"They Thought I Was A Child": US Airline Registers 101-Year-Old As Baby

A 101-year-old woman found herself mistaken for a baby due to an error in American Airlines' booking system. Ms Patricia, who prefers not to reveal her last name, was born in 1922, but the airline's system registers her birth year as 2022. This glitch led to a comical mix-up during a recent flight between Chicago and Marquette, Michigan.

“It was funny that they thought I was only a little child and I'm an old lady,” she told BBC. The error caused her inconvenience, such as the airport staff expecting a baby to be carried and not having transport ready for Ms Patricia inside the terminal.

Ms Patricia's daughter made the reservation online for her ticket, but a glitch in the airport's computer system mistook her birth year as 2022 instead of 1922. This led to Ms Patricia being mistaken for a child during check-in, repeating a similar incident from last year involving her. Despite booking an adult ticket, the airport's computer defaulted to a birth year 100 years later due to its inability to process such dates so far back.

Ms Patricia and the cabin crew shared a laugh over the misunderstanding. However, she hopes the airline resolves the issue soon, she added. Ms Patricia was travelling with her daughter, Kris, and hopes for smoother journeys in the future. “I would like them to fix the computer as my poor daughter had to carry all our luggage and apparel almost a mile from one gate to the other,” she said.

On a different trip, Ms Patricia had to wait inside the plane after everyone else had left because the flight crew didn't know she needed a wheelchair. A retired nurse, Ms Patricia flies every year to visit family and avoid harsh winters, according to the BBC.