[rahulpandita]

Almost missed a flight back in 2014.

I was in New Delhi as one of the finalists in the Maruti Suzuki Autocar Young Driver 2014 edition. The organizers had arranged for a return flight at 7:45 in the morning, and we were provided accommodation at Hotel Ibis, Delhi Aerocity (very close to IGIA). In the morning, I got a message that my flight had been rescheduled to 8:40 AM. I cancelled the shuttle I had for 6:30 AM and decided to hang around with the other guys for a while. Booked another shuttle for 7:30 AM.

Now, at 7:30 AM, the shuttle arrived and I picked up my luggage and was just saying goodbye to the other contestants (we really bonded as all of them were petrolheads). Just when I turned back, I saw some 4-5 people board the shuttle and take off with it Spoke to the guy at the front desk, got a reply that the next shuttle would be here in 20 minutes.

Instead of waiting for the shuttle, decided to take an OLA to the terminal. The driver who responded took forever to arrive (I did not cancel the trip as I had a hard time getting this one). Arrived at the airport at 8:10 AM, but since my e-boarding pass had the original time of 7:45 AM mentioned on it, the CISF wouldn't let me in. Went to the booking window, and they gave me a printed boarding pass after a lengthy argument and I was let in (8:20 AM).

Rushed to the security gates, told the on-duty personnel that my flight was due in 20 minutes, got the clearance in 5 minutes and rushed to the boarding gates. Thankfully, it was Terminal 1, so managed to get to the gate by 8:30 AM. Turns out, I was the last passenger and everyone else had boarded. Got into the bus at the gate and finally boarded at 8:35 AM.

Ever since then, I always check my ticket details for correct contact information, date and time of departure and in case it changes, I download the new itinerary from the airline website. Takes a couple of minutes and saves me a lot of trouble.

[rrsteer]

While I have never ever gotten late or missed a flight booked by a company or client, I am guilty of being very careless with personal travel. I have missed the Shatabdi to Delhi a few times. This past November, I missed a flight to Mumbai, and what was worse, my mother was travelling with me. But the experience I truly remember, and one which was as exhilarating as it was tense, was when we had to catch the train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok in Thailand.

We as a family had gone on a trip to northern Thailand in 2015. It was our last day in Chiang Mai and our train back to Bangkok was sometime at 5pm. I remember we spent the day visiting the Chiang Mai zoo. Before we left, I had to return the rental car, clear some dues with our Airbnb host and maybe get some things from the market. It was bad on my part to have left everything for the last moment. Then I remember it was a struggle to get a Songthaew (taxi) for the railway station and to explain to the driver that we were running very late. But once the driver understood, he drove like his bottom was on fire - skipping red lights, criss-crossing through traffic which would even awe the roughest of taxi drivers in India. And finally when we did reach the station, we saw the train depart right before our eyes and then astonishingly stop, just as it started, to let us in. The train conductor saw us as he was about to tuck himself in his cabin.

[qaqa]

I must sheepishly admit that I have had multiple misses and near misses.

1.Circa 2003
Family was on a trip to Singapore with the highlight being a 2 day cruise. Dad asked me to check what time we are to report at the cruise terminal. I look at the ticket and confidently confirm "6.00". Since we had time to kill we aimlessly roamed around. Around 5 pm we thought of heading towards the terminal. On arriving there, we see that boarding has long since completed and closed! The cruise start time was not 6 o clock but 16.00 hrs which I so confidently misread! Luckily we were able to convince the staff and they let us board.

2. Circa 2005
Aero show 2005 comes to Bangalore. With great difficulty I manage to convince a friend to give up one of her passes to me. I was to catch a train from Mysore and my friend was to pick me up from Bangalore station. Just when I was boarding the train, I met another friend's father at the platform. Started chatting with him and was so engrossed that I didn't notice the train pulling away! Luckily managed to convince the said friend's dad to drop me to the bus stand to get a bus to Bangalore. Finally I did make to the Aero Show, but had to get a mouthful from my friend in Bangalore who wasted half her day waiting for me!

