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.

My SIL left me with my niece and nephew whilst she went off to get something to eat at Barcelona airport. Our gate got called not long after she she walked off with their passports. I thought she’d keep an eye on the boards but she couldn’t be bothered. I must have rang her about 20 times - she didn’t answer her phone (apparently it was on silent). She also missed them final call announcements for all of us as was apparently busy. We missed the flights and I was beyond livid. I went home on my own, whilst I tried to find us an alternative flight,

I'd have gone without her.

Many people are ditzy, head in the clouds, chaotic minded, unaware of time than you think.

This is not correct.
If you check-in bags and are scheduled to travel on that flight but 'no show' your bags will be offloaded.
(The Lockerbie Bombing. Aircraft blew up due to a 'no show' of a Pax flying from Frankfurt.)
If your bag misses its connection or is not put on the Aircraft it will travel 'alone' on a later flight
BUT
You must have already taken that flight.
If you 'no show' the bag will not be sent.
This goes for everywhere.
Due to the lax check-in/security checks/scanner machines in many Airports in the US the terrorists found these loopholes and consequently there was the 9/11 catastrophe.

I'm always early at the airport but even so, I've once almost missed my flight. I went to get a coffee but didn't realize that going to the gate would take so long ! But I can also imagine some people have few many beers and miss the announcements.

But the poster had checked in, at home.

DH and I had this when we had a connection, our first part of the flight was late, we had to pick up luggage and re drop (so our luggage was on flight) then we had to get back in through security which had a huge queue.
There were several people on the same connection, so I thought it would be totally fine... but I am an early bird sit at the gate as soon as announcer type of gal, TSA were super chill don't worry types 😂
Literally legged it through the airport, this was on our way to get married in vegas so I was deep in panic! Got to the gate and let them know there were 10+ more coming and they said to us "they have 10mins to get here then" I was kinda surprised but we were all being called so our bags were already shifted so since they were coming I thought they would wait as you were talking them being on the way, so I am guessing connections like this are the biggest reason?

Only if you have hold luggage. Many people don't these days. Sometimes I am flying just for the day so I just have a handbag and laptop bag with me.

Years ago we were flying out of Luton airport. We watched another party, quite clearly going on holiday. It was the crack of dawn but they settled down in a bar and started drinking. They didnt stop!

The tannoy announcements started: Final call, will party X make their way to the departure gate, party X your luggage will be removed from the flight, party X your luggage has been removed from the flight.

They just carried on drinking. This was 15 years ago but I sometimes wonder if they are still there, drinking away.

That’s one of the joys of Brexit- the second passport control in European airports is the immigration control for leaving the country and is only for non EU flights, which now sadly includes UK ones (the first one is just the usual security check for all flights).

@ordinarilyordinary I am aware re demand which is why not cancelling the flight helps no one.

We nearly missed a flight to Ireland from Heathrow last year. Arrived at T3 early.

It was rammed at 6am. Massive queues for automatic checkins and a massive queue for security.

Silly customers not listening or reading the signs made it worse. The security man actually binned a whole load of toiletries from an American bloke just in front of
me, who was over the liquid limit but wouldn’t pick out what to chuck or keep but kept arguing.

When we got to the gate the flight was boarding. Took nearly 3 hours from arrival to get to the gate.

In Berlin last year our flight was delayed or we would have missed it. Massive queue for manual check-in, an unbelievably slow security process and unlike DH who has an EU passport and cou use the automatic gate, I had to join a border control queue with my British one.

I always get to the airport early but I think add at least an hour on now.

I have been on planes that were delayed because baggage had to be removed because of people who never arrived aboard. Grrr. Or in one case arrived after the announcement about baggage had been made and the plane delayed, with not a care in the world about what they had caused. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

I can well believe people go to wrong gates. I was taking a flight from Heathrow one time and one woman seemed to think that because the flight was going to the same destination as the flight she was actually booked on, WITH A DIFFERENT AIRLINE, it didn't matter. She would just hop aboard. It took the staff quite some time to convince her otherwise too. WTF!

Nearly missed a flight about a month ago - got to the airport more than 3 hour ahead, but the airline's computer systems were down. It took 2 hours to do bag check-in, I then had to run like mad to get through the security system and over to the gate - they called me as I was running down the corridor to say I had 90 seconds to get to the gate or they'd throw me off the flight. Nobody after me made the flight - it left over a third empty.

Have also missed flights where I'm connecting through and one flight arrives late, baggage is transferred but you don't have time to make it through security and over to the new terminal.

It's not always a case of being distracted in cafes or duty free or not setting off early enough.

Pre-covid I used to travel a lot for work, and am used to chaperoning folks on trips so am generally pretty organised. I once very nearly missed a flight as there were multiple crashes on the m25, it was like something out of final destination! Genuinely questioned whether I should actually board the flight as I ran through the airport at warp speed. I also did miss a connecting flight once as I was flying back from the US during hurricane season. Outbound flight and many others were grounded due to weather, which meant that by the time I got to the connecting airport my flight was long gone. Was all ok in the end, but a bit of a stress at the time.

