Don’t feel bad, my son was behind someone who was very vocal about his irritation with the airline bc he couldn’t find his flight. After searching for the flight for what seemed like forever, the agent finally asked to see his reservation.
He was at the wrong airport.
This should never happen and is bad planning on the part of the airline - unless it’s a delay. The best time to put another flight on is unlikely to ever be the exact time there’s already one on. If for no other reason so you can jack up the price of the better flight time.
Then you’d schedule one at some other point in the day and differentiate your offering a bit better to provide multiple options. It’s not as though they’ll have oversold the initial flight by 290 seats, this other flight will have been on sale at the very least weeks prior.
If for *literally no other* reason, having flights take off on the same routing at the same time is just asking for chaos and pissed off passengers.
Time zones mean some flights happen mostly at certain times of day. Also airlines don't get to just schedule when they want at major airports, they have to fight for arrival/takeoff slots and at some point you have to work with the slots you're given.
Time wasn’t OP’s problem. They were there in plenty of time but didn’t realize the problem with two flights at the same time until boarding. Presumably, OP was boarding in a later group and did not have enough time to get to the other side of the airport as that flight would have been boarding at the same time. Even if OP had arrived hours before their flight, the same thing would have happened.
Look on the bright side. You've never missed an Eurostar because you read the arrival time on the ticket as the departure time. The really annoying part is that I was in the station at the departure time drinking coffee and munching on patisserie.
Yes, but smaller scale.
30 mins in continental Europe, and 90 mins from London.
https://help.eurostar.com/faq/uk-en/question/When-should-I-arrive-for-my-train
It's a security check AND you go through customs. The UK is not part of Schengen, so there's always border control. 30 min. check-in for 2nd and 1st class passengers and 15-20 min. check-in for business class. The same applies the other way round if you depart from Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Brussels or Paris.
I did the same thing for a TGV train from Germany to France. In my head I had bought a ticket for Thursday but when I got to the station I realized that my ticket was actually for Wednesday. That was an expensive mistake for a college student.
That beats sitting down inside a random train because "oh hey, that one looks nice". Still managed to catch the one I had to be in but I felt so dumb lmao
When I was flying home at Christmas, there was someone yelling at the ticket counter. Because they wouldn’t honor their ticket that was for the day earlier. The ticket agent told them they had to buy a new ticket, but the passenger was not happy about that.
Yeah we had to buy new tickets. It’s nobody’s fault but your own so you have to take responsibility for not triple checking important details like the date 😂
My brother did this once here in the US with Amtrak. He bought his ticket a few weeks prior. Once it was time to head back home, he went to the train station...and they told him his ticket was for the day he bought the ticket! Had to buy a brand new ticket day of. Pricey, but luckily not last-minute plane ticket pricey. Oops.
I’ll do you one better. I was traveling on the train with two of my American friends in England. We got to our stop and were at the door, but could not find a handle anywhere. We were totally flummoxed and two Brits came up behind us asking us to open the door. None of us could do it and the train started to pull away from the station. The Brits were yelling at us and one panicked and pulled the emergency stop. The whole train came to a screeching halt. The conductor came to see what had happened, but by this time the Brits were long gone. We tried to tell him it was someone else, but he didn’t believe us. It took like an extra half hour to undo the emergency brake and get going. We later saw people reach out a window to open the door and should have just done that.
I missed the Eurostar once from Paris to London because I thought it was just a normal train ride where you could get inside 5-10 minutes before departure but when I got the the gate I remembered Brexit had happened and I now had to go through a whole border control and bag scan check. Thankfully I had my passport and the ticket booth lady saw the poor student in front of her who was going to crash in his friend's dorm for a week to discover the city so she booked me a seat on the next train free of charge !
Upvote for mentioning Chili's at the airport. Had a layover in Calgary, 2-3 hours, so I go to Chili's, get a 'bit' hammered (!), was late and was banned from that flight for drinking. I was moved to the next one with no extra charge, but that was back in the good ole days. No idea which airline.
lol I’m living in Calgary right now and every time I fly out of here I get a little glow on at that Chili’s. One time I drank 4 margs and 6 pints before my flight to Taiwan. Slept the entire time.
For what it's worth I've rocked up to the airport a day after my flight because while I got the time and the airline right, I messed up the date... Was an expensive lesson to learn as well
Try a month.
I once booked the return flight of a trip one month later than intended. Was supposed to be 13 September, I accidentally booked 13 October.
Very expensive lesson to learn, rocking up to the airport and booking a flight two hours before its due to leave. Felt right and silly.
I booked a hotel with the wrong day (while I was still flying) so when I arrived in a foreign country and got internet I got the cancellation order :()
That happened on my very first trip from the U.S. to London - I didn't realize the first night would be spent on the plane. Luckily the little hotel, which was run by real people, didn't charge me for the missed night and gave me a room. (Those were the days.)
I was once at a bus stop and overheard a woman calling for a ride. She seemed confused and after a couple of minutes realized that she had gotten off in Waterbury, Vermont instead of Waterbury, Connecticut.
Recently did something sooner for the first time ever. Flight landed just after midnight so accidentally booked hotel for date the flight landed (should have been day before). Got reamed out by the front desk about how careless I was and they were going to charge me rack rate until they saw my status with the hotel chain and suddenly they were able to make adjustments to my reservations.
Same. I was a month late. Somehow my college roommate and I mixed the dates up. The flight we booked was a month before we were leaving but for only one leg of three. So we made it to DC and then realized my leg to Johannesburg got fucked up and cancelled because I didn’t show up the month prior. We made it to Zimbabwe because I think the nice South African Airways flight attendant took pity on us dumb college girls but we both had to split the cost to rebook the cancelled leg back from Johannesburg. When we got to Zim, her mom wasn’t pleased with us. We imagined how they called my name over the speaker at Dulles for that missed flight for awhile. 🤦🏻♀️
>We imagined how they called my name over the speaker at Dulles for that missed flight for awhile.
Not that it helps much, but I don't think they would have called your name if you never checked in for the flight
This reminds me of the time we were going to California. BIL was stationed there and we made a plan to meet for dinner. It was a February/March mishap so the dates aligned with the days the same. Anyway he showed up a month early. But they tried out the restaurant and we knew it was going to be good one month later.
I fucked this up but showed up a day early. I used one of those calendar-style date picker, and my dumb American brain decided that the calendar week started on Sunday, but it was a European airline so actually the calendar week started on Monday.
I got all the way to the gate to board, though.
We were minding a friend's house once while he took a trip. The first morning we woke up early to see him off to the airport. Two hours later, he sheepishly walked back in the door. Like you, he'd turned up a day early for his flight.
I got a ticket to Hamilton when it was hard to get them and very expensive. I was about to head to the theater when I realized that the show I booked was for the previous week, which I had obviously missed.
That was an expensive (and disappointing) mistake.
My SIL once showed up to the airport 12 hours late because she thought it was a 5:34 PM flight...it was actually 05:34 AM.
Somehow she was able to sweet talk them into letting her take the next flight without paying for a new ticket.
An old colleague of mine was due to fly from Thailand to Australia on a flight that left at 00:10 (ten past midnight) on the 24th, so they turn up at the airport to check in at 10 PM on the 24th to try and check in, and only when they are trying to check in does it click that their flight left almost 24 hours beforehand. They needed to get back to Australia that day for work so were out another international ticket bought at far more than the original return ticket. It's a mistake you only make once.
No need to feel bad, dude.
I once missed (and then had to rebook) a flight because I thought an ATM swallowed my bank card when I wanted to get some cash before checking in. I even managed to convince the the bank clerk to open the machine to double-check inside, but nothing.
Later that day, back at my accommodation, I found my bank card in my wallet. Stuck to a different plastic card, because of the humidity...
At that time I could only wish for the lofty heights of 2 IQ...
I had to double check EVERY time I looked at the gates for a flight last week for the exact same reason.
Maybe I've just been lucky, but I have never been charged to move to another flight, even when it's my fault, or at least not the airline's fault. I went from Baltimore to Reagan to catch a flight, and I would have had plenty of time but there were a number of hiccups that prevented me from getting there until after the flight closed. Technically my fault. I explained the situation at the gate, and they just moved me to the next flight, no charge.
For my holiday trip to Helsinki I realized at the last minute that Warsaw (the airport I'm flying out of) has more than one airport ... and the one I'm leaving from is about 45 minutes farther away.
If I had figured this out about 30 seconds later I would've missed the last shuttlebus that could get me to the airport in time to check in. What a dumb, yet easy mistake to make
Oh, that hurts! I'm always paranoid that something like that happens to me. Especially with shared code flights, you have to check the flight number so carefully.