3. Nov 2009
Was traveling solo in Western Europe. I had a flight from Paris to Pisa. To save cash, I decided to take the metro and trains to the airport - this required multiple interchanges etc. I took the locals' help in identifying the trains that I will need to take / change to reach the airport. Finally reached the airport with time to spare. The locals had guided me to the airport alright, but to the wrong one! I had landed at Paris Orly, but my flight was from Paris CDG! Needless to say I missed the flight and messed up my trip entirely!

4. (My god this list is long) 2014

Was late to an international flight.. Was the last passenger to go through immigration and security. Airline staff hurrying me along, with a lot of drama. Finally I reach the gate as the last passenger. I then realise that the immigration and security stamps are on the wrong boarding pass - the stamps were on the boarding pass for the connecting flight! Had to rush back and get them stamped again. The airline staff was luckily able to get me to jump queues and get my pass restamped. Luckily was able to make it back to the gate and board, as the last passenger!

[Arjun Bharadwaj]

I actually enjoy the wait before a journey at the railway station/airport. So I always end up reaching much in advance!

I utilize the time very well by exploring the best options to eat and relax and just roam around aimlessly. I guess im not a very busy person generally

[mmxylorider]

Circa 2000. There was a passenger train between VT and Pune that had a halt at Dadar at exactly midnight. I'd booked my ticket for first class for boarding at Dadar and was in the train when the TTE appeared and calmly told me that I had the date wrong and I did not have a reservation. Fortunately, there were enough vacant berths for me to pay for instant reservation. That's such a dicey thing dealing with 00:00 or 12:00. Apparently Indian Railways has changed the timetables to remove all midnight halts to a minute before or after.

[nisfish]

I only missed a train last year. My missus and I had to board the Shatabdi express from Howrah to NJP at 14:15. My wife left our apartment in Lake Gardens at 12 noon and was to pick me up from my office at Nizam Palace. A twenty minute ride to my office took her an hour. I was nervous yet we weren't too worried as there still was a little over an hour to reach the railway station. We never made it on time. So we booked bus tickets for later in the evening and made it to our destination the following day, just in time for a wedding.

[whitecloud]

I do have a very idiotic experience of how to miss the train .The story starts in Nov 2010 when I was living in NCR .The sister of my brother in law was getting married in Amritsar on 18th of Nov and the functions were to start in the afternoon of 8th of November .

I had booked two Ac chair car tickets of Delhi Amritsar shatabadi for 18 th Nov and two return tickets as well for the next day .Reached Amritsar on 18th at around noon and was duly picked up by my dad .

Next day 19th of Nov , the shatabadi was to be boarded at 5:30 pm and was to reach Nw Delhi at 11 pm .My brother in law himself came to drop me off to railway station in Amritsar .Upon reaching the railway station ,Iwent to the coach and saw that our names were not on the passenger list .When I showed our tickets to the concerned railway authority , he hilariously pointed out that these were yesterday evening shatabadi tickets . It was quote an embarrassing situation for me in front of my wife.Both of us alighted down the train and since there was no other train for New Delhi , therefore we had no opion but to go to bus stand and get a bus for Delhi .

Instead of a comfortable six hour train journey, it took us 12 hours in the bus to reach Delhi bye pass .The cost of a goof up was not only an embarrassment but also when I applied for refund of ticket ,the railways suspended my account on the plea that I was misrepresenting as two persons had travelled on our tickets.

[BANDHAV]

I am flying since 2006, not a very frequent flyer though.

