Delta Flight Takes Off With Just 2 Aboard

Chris O'Leary's long day of delays turned into something else
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 13, 2015 7:10 AM CST
Delta Flight Takes Off With Just 2 Aboard
His temporarily private plane.   (@ohhleary / Twitter)

How to get a private plane experience at regular-plane prices: Ask Chris O'Leary. The Brooklyn man managed to fly from Cleveland to New York's LaGuardia Airport yesterday on a 76-seat plane that carried just two passengers. Initially, he was the only one. As O'Leary explains to ABC News, he was originally booked on a 7:15am Delta flight that ended up being canceled. The Brew York editor was placed on a 9:39am flight that was continually delayed, and instead of waiting it out at the airport, he remained at his hotel. He arrived at the airport to discover that everyone else had been moved to earlier flights; though Delta tried to page him to make the same arrangements for him, he wasn't there to hear them. (As the New York Daily News notes, he spent the passing hours lightly grumbling: "I’m sure @delta's doing all they can, but this still sucks.")

That attitude changed once he boarded: He tweeted that he "got a personal safety briefing from my two flight attendants," along with a grinning photo of himself on the otherwise empty plane. He ultimately had to share: "The thrill is gone, you guys. Just as we were about to push back, they reconnected the jet bridge to let a second passenger on the flight," he tweeted, complete with crying emoji. But O'Leary is finding his story has legs, quipping, "Friends saying that these are my 15 minutes of fame must have forgotten about my cable-access cooking show in 7th grade." (His mom is apparently just glad he recently got a haircut.) ABC confirmed there were only two passengers aboard and suggests Delta didn't ax the nearly empty flight because the plane may have been needed in New York for a subsequent flight. (In other airline news, flight attendants feared a "devilish" image on a United plane and ended up losing their jobs.)

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