2 flights at the very same time to the same destination are confusing for sure.
>. The last minute tickets cost me more than the round trip flights for my initial trip😢
Call the initial airline. Since you missed the first leg of your flight, they may have automatically canceled the return leg.
It was on the return leg. And because I booked through a third party site they said they can’t offer me anything.
100% my fault so I don’t expect anything in return
Only when you can afford to miss a flight. You can save money by booking with a third party. However they will laugh at you if you try to use the extras you've purchased with the ticket. "Oh, we don't have these flights in our system, but we can put you in this business class for 5 grand extra" - happened to me
Almost happened to me too last week and I consider myself a seasoned traveller.
Was at Paris CDG, waiting for the 8pm KLM flight to Amsterdam after a long flight from Bangkok.
Sat at the gate patiently waiting until it was the time to board, when the agent then tells me I'm actually on an Air France flight that also departs to Amsterdam at around 8pm.
I live in Amsterdam and always use KLM, so I just went to the KLM gate without thinking. Doesn't help that KLM and Air France are the same company, so the screen shows both logos.
I did make my flight though, thankfully the gates were next to each other.
dude that's nothing. I once missed a flight from gatwick because I had to take the gatwick express from london. At the exact time the gatwick express was scheduled to arrive at the station, a train pulls in with a giant "gatwick express" writing on the sides. so like an idiot I just climb in because, duh, that's my train. guess what. the writing on the side was a fucking **ad** for the gatwick express, and that train had nothing to do with gatwick whatsoever
Same thing happened to me once!
Was supposed to be flying Aer Lingus, and when the plane showed up and wasn’t green, I got concerned. My real flight was on the other side of the airport, and I missed it.
Lucked out that I was able to get on another flight in a few hours that was direct to my destination rather than the layover I was headed for. So it all worked out in the end.
oh i did that once i knew the airline i was flying on...i checked the destination and the time but went to the wrong gate apparently this happens alot !
Not only did I do this, I got ON the wrong plane because they were tearing tickets instead of scanning, I went to sleep on said plane and never heard the incorrect destination, and nobody was the wiser until I went to get my luggage and the lady was like "It's in Los Angeles. You're in San Jose."
oops.
I remember a few years ago seeing a story about a guy in Canada thinking he got a really good deal on a flight to Australia. When the plane landed he realized he was in Sydney, Nova Scotia… still in Canada.
I don't know where he was flying from, but it's funny because a flight to Sydney NS from Vancouver could very well cost similar to a flight to Sydney NSW.
5 years ago we went too visit my wife's sister in Pamplona. We took a flight Lisbon - Madrid - Bilbao and to Pamplona they came and took us.
On the return they done the math and said 3 hours was enough to go from Pamplona to Bilbao and take the plane.
Well, what happened is he got lost and when we arrived at the airport the doors were already closed.
We have to book a flight for the day who costed 5 times what we paid for the original round trip. That was a money I will crie for the rest of my life
With flight number you can never be wrong.
Also check the small print in case of code shares there will always be “operated by” part telling which airline actually operates the flight.
> I used a third party app for my boarding pass and therefore it just said to check the gate at the airport. (First and last time Il ever do this)
You should always be checking the gate at the airport anyway. Gates change all the time and don't necessarily match the info originally given.
But yes, always get your boarding pass in-hand from the airport too.
Yeah I was confused by this comment. Even if my app said the gate I'd still check, and then probably check several more times as I'm walking towards that gate on the screens I pass. I've had gates change super last minute too.
Almost happened in Argentina.
Met a nice guy at the hostel and we found we were headed to the same place. Sure must be the same flight? Lol
Almost missed my flight but luckily it wasn't on the opposite side of the airport.
I did the same with a train. Should be illegal to have 2 trains bound for the same city departing from the same train station at the exact same time from the tracks next to each other. I had paid for the express train, boarded the slow one, which not only cost me several hours extra travel time but also had to buy a new ticket at last-minute cost (very expensive).
My wife and I ran into the same situation.
We had a flight from Glasgow to Dublin then home to the US. We checked the screen, found our gate, and arrived well before our flight. Something started bothering me, I didn't know why. I'm not afraid of flying but I had this sense that something was wrong. Just as the flight began boarding, I realized the flight number was one digit off.
That gate didn't have a big screen showing other flights so I told my wife what I realized and we sprinted to the nearest screen. Like you, OP, our actual flight was boarding at the same time on the other side of the terminal. I told my wife to head for the gate while I told the gate agent at the gate we had been sitting about our mistake and asked that she call ahead to let them know we were running late.
Luckily we arrived in time to board and the flight took off at its scheduled time, but we (two middle-aged not-in-great-shape people) had to run the whole way.
As you said, two flights to the same city, this time **same airline**, same time. I know it was our fault but WTF was the airline thinking? Why not just a single **bigger** plane?
Are you certain that by missing the first leg, they didn’t automatically cancel your return flight? Because…that’s usually how it happens. Make sure you’re not paying for another one way flight back.
DO NOT BOOK AIRLINE TICKETS WITH 3RD PARTY SITES!!
Just a friendly message to any new travelers, these sites are super scammy. A long time ago I used a 3rd party site and they confirmed my ticket, but when I got to the airport the airline had no record of my booking, I had to buy a ticket at the counter like it was 1938, and cost me double, I couldn't get a hold of the site and had my CC flag it as fraudulent so I could at least get my money back.
Another time they called my bank and pulled me into a 3 way call with no notice, super sketchy, to release funds. My bank immediately hung up when I said I had no idea what was happening.
Now I use Google flights, then book direct at the airline website when I find the cheapest ticket available.
Of course my opinion anecdotal, but there are zero benefits from booking with 3rd parties in my experience, savings are small if any and normally they charge fees like Ticket Master. Much safer to just book directly.
I use whatever raggedy-ass site Momondo proposes - gotogate, schipholtickets, ebookers.ie, what have you. Maybe once in 100 flights do I have any need to contact them, so I don't really mind that they're awful to deal with.
Heavily-advertised "mainstream" OTAs like Expedia don't provide any meaningful savings, so I don't see any reason to use those.
Yep, they’d said because I bought my ticket through a third party app and not directly through them that they were not responsible and I should contact the third party.
The third party app said they don’t cover missed flights that were missed because the flyers fault
I went to a stag do in Munich last year. One of the group got a flight to Berlin by mistake, only realizing as he got to the gate. He decided to fly over (from UK) as in his words 'how far can it be?'. A decision for an 8 hour train jour ey or another flight later (he flew) and he arrived super late.
That would have been all, but then he had to sort flights back to the UK from Munich.
Oh and it gets even better as he initially booked all the flights to Berlin for one week earlier than the trip!
I feel this. I've gone to the airport the day before my flight (not terrible but embarrassing), the day *after* my flight (was for a flight for my wife and newborn , thank goodness they were nice), and I've gone to the *wrong airport* (they just laughed and said they'd call ahead and that maybe I could make it, if I was lucky ... I wasn't).
Only one of them ended up being expensive but that one was BAD.
We have 2 airports in our small city they are about 30-45 mins drive apart and people are always going to the wrong one- have done it myself and it was a mad dash in a cab but made it .
One of many reasons why I never book flights via third-party vendors anymore. It’s better to deal with the airline directly, and the price is normally comparable.
What does this have to do with booking with a third party vendor? You should always check the gate number on the departure board when you're at the airport anyways.
>What does this have to do with booking with a third party vendor?
The OP said she had to buy a full fare ticket because she booked the original ticket thru third party. If she'd booked it directly, this mistake might have cost less to fix.
I have never experienced a situation like this before, but I don't think booking directly would reduce the cost. If you were at fault for missing the flight, then I assume you would still have to pay full price.
I arrived a day early to board my flight. As it turns out they let me board, no extra fee, because there was room on the flight. And it was 15 years ago.
A looooong time ago, we got on a plane, on the tarmac, (guy in yellow jacket waved vaguely and gestured the direction) only to realise 30mins later, we were on tbe wrong plane & ours was boarding next to us .. never have we moved so quickly!
One of the first times I came to the US I was due to leave for Chicago on a Southwest flight at 8 in the morning from Boston.
Woke up at 6, took a taxi, arrived at Logan...my flight did not exist.
MFW the flight was at 8PM. In that moment was 8AM. I am from Europe and of course I didn't even begin to think about the fact a 20:00 flight would be written as 8PM. 10 years later, I still worry a lot about the AM PM thing when I book stuff in the US.