The only flight I have missed till date is one early morning flight from Delhi to Lucknow. I was supposed to be there along with our company lawyer and two of my colleagues. It was a Jet Airways flight from Terminal 3, I was web checked in, I reached there as per 45 minutes prior to departure time window, I approached the counter to collect my boarding pass. I called up my colleagues while I was at the counter to check their whereabouts, they were slightly late and I told them about check-ins getting closed. The lady manning the counter overheard me that I am travelling with someone and she deducted that I would not go to the boarding gate and would wait for my colleagues, on the same ground she didn't handover me even my boarding pass. My colleagues were late by a margin of around 10 odd mins, we tried reasoning with them but despite the fact that we could have managed to reach the boarding gate just in time, we were not handed over our boarding passes. They kept arguing with us and we were handed over our boarding passes 15-20 mins prior to departure time. The fight was from gate no 62, people who have flown out of Delhi T3 terminal would know, this gate feels like that it is situated at the end of the world. Even when we knew that it is going to be a futile exercise, we tried reaching the gate, we were too late. The gate was closed.

What was shocking in the whole scenario that when we called up our lawyer to inform about us missing the flight. He told us that, God only knows where they would have made you guys sit as flight was already full. The deliberate hold up made sense after that.

Apart from this I have missed a train while travelling back from Amritsar to Delhi VIA Shatabdi, this was travel with family, my wife and daughter were there with me. My wife booked the tickets and she got confused between 4 AM and 4PM, she booked the Shatabdi which leaves from Amritsar in the morning, while she was supposed to book the one which leaves at 4 PM. We realized this only after reaching the platform. My wife narrated the whole goof up to the lady manning the Ticket Counter and she helped us in getting the tickets for the Shatabdi which was about to leave.

[sandeepmohan]

Originally Posted by PontiacBandit

The last digit was different. I didn't really expect there to be multiple Garib Raths at the exact same time of departure from the same train station, with almost identical numbers.

I faced a similar situation a long time ago. I was travelling from Bangalore to Puttur. Had booked on the overnighter which goes to Mangalore. I reached Yeswantpur to find two trains with similar destination boards and parked parallel to each other. This was the time when the Yeswantapur Mangalore train (via Mysore, Hassan) had been extended to Kannur. The other train was the daily overnighter from Yeswantapur to Kannur (via Hosur). What Indian Railways have done off late is mix and match destination boards if the rake of the train is used for other trips as well so it can get confusing. A way to confirm you were boarding the right train was to check if there is a locomotive at the right (Or wrong) end. The train to Mangalore via Hassan would go via Bangalore City and other would go towards Banaswadi. Opposite departure directions but leave at the same time. Even though I am a train buff, I was too lazy to check if the rake had a locomotive at the right end. I board what I think is the right train and soon realize there are a lot of folks speaking in Malayalam, which can't be right as the train is destined for a place within Karnataka. As a Keralite, I understand the language so asked a co passenger where they were headed. When they said Calicut, I knew I had boarded the wrong train. Got off and bolted for the train on the parallel line but had to go through the ordeal of looking for a foot over bridge or FOB. If only Indian Railways put sign boards telling you which direction are the foot over bridges, would have helped as you can't always see them, especially at night. Yeswantapur platform (on the market side) has a slight S bend and station building structures come in the way of spotting the FOB. With 3 minutes to spare, I was cutting it close but managed to make it.

[creative420]

I’ll break my three experiences, of missing, narrowly missing and suffering because of someone else missing, in following parts.


Oh, my dear uncle. (1992)

I was just 9-year-old kid, living in Bhopal. My father was getting operated in Apollo Madras (I’ll stick to this as it wasn’t changed to Chennai until 1996). My mother and my elder brother were with him in Madras. It was summer break and my mom asked my uncle to get me to Madras. Uncle agreed and we booked tickets in Dakshin express. My sister would join after her exams got over in another 20 days along with my aunt. Although my family was going through tough times, but as a 9-year-old kid, all I could think of was going to the beach that they showed in “Mile sur mera tumhara” as Kamal Hassan watches the maestro belting out the Tamil bit.

