"Both of Us Are Assigned The Same Seat!"

"Your ID proof Sir", said the girl at the check-in desk.  I handed over my ID card issued by the office - a departure from my usual behaviour of carrying the passport, after several admonitions from SK. 

"Could you please give me an aisle seat?" 

"Sure Sir". And soon enough she handed me the boarding card and said, "Your seat number is 3D and the boarding gate is yet to be announced".  I thanked her and left, duly handing over my baggage.  No crowds at the security check meant I had more time to spend on FB - my reading almost having dwindled down to a nought these days.  

The departure was announced and I noticed that the same girl who had issued the boarding pass was manning the counter here too.  I smiled at her as she presented my boarding pass to the machine for record purposes.  Twice she had to repeat as the machine didn't accept.  The third time she possibly overrode the error message and let me in.  

"Excuse me, you are in my seat", I said to the man in the seat 3D. 

"What is your seat number?"

"3D"

He took out his boarding pass and checked it and said, "mine is 3D too"! 

It was my turn to be surprised.  Thankfully the seats on the other side of the row were vacant and I was one of the last to board, I chose to sit in 3C, until the confusion was sorted.  No sooner, two gentlemen walked in with boarding passes for 3A and 3C; I moved in to the only seat that seemed vacant - 1D. My seat-doppelgänger had already sought the attention of one of the hostesses and she came gliding.  "Yes Sir?" "We both seem to be assigned the same seat number".  The lady appeared a bit perplexed.  In the meantime, I checked my boarding pass only to discover to my horror that the name on the boarding pass was not entirely mine! 

"Oh they have got my name wrong too here" I exclaimed.  It said 'Narayana Swamy' and not 'Narayana Sudhir'.  Soon the captain of the flight too was there, his face set in stone.  "Two of us have got the same seat, and they have even got my name wrong on the boarding pass".  Only after uttering this to him did I comprehend that the same boarding pass had been issued twice while I was not checked in at all! I wondered what would happen next.

The airline to avoid embarrassment to itself - a major security breach probably - covered my ass too! My boarding pass was duly brought in to the craft and issued to me inside.  I breathed a huge sigh of relief - what if I was deplaned and I had to face questions, as procedure, and stay back in Pune and not return to Hyderabad?! 

Drama in my life this year reached the sky with this incident!

Image 1: The boarding pass issued

Image 2: My real boarding pass