Revealing mistake: In "To Shanshu in LA" in season one, as Angel is pulling out of parking lot to follow the W&H Trucks, you can see his reflection in his rear view mirror (vampires have no reflections). Also odd that throughout the first season the rear view mirror is removed in some episodes. (00:31:19)
Answer: Everybody including Angel saw her. After helping them and then being left alone to talk to Angel, Cordelia says that the Powers That Be let her come back one more time to help them. After Angel gets a call saying that she died, he realises that it was her spirit that was helping them the entire time.