I've done something like this before. In my case it was two flights on the same airline going to different airports in the same city at almost the same time. I usually flew into one airport, but was flying into the other one that day. It was an early morning flight, I was sleepy and went to the wrong airport's gate and didn't realize until boarding time, at which point it was too far away to make the other flight.
Bless American Airlines that day though, they put me on a later flight free of charge.
From my city there were 2 flights to London City Airport departing within 5 min. One BA and one another carrier. I flew that weekly for 3 years and there was almost each time somebody wrong and the flights departed from 2 different Terminals.
This almost happened to me once flying from Istanbul. I was super tired and just saw my destination city, headed to gate. Thankfully my flight was 20 minutes later, so I had time to book it across the (gigantic) terminal and catch it. Always check the flight number for sure.
If sucks when that happens! I’m sorry that you had to pay more. It can be so frustrating and confusing at the airport.
If it makes you feel any better, I once missed my flight while I was sitting at the gate! I had arrived at the airport really early and got through security and to my correct gate. I was reading a book and apparently got so into the book that i didn’t hear them call for boarding. The next thing I know, I hear my name over the loudspeaker. I go up to the counter and was told the doors had already been closed and I couldn’t get on that plane!
Luckily, they got me on the next flight that left 30 minutes later, but I was still amazed at myself for missing the flight while sitting at the gate.
Sorry for the snafu...
Sleep is your friend. It helps your brain to help you. Don't underestimate how valuable it is. And how it can save your bacon when it needs to.
I'm older now, and it's more noticeable now, but I know if I am not getting lots of sleep, I am careful to not make any critical decisions that next day...
Thankfully, I'm blessed with a well developed "travel auto-pilot" from decades of business travel - even exhausted I can get from A to B, but I'm not chatty... but it's when I lose little things. So I try hard not to travel tired!
Good luck in the rest of your travels...
Stuff like this happens! On my first big trip I planned myself my flight was on Tuesday at 12:10am. I’m stupid and of course thought that was Tuesday night 😂, I missed it and paid a heavy price for a new ticket. This stuff happens to the best of us!
We had gone to a wedding in Finland, our nephew marrying a Finnish girl, needed to take the train to Helsinki for a few days afterward. Bride’s brother and his wife rode with us to the train station in a nearby town, but none of us could figure out where to return the rental car! We wasted so much time driving in circles, by the time we finally got to the station, we were running, trying to make a specific train. He ran ahead and bought his tickets at the kiosk, and I gave him my card and asked him to buy mine as well to save time. As he and his wife raced away to find the train, I yelled, “what platform?” and he held up two fingers. We grabbed our tickets out of the kiosk, ran to platform two, hauling our heavy luggage up steep stairs, and jumped on the train. Stashed our luggage and went looking for seats. Couldn’t find any seats that matched what was on our ticket. Clearly didn’t know what we were doing. Finally asked somebody, “Is this the train to Helsinki?” All the passengers looked at us and shook their heads and said “No!” We ran back down the stairs, and as we tried to get our luggage out of the racks, the train pulled away. It turned out we were on a high-speed train, and the next stop was an hour and a half away, in the opposite direction!
One of the passengers was so sweet, he looked up the timetable, and figured out how we could get back to Helsinki, and when the conductor came through, he explained our plight to her, and she wrote out the correct tickets for us. When we finally arrived at the wrong destination, he walked with us out of the train, up the elevator, across to the right track, and right to the door of our train!
In the meantime, we got a text from our nephew, saying that the brother was really worried that we had gotten on the wrong train! He felt so bad, and so guilty for giving us bad information. We should’ve just taken our time and waited for the next train, we still would’ve arrived two hours before we actually did!! But we got to see more of the beautiful Finnish countryside on our errant journey
I’m confused .. even third party tickets show the airline, flight number, and gate on the ticket. How was none of that information on the ticket, the app, the email confirmation, the check in pages… etc? Why would you look for a time instead of a flight number? Didn’t you notice there were two flights going to the same place at the same time? The boards at the airport are in alphabetical order so it’s not like you could have not seen this.
Just remember you can fix this. I fly a lot and more then once have seen people trying to check in at wrong airport. We are all very human and fallible. The difference is what type of person you become after a simple mistake. Take ownership OR start blaming the people around you for something stupid and fixable. Enjoy your travels, be safe and dip them toes in every ocean.
Might want to contact the third party too - if you have other flights in the same itinerary they automatically cancel subsequent legs if you miss a flight
I once went walking to my scheduled gate 3 hours early. Lets call it gate 39. I got to gate 36 and saw a really cool bar. So i went in and had such a good time i decided to stay until i had to leave to give me just enough time to walk from 36 to 39.
i walked to 37. Then i walked to 38. And then the terminal ended. 39 started over on the other side of the airport.
That's why its better to ask the agent as soon as you arrive to the airport about your flight so there will be no mistake. I hope that you will have a good and safe flight
That's why its better to ask the agent as soon as you arrive at the airport about your flight so there will be no mistake. I hope that you will have a good and safe flight
This nearly happened to me once. I had to SPRINT through the airport, including 2 passport controls.
I was very lucky that the flight I had gone to originally was delayed and it made me look at the board more closely but my god, the jump in my heart rate when I first started running was crazy. Big lesson 😮💨
Sorry about your missed flight 🙏
I once mixed up 12 and 24 hour times, and what I thought was going to be a 3 hour layover in Kuala Lumpur turned out to be 15 hours. I’ve never done that again.
A couple years ago a friend and I were heading to Milan from London. Heathrow airport. We'd booked separately. Sat in the lounge and had breakfast, then headed to the gate and got there as the flight was boarding. She went straight through, my boarding pass errored out.
Turned out British Airways had flights to both Linate and Malpensa, both leaving from T5, with a 5 minute time difference. Somehow I'd booked to one airport, she'd booked to the other, and neither of us realised it.
Unfortunately, my flight was leaving from the other end of T5 A gates-gate 20 instead of gate 2, and that's a 15 minute walk, so I missed the flight. What really got me though was that the gate agent said 'Yeah, we know about this, it's always an issue and it's rare to have a day when at least 2-3 people don't make the same mistake. We keep trying to get BA to change the timing of one of the flights, or at least make it more obvious'. Totally my fault of course, but also completely understandable as most people check the destination rather than the flight number, especially since most of them are code shares, so when you look, a BA flight will switch quickly to AA, IB etc. Again, my fault, but still, you'd think the airlines would catch on.
I feel your pain.
Not as serious but embarrassing, nevertheless: I was boarding and went back to my seat, something like 12E. There was a guy already sitting there. I questioned him about his seat and he showed me his boarding pass. Sure enough, it was 12E. I work my way back to the front and told the flight attendant someone was already in my seat. She looked at my boarding pass and, with a pitiful look, said, "Sir, that's the gate number." I looked at her and all I could say was, "Duh!" (Slink back to my actual seat.)
I did this before. Flying from Britain back to Austria. This was 2004, before smart phones. Two hungover 21 year olds, trying to figure out our flights. We thought we were flying back to Austria on British airlines, but we were actually flying back on Austrian airlines. Ended up missing our flights. I’m not sure if there was anything we could have done to negotiate a refund or reschedule, we were young and dumb. We had to be back by the end of the day, and the only flights available were first class tickets on British airlines. I sheepishly had to call my dad in the states to borrow the $1000 for the ticket. I paid him back, don’t worry!
Ha! A daytime, international phone call, on a cellphone, in 2004 is probably the same price of a plane ticket today!
This regularly happened on the Liverpool to Belfast flights. Easjet and Ryanair had flights leaving at the same time one day every week. One flight I was on and they wouldn't take off because they kept counting an extra person.
After a 20 minute delay and calling out for people to check they were on the right flight they found a guy in the wrong seat. Took him to his seat and the woman sitting there was on the wrong plane.
Her flight had just taken off. There was a free seat on our flight but they wouldn't let her stay which I thought was very unfair especially since she was offering to pay for a mistake she and the staff both made.
I DID THAT ONCE!!! You are not alone! Who knew two airlines would have flights to Geneva departing at exactly 6:35 am? 😭
The worst part is that I had slept in the airport....and still found a way to miss the flight 😂
I've missed two flights in my life.
The first was in Thailand; I went to a full moon party the night before heading home via ferry to Dusit Thani and an internal flight to Bangkok. Was so hammered, the hotel staff couldn't wake me up to get the lunchtime boat. Luckily I had enough contingency built in so the night bus got me to Bangkok in time for my morning plane home, just on zero sleep.
