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’m an anxious traveller ( anxious full stop) & always allow huge amounts of time. My Grandad was the same & apparently my FIL ( who I never met) used to make his family wait for at least 2 hours at the coach station. My SIL is always late so how she hasn’t missed any flights is a miracle!

I once missed a flight in Ireland because we got stuck on country roads behind a tractor, and a journey we thought would take 40 mins took 2 hours!

We were on a flight earlier this year from a regional airport. It was (what seemed) bursting at the seams in the departure lounge after a few delayed flights. Our flight went from ‘wait for gate’ to ‘last call’ immediately, cue mass panic. Our travelling companions had a disabled member and the gate was downstairs. They had failed to tell us at check in where they should embark. When we got on the plane they were announcing that everyone was on board and the flight was ready to leave. We told them our friends were not on board and they said they had everyone on. A few calls later and then an ambulift appears across the concourse carrying 10 more passengers with disabilities and their carers. Nightmare. Not flying from there again in a hurry.

I missed a flight once because of an accident on the M25, we were just stuck going nowhere for hours. I imagine this happening quite a lot.

Could be a connecting flight that was late in? I've had this a few times.

Loads of people missing flights in Amsterdam earlier in the year as the queues were so long for security.

Or people drunk in the bar with no concept of time? Saw someone stretchered out of the airport recently so I'm guessing his plane was calling him as he was on his own and unconscious.

There's a whole load of reasons but it's annoying when you're sat on a plane and it's delayed because they have to offload someone's luggage.

It's very frustrating and holds eveeyone else up. Selfish people who know very well what time they need to be check in, need to be at the departure gate etc.
People like this should be banned from flying

DH and I were flying from Amsterdam Schiphol back to the UK once. Got to the gate in plenty of time, sat and waited for the boarding queue to reduce before going up to board. Showed our boarding passes and we were informed that there were two flights departing for Leeds Bradford at almost exactly the same time and we were trying to board the wrong one! Cue a mad run across Schiphol airport (which is a bloody big airport!). We made it, just. I obsessively check gate numbers and departure times now!

I forgot to allow extra time to go through passport control. Fortunately the flight was delayed

CDG is a horrendous sprawling maze of a place though. Can’t stand it.

I’m on a mission when I fly, but we’ve managed to very nearly miss a flight twice.

We flew in the summer and heeded the warnings about how long it could take to get through security so had allowed ourselves plenty of time.

Ryan Air didn’t open the luggage check in until 2 hours before the flight which then took an hour to get through. Staff were shooing people away from the check in desks, checking flight times and wouldn’t allow people to join queues until certain times.

Security queue was enormous. DD has a disability so we had passenger assistance which took us through a much, much shorter and quicker queue, however, we then had to rush to the gate. We made it, but it was a bit squeaky.

Another time, our flight was still showing as ‘wait in lounge’ on the display boards when they were calling our names on the tannoy.

It almost happened to me once. I was flying short haul within Europe and we were a bit too casual about it I think. We got to the airport in decent (ish) time. One of my friends decided she wanted to stop outside the terminal for the world's longest cigarette break. Then when we got inside, one of the party got pulled for extra security checks and this seemed to take forever. By the time that was over we had to run for the flight and it was boarding by the time we got there.

Although I also once sat in an airport and watched a family sat very casually eating a full meal while their flight was being called, followed by their names several times and they just carried on eating. They were well aware they were the ones being looked for, they just didn't seem to care. I don't understand how they weren't more hurried!

Just occasionally the info can be wrong too
I once sat at Birmingham waiting for the call to the gate (and waiting and waiting). Finally, about 15 minutes before flight time, I went to find another display screen which said "gate closed" .... cue a mad dash, only to find a huge line of people who'd experienced the same thing

I didn't even know the boards could be different ...

I think this is a really good point.
There are GCSE maths exam questions around exactly that kind of calculation, and we know that nationally only about 40% of candidates get a Grade 5 in both Maths & English. So I expect that a large number of adults simply aren’t that good at knowing how much time they have.

Did you read the OP? I’m talking about people missing flights when they’ve already checked in.

I did this once. It was a night flight. I decided it was a really good idea to drink during the day.

Got to the gate and lay down. Woke up hours later having missed the flight. What an idiot !

100 percent. It is categorically the worst airport. It also has a weird set up on one part where it is desks 1-9 and the 12- 15 (or whatever the numbers are, I can’t recall) all sequentially and next to each other, so you stand there looking at desk 9, 12, 13 and wonder where the fuck desks 10 and 11 are. And they are a good five minute walk away, past loads of others desks and staff who really don’t fucking want you to ask them a question like um where are desks 10 and 11 please and no signposts.

absolutely hate it

What happened? Were you still allowed to board?

From experience it’s quite easy not to hear a call if it’s slightly earlier than expected… we were in a soft play section once and almost missed ours when dd1 was small. Just hadn’t heard the flight number on the previous announcements. That was a mad dash…

You wouldn’t be tannoy called though.

Not true in my experience. I flew recently; had checked in online for my husband and I. Went to airport when husband realised he couldn't fly as his visa was wrong (checked on exit and realised he wouldn't be allowed back in where we were). They paged him and paged him in the airport, despite me telling them several times that he definitely wasn't coming.
Also not all airports log who's coming through security; there's plenty of places where you show your boarding pass visually to security, it's not scanned.

I once did a check in on line, then the morning of the flight had a fiasco with a broken down train, a friend rescued me and drove me the rest of the way, I had to abandon my checked luggage because it was too late to be put on the plane. I then got the wrong gate in mind and wasted a good 15 minutes running back and forth in the wrong direction. I don't think I'll ever forget the moment when, running in the right direction finally, i saw two lovely staff standing in the corridor, looking for me and holding the door for me. I sat down on the plane out of breath and sweaty... for the start of a long haul flight. It's the closest I've ever come, and I always have sympathy now for the runners in airports. So much can go wrong, we're fortunate it goes right so often!

I've missed one around 8 years ago. I had to get a 30 minute train to the airport which just kept getting more and more delayed, looking back I don't know why I didn't get a taxi

I missed a flight once. Got there with at least 3 hours to spare. Went through, had a quick nosy in Boots and then heard final call! Ran (gate was about as far away as a gate can be) but was too late. I swear I entered some kind of time slip 🤣 No idea how check in, security and buying a mag could have taken that long!

I mean yes I can see there are numerous reasons as to why a flight could be missed, traffic, overslept, wrong date. But again I’m talking about people missing a flight after they’ve checked in.

We flew from Gatwick over the summer. And Heathrow. Both times we arrived as early as allowed for check in ( 2 and 3 hours). Both times after queuing for bag drop, having checked in online, queued for security and literally walking to the nearest Pret to buy food, we walked directly to the gate (miles away) and thr flight was being called.