So, we board the train early morning. I’m gleefully observing the train swallowing the track as we inch closer to Madras. My uncle was to pick up our lunch and dinner from my aunt’s house which was just 400 mtrs from Nagpur junction. And it used to be a good 25 mins long halt in Nagpur. This could be easily done. But I didn’t know at that time, that my uncle was a hardcore alcoholic. He picked up the food and stopped by at a local bar outside train station and had one drink too many. My train started moving. I started to panic a bit. And when the train caught full speed, I started bawling out loud. I remember we were allotted the side berths in second class. I was looking out of the window, hoping he’d make it as a lot of people were jumping on the moving train. But he didn’t.

There was a family of 5 (a man, his wife, his mother and his two kids who were younger to me) and a young executive who were allotted the 6 berths besides mine. They tried consoling me. The head of the family told spoke to the TT and gathered that if my uncle had any sense, he’d take the Tamil Nadu Express which ran 45 mins behind Dakshin express. And in those days, it would often over-take Dakshin express, so my uncle might just catch-up. I was sitting quite by now. My uncle had the address to my home in Madras. I was revisiting the ‘Yaadon ki baarat’ train scene where the brothers got separated. Only the cool breeze blowing in, and the care offered by that executive and the family got me settled down. The head of the family said they’ll take care of me and he knew someone at Apollo hospital, so I needn’t worry so much. I started playing ludo, chess and snakes & ladder with the kids.

While I was sleeping, the TT informed the head of the family at Secunderabad station that my uncle has boarded Tamil Nadu Express, running behind our train. I was told about it when I woke up and felt slightly better.

The family fed me from the large rasam and rice container and in turn I bought cutlets and samosas for the kids, from a 100 rupee note I was given by my aunt. A day passed by and we reach Madras. Tamil Nadu express was running an hour late. The man from the family stayed behind with me at the station. Tamil Nadu Express arrived and so did my uncle. I still remember that hug. He was bawling out loud and I was consoling him. Guess I matured a lot in those 24 hours. The man gave him an earful and confirmed if my uncle knew where to go in Madras. Then he went a step ahead and accompanied us all the way to my home. We bid him farewell and he gave his number to my uncle, in case we required any help.

I don’t know what came over me, but I decided I’ll not rat out on my uncle. He seemed very sullen compared to his flashy, cheerful personality. However, after 3 days he decided to come clean to my mom and my mom gave me trashing of how could I hold on to something big like this. And my mom decided my sister will not travel to Madras, with my Uncle’s wife for that summer. I missed her a lot on my daily Marina beach visits with my elder brother. But my mother decided that none of her kids will travel without her.

The best things to come out of this trip was that a) my Uncle sobered up to become an occasional drinker. b) He also treated me, ridden by his guilt, with ice-cream and toys for the rest of his stay with us. c) Brother took full advantage of this and made him buy us an aquarium. d) I had the time of my life in Madras. I look forward to visiting that city at every opportunity.


Why Mumbai, why? (2010)

I took a job in Mumbai in 2007 at one of India’s leading advertising agency. The Maximum city offered amazing experiences over the next three years. But I had to bid her farewell in early 2010 to move to Bangalore (it wasn’t Bengaluru until 2014). My girlfriend then, wife now picked up a job with a leading publication in this city and we decided to be in the same city.

So, I packed up everything and booked me a ticket on KSRTC sleeper coach. Loaded my luggage. Went to a nearby vadapav stall to savour on the taste of Mumbai for one last time. But the city delivered the real taste of its infamous Mumbai pocket-picking. I looked all around and my wallet was nowhere to be found. The Vadapav guy would not let me go without paying. My bus was about to leave. The conductor of the bus, who had helped me load my luggage saw all of this and decided to pay for my vadapav. I had pulled out 5K just before I boarded, and I gathered someone might have noticed it and picked my pocket.

There was a constable eating vadapav too, who urged me to file a complaint at the local police-station. I decided not to as I didn’t want to miss my bus. And I knew of enough such cases where nothing ever got recovered.

