Missed flights?

Got stuck in traffic in Copenhagen last week and knew I was going to miss the cutoff to drop my bag at check-in. A call to BA to offload me and move me to the next flight an hour later at 0 cost - nice and easy :D.
 
I've been so close on transfers, where I had one that landed at like D45 and the next one was boarding at D47, and if it wasn't I'd have never made it. What happens if you miss a connecting on as yours is late? Do they just chuck you automatically on the next flight?
 
Think I've missed 3 flights, Bangkok - Siam Reap, Beijing - Dalian and Taipei - Hong Kong. Mostly because of getting too drunk the night before. It happens.
 
Bangkok - Siem Reap for me as well. On my birthday.

Was meeting my brother who had booked the flight the night before at an internet cafe as he didn't have a phone, at the McDonalds on Khao San Road. I was waiting around for around 45 minutes, he didn't turn up. I then decided to just head to the airport in a taxi. Got stuck in rush-hour traffic and got to the airport 20 minutes after the gate had closed. No flying for me. Went to the AirAsia ticket-desk and wondered where to go. They had a flight to Phnom Penh so at least that was the right country. Got to Phnom Penh, and they had a flight to Siem Reap but it was full. I paid $80 to a guy in full army uniform behind the ticket desk and got given the jump seat on the plane! Finally got to Siem Reap and my brother had been sitting outside the first bar all day hoping I'd turn up!

Turns out there are two McDonalds on Khao San Road.
 
I've never missed a flight due to arriving late, but I have missed flights due to being on a standby ticket and the flight being full. Show up at the airport, go to the gate, they tell you flight is full, you cry, you sigh, you go home.
 
MikeTheNative said:
This is the one which I don't understand at how people manage it. There was a guy in work who managed to do this, the joke being there was a party of 20 of them! Somehow all managed to forget about the plane they were meant to get on.
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One of my favourites like this was we were sitting in a smaller regional airport in Spain (already a recipe for disaster!) and we were one passenger down, bag in hold etc etc. The passenger in question had a friend, a friend sitting in her seat waiting to head off home. After a short while, just before we offload the lady's bag, the captain makes a PA saying we were just delayed as we look for her bags, the ladies friend gets up and makes herself known to the crew. A few minutes later we see the late passenger running towards the aeroplane and rushes on board with maybe 30 seconds to go before we closed up.

Turns out they somehow split in the departure lounge, one lady got on without her friend, the other stayed in the terminal for some unknown reason without knowing her mate had boarded. She then spent her time at the gate waiting for her friend (who was now onboard) and at no point either of them considered contacting each other.

I could reel a hundred stories similar to this, but this stands out as one of the most stupid.
 
Nearly missed a flight in Rome airport heading back to the UK. We went past security it looked like a small terminal with just a few shops. We sat around waiting until the flight and walked towards the gates to find that it was the terminal was actually ginormous and we were a 30-40 min walk from the gate. Fortunately we just made it but arrived at the plane very sweaty and out of breath.

Lesson learnt to always check how far away the gate is.
 
weringo said:
Nearly missed a flight in Rome airport heading back to the UK. We went past security it looked like a small terminal with just a few shops. We sat around waiting until the flight and walked towards the gates to find that it was the terminal was actually ginormous and we were a 30-40 min walk from the gate. Fortunately we just made it but arrived at the plane very sweaty and out of breath.

Lesson learnt to always check how far away the gate is.
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Had that in Amsterdam once - on the flight in we were pushing time for the connecting flight and it was around a 2km walk or something.
 
Missed a connecting flight from Philadelphia to Atlanta simply because the immigration officer didn't like the cut of my jib, so he decided to confiscate my passport and leave me stew in a room for a couple of hours.
 
mattyg said:
Over selling flights is a disgusting practice
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I disagree. If they didn't do it, flight prices would be higher and there's no point flying with empty seats

I had a friend who worked in the industry, admittedly 20 years ago, and they once had a flight with a loading factor (or whatever the jargon was) of 148% - it took off with 2 empty seats
It was a 747, so you can imagine how many people booked on that flight and failed to turn up
I'm sure things have changed quite a bit nowadays but it illustrates how folks with flexible tickets behave
 
Empty seats means less fuel. Those "Empty" seats have been paid for so its just like the plane is full but with less weight. (I know its not a lot of weight)

Over selling should be left until after the normal gate has closed, bring the normal gate closing forward a little if need be but give people who have booked and paid for in advance priority.

I we hadn't had access to the internet and the mrs wanting to reserve our seats we would have not got on the flight.

Flexible tickets yes thats fine but not normal tickets.
 
Never missed a flight as of yet however I've managed to do totally the opposite and went to the airport a whole day early for my flight. Wondered why I couldn't get the auto check in thing working. It was then a flight attendant informed me my flight was the following day, oops.
 
I missed an internal flight in Peru from Lima to Puerto Maldonado. I arrived at the gate on time however the flight had been delayed for 90 minutes. Instead of being squashed waiting around everyone else I thought I would wait somewhere with more space. The departure screens had a notification saying to view the screens for updates as last calls would not be announced on the loudspeaker, so they seemed pretty organized. Great I thought, just keep an eye on the screens - or maybe not.

Later as I was walking through part of the airport I vaguely heard on the loudspeaker what sounded like my name with a Spanish accent. "Nah, can't be me, but better check". I meandered back to the gate and it was empty. The staff at the desk basically pointed to my plane through the glass saying it was too late to board. In the end the plane was probably only delayed by 30 minutes vs the 90 originally announced so I did feel a bit duped.

It turned out to be quite an expensive day, having to book another flight and doubling accommodation costs for the night. I made calls to various hotels from the back of my travel book which I later discovered cost about £15 each.

A couple of days later I met a couple who recognized me from the departure gate and we joked about my mishap. The events that lead on from the missed flight actually made it a better holiday I found.
 
randomshenans said:
I've been so close on transfers, where I had one that landed at like D45 and the next one was boarding at D47, and if it wasn't I'd have never made it. What happens if you miss a connecting on as yours is late? Do they just chuck you automatically on the next flight?
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If you've booked through on one ticket/booking reference, yes (as long as there's space).
If you've booked two flights completely separately of each other, no chance.

Feef said:
I....am not sure if I'm missing a reference here,
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I think it's called a joke.
 
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