Our (almost)entire company missed our flight back home during teambuilding event

Sorry to hear you missed your flight. It sucks but hopefully it won’t ruin your plans.

As for the story:

It was 15 years ago, my parents, my two siblings, and me were about to travel to Canada to visit our aunt. For all of us, it was our first ever transatlantic flight. We were all so excited about it, that none of us could catch a bit of sleep the day before leaving.

It required 5h of travel to catch the plane in the capital, so we had to leave at like 4 am to be on time for it. But somehow we manage to do it and arrive on time at the airport.

Excitation is at its maximum, finally our big trip is around the corner. We go to the check in desk, cue for a good a hour, and once our turn come, get asked for our passport. We all look at my father that start frenetically look in his pockets, then handbags to find our passport. But no sign of them. He start sweating heavily, ask my mother if she kept them. No, not with her neither. Big panic moment, everybody shouting, undoing all the luggages in order to find them. But nothing. We forgot our passport. No way to catch the plane.

Our father go back to our place, 5h away from the airport, while we stayed in a hotel for the night. Turns out the passport were on my parent shelf. Just one story higher than were they always were. My mother being quite short did’t see them and assumed my father had them.

We went back to the airport on the next day to see what we could do to save our trip. We got lucky as we got access to another plane, for free, and got upgraded to first class as a bonus, due to 5 other passengers missing their flight ! But we had 5 mins to catch it. The run though the check-in, security, the terminal gates was quite epic to fathom !

This was 30+ years ago, but I misread my tickets and missed my original flight out of Tampa headed to Chicago with a stop in Atlanta. I rebooked another about 3 hours later, but when I got to Atlanta, I found out my original connecting flight to Chicago crashed in Indiana due to ice on the wings. That could have been me. RIP to those who made that flight.

Hungover after my wedding. We took too long at the hotel breakfast and had to drive about an hour to get to the airport.

Tried to buy a new ticket at the airport for my honeymoon and the agent laughed at me. They don’t sell tickets at the airport… So I had to stand in front of them, buy a ticket on my phone, then approach the agent. Who knew?

This was back in line 2009. I was trying to fly cross country back to home (ATL-SFO) right at the end of the holiday break. Like the last day before people had to go back to work, so it was crazy busy. I got a ride to the airport from some friends who had a later flight, but we left early enough that we would have plenty of time for me to be early for mine too. But then there was a massive like 18 car pileup on the freeway and we were stuck in traffic between exits with nowhere to go. We sat there for 2 hours before we got going, and that was enough to eat up my buffer and make me miss my flight.

I got to the airport check in desk and told them what happened, and they said they would try to get me out on standby on one of the other flights. This was at ATL, trying to go back to SFO so plenty of options right? Well it was such a crazy busy travel day that I kept getting put on standby but all the flights were full. I needed someone to no-show for their seat before I could take it, and there were plenty of other people trying to go standby too. At the time I had no airline status so I was at the back of the line for priority to get a seat.

I got so close a few times. By the end of the day I had been issued 8 boarding passes for standby flights. On 6 of them I never got past the gate. On one of them they cleared me in and I was walking down the jet bridge before the original passenger showed up and they ran down to tell me that my spot was no longer available. One of them I made it all the way to a seat before I got yanked back off the plane. The very late original passenger sheepishly passed me in the jet bridge, both of us being escorted by gate agents but in opposite directions.

It was nighttime now. I had told the customer support agents that I would be happy getting to any airport in CA, or even anywhere along the way. Finally they said they had a flight for me to DFW with a confirmed seat on it, and then they could get me a confirmed flight back to CA the following morning. Shit, I’ll take it. Get me out of ATL, and get me out of standby hell.

I made it to DFW and got some shitty hotel near the airport (not comped). I had spent so long in ATL listening hearing the din of an airport and fragments of conversations as people walked by me (I didn’t have good NC headphones back in 09). As I was lying in the hotel trying to sleep I was literally hearing voices in my head, unintelligible pieces of airport conversations that my brain was making up. It felt like I was going crazy. The standby demons had won.

Thankfully I finally fell asleep and got a few hours of zzzs before heading back to the airport and catching the early flight to CA. What a mess. I hope your situation isn’t nearly as painful!

