Vincent Peone’s lucky flight story went viral earlier this week after he posted a video showing how he got his “own private jet” for an apparent trip from Aspen to Salt Lake City after Delta rescheduled his original flight.

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Turns out, people should have been more skeptical of Peone, who is a comedy film director and an early employee of the comedy site CollegeHumor.

Many news outlets ran with the tweet, reporting on the man who “ended up as the only passenger on a Delta flight.”

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Adweek interviewed Peone for an explainer on “how a Delta frequent flyer got his own private flight.” Peone apparently told Adweek the flight was an accident: his original flight was canceled and when he returned for his rebooked flight that evening, he was the only one asked to board.


Adweek reported that Peone’s flight lasted about an hour, during which he conversed with the flight attendants and drank a complimentary tequila and soda.

But the flight never actually took off.

On Thursday, Peone tweeted an explanation of what really happened—that t he plane had mechanical problems and never took off. He ended up taking a regular flight with other people the following morning.


Peone suggests that the video wasn’t a lie—just a “director’s cut.” After all, he only said in the viral tweet he got his own “private jet,” and didn’t say that he actually flew in that jet.




However, his interview with Adweek does seem disingenuous since he either mislead the outlet or failed to correct them when they asked about his flight.

A Delta spokesperson confirmed to Gizmodo that the plane never took off. “Delta Connection flight 3652 last week pushed back but shortly returned to the gate due to a maintenance issue,” a Delta statement said. “The aircraft departed a short time later without any customers on board.”


It was a private flight after all. So private that no passengers were on board.

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