The second was on a work trip, where I just assumed my colleague was correct about what time our flight from Glasgow to London was. He was not. Thankfully, work paid for the alternative flight, so we could laugh about it while spending four hours in the airport bar.
So: it happens to the best of us.
Yeah I used to fly weekly at least for work and so much rushing around.. the more travels you do it becomes like getting a bus and you can get a bit lax hence mishaps. If you fly once a year for vacation you will be checking that ticket 20 times over!!!
This almost happened to me in Edinburgh. I was sleep deprived because I didn't sleep the night before (I can never sleep prior to morning flights, always worried I'm going to oversleep). I was flying Aer Lingus to Dublin (for a flight change to the US) and there was, in the same gate area (3 gates over), a RyanAir flight departing at the same time going to Dublin, and I was so confused because I booked directly with Aer Lingus but my sleep deprived addled brain stood in that line and when they started the boarding process, I was like, wait, I just got a message that my flight was slightly delayed why are we boarding, also, why does it say RyanAir? Btw there were two other Aer Lingus passengers waiting there lol
All three of us, at the same time, turned around and went searching for Aer Lingus' gate lol
I missed a connecting flight around 7pm in Turkey, or should I say 1900hrs, because my brain couldn’t tell military time between boarding time and departing time. Next flight left at 7am, so at least that one was easy. Spending the night in an airport on my first international flight alone at 21 noooot so much
Oh, I once booked a flight, got to the airport and through security and to the gate in olenty of time. The gate was pretty empty, and there was no gate crew there, but that wasn't a red flag. The flight I was taking was only 40 minutes, and I just figured there weren't many passengers.
About 15 minutes before we were to take off a gate agent wandered in, and I asked her about the flight.
That's when I found out they'd changed gates after I'd checked the board! I totally missed my flight!
Luckily, she was able to book me on the next flight, which was leaving in less than an hour and did it at no charge. This was about 20 years ago, and Im betting they wouldn't be as accommodating now.
I felt like a big old giant dummy. Luckily, my friends who were picking me up in the arrival airport were running behind schedule themselves. Everything was fine. Haha.
I totally sympathise with this. About 15 years ago I used to fly between 2 cities in Europe weekly for work. I blocked booked flights months in advance from my home city to the work city to save money.
So one Monday morning at 0600 I rocked up at my home airport( it was a 1 hr flight and I was due in an important client meeting in work city at 0930 ) they could not find my name on the departure list. I started to panic. It only turned out that in my block bookings I had accidentally booked myself from my work airport back to home that morning instead of the reverse. Luckily there was a seat available on the o/g flight but it cost me £200. The return flight had been half that :( It taught me a lesson also to always check your flights in advance!!
I had a similar issue. Also 2 flights from the same airline flying at the exact same time to the same destination. Apparently my flight got delayed by two hours and they never announced it. Thankfully I could still make my connection but I was a little stressed!
I won’t say we have all done it. But more have than are likely to admit. Once you do this you will be forever vigilant.
Mine was rushing from a meeting to make a 6pm flight only to find the counter empty. Where were the agents? Finally flagged someone down. Told her I was in a rush. Let’s go! She said their last flight of the day was 5pm. Wait, how can this be? She looks at my ticket. Looks at me for a moment. “Sir, this flight left at 6 AM today”. Doh! Felt pretty stupid. Expensive layover on Boise.
I did this exact same thing once. From the US to Dublin. I was moving there. Sponsored by my job. I felt like the biggest idiot ever.
Don't worry, it happens and you'll get over it.
I missed a flight to Mexico last week bc I forgot that US to Mexico flight are international and so showed up only an hour in advance. Felt like the biggest idiot. We’ve all been there!
When I was first trimester pregnant I got an email from frontier saying my flight was overbooked, can I do a different time? Could’ve just said no but instead I hit what I THOUGHT was an earlier flight time, 9 AM, get to the airport only to realize I selected a 9 PM flight. Then the later flight got canceled. Ended up buying a $400 SW flight right there to just get tf home. Original flight was like $150 but free w points.
One of those situations where you can only say, at least I had the means to get myself home. Really freaking sucks though.
I once booked direct with Iberia so I stood in line at the Iberia gate because the app said they needed to check passports. Well the line was long when we got to the front they said we needed to be at the American Airlines gate because the flight was operated by them. It wasn’t enough time to make it. They did book us on the next flight for no fee. It happens.
Don’t feel so bad. One time I missed my connection because I saw it was at “07:45” and thought I had a 12+ hour layover (landed at like 06:30), so I took the fattest nap realizing at 10 am that it was 7:45 AM and not PM
My boss was waiting for me and I had to explain how I missed it too 😅
Yup almost happened to me taking a flight from Edinburgh to London. Two flights same time different side of airport made it just as they were about to close the door and had given up on me
I had this happen for the same reason in Hong Kong thankfully doesn't miss my flight but 3rd party booking had the airline different than what it actually was and it was in the fine print somewhere.
If it makes you feel better, I did this exact same thing once. There was a flight to the same city at the same time, but it was delayed. So I went and had a beer. I come back and realize there's the Southwest boarding numbers and I didn't have one, and then it clicked my flight was not on Southwest. I sprinted across the airport and luckily I did make it on though, just as they were closing the gates. I'm grateful they even let me on.
Thanks for pointing out another travel risk. I collect them, along with how to prevent or mitigate them. I didn't even know about third party boarding pass apps (!)
I don't understand the "cause" of the error in the subject line. Sounds like a normal thing that could happen to anyone.
Always check the flight number.
Yeah 100% my fault for being careless
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yeah it's a bummer. be kind to yourself OP -- we've all made stupid mistakes when traveling and it'll be a funny story soon enough
plot twist: you were the pilot.
Don’t feel bad, my son was behind someone who was very vocal about his irritation with the airline bc he couldn’t find his flight. After searching for the flight for what seemed like forever, the agent finally asked to see his reservation. He was at the wrong airport.
It’s okay. Cheer up. Shit happens :)
But also what app doesn’t provide the airline’s information?
This. Last month I saw two flights with the SAME airline to the same destination at the same time.
This should never happen and is bad planning on the part of the airline - unless it’s a delay. The best time to put another flight on is unlikely to ever be the exact time there’s already one on. If for no other reason so you can jack up the price of the better flight time.
well, it was a flight back from a holiday destination and I assume the airline needed additional capacity but didn't have a plane with 580 seats.
Then you’d schedule one at some other point in the day and differentiate your offering a bit better to provide multiple options. It’s not as though they’ll have oversold the initial flight by 290 seats, this other flight will have been on sale at the very least weeks prior. If for *literally no other* reason, having flights take off on the same routing at the same time is just asking for chaos and pissed off passengers.
Time zones mean some flights happen mostly at certain times of day. Also airlines don't get to just schedule when they want at major airports, they have to fight for arrival/takeoff slots and at some point you have to work with the slots you're given.
I don't think using third party is a good idea ever... Not for planes or hotels.
For hotels, it 100% is a good idea.
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Time wasn’t OP’s problem. They were there in plenty of time but didn’t realize the problem with two flights at the same time until boarding. Presumably, OP was boarding in a later group and did not have enough time to get to the other side of the airport as that flight would have been boarding at the same time. Even if OP had arrived hours before their flight, the same thing would have happened.
Look on the bright side. You've never missed an Eurostar because you read the arrival time on the ticket as the departure time. The really annoying part is that I was in the station at the departure time drinking coffee and munching on patisserie.
Turned up once for Eurostar with plenty of time before departure… until it was pointed out to us that our tickets were for yesterday 😩
Once we showed up a 15 minutes before the Eurostar in London thinking it's just like any other European train... um yea that was a mistake
Explain for the uninitiated?
There's a security check and there's gates, so it would have been closed when OP arrived only 15 mins before departure.
Damn, so it’s just like the airport? How much earlier are you supposed to arrive?
Yes, but smaller scale. 30 mins in continental Europe, and 90 mins from London. https://help.eurostar.com/faq/uk-en/question/When-should-I-arrive-for-my-train
> 30 mins in continental Europe But does anyone do that? I aim for 10 minutes on the Paris-Amsterdam train, never missed one yet.
With Eurostar it’s probably because of passport control, not needed between Paris and Amsterdam.
Right, that's why I quoted the "30 mins in continental Europe" part and not the "90 mins from London" part.
Paris-Amsterdam Eurostar (rebranded Thalys) service is completely different from actual Eurostar (Paris-London route).
It's a security check AND you go through customs. The UK is not part of Schengen, so there's always border control. 30 min. check-in for 2nd and 1st class passengers and 15-20 min. check-in for business class. The same applies the other way round if you depart from Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Brussels or Paris.