So, I boarded the bus. All passengers were looking at me furiously as the departure got delayed because of me. My co-passenger, an old uncle gave me an earful of being so careless. Luckily there was another single sleeper berth at the back which I promptly moved to, to avoid getting into any altercation with a senior citizen. I didn’t want his advice as I was shattered completely. My card, gone. My license, I had no copy of it, gone. And losing 5K after toiling so hard, working in a severely-underpaid industry, gone. Luckily, I had my phone with me. I called up my girlfriend and told her about all this.

However, the best part to come out of this trip was making friends with Manju, the bus conductor. We became the best friends on this journey. He was quite interested in my profession. He wanted to become an actor and I promised him I’ll get him a gig whenever I got a chance. He paid for everything on the trip - food, smokes & water. I was keeping a tab on all the money he spent on me, which was about Rs. 280. I asked my girlfriend to get some money when she came to pick me up. I offered Manju Rs. 500. He didn’t want any. But took it after I urged him to. He returned Rs 200 back to me along with his phone number and asked me to call him up anytime. We stayed in touch for a good 5-6 years. He had started a travel agency. We used his service to visit Mysore and for a few airport runs. I lost his number when my smartphone crashed and guess we both got busy in our lives.


Expensive B’day. (2017)

I got married in 2013. Due to work pressure piling up, my home visits to Bhopal got shorter and shorter. I missed out going home for Diwali in 2016. I could feel the connection that I have with my hometown growing weaker. 2017 came, and more work along with it. I was getting angrier and bitter in life. I missed the stillness of the upper lake of Bhopal. Or the sweet old (or extremely horrible when cussing) Bhopali accent. But most of all, I hadn’t had a meal cooked by my mother for over a year.

Come March, my wife bought a flight ticket to Bhopal, to celebrate my birthday with my family. It was a last-minute purchase so the tickets were quite costly. There wasn’t a direct flight between Bengaluru (Bangalore, no more) to Bhopal like we have now. It was a connecting flight from Mumbai. I just couldn’t sleep all night. Between the two of us, the alarm duties are bestowed to me. I forgot to set the alarm and we woke up at 6am for a 7:45 flight to Mumbai. We decided to make a dash for it as I’d be parking my car at the airport for this 2-day visit. But the peak morning traffic and then parking the car at the airport ensure that we had missed out flight. Rushed to the Indigo counter to get onto the next flight at 8:10 but it was full. Our connecting flight from Mumbai was at 11:45.

The guy at the Indigo counter advised me to take the Go Airways flight which was to depart at 8:20 to Mumbai. But the shocker was a ticket fare of 17K each. With heavy heart, I made the purchase and somehow made it to Mumbai, just on time to catch the connecting flight.

The best part, of course was that I got to celebrate my birthday with my family and having amazing home-cooked meals for the 2 days that I was there. Never missed a flight after this. I always make sure that I’m at the airport at least 90 mins in advance.

Later in 2017 when we were going for Europe trip, I called for a cab 5 hours in advance. One our way, the driver dozes off and he grazed the road divider. I asked him to move on to the back seat, and drove us to the airport.

[navtiwari]

I have missed train a couple of times. Never missed a flight but had a close call once.

Sep-2013: Five of us(me, my wife, my friend, his wife and his 2yr old daughter) went on a week long vacation to Yellow Stone National Park and were staying in Paradise Valley, Montana.
One day before our return journey we discussed briefly about our 7hrs return drive to Salt Lake City airport and concluded that we would leave leisurely after breakfast as we need to be at airport by 5PM to catch our flight.
Next day morning we got packed and was about to leave at 9:30AM when I got a pop notification on my phone reminding me about my flight that departs at 5PM. I was , we realised that 5PM was flight departure time and not the time we were to reach airport.
Google maps came out on both our phones and showed time to reach Salt Lake city airport at about 4:45PM. We went silent for a minute weighing options and immediately decided that we got to try. Even if we miss, it is better to spend night in SLC. We drove with intent and took calculated risk of over speeding most of the route as we had to shave off atleast 40mins off gps time to make it. Not to forget, we needed to drop off the rental vehicle and also account for any traffic that we might encounter once we enter SLC. We drove all the way to SLC with just a 10min stop to fill the car, empty our bladders and switch the driver.
Luckily, rental drop off was inside the terminal where we dropped our rental car without refuelling. I ran to the checkin counter, presented the ticket and my ID. I heaved a sigh of relief when she punched in the details and said 'What is taking you to Milwaukee today?'
There was another person who came about a minute later and was told by the lady in the next counter that he was late and the system is locked for checkin on that flight.

