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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

What happens to these people in airports?

296 replies

Helpmethinkofasolution · 21/08/2022 11:39

Nearly every time I fly I hear a call out for people who have seemingly checked in, checked in their bags but then are late (really late) for boarding. I'm pretty scatty but I've never had so much fun at the airport that I've forgotten to check that my flight is boarding! Do they just get distracted?
Not judging just wondering how common it is for people to be 'un-boarded' and what happens?

OP posts:
redlou123 · 21/08/2022 12:14

It happened to me and my ex once in Mumbai. Apparently everyone had checked in so the pilot wanted to take an earlier slot - over an hour earlier! We were just having some delicious food thinking we had ages until boarded (we did based on the original departure time) and were really shocked (and quite confused) to hear our names over the tannoy. When we got to the gate, they seemed annoyed at us, despite the fact that there weren't any screens in that part of the departure lounge and we had no way of knowing they had brought the flight forward!

IthinkIsawahairbrushbackthere · 21/08/2022 12:15

It happened to us in Amsterdam - our flight was late arriving and we had to be on the other side of the airport for our connection. We were on a buggy thing because my mum is disabled but there was no way of contacting the desk to say that we were coming. It was the most stressful 10 minutes of my life!

notimagain · 21/08/2022 12:19

Helpmethinkofasolution · 21/08/2022 11:39

Nearly every time I fly I hear a call out for people who have seemingly checked in, checked in their bags but then are late (really late) for boarding. I'm pretty scatty but I've never had so much fun at the airport that I've forgotten to check that my flight is boarding! Do they just get distracted?
Not judging just wondering how common it is for people to be 'un-boarded' and what happens?

I used to work on the Long haul side of things and you'd get potential "no shows" on rough guess maybe 20- 25% of departures...

In Bar? Shopping? Lost? Fallen asleep in terminal? Lost track of time? Who knows.

Missing a "slot" could be a big deal (especially for those on board with connecting flights at the far end) so if no-shows were looking like a possibility the ground crew would be poised to spring into action to off load any bags with the idea being shut doors and depart on time.

CloudPop · 21/08/2022 12:23

Kione · 21/08/2022 11:52

My friend went out for a smoke and missed the flight to my wedding 🙄

Oh nooooooo 😱

ThinWomansBrain · 21/08/2022 12:29

There were a lot of rowdy drunks at the departure gate, so I sat at the next gate, started reading, and forgot I was sitting at the next gate along.
As I went to go through the gate, they pointed out it as a plane to Chicago rathertthan New York.
I did get to rise on one of those little golf buggy things as they whizzed to get me on the next plane to New York
I think they make less effort to find you if you don't have any checked in luggage.

DomesticShortHair · 21/08/2022 12:29

My dad. He was convinced that ‘they always get you to go to the gate far too early’ and would only consider finishing his pint and heading over after the third and final call. Missed the flight.

Did the same at my passing out parade too. When told to make his way to the parade square seating from the bar where everybody was holding, he ordered another pint because he wasn’t ‘waiting for hours until the thing starts’. Parade was halfway through when he eventually tuned up. Caused loads of disruption whilst he and my poor Mum made their way to the only free seats in the middle of the stand.

WeIoveyouMissHannigan · 21/08/2022 12:29

ShadowoftheFall · 21/08/2022 12:02

Happened to my husband on the way to my graduation. Very long time ago. He raced to the airport, checked in then at security realised he had something (valuable) in his pocket that he wasn’t allowed to fly with. So had to run to WHSmith and buy jiffy envelope and stamps and post it home before he could board.

That’s an amazing idea! Top thinking there

WhereAreMyAirpods · 21/08/2022 12:30

Most airports now are "silent" - they don't call every flight and gate. Or you'd be constantly hearing boarding calls. You're expected to keep your eye on the digital board. And if you're in the pub or having a meal or something then it's easily missed and the first you hear is "this is the last call for the final remaining passengers for flight AB405 to Alicante. Please proceed IMMEDIATELY to gate 7 where your plane is waiting to depart.".

Also think you can get caught out with the size of some airports. We flew back from Schiphol a few weeks ago, we were in an airport lounge at one end of the airport, our flight was called to pier H at the other end of the airport and it took us at least 10 minutes to get there as two able-bodied adults with no children in tow.

mondaytosunday · 21/08/2022 12:31

One year I had a panic as our flight was called then my son announced he needed the toilet (around 4-5 years old he couldn't hold it) and there was a queue. He needed to do more than pee and I was getting more and more agitated which did not help!
I once left my wallet at the VAT rebate desk.
Another flight was delayed due to fog and we were told to go off have a meal as it would be at least a couple hours. We returned just over an hour later and the flight had gone!!
Suddenly becoming ill? I've seen a few people a bit worse for wear too.

