Ed Davis said American Airlines issued him the ticket, which he used to get through security and to what he thought was his seat on a flight to Chicago.
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"I was worried about getting back home because my mother-in-law was gravely ill, so I wasn't really focusing on the ticket," said passenger Ed Davis.
Davis was rushing to Chicago to be at his wife's side as she was losing her mother. He said he didn't see that the ticket given to him by a ticket agent wasn't his, but instead was another man with the same last name.
"I was able to get past TSA security with this ticket, gave him my license," said Davis.
Davis said he was cleared by TSA even with though his ID didn't match the ticket.
"I'm shocked that they would do that, what is TSA there for other than to look at your ticket and look at your ID and to okay that you're the person on the ticket," said his wife Donna Davis.
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Davis even boarded the plane, then the real "Davis" came aboard.
"The gentleman came up and said, 'You're sitting in my seat sir,' and I said I have 32C and he showed me his ticket and neither one of us looked at the names," said Davis.
Instead Ed was removed from the plane, still unaware he had the wrong ticket.
"I was humiliated on the plane, I felt like they thought I didn't pay for my ticket," said Davis.
"He was worried because I got a good deal on it, so he says 'You got me a ticket that's not working,'" said Donna Davis.
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That's when Ed finally realized he had been given someone else's ticket with the same last name and alerted the gate agent.
"She found it, but the mistake had already been made and the plane took off with my suitcase," said Davis.
Davis took another flight, but how he passed through security bothered him. He said he contacted American Airlines to point out the security issue.
"The breach of security and how I was able to get on the plane with someone else's ticket and they responded with a $200 voucher," said Davis.
American Airlines officials said the duplicate ticket should have been caught, and Transportation Security Administration officials said they are conducting an internal review of the incident.