Flying solo: Lucky passenger enjoys perks of being the only one on her plane

A passenger heading home for the holidays had the flight all to herself after being the only one to sit through gruelling delays. The woman, known only by her surname Zhang, was left on her own after other passengers gave up waiting or caught other flights. She documented her unique trip to the Chinese city of Guangzhou on social media, where she posted photos showing row after row of empty seats on the China Southern plane as it flew from Wuhan. The experience was “tuhao”, she said on her social media feed, using a slang term for the nouveau riche. “I’m the only one on the plane! Yes! Just myself as the passenger! And the whole crew! I feel filthy rich!,“ she added.

Even under these conditions, they still didn’t upgrade you?

One social media cynic

The China Southern schedules flight is normally operated using a Boeing 737-700 aircraft, which seats 137 passengers. But on Monday it was delayed for 10 hours and, with other passengers leaving on earlier flights, Zhang was left to enjoy personalised attention from the plane’s crew. She was going against the flow as nearly 100,000 people found themselves stranded at train stations in her destination of Guangzhou.  "What a fluke that you went against the big new year’s current,” one commenter on her social media feed said.

I felt so happy, it was a rare life experience for me and it was new. I felt like a rockstar

Ms Zhang

china passenger