Computer glitch leads airline staff to mistake 101-year-old woman for a baby

Gulf Today Report

Old age, it has oft been said, is second childhood. At least one airline seems to stick to this adage. A glitch in a booking system of American Airlines has led its staff to keep mistaking a 101-year-old woman for a baby.

The system cannot register that the woman, Patricia was born in 1922, rather than 2022. The date of her birth was too far back for the system to process, so it defaulted to 100 years later.

“It was funny that they thought I was only a little child and I’m an old lady!” the centenarian, Patricia, said, according to the BBC.

The error happened when the woman was flying with her daughter between Chicago and Michigan. “My daughter made the reservation online for the ticket and the computer at the airport thought my birth date was 2022 and not 1922," she said.

The computer error turned out be problematic for the woman’s daughter. She had to cart the baggage “almost a mile” from one gate to the other, the report added.

On an earlier occasion, the airport staff did not have any transport ready for her as they were expecting an infant who had to be carried.