College freshman flying back home for the summer. Not used to flying. Got to my gate about half hour before boarding. Hungry. Went to closest restaurant a couple gates away, got a burrito and ate at a table while listening to music with headphones. Lost track of time. That burrito had my full attention. Missed all the overhead calls for me. Plane had departed by the time I casually walked back to my gate.

Missed train, but eh, whatever.

The year is 2016, I’m teaching English in Japan, and the Olympics is on TV with Nigeria vs. Japan in Soccer.

I’m normally not into Scoccer or any kind of TV sport for that matter, but I caught the game early on, and Japan was neck and neck with Nigeria. For some reason I wanted to see it play out. JAPAN scores! YES! then I remember where I was and what I was doing, and my train to Sapporo had left 30 minutes ago…

Luckily I was able to schedule another train, and what time I got there didn’t really matter, but I had to wait several hours for it to arrive. Japan ended up losing 5 to 4.

Fell asleep waiting on a delayed red eye flight to LA. No one bothered to wake me for 3 hours… Sitting at the gate for a 5am flight that was delayed 2 hours and change.

It’s my fault, but someone could have woken me I feel like when they started calling for the boarding.

Fell asleep in Dubai waiting at the gate for my transfer eight hours early. Woke up too late to realise the gate had changed while I was sleeping and I couldn’t board in the five minutes left. I thought I’d wake up once more people were there but thanks to the gate change, it never filled up.

“sir, that flight was yesterday”

Not really missed, but I’m writing this from Taiwan because my original flight to the Philippines was cancelled due to bad weather. So we started looking at weather forecasts at the airport and jumped on the next flight to the country with the best weather!

Was flying from Austin TX to Lax Vegas with a stop in Salt Lake City Utah via a standby ticket. So the pros of the standby ticket was I was flying for almost nothing. The con is you can only get on the flight if there’s an available seat.

So I get to SLC no problem. But then the trip to LV had a canceled flight. So needless to say there was no standby flights available for several hours as they kept using those spaces for the canceled flight. Hours later I’m at the desk waiting for the update on the last flight of the night alongside a small family that was from SLC but had also been waiting several hours. We get the update. Not flying out till the following morning. Being that they’re from SLC and Vegas is about 6 hours away they’re all like screw it. Cancel the flights and just drive. At this point I’m like “great. Sleeping in an airport”.

So they start to leave then look to me and just ask if I want to take the ride with them. Hell yea. I’m in. Grab my bag and follow these people I’ve never even spoken to out. They tell me they’re just going to stop by home and switch cars. Cool no problem. We get to their place (it’s like midnight at this point and reality sets in for them) and they’re like hey it’s late. We’re sorry but are you ok with leaving in the morning?

So not only did I jump in total strangers car for a 6 hour ride across Utah into Nevada (whole lot of nothing between those points), but I also stopped by their house and slept on the couch.

I’m a dual national and my name is different in each passport. Bought the plane ticket with the name written in one of the passports but then I forgot it at home 🤦‍♂️

I had the other one on me but since the name in it was different they didn’t let me on the plane…

Ever since then I keep both passports very close to each other with a rubber band!

A bit different one:

The year was 2010, and I was living abroad at the time. I was visiting the old country for a few days to renew my passport, and the day before I was supposed to fly back to where I lived, two things happened:

• Ran into this FWB i knew before moving abroad.
• Eyjafjallajökull had a volcanic eruption, shutting down air traffic in all of northern Europe.

Long story short, my FWB and I reconnected in the extra time I was given, and things developed further than they ever had before. Today we have a house and four kids together. I think it’s getting serious.

Little late to the party, but I was trying to catch a flight to see my long distance boyfriend. I was supposed to leave right after class (I was in college) but decided to take my time and run by my house to pick up a few things and chat with my roommates. Well, there was a ton of traffic and I ended up having to sprint through the airport to my gate. I had a backpack and was sprinting in flip flops, wearing a dress. Didn’t feel my dress riding up, caught in my backpack, as I ran, so I guarantee half that airport saw my bare ass (I now wear shorts under my dresses). Got to the gate as the plane was pulling away from the gate and started SOBBING, knowing my kind of dick boyfriend would yell at me and say I told you so. The gate agents took pity on me, crying with my butt hanging out, and moved me to a next morning flight at no charge.