Sharm el sheikh Airport, last Christmas
3 hours to get through security, it was an absolute disgrace, complete chaos.
We finally got through and Tui Egypt reps were shouting at us because we were late, calls were put out for everyone on the flight
We finally got the boarding gate and 2 flights were trying to board, Airport staff and rep's had lost control of the 2 sets of people it was honestly the most stressful experience of my life.
We were all late because of the chaos in the airport, we realised afterwards that they couldn't have set off without us as it was the whole flights worth of people that were late but we were all screamed at like it was our fault.
Cabin crew just shrugged and said " that's Egypt "

And this doesn't always happen even in the UK.

I was guardian for a friend's DD who was travelling to HK one holiday from boarding school. She went to the wrong gate and nobody realised and she missed the flight.

Flight left without her - but with all her luggage. I went and rescued her - and then made her go as Unaccompanied Minor on the next flight 2 days later (one v unhappy 15 year old!) - but was shocked that they hadn't unloaded her luggage. This was Winter 2019 so not even that long ago.

I just work at the airport! 🤷🏼‍♀️

I nearly missed a flight after being held up for hours on the motorway. When we finally checked in we were told someone had jumped off a bridge, they knew all about it at the airport.

We arrived 2 hours before flight as per email instructions. The check in desk broke down and rather than move to one that was working, they made the queue wait while someone tried to fix it 45 minutes later it still wasn't fixed so at this point we had been queuing for over 1 hour. When we finally got to the front and checked in we were directed to drop our bags in another place of the airport which wasted more time. Add to that security having minimal staff, being held up due to baby formula milk needing scanning and then our boarding passes also not scanning to let us through to security. We got through with 15 minutes spare to get to the airplane and had a long walk to the gate. We weren't the only ones on last call but it was very stressful and I still have no idea why the company didn't communicate with the plane that check in had delayed everyone?!

Before that experience, I was also of view that missing your plane was strange!

I missed my flight because I was not used to the 24 hour clock. I read 18.00 as 8 pm. DUH. Never made that mistake again, I can tell you.

They go to the bar!

I’m one of these people who are likely to miss flights . I hate waiting around, am optimistic about how long any journey, any task takes, always try to get one more thing done and am easily distracted ( probably ADHD) .

In my younger days I did loads of those airport dashes. These days , I plan backwards ( but still leave timings quite tight) . For example I would not dream of arriving more than 2 hours early for a flight. The thing is that everything is usually fine. I get a little kick out of not having waited around and just having that one last lovely swim, or having made a packed lunch for 4 for the flight or picking up a bargain in duty free.

When I travel with DH , we agree what time we will aim to leave and what time is our cut off. He goes to the gate with the children and I do my ‘extra shopping / wine’ and mad dash if necessary.

Yes. Someone put a bomb in a bag once then didn’t board the plane so now if you don’t board the bag comes off.

I don’t understand this - you can check in online surely? Then set off for airport maybe there’s a traffic issue you miss flight end of. But you’re still checked in. What’s the point of the OP?

I've missed three flights (embarrassing - I did get diagnosed with adhd last year) although none of those were post check in/luggage drop at the airport. First time got stuck in massive traffic jam on m25 due to roadworks - we should have left earlier. Got to airport 15 mins before flight but gate was closed. Saw our flight taking off!

Second time went to wrong airport - Gatwick instead of Heathrow. We actually live much nearer Heathrow.

Both those could have been avoided by leaving more time for contingencies admittedly. We were checked in online.

Third time was deliberate decision not to take the flight. Was due to go on a short trip to Paris with daughter then our family holiday to Thailand 10 days later. My daughters passport renewal was one of the ones in the massive backlog, 12 weeks and counting. We finally got it 2 days before Paris but I was so phobic by then that it (or mine) might get lost and jeopardise Thailand that I decided we wouldn't go to Paris. I managed to cancel the accommodation but couldn't cancel the flights so officially that was my third missed flight!

Confess there were many other occasions before the first actual missed flight when we really deserved to have missed one so I shouldn't be surprised that our luck ran out. One time turned up running late for a flight to LA and the queue was massive. Luckily the business class desk took pity on us and checked us in. We ran to the gate. Then the flight was delayed 40 mins lol! Another time flying to New York. We'd checked in and gone through security. I wanted to look in some shops. Husband was getting agitated and went to the gate on his own. I kept checking the boards but our flight hadn't appeared. Suddenly they were calling for me and I was miles from the gate. Got there in time (Husband was fuming). Turned out the flight was stopping in New York and then flying on to Denver so it appeared in the board as a Denver flight.

Another time we lost our son aged about 5 in the airport. We'd gone off separately and each of us thought he was with the other. Found him playing happily with some other children. That was another race to the gate.

Another time our flight landed at Washington Dulles on time but they couldn't get the corridor thing fitted to the plane for nearly an hour. Raced through the airport with loads of others to catch connecting flight to Orlando. When we got there the gate staff laughed at our panic and said of course the flight would wait as it was same airline and half the pasengers were doing the same transfer. Well I didn't know that and I don't think you can bank on it!