately, I didn't jump on the opportunity to stretch out on the center section of four seats as it was an early morning flight, and every section had a sleeping passenger in it. The majority of window seats on either side were empty so I was able to stretch out there, as well as roam the cabin freely, since this was the third leg of a very long trip ( if you count an earlier flight between the islands)
On another note, it makes you wonder why the airlines charge exorbitant fares for last minute flights when the planes may be empty. Wouldn't it be better to make some money rather than have an empty seat?

Was on a US Airways flight from PHX to SBA. CRJ-900 and there were four of us. One FA for every 2 passengers!!!