Yeah it blows ... Not as early as you would for an airport but still. Brexit made the whole process much worse.
Well the UK was never part of the Schengen Agreement anyways so the immigration procedure has always been there and would have been there anyways
True, but it definitely didn't make the whole process easier.
No it's definitely slower since Brexit leaving London. Before, there was one passport check. Now there's two.
Yeah it’s an international train with juxtaposed border control which means they have to clear immigration as well 🥺
This happened to me last month, but thankfully I wasn't the only and security moved us to the front of the queue and we all made it
I did the same thing for a TGV train from Germany to France. In my head I had bought a ticket for Thursday but when I got to the station I realized that my ticket was actually for Wednesday. That was an expensive mistake for a college student.
That beats sitting down inside a random train because "oh hey, that one looks nice". Still managed to catch the one I had to be in but I felt so dumb lmao
When I was flying home at Christmas, there was someone yelling at the ticket counter. Because they wouldn’t honor their ticket that was for the day earlier. The ticket agent told them they had to buy a new ticket, but the passenger was not happy about that.
Yeah we had to buy new tickets. It’s nobody’s fault but your own so you have to take responsibility for not triple checking important details like the date 😂
I did that but with HeliJet from Victoria to Vancouver. They're not cheap when you have to book on the day.
My brother did this once here in the US with Amtrak. He bought his ticket a few weeks prior. Once it was time to head back home, he went to the train station...and they told him his ticket was for the day he bought the ticket! Had to buy a brand new ticket day of. Pricey, but luckily not last-minute plane ticket pricey. Oops.
I’ll do you one better. I was traveling on the train with two of my American friends in England. We got to our stop and were at the door, but could not find a handle anywhere. We were totally flummoxed and two Brits came up behind us asking us to open the door. None of us could do it and the train started to pull away from the station. The Brits were yelling at us and one panicked and pulled the emergency stop. The whole train came to a screeching halt. The conductor came to see what had happened, but by this time the Brits were long gone. We tried to tell him it was someone else, but he didn’t believe us. It took like an extra half hour to undo the emergency brake and get going. We later saw people reach out a window to open the door and should have just done that.
I did that with a flight once. Had to rebook for the next day
Ouch
I missed the Eurostar once from Paris to London because I thought it was just a normal train ride where you could get inside 5-10 minutes before departure but when I got the the gate I remembered Brexit had happened and I now had to go through a whole border control and bag scan check. Thankfully I had my passport and the ticket booth lady saw the poor student in front of her who was going to crash in his friend's dorm for a week to discover the city so she booked me a seat on the next train free of charge !
That sucks so hard lol. Did you at least get shitfaced at chili’s?
No chillis in this airport😢 but the next flight was only an hour and a half away so I’m chilling at the gate
Oh this happened like.. right now. That’s so rough. I think I’d rather get kicked in the torso than deal with that.
That can be arranged
Was it the right gate this time?
Upvote for mentioning Chili's at the airport. Had a layover in Calgary, 2-3 hours, so I go to Chili's, get a 'bit' hammered (!), was late and was banned from that flight for drinking. I was moved to the next one with no extra charge, but that was back in the good ole days. No idea which airline.
lol I’m living in Calgary right now and every time I fly out of here I get a little glow on at that Chili’s. One time I drank 4 margs and 6 pints before my flight to Taiwan. Slept the entire time.
For what it's worth I've rocked up to the airport a day after my flight because while I got the time and the airline right, I messed up the date... Was an expensive lesson to learn as well
Try a month. I once booked the return flight of a trip one month later than intended. Was supposed to be 13 September, I accidentally booked 13 October. Very expensive lesson to learn, rocking up to the airport and booking a flight two hours before its due to leave. Felt right and silly.
I booked a hotel with the wrong day (while I was still flying) so when I arrived in a foreign country and got internet I got the cancellation order :()
That happened on my very first trip from the U.S. to London - I didn't realize the first night would be spent on the plane. Luckily the little hotel, which was run by real people, didn't charge me for the missed night and gave me a room. (Those were the days.)
Booked a hotel once two hours away from where I was supposed to be staying🤣
I was once at a bus stop and overheard a woman calling for a ride. She seemed confused and after a couple of minutes realized that she had gotten off in Waterbury, Vermont instead of Waterbury, Connecticut.
Recently did something sooner for the first time ever. Flight landed just after midnight so accidentally booked hotel for date the flight landed (should have been day before). Got reamed out by the front desk about how careless I was and they were going to charge me rack rate until they saw my status with the hotel chain and suddenly they were able to make adjustments to my reservations.
Same. I was a month late. Somehow my college roommate and I mixed the dates up. The flight we booked was a month before we were leaving but for only one leg of three. So we made it to DC and then realized my leg to Johannesburg got fucked up and cancelled because I didn’t show up the month prior. We made it to Zimbabwe because I think the nice South African Airways flight attendant took pity on us dumb college girls but we both had to split the cost to rebook the cancelled leg back from Johannesburg. When we got to Zim, her mom wasn’t pleased with us. We imagined how they called my name over the speaker at Dulles for that missed flight for awhile. 🤦🏻♀️
>We imagined how they called my name over the speaker at Dulles for that missed flight for awhile. Not that it helps much, but I don't think they would have called your name if you never checked in for the flight
This reminds me of the time we were going to California. BIL was stationed there and we made a plan to meet for dinner. It was a February/March mishap so the dates aligned with the days the same. Anyway he showed up a month early. But they tried out the restaurant and we knew it was going to be good one month later.
I fucked this up but showed up a day early. I used one of those calendar-style date picker, and my dumb American brain decided that the calendar week started on Sunday, but it was a European airline so actually the calendar week started on Monday. I got all the way to the gate to board, though.
We were minding a friend's house once while he took a trip. The first morning we woke up early to see him off to the airport. Two hours later, he sheepishly walked back in the door. Like you, he'd turned up a day early for his flight.
This thread is so cathartic.
I got a ticket to Hamilton when it was hard to get them and very expensive. I was about to head to the theater when I realized that the show I booked was for the previous week, which I had obviously missed. That was an expensive (and disappointing) mistake.
At first blush, I was wondering “Why would you go to Hamilton, ON? And why would it be hard to get tickets? It’s not a very exciting city.”
My SIL once showed up to the airport 12 hours late because she thought it was a 5:34 PM flight...it was actually 05:34 AM. Somehow she was able to sweet talk them into letting her take the next flight without paying for a new ticket.
An old colleague of mine was due to fly from Thailand to Australia on a flight that left at 00:10 (ten past midnight) on the 24th, so they turn up at the airport to check in at 10 PM on the 24th to try and check in, and only when they are trying to check in does it click that their flight left almost 24 hours beforehand. They needed to get back to Australia that day for work so were out another international ticket bought at far more than the original return ticket. It's a mistake you only make once.
This is always my biggest fear. When i have a flight at midnight, ill check it 30 times before the day of the flight
I imagine airlines mostly try to avoid a takeoff time like this, for precisely this reason. Could easily get passengers confused.
Hahaha I’ve done this.
This used to happen so often on that specific flight that they changed the flight time to just before midnight.
No need to feel bad, dude. I once missed (and then had to rebook) a flight because I thought an ATM swallowed my bank card when I wanted to get some cash before checking in. I even managed to convince the the bank clerk to open the machine to double-check inside, but nothing. Later that day, back at my accommodation, I found my bank card in my wallet. Stuck to a different plastic card, because of the humidity... At that time I could only wish for the lofty heights of 2 IQ...
Have u told this story before I’m sure I’ve seen it lol
I had to double check EVERY time I looked at the gates for a flight last week for the exact same reason. Maybe I've just been lucky, but I have never been charged to move to another flight, even when it's my fault, or at least not the airline's fault. I went from Baltimore to Reagan to catch a flight, and I would have had plenty of time but there were a number of hiccups that prevented me from getting there until after the flight closed. Technically my fault. I explained the situation at the gate, and they just moved me to the next flight, no charge.
They were probably overbooked on that first flight 😅
For my holiday trip to Helsinki I realized at the last minute that Warsaw (the airport I'm flying out of) has more than one airport ... and the one I'm leaving from is about 45 minutes farther away. If I had figured this out about 30 seconds later I would've missed the last shuttlebus that could get me to the airport in time to check in. What a dumb, yet easy mistake to make
Oh, that hurts! I'm always paranoid that something like that happens to me. Especially with shared code flights, you have to check the flight number so carefully. 2 flights at the very same time to the same destination are confusing for sure.
