Lemmy, what are your "missed flight" stories?

Travelling from Austria to Croatia - got to the airport at 8pm for our 11 o'clock flight. Initially wasn't concerned when our flight wasn't showing on the boards. Became increasingly worried as time went on.

Spoke to the desk and were told the only flight to Croatia was 11AM that day... (Not 11pm)

Spent the night sleeping in the airport while waiting to check in to a airport hotel the next day as the next available flight to Croatia was 2 days after our original flight.

Used my bag as a pillow and accidentally broke some souvenirs we had bought. Cost us an extra $500 each in total for new flights and accomm as we had no travel insurance.

Sorry to hear you missed your flight - hope your experience isn't too rough!

This was back in line 2009. I was trying to fly cross country back to home (ATL-SFO) right at the end of the holiday break. Like the last day before people had to go back to work, so it was crazy busy. I got a ride to the airport from some friends who had a later flight, but we left early enough that we would have plenty of time for me to be early for mine too. But then there was a massive like 18 car pileup on the freeway and we were stuck in traffic between exits with nowhere to go. We sat there for 2 hours before we got going, and that was enough to eat up my buffer and make me miss my flight.

I got to the airport check in desk and told them what happened, and they said they would try to get me out on standby on one of the other flights. This was at ATL, trying to go back to SFO so plenty of options right? Well it was such a crazy busy travel day that I kept getting put on standby but all the flights were full. I needed someone to no-show for their seat before I could take it, and there were plenty of other people trying to go standby too. At the time I had no airline status so I was at the back of the line for priority to get a seat.

I got so close a few times. By the end of the day I had been issued 8 boarding passes for standby flights. On 6 of them I never got past the gate. On one of them they cleared me in and I was walking down the jet bridge before the original passenger showed up and they ran down to tell me that my spot was no longer available. One of them I made it all the way to a seat before I got yanked back off the plane. The very late original passenger sheepishly passed me in the jet bridge, both of us being escorted by gate agents but in opposite directions.

It was nighttime now. I had told the customer support agents that I would be happy getting to any airport in CA, or even anywhere along the way. Finally they said they had a flight for me to DFW with a confirmed seat on it, and then they could get me a confirmed flight back to CA the following morning. Shit, I’ll take it. Get me out of ATL, and get me out of standby hell.

I made it to DFW and got some shitty hotel near the airport (not comped). I had spent so long in ATL listening hearing the din of an airport and fragments of conversations as people walked by me (I didn’t have good NC headphones back in 09). As I was lying in the hotel trying to sleep I was literally hearing voices in my head, unintelligible pieces of airport conversations that my brain was making up. It felt like I was going crazy. The standby demons had won.

Thankfully I finally fell asleep and got a few hours of zzzs before heading back to the airport and catching the early flight to CA. What a mess. I hope your situation isn’t nearly as painful!

My flight got canceled out of O'Hare once, they changed my connecting flight's gate and it happened to be the same one my final flight was leaving from so there was no way I'd make it on. There wasn't another flight until the following evening so they comped me a hotel and gave me some meal vouchers. When I walked into the hotel I was greeted by hundreds of furries. The Midwest Furfest was going on at the convention center nearby.

Sorry to hear you missed your flight. It sucks but hopefully it won’t ruin your plans.

As for the story:

It was 15 years ago, my parents, my two siblings, and me were about to travel to Canada to visit our aunt. For all of us, it was our first ever transatlantic flight. We were all so excited about it, that none of us could catch a bit of sleep the day before leaving.

It required 5h of travel to catch the plane in the capital, so we had to leave at like 4 am to be on time for it. But somehow we manage to do it and arrive on time at the airport.

Excitation is at its maximum, finally our big trip is around the corner. We go to the check in desk, cue for a good a hour, and once our turn come, get asked for our passport. We all look at my father that start frenetically look in his pockets, then handbags to find our passport. But no sign of them. He start sweating heavily, ask my mother if she kept them. No, not with her neither. Big panic moment, everybody shouting, undoing all the luggages in order to find them. But nothing. We forgot our passport. No way to catch the plane.

Our father go back to our place, 5h away from the airport, while we stayed in a hotel for the night. Turns out the passport were on my parent shelf. Just one story higher than were they always were. My mother being quite short did’t see them and assumed my father had them.