Cyclemarine · 21/08/2022 12:36

The one time it happened to me was travelling to the US from the UK via Canada. I was moving to America on a via and the security guys were suspiciously asking me all these questions which the Embassy who granted my visa had already gone through (where are you working, how long are you staying etc) they were really acting like FBI who had caught someone interesting. Slow day for them probably...Long story short, by the time they finished their interrogation and I hurried towards my gate I heard calls of final boarding for my flight and I literally had to run.😂

MardyBumm · 21/08/2022 12:36

I got called once because my husband was in the queue for the toilets. It was a really small but busy airport with only one set of toilets. Not like Gatwick where you pass about 12 toilets on the walk to the gate.

notimagain · 21/08/2022 12:37

I think they make less effort to find you if you don't have any checked in luggage.

It certainly makes some of the decision making easier for a lot of those involved.

That said it would be mistake to think that OTOH having checked bags means the flight is bound to wait...the ground teams are pretty good at tracking stuff down in the holds very quickly.

NamechangeTTC · 21/08/2022 12:38

Years ago- pre mobiles. Checked in in plenty of time. Through security. Mum’s watch stopped - we were called by name as we were in the shops killing time (that we didn’t have!)

BertieBotts · 21/08/2022 12:39

OhGoodnessItsSoExhausting · 21/08/2022 12:07

When my kids were little - baby and toddler age. This happened to us.

We were waiting vigilantly for the boarding gate to appear, and when it did my toddler needed a wee so we went to the toilet. Then baby had an explosive number two that couldn't wait. We also discovered the gate was miles and miles away. It too ages to walk there with a buggy and two little ones. When we finally got to the gate they literally only just let us through. One more minute and we'd have been forbidden boarding.

We didn't do anything wrong, just struggled to get to such a far away boarding gate in the time between the gate being announced and boarding closing. I think it was Stansted!

Stansted is a bugger for this, was it Ryanair? It takes about 15 minutes to walk to the gate and they give you 17 minutes to get there. Literally no spare time at all.

Northernsoullover · 21/08/2022 12:39

It nearly happened to me in Palma airport. I went to the bar and was keeping an eye on boarding
I just didn't realise how far it was to the gate. We made it by the skin of our teeth and as soon as our belts were on the plane started its taxi..

DanielRicciardosSmile · 21/08/2022 12:39

It happened to me, DH and a friend years ago. We'd gone the wrong way and ended up in international departures instead of domestic, and they were bloody miles apart. We made it just in time.

UpdownUpdownAltogetherNow · 21/08/2022 12:44

London City airport used to not make announcements for flights generally as it was a quiet airport. I didn’t know this. I was once sitting by the gate reading and didn’t notice the plane was boarding as I was waiting to hear the announcement. Next thing I know they are announcing my name and saying the gate is closing. I was very embarrassed as I was sitting right opposite the lady making the announcement at the gate.

Beseen22 · 21/08/2022 12:44

Happened to us this year. We are die hard 3 hours before the flight people and rules have changed in this recent airport issues so you can't check in until 2 hours before. Very small airline so no online checkin. We sat in costs for an hour waiting for it to open and when it finally did it was 1 guy checking in the whole flight. By the time we got through security we had to run to the gate and of course the kids needed the toilet.

Happened once before in dubai airport when my FIL (seasoned business traveller) took us to the airport about an hour before the flight. When we checked it the guy said 'you better get going' and we didn't realise the gate had changed so we needed to get a train and then full on sprint to the gate. I had big plans to stop at shake shack and was very annoyed.

user1471538283 · 21/08/2022 12:46

We missed our flight to the states because our connecting flight lost our bags. We stayed in an airport hotel and flew the next day. I was beyond furious.

KimberleyClark · 21/08/2022 12:46

Once at LHR we were sitting on the plane for a flight to New York and the pilot announced there’d be a delay as some people had checked in but not boarded and they had to get these people’s luggage off.

Whatwaswrongwiththatusername · 21/08/2022 12:47

Very outing if anyone knows me irl, but (as vaguely as possible) we almost missed a flight too. We were busy doing some "research" in the duty free/shop of that country's particular, national spirit. And who knew that the results of that research would be highly multiplied at altitude...?! 😬
But. I have to say we weren't late enough that the flight needed to be delayed, or to have caused inconvenience to other passengers or staff, we were just last, after a sudden oh shit and race to the gate.
So maybe some people are just too caught up in accidental 'research', like us!

KimberleyClark · 21/08/2022 12:48

And on our flight back we accidentally went to the gate for the Gatwick flight and had to sprint across JFK to the right one.

Elderflower14 · 21/08/2022 12:49

I took Ds2 to Edinburgh years ago... We nearly missed our flight back to Norwich as he decided he needed the loo.. We ran through the airport and panicked as the gate was empty... We were departing from the next gate... We were the last to board!!!!

MathiasBroucek · 21/08/2022 12:51

I'm a very frequent flyer but managed to miss a flight recently and, yes, my luggage w

MathiasBroucek · 21/08/2022 12:53

I'm a frequent flyer and this happened to me recently (and my luggage had to be taken off). There was misleading info about the gate and I was sitting at the wrong gate.... It wasn't just me so there was obviously an error somewhere. (Everything was running very late so the clock wasn't a clue.)