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 nearly missed a flight once. Got there hours early, checked in, went straight to security, and then they spent so long checking my take on stuff I didn't get through until final call and had to run. Was totally bizarre, everyone else just breezed through.

Sometimes people arrive in excellent time for their flight only for it to dawn on them when there is no information about the flight anywhere that they have turned up at the wrong airport………… 😳

Thankyou easy jet staff who a) didn’t laugh , not to my face anyway and b) found me another flight without charging me.

We’ve missed two flights because of my husband…he is extremely disorganised and is late for everything not just flights! He does not factor in travel time or traffic and he doesn’t pack until the day of his flight - it causes me so much stress. The last time we missed a flight was because he left it last minute to check in at home and realised his passport had expired. On a return flight home we ended up a day early to the airport because of him - realised we had the wrong day and then had to head all the way back to our villa. He drives me mad!

@TrippinEdBalls @GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing my DH's luggage went without him on Monday. This was in the US.

A lot of the time the gates just close without any tannoy announcements. In Boston airport there are no announcements, no last calls, no late passenger alerts. So if you get distracted and don't get yourself to the gate, it's game over.

@C8H10N4O2 Its fairly clear the OP is referring to people who have physically checked in / arrived at the airport, not people who've checked in online potentially up to a month before the flight and never made it to the airport in the first place for whatever reason.

At many airports they only bother tannoying people who have checked hold luggage in. If they don't need to waste their time and resource offloading a suitcase then ultimately they're not bothered if you miss it or not, no loss to them.

I would have said the same until I missed a flight! I checked in and was ready and waiting. The gate number came up on the screen, I decided to go to the toilet then go to the gate. Went to the toilet, then realised there was a mini-train to the gate. By the time the next train came and I got to the gate it had just closed. Basically you would have had to see the gate number come up and go straight there, no time to spare - there were about 15 of us at the gate who missed it. Really frustrating because it would have been quicker to let us all get on the plane than to take all of our luggage off. This was Ryanair and I’ve hated them ever since. I was actually travelling to see a dying relative and didn’t get to them in time by the time I caught another flight ☹️

When you say incorrect info on the board you mean they fix it shortly before departure and it’s a mad rush to get a bunch of passengers on the plane and departing? Presume quite a few people missed it then and they wouldn’t have bothered calling out names because too many didn’t make it?

There's a quick solution to this - tell him what time he needs to be in the car and drive away at that time.

I honestly could not travel with your dh.
My own dh used to always work late the night before we were due to go on holiday.
It stressed me out with 2 dc and everything to organise so I started lying and telling him the holiday was a day earlier than I had booked.
It meant we had a whole free day to get organised.

Fleetwoodmacwood

Hehe me too

I quadruple check everything and arrive Far too early

Combination of things:

Arriving with just enough time and then getting held up going through Security.

Dawdling about in the shops/restaurants after Security and then realising that their gate is miles away.

Misreading/misunderstanding the timings of Desk Open/Gate Open/Boarding.

One that happened one Christmas - family going through to Security, the Security Guard checked their Boarding Passes and calmly announced they were at the wrong airport!

we had a 12 hour daytime stopover in an american airport a few years ago. we decided to go shopping in a local mall 15 mins away for a a few hours. we arranged for a taxi pickup 5 hours before we had to be back. taxi couldn't find us and it ended up taking nearly 2 hours to get a taxi for various reasons. 2 of the most intense hours of my life. fortunately another taxi came to our rescue and we got back to the airport and through security just as the main queue had finished boarding. felt ridiculously sick at the stress of it.

We’ve missed flights due to the roads we take being completely shut down or blocked due to an accident, flooding or protesters. Also have missed connecting flights due to delayed initial flights. Once missed a connecting flight due to being randomly selected by US TSA for strip search and interview during the 9/11 aftermath.

No in both cases it was one board missing some information/not showing updates combined with no audio announcements - so a small group of passengers in that area were late both times. Nobody was in restaurants or duty free (not least because there were none open).

These days I use the online announcement boards on my phone which is available in most airports. Ppre covid when I was still traveling a lot for work I was still visiting airports which were a lot less high tech that big internantional hubs and were a lot less efficient on the announcements.

Misreading/misunderstanding the timings of Desk Open/Gate Open/Boarding

This too, I think there are a lot of people who don't realise that although your flight departs at 2pm the gate will close at 1.30 or even 1.20pm.

Then there's those who think 'go to gate 3' means 'go to gate 3 in a leisurely manner after finishing your drink, and via WH Smith, Boots and the loo'. The reason they tell you in advance what time (ish) the gate will be announced is so you can have done all that stuff first, and literally just go to gate when it's announced.

I must admit, I think I'd prefer that method, same with waiting for buses, better to be there ready.

OP you seem to be hung up on the checking in point. Most of the time now people don't check in when they arrive at the airport. They do it online some time before their flight. So it doesn't mean people are actually present in the airport.

I'd also add that not everyone has the luxury of arriving hours before their flight. When I travel for work my clients don't want to pay for me to hang around the airport for 4-5 hours just to ease my anxiety!

Even though you check in at home you still have to do it again at the airport. I always do because I have 2 big cases with me. Plus if you have kids it's easy to miss something.

My stupid bloody husband almost caused this in the summer. We were called to the gate where you had to scan your passport and boarding card and then go down into the sort of holding pen. Well he refused to do that saying we would just be standing there for ages so he's pratting about playing with the kid right in front of the gate bit and when I looked it said gate closed. He wouldn't even believe me so I ran and asked omg is it closed, and the woman said no but you're only just in time. He nearly made us miss the flight through sheer stupidity and pig headedness.

Me too. I was on a plane once and they kept saying this plane is going to wherever it was going and a couple in front of me were on the wrong plane!!

It can be people who have been in the airport for a lengthy period, perhaps changing aircraft, they then fall asleep and and miss those desperate calls.

DS did that - with the added excitement of the fact that he likes to cut it fine anyway. Had to make a mad taxi dash to the correct airport and then had to run. Fast. Staff were very helpful though.

I’ve missed an EasyJet flight by being stuck on the motorway with the airport slip road just ahead. Did manage to get to the airport just as my flight was taxiing. EasyJet were v helpful and offered to put me on the next flight at no cost.

I'd also add that not everyone has the luxury of arriving hours before their flight. When I travel for work my clients don't want to pay for me to hang around the airport for 4-5 hours just to ease my anxiety!

This is a really good point. I fly domestically for work often and our office is a 3 minute drive / 10 minute walk from the small airport. It would be most frowned upon to leave for a daytime flight any earlier than 90 minutes before departure, and actually 70 minutes is more usual.

I flew back from a conference via Heathrow T5 last week, flight at 7.30pm and I left the conference at 4pm to allow for the journey across London with possible transport disruption. Any earlier would have been taking the piss a bit.

I missed a flight once because I misread the gate. When I realised I had to run across the terminal to the correct gate. The plane was still there, but the gate was already closed. It was Ryanair, so there was no good will from them to still let me on; they also don't call out missing passengers. I was with my toddler, but they couldn't care less, and I had to book and pay for another flight.