We went back to the airport on the next day to see what we could do to save our trip. We got lucky as we got access to another plane, for free, and got upgraded to first class as a bonus, due to 5 other passengers missing their flight ! But we had 5 mins to catch it. The run though the check-in, security, the terminal gates was quite epic to fathom !

This was 30+ years ago, but I misread my tickets and missed my original flight out of Tampa headed to Chicago with a stop in Atlanta. I rebooked another about 3 hours later, but when I got to Atlanta, I found out my original connecting flight to Chicago crashed in Indiana due to ice on the wings. That could have been me. RIP to those who made that flight.

Somehow I missed a flight while I was at the gate. Mind you it was a small plane. I still don't understand it to this day. I was sitting at the gate waiting for them to announce boarding or watch the sign change. Nothing the whole time I was there.

Finally about 20 minutes after we were supposed to leave I get up and ask the desk staff and they tell me the plane left.

I didn't understand how this had happened and apparently neither did they. I didn't see anyone board the plane, there were no announcements or notifications.

I'm a dual national and my name is different in each passport. Bought the plane ticket with the name written in one of the passports but then I forgot it at home 🤦‍♂️

I had the other one on me but since the name in it was different they didn't let me on the plane...

Ever since then I keep both passports very close to each other with a rubber band!

Thankfully I have never missed a flight, but one time for a moment I thought I had.

When I purchase tickets and get an email from the airline, gmail will summarize the flight details at the top of the mail. So it adds a blurb on top that isn't part of the actual mail. It usually works but one time it set the departure date as the date I received my email, not the departure date in the contents of the email.

For a moment I thought I had messed up when ordering the tickets, but reading the contents calmed me down.

I'll NEVER EVER trust that feature again.

A bit different one:

The year was 2010, and I was living abroad at the time. I was visiting the old country for a few days to renew my passport, and the day before I was supposed to fly back to where I lived, two things happened:

• Ran into this FWB i knew before moving abroad.
• Eyjafjallajökull had a volcanic eruption, shutting down air traffic in all of northern Europe.

Long story short, my FWB and I reconnected in the extra time I was given, and things developed further than they ever had before. Today we have a house and four kids together. I think it's getting serious.

Foreigner flying out of Chicago, and no one explained that the pass I was given at check in wasn't my boarding pass. My flight is almost boarded before I realised that a seat number wasn't printed on the pass. I went to the counter to find out what I'm supposed to do, and the flight had been overbooked.

Neither of these are normal where I'm from. You get the boarding pass with your seat when you check in, and flights are never deliberately overbooked.

When I was in the military I had to fly from Seattle to Wichita Falls, TX for training. With a connecting flight in DFW.. I get to the airport Sunday morning and discovered I missed my flight by an hour because of daylight savings time. This was after my ex swore up and down daylight savings was the following week.

So, I call the military travel office and they get me another flight to DFW, but there are no more flights to Wichita Falls. Since I had to be in class the next morning, they told me they'd get a one-way rental. The only catch is they had to call my commander and get authorization. Not my boss, or my bosses boss or anyone even close. The freaking commander.

Luckily for me my older sister lived in Dallas. So, I tell them not to wake up my commander at 7 am on Sunday because my dumbass believed my ex, and that I'd call them right back. I get ahold of my sister, explained the situation and she agreed to drive me 2 1/2 hours to Wichita Falls. I call back the travel office and and they book me a flight that is scheduled to get into DFW at 2pm. Then it gets delayed and delayed and delayed. I land around 10:30pm and my sister drives me to Wichita Falls. We get in around 1am. And she still has to drive back home and go to work the next day. 20+ years later I still feel bad about it, but totally greatful for having an awesome sister.

College freshman flying back home for the summer. Not used to flying. Got to my gate about half hour before boarding. Hungry. Went to closest restaurant a couple gates away, got a burrito and ate at a table while listening to music with headphones. Lost track of time. That burrito had my full attention. Missed all the overhead calls for me. Plane had departed by the time I casually walked back to my gate.

Another almost-miss. I visited a friend in Germany, and the final leg home was from "Dusseldorf Weser" airport, which I naïvely assumed was like "London Heathrow", and just the full name of Dusseldorf airport where I'd flown in.

Lucky, I got there 3h in advance, and when I couldn't find the Ryan Air (yep!) counter, information filled me in. ...One mad taxi rush across the city, then a bus I would've missed if it wasn't late, and I got to this little airport way out of town 5min before the gate closed!