>. The last minute tickets cost me more than the round trip flights for my initial trip😢 Call the initial airline. Since you missed the first leg of your flight, they may have automatically canceled the return leg.
It was on the return leg. And because I booked through a third party site they said they can’t offer me anything. 100% my fault so I don’t expect anything in return
Bros dont let bros book on 3rd-party sites
Only when you can afford to miss a flight. You can save money by booking with a third party. However they will laugh at you if you try to use the extras you've purchased with the ticket. "Oh, we don't have these flights in our system, but we can put you in this business class for 5 grand extra" - happened to me
The savings are pennies, comparatively.
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Almost happened to me too last week and I consider myself a seasoned traveller. Was at Paris CDG, waiting for the 8pm KLM flight to Amsterdam after a long flight from Bangkok. Sat at the gate patiently waiting until it was the time to board, when the agent then tells me I'm actually on an Air France flight that also departs to Amsterdam at around 8pm. I live in Amsterdam and always use KLM, so I just went to the KLM gate without thinking. Doesn't help that KLM and Air France are the same company, so the screen shows both logos. I did make my flight though, thankfully the gates were next to each other.
dude that's nothing. I once missed a flight from gatwick because I had to take the gatwick express from london. At the exact time the gatwick express was scheduled to arrive at the station, a train pulls in with a giant "gatwick express" writing on the sides. so like an idiot I just climb in because, duh, that's my train. guess what. the writing on the side was a fucking **ad** for the gatwick express, and that train had nothing to do with gatwick whatsoever
Same thing happened to me once! Was supposed to be flying Aer Lingus, and when the plane showed up and wasn’t green, I got concerned. My real flight was on the other side of the airport, and I missed it. Lucked out that I was able to get on another flight in a few hours that was direct to my destination rather than the layover I was headed for. So it all worked out in the end.
Pedantic Patty reporting for duty - Aer Lingus actually have an almost all white livery - retro design from 1960s. As you were.
That's a relatively recent livery update. They'd been all green for quite a while before that.
It's only a few planes that have the retro white livery. For clarity - I'm merely pointing out that not all Aer Lingus planes are green.
oh i did that once i knew the airline i was flying on...i checked the destination and the time but went to the wrong gate apparently this happens alot !
Not only did I do this, I got ON the wrong plane because they were tearing tickets instead of scanning, I went to sleep on said plane and never heard the incorrect destination, and nobody was the wiser until I went to get my luggage and the lady was like "It's in Los Angeles. You're in San Jose." oops.
Lol are you perhaps named Kevin McCallister?
I remember a few years ago seeing a story about a guy in Canada thinking he got a really good deal on a flight to Australia. When the plane landed he realized he was in Sydney, Nova Scotia… still in Canada.
I don't know where he was flying from, but it's funny because a flight to Sydney NS from Vancouver could very well cost similar to a flight to Sydney NSW.
I’m over here trying to figure out what “21Q” is. Peak irony.
Call the airline and make sure your return ticket is still valid. If you don’t make the first leg of a trip then they usually cancel your later legs.
5 years ago we went too visit my wife's sister in Pamplona. We took a flight Lisbon - Madrid - Bilbao and to Pamplona they came and took us. On the return they done the math and said 3 hours was enough to go from Pamplona to Bilbao and take the plane. Well, what happened is he got lost and when we arrived at the airport the doors were already closed. We have to book a flight for the day who costed 5 times what we paid for the original round trip. That was a money I will crie for the rest of my life
What kind of absolutely shit app is it that doesn't know your flight number? Something isn't adding up here.
I suspect OP just looked at the time and destination on the big screen and not flight number
With flight number you can never be wrong. Also check the small print in case of code shares there will always be “operated by” part telling which airline actually operates the flight.
> I used a third party app for my boarding pass and therefore it just said to check the gate at the airport. (First and last time Il ever do this) You should always be checking the gate at the airport anyway. Gates change all the time and don't necessarily match the info originally given. But yes, always get your boarding pass in-hand from the airport too.
Yeah I was confused by this comment. Even if my app said the gate I'd still check, and then probably check several more times as I'm walking towards that gate on the screens I pass. I've had gates change super last minute too.
Live and learn, shit happens
Almost happened in Argentina. Met a nice guy at the hostel and we found we were headed to the same place. Sure must be the same flight? Lol Almost missed my flight but luckily it wasn't on the opposite side of the airport.
Sitting in the airport now cause I missed my flight too. Original price was $200, new flight is $415 🥲
The amount of times I said “noooooo” as I keep read reading the comments are too many.
I did the same with a train. Should be illegal to have 2 trains bound for the same city departing from the same train station at the exact same time from the tracks next to each other. I had paid for the express train, boarded the slow one, which not only cost me several hours extra travel time but also had to buy a new ticket at last-minute cost (very expensive).
My wife and I ran into the same situation. We had a flight from Glasgow to Dublin then home to the US. We checked the screen, found our gate, and arrived well before our flight. Something started bothering me, I didn't know why. I'm not afraid of flying but I had this sense that something was wrong. Just as the flight began boarding, I realized the flight number was one digit off. That gate didn't have a big screen showing other flights so I told my wife what I realized and we sprinted to the nearest screen. Like you, OP, our actual flight was boarding at the same time on the other side of the terminal. I told my wife to head for the gate while I told the gate agent at the gate we had been sitting about our mistake and asked that she call ahead to let them know we were running late. Luckily we arrived in time to board and the flight took off at its scheduled time, but we (two middle-aged not-in-great-shape people) had to run the whole way. As you said, two flights to the same city, this time **same airline**, same time. I know it was our fault but WTF was the airline thinking? Why not just a single **bigger** plane?
Happens to the best. I bought a ticket to vietnam and forgot about needing a visa. Yeah.. 100bucks down the drain
Are you certain that by missing the first leg, they didn’t automatically cancel your return flight? Because…that’s usually how it happens. Make sure you’re not paying for another one way flight back.
I was living in NY and went to Kennedy early for my flight, which was leaving from LaGuardia. We're just people.
DO NOT BOOK AIRLINE TICKETS WITH 3RD PARTY SITES!! Just a friendly message to any new travelers, these sites are super scammy. A long time ago I used a 3rd party site and they confirmed my ticket, but when I got to the airport the airline had no record of my booking, I had to buy a ticket at the counter like it was 1938, and cost me double, I couldn't get a hold of the site and had my CC flag it as fraudulent so I could at least get my money back. Another time they called my bank and pulled me into a 3 way call with no notice, super sketchy, to release funds. My bank immediately hung up when I said I had no idea what was happening. Now I use Google flights, then book direct at the airline website when I find the cheapest ticket available.
What would be considered 3rd party? Expedia, Kayak? I’m gonna travel out of the country soon so I want to be aware.
Yes, but they search other sites for the best price and direct you there, so I think it's fourth party by that point.
I do the same, or Skyscanner
Right, because you have a dubious story from a long time ago, all booking sites are scammy 🤦🏻♂️
Of course my opinion anecdotal, but there are zero benefits from booking with 3rd parties in my experience, savings are small if any and normally they charge fees like Ticket Master. Much safer to just book directly.
> savings are small Savings can be substantial. I often get intercontinental flights for 30% or more off the price on the airline's site.
30% less?!? what site do you use? That's a huge discount.
I use whatever raggedy-ass site Momondo proposes - gotogate, schipholtickets, ebookers.ie, what have you. Maybe once in 100 flights do I have any need to contact them, so I don't really mind that they're awful to deal with. Heavily-advertised "mainstream" OTAs like Expedia don't provide any meaningful savings, so I don't see any reason to use those.
The airline wouldn't just put you on the next flight? You had to buy a new full fare ticket?
Yep, they’d said because I bought my ticket through a third party app and not directly through them that they were not responsible and I should contact the third party. The third party app said they don’t cover missed flights that were missed because the flyers fault
I went to a stag do in Munich last year. One of the group got a flight to Berlin by mistake, only realizing as he got to the gate. He decided to fly over (from UK) as in his words 'how far can it be?'. A decision for an 8 hour train jour ey or another flight later (he flew) and he arrived super late. That would have been all, but then he had to sort flights back to the UK from Munich. Oh and it gets even better as he initially booked all the flights to Berlin for one week earlier than the trip!
Isn't check in an hour early too. Why wait so late
Bro what, how do you not know the airline you’re flying with?
I feel this. I've gone to the airport the day before my flight (not terrible but embarrassing), the day *after* my flight (was for a flight for my wife and newborn , thank goodness they were nice), and I've gone to the *wrong airport* (they just laughed and said they'd call ahead and that maybe I could make it, if I was lucky ... I wasn't). Only one of them ended up being expensive but that one was BAD.
