What happens to these people in airports?

[Helpmethinkofasolution]

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 thought all airports were silent ones now and you have to check the board yourself?

I do appreciate the airports that when they put the gate up they give an estimated time to get there. We flew once in 2019 and it said estimated 20 minutes to the gate! We started moving as soon as the gate was up and needed to walk, get a train, walk, get a bus, then walk again. We were amongst the first at the gate but werent surprised to see many people rushing in once boarding had started

😳🤣🤭

Just remembered as well. Late DH and I spent our honeymoon in Porto Santo... In 1993 you had to fly to Madeira and then transfer to a tiny plane to fly to PS. One flight in morning and one in the evening... Our luggage took so long to come off the carousel that we missed our connection... I promptly burst into tears... DH found the holiday rep in the airport who gave us money to go into Funchal and have lunch. We then spent the rest of the afternoon in the airport waiting for the evening flight... We were the first on board!!

Eek - that must have been a heart stopping moment.

Ex Rep here, they get offloaded, their luggage is also taken off (delaying the dep for the rest of the flight).

en route to our honeymoon we had to make a connecting flight and waited around in the airport for EIGHT HOURS and almost missed it as they never announced the flight

kept checking boards and then all of a sudden heard ‘last call for flight blah blah’ and discovered we were miles from the gate. Never run so fast in my life. We just panicked and ran for it. When safely on the plane (last one’s to get on was so embarrassing!) just kept repeating in a shell shocked voice ‘but we’ve been waiting for hours, I don’t understand, how could it be last call when there were no calls?’

the stress.

This is a big fear of mine so we always sit in front of the board and then go to the gate as soon as the number comes up. Everything is a little more complex with a toddler now though!

Time goes differently on the other side of security.

Twice now we had had plenty of time and ended up running!! This latest time I was diligently checking for the gate. No gate just a blank where it would be. Then all of a sudden said last call for our flight - but no gate on the board. Had to queue at customer services for them to tell me and luckily it wasn’t far - but how did everyone else know and get there?!! Because clearly they did as we were last in the queue!

Once happened to me at Gatwick where the airline brought the flight forward by an hour but I was never notified. I was lucky to be allowed to check in then had to leg it to the plane.

Nearly happened at Dubai as we had arrived for a connection in the middle of the night so found our gate at one end of the terminal and waited there. Shortly before boarding I looked at the board and realised they had changed the gate - to one at completely the other end of the terminal. We could see we hadn’t been the only ones to have been caught out by this as loads of people were rushing in the same direction and ended up on the same flight.

Connections can be a huge part of this - missed on recently due to huge immigration queues in the US next flight out on standby and suitcases waiting there

another time we were in the bar (paid for trip by my friends boss small company Christmas party as it was all paid for could not say anything) we had to run 8 of us made it 2 didn’t as one left her boarding pass at the security desk ( yes they were at the bar before security) we collected luggage and they got the next flight

I have done similar so many times.
You get into a rut going from a to b, then just the one week your off to c instead. But because you did a to b 34 times in a row you just automatically head to b.
It's better if you do a to any random place each week, then your aware of needing to be in a different part of the airport.

I've only had to run to a gate once but it wasn't my fault. They'd been asking for volunteers to come off the flight and go the next day instead, I was a student returning home for the holidays and jumped at the chance to earn a couple hundred quid for a minor inconvenience but in the end they didn't need me to come off, but by the time they told me that I had about 10 mins to get through security and to the furthest possible gate!

It happened to us . Me on my own with 2 young kids. We did all the checking in and security and stuff, then got something to eat, then started to walk to the gate. Didn't realise that the airport was massive and it was miles to walk. I had to carry the toddler and my 5 year old had to carry a heavy bag and we just ran. Missed the bus to the plane but they sent another one round to us, and luckily people were still putting bags in overheard lockers etc so no one noticed.
Ever since then we go straight to the gate every time.

I didn’t think there were postboxes in airports any more?

Happened to me once. I was stupidly at the gate for the wrong flight from HK to LHR. I did make it though but was pretty mortified!

We once had a one-hour connection at Singapore on a flight to Australia. I read the departure time but after a long flight and being a bit jet-lagged thought we had 2 hours not 1. My ex who I was travelling with didn't bother to read it at all.

We had a drink in the bar then headed back in plenty of time for our flight to find 'last call' on the board. (It was an airport that didn't do announcements and the bar didn't have a board).

We made the flight (which was delayed) but only because they hadn't managed to find our suitcases to take them off. Rest assured, I now never leave sight of departure boards on connecting flights!

I’ve nearly missed my flight. I was in a fabulous airport lounge! Wine bar, al la carte dining, massages and a massive bath tub! We made the flight by 30 seconds 😳

Me in my twenties 🙄
3 friends coming from Germany. We had been all weekend clubbing and had to catch a flight Monday early morning. Went to Berlin airport, checked in, walked to the lounge and fell asleep. They kept calling us on speaker but we were totally knackered and didn't hear. Our suitcases flew to London but we remained sleeping in the lounge till some kind airline state member woke us up.

I was commuting weekly for a while and turned up at the airport bright and early one Monday morning having forgotten to actually buy a ticket :-)

Airport tannoy systems are so shit I don’t know how they expect anyone to be able to make them out.

This happened to me and a friend flying back from Greece. We were too busy getting drunk and smoking outside to listen for announcements (we were early 20s and still very self-centered!) when we finally strolled up to the gate the staff were so angry and practically dragged us onto the plane. The pilot made a sarcastic announcement about 'the reason for the delay has finally decided to show up' and the whole plane booed us as we took our seats!

I have some sympathy with your father on flight boarding - the number of times I’ve half run to the gate on seemingly urgent boarding call announcements only to find people just aimlessly milling around at tbe departure gate and nothing approaching boarding

There certainly are landside at at least one of the Heathrow terminals..but before you ask you can only get a very thin letter through the slot......

I sat down in the middle of the terminal for a coffee during the night as I was worried about going to the lounge and falling asleep on the very comfy chairs.

Some time later I woke up with a start and made my way to the gate. I thought I was early. I’ve never been so wrong. The aircraft had actually left. Suddenly two ground crew arrived and said we called you, we called you over the tannoy, we even had staff look for you in the lounge!!!!!! We held the aircraft as long as we could but we eventually had to let it go.

Just then my son appeared and said, I was hoping it wasn’t you mama. He was actually the engineer in charge of the flight and when he was on board handing it over to the crew he heard them talking about the missing 1st class passenger. Protocol meant though that he couldn’t stick is head behind he curtain to see if I was on board. Not that it mattered because when he was leaving the aircraft he saw a familiar looking suitcase at the bottom of he steps and had a feeling it was the one I’d lent him to go on holiday with a few months earlier. And That was When he then decided to go and look for ground crew to see if it was me.

So there I was standing with two very nice ground crew who were booking me onto the next 17 hour flight to Miami when my son came in and when they saw him they held their head in their hands and said repeatedly, oh my god, we offloaded DD’s mama. They were so embarrassed and apologetic - not that they’d done anything wrong but it’s just the way things are here.

Ten minutes later though I was booked on the same flight the next night but I did the first part of the journey to Doha early the next morning where I sat in the lounge for 12 hours as I knew if you fell asleep they’d actually come and wake you up. I was exhausted and when I did get on the plane every time I put a movie on I fell asleep and only woke up to put another one on before I fell asleep again.

Happened to me once, friend and I flying to Dublin, suddenly heard our names and ran to the gate as fast as our little legs could carry us. Gate staff saw us coming from a way back and I think took bets on who would get there first / collapse in a sweaty heap because there were some smirky faces when we got there .