10 mins later, a group of guys got on the plane. They'd had a beer waiting for the Ryan Air counter to show up at Dusseldorf, and realised too late - got a taxi all the way to Weser arriving 5 min after gate closing. Luckily they were allowed to board anyway!

Was flying from Austin TX to Lax Vegas with a stop in Salt Lake City Utah via a standby ticket. So the pros of the standby ticket was I was flying for almost nothing. The con is you can only get on the flight if there’s an available seat.

So I get to SLC no problem. But then the trip to LV had a canceled flight. So needless to say there was no standby flights available for several hours as they kept using those spaces for the canceled flight. Hours later I’m at the desk waiting for the update on the last flight of the night alongside a small family that was from SLC but had also been waiting several hours. We get the update. Not flying out till the following morning. Being that they’re from SLC and Vegas is about 6 hours away they’re all like screw it. Cancel the flights and just drive. At this point I’m like “great. Sleeping in an airport”.

So they start to leave then look to me and just ask if I want to take the ride with them. Hell yea. I’m in. Grab my bag and follow these people I’ve never even spoken to out. They tell me they’re just going to stop by home and switch cars. Cool no problem. We get to their place (it’s like midnight at this point and reality sets in for them) and they’re like hey it’s late. We’re sorry but are you ok with leaving in the morning?

So not only did I jump in total strangers car for a 6 hour ride across Utah into Nevada (whole lot of nothing between those points), but I also stopped by their house and slept on the couch.

I was once denied a boarding pass. I was going to another country for a week, and I had 3 or 4 months left before my passport's expiry date. The country I was going to requires a minimum of 6 months passport validity, I had no idea that was even a rule, I didn't even think to check.

I felt very foolish.

Hungover after my wedding. We took too long at the hotel breakfast and had to drive about an hour to get to the airport.

Tried to buy a new ticket at the airport for my honeymoon and the agent laughed at me. They don't sell tickets at the airport... So I had to stand in front of them, buy a ticket on my phone, then approach the agent. Who knew?

Fell asleep in Dubai waiting at the gate for my transfer eight hours early. Woke up too late to realise the gate had changed while I was sleeping and I couldn't board in the five minutes left. I thought I'd wake up once more people were there but thanks to the gate change, it never filled up.

Charles de Gaulle Airport. Nothing more to be said

Someone once told me "if you've never missed a flight, you're spending too much time in airports". I think about that a lot in a lot of other contexts - sometimes being too safe comes with more of a cost than the risk!

Fun fact: Saturday morning flights out of New Orleans are the most missed flights in the United States. I was told this by a gate agent when my flight out on a Friday was cancelled due to weather.

"Just come really early tomorrow morning and you'll get on that flight. They always have room because of that."

I only missed a flight once and i felt pretty stupid at the time as well. I took the metro to the airport and then I realized that I forgot some medicine.

I barely had time so I headed back but I messed up pretty badly because my medicine was the whole time in my backpack I just didn't find it or was so sure that I forgot it.

Then I obviously missed my plane since I didnt get there 3 hours earlier. I missed one day in the beautiful city of Rome, but it wasn't that bad. I think I was high at that time

I posted one! But I just remembered another! Showed up on the 9th of September for my flight, 3 hours early. My flight was on the 6th...

Traveling out of Dulles I arrived with 60 minutes to spare by train. Couldn't get checked in, talked to the airline desk. My flight was out of Reagan. That was a costly mistake.

"sir, that flight was yesterday"

Hope everything turns well for you.

Here’s my story:

Didn’t get any email that the flight time was changed to 3 hours earlier.

App on the watch told me that I should go to the airport as soon as I woke up, but I ignored it.

When we got to the airport we didn’t see our flight on the screen. We went to the counter and got strange faces from staff. “Sir your flight departed 2h ago”.

After 10 minutes of waiting with not much information we get a flight that’s departing in 20 minutes for no extra cost.

It wasn’t a direct flight like the missed one, but we arrived to our final destination an hour later than initially planned.

I checked how could I avoid this in the future and noticed that the pdf with boarding pass had the updated flight time, but the email that included this boarding pass had wrong time. Booked via kiwi because airlines website had troubles with charging my credit card for some reason.

Schiptol in Amsterdam is my most hated airport I have ever visited. Last year it had huge wait times and even after "it was back to normal", it was often that the queues were ridiculously long.

So when you have to wait 4,5 hours just to get to security check, you know that you will miss your flight for sure... So I had to take a night train to Duesseldorf, wait all night in the airport, and get the first flight home. Which was delayed 2 hours....