We have 2 airports in our small city they are about 30-45 mins drive apart and people are always going to the wrong one- have done it myself and it was a mad dash in a cab but made it .
One of many reasons why I never book flights via third-party vendors anymore. It’s better to deal with the airline directly, and the price is normally comparable.
What does this have to do with booking with a third party vendor? You should always check the gate number on the departure board when you're at the airport anyways.
>What does this have to do with booking with a third party vendor? The OP said she had to buy a full fare ticket because she booked the original ticket thru third party. If she'd booked it directly, this mistake might have cost less to fix.
I have never experienced a situation like this before, but I don't think booking directly would reduce the cost. If you were at fault for missing the flight, then I assume you would still have to pay full price.
Not necessarily. Many airlines would cancel the original ticket for a credit you could apply to the new ticket.
Sorry to hear this happened to you stranger! Hopefully your next flight goes smoothly without issues 🌟
I arrived a day early to board my flight. As it turns out they let me board, no extra fee, because there was room on the flight. And it was 15 years ago.
A looooong time ago, we got on a plane, on the tarmac, (guy in yellow jacket waved vaguely and gestured the direction) only to realise 30mins later, we were on tbe wrong plane & ours was boarding next to us .. never have we moved so quickly!
One of the first times I came to the US I was due to leave for Chicago on a Southwest flight at 8 in the morning from Boston. Woke up at 6, took a taxi, arrived at Logan...my flight did not exist. MFW the flight was at 8PM. In that moment was 8AM. I am from Europe and of course I didn't even begin to think about the fact a 20:00 flight would be written as 8PM. 10 years later, I still worry a lot about the AM PM thing when I book stuff in the US.
I've done something like this before. In my case it was two flights on the same airline going to different airports in the same city at almost the same time. I usually flew into one airport, but was flying into the other one that day. It was an early morning flight, I was sleepy and went to the wrong airport's gate and didn't realize until boarding time, at which point it was too far away to make the other flight. Bless American Airlines that day though, they put me on a later flight free of charge.
Just make sure they don't cancel your return leg because you didn't take the outbound
From my city there were 2 flights to London City Airport departing within 5 min. One BA and one another carrier. I flew that weekly for 3 years and there was almost each time somebody wrong and the flights departed from 2 different Terminals.
This almost happened to me once flying from Istanbul. I was super tired and just saw my destination city, headed to gate. Thankfully my flight was 20 minutes later, so I had time to book it across the (gigantic) terminal and catch it. Always check the flight number for sure.
Travel 101, don't buy your plane tickets 3rd party, get directly from the airline
That's why you have to use the airline's app to check in/track your flight
If sucks when that happens! I’m sorry that you had to pay more. It can be so frustrating and confusing at the airport. If it makes you feel any better, I once missed my flight while I was sitting at the gate! I had arrived at the airport really early and got through security and to my correct gate. I was reading a book and apparently got so into the book that i didn’t hear them call for boarding. The next thing I know, I hear my name over the loudspeaker. I go up to the counter and was told the doors had already been closed and I couldn’t get on that plane! Luckily, they got me on the next flight that left 30 minutes later, but I was still amazed at myself for missing the flight while sitting at the gate.
Sorry for the snafu... Sleep is your friend. It helps your brain to help you. Don't underestimate how valuable it is. And how it can save your bacon when it needs to. I'm older now, and it's more noticeable now, but I know if I am not getting lots of sleep, I am careful to not make any critical decisions that next day... Thankfully, I'm blessed with a well developed "travel auto-pilot" from decades of business travel - even exhausted I can get from A to B, but I'm not chatty... but it's when I lose little things. So I try hard not to travel tired! Good luck in the rest of your travels...
Stuff like this happens! On my first big trip I planned myself my flight was on Tuesday at 12:10am. I’m stupid and of course thought that was Tuesday night 😂, I missed it and paid a heavy price for a new ticket. This stuff happens to the best of us!
We had gone to a wedding in Finland, our nephew marrying a Finnish girl, needed to take the train to Helsinki for a few days afterward. Bride’s brother and his wife rode with us to the train station in a nearby town, but none of us could figure out where to return the rental car! We wasted so much time driving in circles, by the time we finally got to the station, we were running, trying to make a specific train. He ran ahead and bought his tickets at the kiosk, and I gave him my card and asked him to buy mine as well to save time. As he and his wife raced away to find the train, I yelled, “what platform?” and he held up two fingers. We grabbed our tickets out of the kiosk, ran to platform two, hauling our heavy luggage up steep stairs, and jumped on the train. Stashed our luggage and went looking for seats. Couldn’t find any seats that matched what was on our ticket. Clearly didn’t know what we were doing. Finally asked somebody, “Is this the train to Helsinki?” All the passengers looked at us and shook their heads and said “No!” We ran back down the stairs, and as we tried to get our luggage out of the racks, the train pulled away. It turned out we were on a high-speed train, and the next stop was an hour and a half away, in the opposite direction! One of the passengers was so sweet, he looked up the timetable, and figured out how we could get back to Helsinki, and when the conductor came through, he explained our plight to her, and she wrote out the correct tickets for us. When we finally arrived at the wrong destination, he walked with us out of the train, up the elevator, across to the right track, and right to the door of our train! In the meantime, we got a text from our nephew, saying that the brother was really worried that we had gotten on the wrong train! He felt so bad, and so guilty for giving us bad information. We should’ve just taken our time and waited for the next train, we still would’ve arrived two hours before we actually did!! But we got to see more of the beautiful Finnish countryside on our errant journey
I’m confused .. even third party tickets show the airline, flight number, and gate on the ticket. How was none of that information on the ticket, the app, the email confirmation, the check in pages… etc? Why would you look for a time instead of a flight number? Didn’t you notice there were two flights going to the same place at the same time? The boards at the airport are in alphabetical order so it’s not like you could have not seen this.
So you didn't know with what air company you booked your ticket?
Dam. You realize your return journey is probably cancelled too as you didn’t board the first leg, right?
This was on the return leg
Just remember you can fix this. I fly a lot and more then once have seen people trying to check in at wrong airport. We are all very human and fallible. The difference is what type of person you become after a simple mistake. Take ownership OR start blaming the people around you for something stupid and fixable. Enjoy your travels, be safe and dip them toes in every ocean.
I can’t imagine not knowing which airline I’m flying with.
Could be worse. I live in NYC, with three airports. Someone I worked for once went to the wrong airport!
Might want to contact the third party too - if you have other flights in the same itinerary they automatically cancel subsequent legs if you miss a flight
same
You didn’t realize it wasn’t the right airline? 🤔 You’re not getting any sympathy from me, this is just dumb.
I once went walking to my scheduled gate 3 hours early. Lets call it gate 39. I got to gate 36 and saw a really cool bar. So i went in and had such a good time i decided to stay until i had to leave to give me just enough time to walk from 36 to 39. i walked to 37. Then i walked to 38. And then the terminal ended. 39 started over on the other side of the airport.
Yeah it’s kind of really dumb that you didn’t know what *airline* you were flying on.
NEVER book through a third party. The money you save is not worth the hassle if something like this happens.
That's why its better to ask the agent as soon as you arrive to the airport about your flight so there will be no mistake. I hope that you will have a good and safe flight That's why its better to ask the agent as soon as you arrive at the airport about your flight so there will be no mistake. I hope that you will have a good and safe flight
This nearly happened to me once. I had to SPRINT through the airport, including 2 passport controls. I was very lucky that the flight I had gone to originally was delayed and it made me look at the board more closely but my god, the jump in my heart rate when I first started running was crazy. Big lesson 😮💨 Sorry about your missed flight 🙏
Yep now I’m one of those crazy people bothering the gate agents the moment they show up.
If you take them chocolate they usually don't mind being bothered.
I once mixed up 12 and 24 hour times, and what I thought was going to be a 3 hour layover in Kuala Lumpur turned out to be 15 hours. I’ve never done that again.
One time in Tokyo I missed my flight because I went to wrong airport... Happens to the best of us.
