Why were you late for the airport?

I've been late once and couldn't get on the flight.

It was for a mate's stag do, the flight was on a Friday morning and I had my work's Christmas party the night before.
One of the guys that was also going works at my company and as I live in SW London and he lives in NE London I crashed at his flat after the party as it would be a lot easier to get to the airport in the morning.

I woke up on the Friday morning and realised that I didn't have my passport with me!
So, I had to get the tube and train across London, get my passport, then get back to the other side of London and on the airport in about 3 hours.
I made it to the desk about 90 seconds after check-in closed and they wouldn't let me on.

I was more annoyed with myself at having done something so stupid than with anyone at the airport.

I remember putting the passport in my bag when I packed it, but I rearranged some stuff in the bag and I think my passport fell out without me realising it.
 
Rotty said:
He asked where I was and told me to wait there, 5 mins later I have a police escort to the airport bypassing the traffic :p
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Haha, very nice.

Drinking on planes is essential to pass the time. Although American Airlines have a lower threshold for what they class as drunk. Nothing nasty, just they refused to serve us on was to New York once. They thought we were great though, crazy brits, pocketing a few miniatures from the drinks trolly parked at the back of the plane while the hostesses had their meal. We were rumbled as soon as we sat down, pockets clinking. Now I look back, we were lucky they just laughed at us.:rolleyes:
 
SideWinder said:
Ah ha. So it depends on what type of drunk you are? :p And surely it can't be that bad? You'd just pass out and wake up arriving at your destination? :)
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IF the plane gets turbulance then you can get really sick, even if you never get motion sick. If you are at an window seat then getting to the toilet is a pin. With the AC you get very dehydrated very quickly and will get a stinking hang over.

A couple of pints are optimal I think.
 
Rotty said:
I was once heading to Manchester airport and got stuck on the A6 in Stockport after the road was closed due to an accident, time was getting very tight and not having satnav then I didn't know an alternative route

I phoned my mate who lives locally for ideas, he is also a member of the local constabulary

He asked where I was and told me to wait there, 5 mins later I have a police escort to the airport bypassing the traffic :p
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Nice. :D
 
I've never been late although it has been a close run thing, was at Schipol with a few mates waiting on a flight and we knew we had plenty of time so we settled down to relax at the gate we saw on the board when we arrived - it gets closer and closer to the time yet still no sign of the airline arriving at that gate, we were all pretty tired so it was a slow realisation it might not be the correct gate any more, cue sudden dash to almost entirely the opposite side of the airport and if you've ever been there you'll know it isn't a small airport.
 
I've never been late either, and those people on airport shows who lash out at the airport staff when they are late are complete idiots. There was one time when I could have been late however it was in winter and there was snow across most of the country and because of accidents etc it took a lot longer than expected to get to the airport.
 
I missed my flight from Bristol to Newcastle once. I got to Bristol to find there was a Marathon going on, and the diversions were set incorrectly. (I didnt know the easier other route, one junction further along the motorway!)

I was about 30 minutes late after spending about hours messing about. Easyjet were great about it (apparently lots of people had been affected), and said they would move me to a later flight that day, and i went and found a local Helicopter museam to nose about in for a few more hours :)
 
Overslept by 2 hours, woke up swearing and cursing, paid £48 to get the next train available (that stung after I had carefully pre-booked to get the one I wanted for a mere tenner), skipped the London Underground and took the Heathrow Express instead - got there with a good hour to spare anyway - just a fair bit poorer!
 
Depends, if I'm on a small flight to Europe that only takes a few hours I get there as close as possible to take off. I hate airports with a passion and waiting around on them.

If it's a long haul flight e.g. to the USA then I'm there first to get myself a nice window seat by the door ;).

I've been late before for long haul's though, usually traffic..
 
I've managed a few times to really screw up, none more memorably than being away with some friends, going to the airport in plenty of time for our flight, handing over the tickets and being told 'umm, these tickets are for yesterday sir?'

I am now banned from organising group trips anywhere.

I've also managed to recently convince myself that my train was at 7-50, turn up at the station at 7-40 and been really bemused by the fact it has left at 7-35.

Basically I'm loosing my mind...
 