Flying back from China 4-5 months ago. Checked in at the airport. Turned out you needed a COVID test to come back into the U.K. So I missed the flight. That sucked but then I had to try getting a rapid COVID test in the middle of the night; ended up at a public Chinese hospital where no one spoke English. Fucking nightmare.

Not really missed, but I’m writing this from Taiwan because my original flight to the Philippines was cancelled due to bad weather. So we started looking at weather forecasts at the airport and jumped on the next flight to the country with the best weather!

I had to drive 2h hours to the nearest major airport. It took me over 4 hours to get there. I missed the flight by a few minutes. I waved to my Plane as it was leaving the Gate.

Next flight was 1 hour and a few hundred Euros later...

I missed a connection of mine talking to someone at an airport bar.

I missed my flight once at the Philadelphia airport because the airport parking shuttle was half hour late. 🤬 too late to board the plane.

Never missed a flight, but my luggage once went to Manchester and I went to London. We were both supposed to go to London. I had just left my finacee in the US (we're married now), I was jet-lagged, and just wanted to go home and be heartbroken, and Monarch Airlines sucked anyway. Either way, I think me blowing my stack at the baggage rep. was not one of my finer moments.

Got my luggage back a week later with a $25 check to apologize. Hmmph.

Fell asleep waiting on a delayed red eye flight to LA. No one bothered to wake me for 3 hours... Sitting at the gate for a 5am flight that was delayed 2 hours and change.

It's my fault, but someone could have woken me I feel like when they started calling for the boarding.

Our (almost)entire company missed our flight back home during teambuilding event

My flight had to turn around because of frost issues. 3h later we left Jersey again for London and obviously I missed my flight. The airport was going to shut down pretty soon and the company only made arrangements at the last minute for a hotel and a taxi. I took the first flight back to my country at like 6am, it was a long day afterwards.

Not really a missed flight story, because I am flying for free on standby.

Anyway, I am currently stuck at the Denver Airport. So far I have spent 13 hours here and I still have a little over 1 more hour to go before I find out if I get to leave or not. If I get out of DIA on this next flight I will either spend an hour in Miami's Airport, catching my last flight home, or I will spend 12 hours in Miami hoping to catch my last flight home.

At one point I had a boarding pass and was on the plane, but my seat was taken and so I had to get right back off the plane. The agent at the gate who gave me the seat couldn't figure out why it appeared open on the computer, but it wasn't a big deal.

I am staying optimistic, but anything can happen. I haven't had this hard of a time flying standby before, but I have only done it a few times. It is basically the risk I pay for being cheap. I knew what I was getting into and I regret nothing.

So this one time Seth MacFarlane...

Little late to the party, but I was trying to catch a flight to see my long distance boyfriend. I was supposed to leave right after class (I was in college) but decided to take my time and run by my house to pick up a few things and chat with my roommates. Well, there was a ton of traffic and I ended up having to sprint through the airport to my gate. I had a backpack and was sprinting in flip flops, wearing a dress. Didn’t feel my dress riding up, caught in my backpack, as I ran, so I guarantee half that airport saw my bare ass (I now wear shorts under my dresses). Got to the gate as the plane was pulling away from the gate and started SOBBING, knowing my kind of dick boyfriend would yell at me and say I told you so. The gate agents took pity on me, crying with my butt hanging out, and moved me to a next morning flight at no charge.

I hate packing because I have to make many decisions and remember of previous packing experiences where I used less than half of the clothes, so I keep rearranging until last minute.

Anyway, this time I had an intense two weeks at work preparing things before I went on my holiday. I had to wake up at 4:45am to go into the airport but the last time I messed up with the bags was 1:30am on the same day. "No biggie" I thought, and I set the alarm for 4:45 and slept.

When I wake up, the first thing I remember thinking was "damn, that was a nice, deep sleep. I feel good". The sun was shining gently through the curtains and it felt like a great Saturday morning A few seconds later I realize something was off. I reach my phone and look at the time: something past 11am.

Long story short I had to buy an one way ticket and luckily there was another flight on the afternoon.

The aftermath: I don't trust my mobile phone to wake me up. I set two separate alarms to wake me up if I have one of those very early morning flights. If I am in a hotel, I also request two separate wake up calls, just to be sure.

Not an interesting story but: American Airlines doesn't know how much time it should book for a connection at Dallas between their own flights. Avoid both, the airline and the airport