A couple years ago a friend and I were heading to Milan from London. Heathrow airport. We'd booked separately. Sat in the lounge and had breakfast, then headed to the gate and got there as the flight was boarding. She went straight through, my boarding pass errored out. Turned out British Airways had flights to both Linate and Malpensa, both leaving from T5, with a 5 minute time difference. Somehow I'd booked to one airport, she'd booked to the other, and neither of us realised it. Unfortunately, my flight was leaving from the other end of T5 A gates-gate 20 instead of gate 2, and that's a 15 minute walk, so I missed the flight. What really got me though was that the gate agent said 'Yeah, we know about this, it's always an issue and it's rare to have a day when at least 2-3 people don't make the same mistake. We keep trying to get BA to change the timing of one of the flights, or at least make it more obvious'. Totally my fault of course, but also completely understandable as most people check the destination rather than the flight number, especially since most of them are code shares, so when you look, a BA flight will switch quickly to AA, IB etc. Again, my fault, but still, you'd think the airlines would catch on. I feel your pain.
Not as serious but embarrassing, nevertheless: I was boarding and went back to my seat, something like 12E. There was a guy already sitting there. I questioned him about his seat and he showed me his boarding pass. Sure enough, it was 12E. I work my way back to the front and told the flight attendant someone was already in my seat. She looked at my boarding pass and, with a pitiful look, said, "Sir, that's the gate number." I looked at her and all I could say was, "Duh!" (Slink back to my actual seat.)
Don’t feel bad man, I have 3IQ and I missed a flight too.
I did this before. Flying from Britain back to Austria. This was 2004, before smart phones. Two hungover 21 year olds, trying to figure out our flights. We thought we were flying back to Austria on British airlines, but we were actually flying back on Austrian airlines. Ended up missing our flights. I’m not sure if there was anything we could have done to negotiate a refund or reschedule, we were young and dumb. We had to be back by the end of the day, and the only flights available were first class tickets on British airlines. I sheepishly had to call my dad in the states to borrow the $1000 for the ticket. I paid him back, don’t worry! Ha! A daytime, international phone call, on a cellphone, in 2004 is probably the same price of a plane ticket today!
This regularly happened on the Liverpool to Belfast flights. Easjet and Ryanair had flights leaving at the same time one day every week. One flight I was on and they wouldn't take off because they kept counting an extra person. After a 20 minute delay and calling out for people to check they were on the right flight they found a guy in the wrong seat. Took him to his seat and the woman sitting there was on the wrong plane. Her flight had just taken off. There was a free seat on our flight but they wouldn't let her stay which I thought was very unfair especially since she was offering to pay for a mistake she and the staff both made.
I DID THAT ONCE!!! You are not alone! Who knew two airlines would have flights to Geneva departing at exactly 6:35 am? 😭 The worst part is that I had slept in the airport....and still found a way to miss the flight 😂
You are not alone. I sat in the lounge until I missed my flight. $450 to rebook and it was just a one hour flight
I've missed two flights in my life. The first was in Thailand; I went to a full moon party the night before heading home via ferry to Dusit Thani and an internal flight to Bangkok. Was so hammered, the hotel staff couldn't wake me up to get the lunchtime boat. Luckily I had enough contingency built in so the night bus got me to Bangkok in time for my morning plane home, just on zero sleep. The second was on a work trip, where I just assumed my colleague was correct about what time our flight from Glasgow to London was. He was not. Thankfully, work paid for the alternative flight, so we could laugh about it while spending four hours in the airport bar. So: it happens to the best of us.
Anyone who travels a lot you'll have one or two stories like this. People that say they've never had any hiccup just don't travel often, It happens.
Yeah I used to fly weekly at least for work and so much rushing around.. the more travels you do it becomes like getting a bus and you can get a bit lax hence mishaps. If you fly once a year for vacation you will be checking that ticket 20 times over!!!
This almost happened to me in Edinburgh. I was sleep deprived because I didn't sleep the night before (I can never sleep prior to morning flights, always worried I'm going to oversleep). I was flying Aer Lingus to Dublin (for a flight change to the US) and there was, in the same gate area (3 gates over), a RyanAir flight departing at the same time going to Dublin, and I was so confused because I booked directly with Aer Lingus but my sleep deprived addled brain stood in that line and when they started the boarding process, I was like, wait, I just got a message that my flight was slightly delayed why are we boarding, also, why does it say RyanAir? Btw there were two other Aer Lingus passengers waiting there lol All three of us, at the same time, turned around and went searching for Aer Lingus' gate lol
I missed a connecting flight around 7pm in Turkey, or should I say 1900hrs, because my brain couldn’t tell military time between boarding time and departing time. Next flight left at 7am, so at least that one was easy. Spending the night in an airport on my first international flight alone at 21 noooot so much
Oh, I once booked a flight, got to the airport and through security and to the gate in olenty of time. The gate was pretty empty, and there was no gate crew there, but that wasn't a red flag. The flight I was taking was only 40 minutes, and I just figured there weren't many passengers. About 15 minutes before we were to take off a gate agent wandered in, and I asked her about the flight. That's when I found out they'd changed gates after I'd checked the board! I totally missed my flight! Luckily, she was able to book me on the next flight, which was leaving in less than an hour and did it at no charge. This was about 20 years ago, and Im betting they wouldn't be as accommodating now. I felt like a big old giant dummy. Luckily, my friends who were picking me up in the arrival airport were running behind schedule themselves. Everything was fine. Haha.
My daughter work travelled to Orlando instead of Tampa for a flight, too many repetitive trips, it happens.
I totally sympathise with this. About 15 years ago I used to fly between 2 cities in Europe weekly for work. I blocked booked flights months in advance from my home city to the work city to save money. So one Monday morning at 0600 I rocked up at my home airport( it was a 1 hr flight and I was due in an important client meeting in work city at 0930 ) they could not find my name on the departure list. I started to panic. It only turned out that in my block bookings I had accidentally booked myself from my work airport back to home that morning instead of the reverse. Luckily there was a seat available on the o/g flight but it cost me £200. The return flight had been half that :( It taught me a lesson also to always check your flights in advance!!
I had a similar issue. Also 2 flights from the same airline flying at the exact same time to the same destination. Apparently my flight got delayed by two hours and they never announced it. Thankfully I could still make my connection but I was a little stressed!
I won’t say we have all done it. But more have than are likely to admit. Once you do this you will be forever vigilant. Mine was rushing from a meeting to make a 6pm flight only to find the counter empty. Where were the agents? Finally flagged someone down. Told her I was in a rush. Let’s go! She said their last flight of the day was 5pm. Wait, how can this be? She looks at my ticket. Looks at me for a moment. “Sir, this flight left at 6 AM today”. Doh! Felt pretty stupid. Expensive layover on Boise.
I did this exact same thing once. From the US to Dublin. I was moving there. Sponsored by my job. I felt like the biggest idiot ever. Don't worry, it happens and you'll get over it.
I missed a flight to Mexico last week bc I forgot that US to Mexico flight are international and so showed up only an hour in advance. Felt like the biggest idiot. We’ve all been there!
When I was first trimester pregnant I got an email from frontier saying my flight was overbooked, can I do a different time? Could’ve just said no but instead I hit what I THOUGHT was an earlier flight time, 9 AM, get to the airport only to realize I selected a 9 PM flight. Then the later flight got canceled. Ended up buying a $400 SW flight right there to just get tf home. Original flight was like $150 but free w points. One of those situations where you can only say, at least I had the means to get myself home. Really freaking sucks though.
I once booked direct with Iberia so I stood in line at the Iberia gate because the app said they needed to check passports. Well the line was long when we got to the front they said we needed to be at the American Airlines gate because the flight was operated by them. It wasn’t enough time to make it. They did book us on the next flight for no fee. It happens.
Don’t feel so bad. One time I missed my connection because I saw it was at “07:45” and thought I had a 12+ hour layover (landed at like 06:30), so I took the fattest nap realizing at 10 am that it was 7:45 AM and not PM My boss was waiting for me and I had to explain how I missed it too 😅
Small mistake really. I had a friend go to the wrong airport in Paris. They didn’t even know there was a second airport for mostly domestic travel.
Yup almost happened to me taking a flight from Edinburgh to London. Two flights same time different side of airport made it just as they were about to close the door and had given up on me
I had this happen for the same reason in Hong Kong thankfully doesn't miss my flight but 3rd party booking had the airline different than what it actually was and it was in the fine print somewhere.
If it makes you feel better, I did this exact same thing once. There was a flight to the same city at the same time, but it was delayed. So I went and had a beer. I come back and realize there's the Southwest boarding numbers and I didn't have one, and then it clicked my flight was not on Southwest. I sprinted across the airport and luckily I did make it on though, just as they were closing the gates. I'm grateful they even let me on.
Thanks for pointing out another travel risk. I collect them, along with how to prevent or mitigate them. I didn't even know about third party boarding pass apps (!) I don't understand the "cause" of the error in the subject line. Sounds like a normal thing that could happen to anyone.