The most frustrating thing EVER happened to me at Gatwick airport. Me and my mate arrived a bit later than we would have liked due to heavy traffic but we still had about 45mins-1hour before our check in cut off.

However..... it was Easyjet and granted there were about 10 check in queues but every one was for every destination. It was completely ridiculous to think there could have been a number people in front of you who might have been on a later flight.

Add to this, the baggage machine was broken and it took forever. We were after the check in time by time we got to the front and THEN the guy said the flight was overbooked and one of us had to be a reserve in case someone dropped out.

As it turned out the security queue was also probably literally a mile long and we ended up missing our flight. We then spent hours trying to find someone from Easyjet to help us and there was no one and the sales desk. More people had turned up being victims of the same problem, and we were all hassling the girl at the night time check in who wasn't interested in helping us. We all just stood and moaned at her until something was done. There were people in tears and all sorts, it was terrible but kinda funny.

In the end we stayed over on a metal bench in the airport, got the next flight in the morning and had to go to work straight off the flight. Nice!

Oh.... they also lost my bag for about a week. Awesome Easyjet!
 
generally they're either stupid commoners, or foreign (and therefore stupid) on those programmes :p
 
Masterdog said:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7586498.stm

Sometimes it can turn out to be a very good thing...
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_Flight_103


Wiki said:
Because of the sudden change in air pressure, the gases inside the passengers' bodies would have expanded to four times their normal volume, causing their lungs to swell and then collapse. People and objects not fixed down would have been blown out of the aircraft into the −46 °C (−50 °F) outside air, their 31,000-ft (9400 m) fall lasting about two minutes.[8] Some passengers remained attached to the fuselage by their seat belts, landing in Lockerbie strapped to their seats.
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Read that. Pretty heavy stuff. Sickening really.
 
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I missed my flight from NY to London, due to subway transport carnage in NY (train i was on was stopped because of track 'interference' by some numbskull), and engineering works on the subway unbeknownst to me meant getting off and getting a bus through East Brooklyn for a bunch of stops. Ugh.

Then found out that, despite checking-in online and arriving with hand luggage only, 55 minutes before departure - you still needed to 'check-in' 1 hour before departure time and so it was closed, and they couldn't issue a boarding pass.

However, I put on my best negotiation hat, about how silly that I'm checked in but couldn't board etc, showed them my online check-in confirmation, generally being helpful, polite and apologetic and they put me on the next flight an hour later, free of charge.

Top marks for customer service from Virgin tbh, and worked a treat too as since then I've flown a couple of times with them for more £££s than competitors, because I was very impressed with how they dealt with me. :)
 
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A transporter full of hummers decided to spank them all over the M25 thus blocking most of the major roads around north london. Result, me and the ex getting to luton with about 2 minutes to spare but missing checkin by 2 minutes as we had to wait for the car park bus to get round. Not a happy chappy. I tried to bargin with sleazy jet but there isnt anything they can do as rules are rules. I didnt go mental at them as they were only doing their job. Insurance didnt payout as well as we didnt take another flight out there as we were only going for 3 days and lossing a day made it pointless. Joy!
 
Jambo said:
There were people in tears and all sorts, it was terrible but kinda funny.
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Because they missed a flight, god help them if something, you know, serious ever befalls them. I've missed heaps of flights through cancelation and delays and my own incompetence but it's always just been an 'oh well' moment, bit of adventure to add to the day...
 
Arrived on time but we never heard the announcement saying to board luckily we heard the final call and had to run for it as we were busy cloth shopping !

Was pretty embarrassing walking on the plane with everyone staring at us .

It was barbados so once a week flight so no holiday if we missed it .
 
I got to Bristol literally 2 minutes too late once...
Me and my bro left Plymouth in the morning aiming to get to Bristol airport an hour before my check in opened for safety and even allowed 2 hours drive time.....but....some lorry tipped over on the M5 near Exeter spilling its load of sheep, all lanes were closed and all around Exeter was gridlocked for like 3 hours. Devon :rolleyes:
Was polite and cheery to the girls on the airline's help desk, these things happen after all and they put me on the next day's flight for no extra charge.

I can't understand how people already at the airport manage to lose track of time and miss their flight though.
 
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