To wonder how people miss their flights?

[FleetMacWood]

I had a domestic flight today, at check in they repeatedly called out 6 names for final call. About 3 showed.

I get missing the flight in general, but how do you miss it when you’ve checked in? Or not even being at the gate?

I also couldn’t be bothered with the hassle/stress of having to get luggage back from another city/country.

I have missed multiple flights as I often skip-lag to save money. So all of them were missed intentionally.

I very nearly missed a work flight to Miami when I was about 23. First time as an adult on my own in an airport and I just lost track of where I needed to be at what time.
Only just made it in time to board, everyone else was sitting down, I felt awful and was so embarrassed. I just about heard them calling my name, otherwise I would've totally missed the flight.
Late 40s now and each time I've flown since, I've got to a departures board then the gate as quickly as I can, then relax.
I've also been really sure to teach DCs how to navigate airports so they don't make my mistake.

What does that mean?

What’s my hypocrisy?

“Repulsive”

nothing like a bit of hyperbole thrown in! 😂

I have absolutely no idea what any of that can possibly mean! Can someone explain?

"Skiplagging" involves exiting the airport at your transfer city (your true destination) rather than continuing on to the ticketed destination

I’m enjoying this thread - thank you, @FleetMacWood.

I find airports very stressful - thankfully I almost never have to fly anywhere, but when we do, I obsessively check departure boards and still worry that I might miss some vital info.

I don't arrive more than 2 hrs early.
I always get thru security & have 45-75 minutes to kill before the gate is even announced.
Then they give you like 40-50 minutes to get to the gate that is never actually more than 10 minutes travel away.

Maybe I've just been lucky.
I bring a Sudoku book to kill the time.

I suppose Don't underestimate how talented some people are at needing a lot of time to do simple things. My parents got off a train once at 16:25. The next train connection they needed was a flat 100 yard walk away, departing 20 minutes later.
They missed it.
HOW?
I still can't bear to ask just WTF did they do? Go use the loo? Read magazines? Argue about something for 22 minutes?
I can't figure it out.
The are 80 now & last 12-15 years they don't do anything quickly.

I got distracted in shops , that's how I missed one of the flights, and also missed two other flight before I got to the airport, by lossing track of time. I have found out since then about ADHD , currently being diagnosed, a lot of my life "situations" are starting to make so much sense...

I went to the wrong gate in USA as I sat at a gate to Manchester, New Hampshire instead of Manchester UK

That's exactly what happened to us

But how do you get your luggage?

I once almost missed a connecting flight due to delays on the first flight. They called out for us repeatedly, but we couldn't do much as we were stuck in security. As we finally boarded the flight, they closed the doors behind us immediately, taxied off to the runway as we made it to our seats and took off.

But how do you get your luggage?

You don’t.

Well that doesn't surprise me 🙄

We have connecting flights in January and not sure how it works, we’ve not donei it before, do you have to get your luggage and check it in all over again? Six hour stopover in Singapore and a couple of hours in Sydney.

Missed a flight back from Venice once. Friend thought she'd checked us in online but had actually f*cked it up. Got to the airport in plenty of time, went for a meal, sauntered to the gate.they wouldn't let us through, despite the fact we still had plenty of time and were hand luggage only - jobsworths! Cost us £400 each to get home. Gutted!

It depends whether you’re flying with the same airline or one of their partner airlines. If you are your bags will most likely be checked right through.

@KimberleyClark - With a Singapore departure going via Sydney, it is likely that you will have to collect your luggage on transfer for security reasons, rather than it going straight through. Usually they will attach a "Rush" label to it though, so it should come off each aircraft quickly.

Don't wonder about it, it's really worth getting in touch with your carrier to check. You have plenty of time to use an email form rather than hanging on the telephone (that's a queue for a song)!

As we're the types who operate according to the 'we'd rather be 3 hours early than 3 minutes late' method, we've never missed a flight, but I have come close on a couple of occasions, mainly due to Manchester Airport security - once it took well over an hour and I only made my flight because the gate was right round the corner from security and it didn't board until after the stated departure time.

Another time we were called over the tannoy to get on our flight back from Lanzarote while we were having lunch, which was a surprise to us, as it was about half an hour before the departure time and in our experience, we had a good 10 to 20 minutes before boarding was actually completed with everyone sitting down having put their luggage away, so we gathered up our food (was BK and we had the bag etc) and ran to the gate.

The flight was only about a quarter full and everyone was on board except us. Only thing I can think of was that it was the last flight before the siesta break and they wanted to finish up for the afternoon. The flight took off about 20 minutes early.

But I think most people that miss flights are those who piss about or lose track of time, which I don't really understand as, while you're going through the airport, your main focus should be getting to the gate on time and all the associated eating, drinking and shopping is secondary.

Missed one once because when I went through security they stopped me and took me to a back room while trying to decide whether or not to let me and my daughter fly (ex had decided to flag her passport with border control last minute). Don't know whether my name was called or not, didn't notice it because I was too stressed, but they sorted it finally and put us on the next flight.

I wondered about this when DP went to Berlin via Brussels. I was looking into the cost of flights to Brussels for a city break and noticed that it was significantly cheaper to go UK - Brussels - Berlin than to just go to Brussels on the same flight. It was ridiculous - something like £100 return to Berlin via Brussels, but if you only wanted UK to Brussels it was nearly £300.

As someone who has accidentally left Brussels airport when I was supposed to be transferring, so had to go back through security, it is obviously possible if you only have hand luggage, however, it's quite likely that your flight back will be cancelled, and I think it is buried in the small print that they can charge your card the extra that you should have paid if you booked the more expensive Brussels only flight.

But I would be interested in the reason/logic for how it works like that.

I left off this rather embarrassing connecting flight I missed.

I had a long layover so had found the terminal quiet area and was reading a really good book I’d bought at an airport bookshop. When I came up for air/snapped back to reality, the flight was gone off the board. Upon looking at the time, I realised that I had missed gate announcement, everything, it had already taken off and departed.

It was humiliating trying to explain that this happened because I have ADHD with hyper focus to the customer desk. I felt like a child. But they did put me on another flight later that day for only a small penalty fee.