[PetrolRider]

Originally Posted by shabih

You're absolutely right and I fought with them quite a lot, however they didn't budge and I gave up!

Have you tried lodging complain on AirSewa? I know it is a very uphill task to lodge a complain there, but once done it is a nightmare for airlines (hope it was not AI).
I believe, all these silent airport dramas are done with now. I remembered Hyderabad airport was blaring with announcements this February, that was the last I traveled this year. Anyway, Indigo always calls up on mobile in those silent airports as far as I remember.

Also, with my brief experiences, I found the airport ground staffs are normally as cold as a person can go. It is always helpful to get the resolution form the airline customer care directly.

[grevvity]

Imagine missing a flight even after reaching 3 hours ahead of the scheduled departure. Yup, that's me.

Back in 2015 I moved to Bangalore with wife and 2 year old son. A friend of mine told me about the free lounge option on credit card and I was amused as to why I didn't know about it. Anyhow, me and my wife decided to reach early to the airport to experience the lounge first hand and enjoy the perks to the max. Booked an Indigo flight (BLR - DEL) and reached almost 3 hours ahead of the departure time and straight away went to the lounge.

We were excited as kids of having all the luxury and food at no extra cost and lost track of the time in all the excitement. Being a silent airport, there were no announcements at the airport either. By the time we realized it was time to run for the gate, we were too late. Sudden request for nappy change and having the boarding gate at the far end of the airport added to the delay. Net result - Flight Missed.

Felt so embarrased and sheepishly bought tickets for next available flight 3x the cost of the original booking. Since that day, we decided to reach the boarding gate 1.5 hours in advance no matter what. Lesson learnt the hard way. :(

[samy1117]

Yes. I have missed multiple flights so far. Once i have missed my flight to Amsterdam from Delhi due to Spicejet flight's delay from Coimbatore to Delhi. It was very horrible experience as I had to stay in Delhi for few more days to get another flight to Amsterdam thru Dubai.

Another time, I have missed my flight from Las Vegas to Miami. I have completely miscalculated the timings. Luckily, American Airlines operated multiple flights to Miami and they put me on another flight which departed about 1 hour from my actual flight. Funny thing is my luggage and me arrived in Miami in two different flights.

[binaiks]

Fortunately, I haven't missed a bus/train/flight till date - I usually reach the airport atleast 2 hrs in advance, or 30-60minutes in case of a bus/train.

But I have had two close, "almost missed", occasions:

First One - in May 2018
Right after marriage, I was returning with my wife after our wedding reception in Mumbai. We had a flight from Mumbai Airport - I guess that was scheduled to depart around 2230hrs (not very sure). Some last minute works and purchases kept us busy that we overshot our scheduled departure from home. We were at Kalyan in the outskirts of the city - taking a taxi was ruled out since the traffic would delay us. We decided to take a "fast local" from Kalyan to Ghatkopar and then work a way to the airport.

We got to Kalyan station around 7.45pm - we were lucky to get a fast train soon later. But as fate would have it, the train was sent through the slow line, and we crawled our way till Thane, where the train switched over to the fast line. We got to Ghatkopar around 9.30pm if I recall correctly. The airport isn't far - but the traffic on the line is a killer. I looked at cabs - the ETA was cutting to close. Meanwhile, our flight was rescheduled to 2250hrs. We finally took a Metro - I don't remember where we got off - took an auto from there. The F1 Wannabe driver took it a prestige issue to get us to the airport in least time. We got to the airport, and managed to check-in right before the system closed! This was the first and last time, I cut so close for a flight.

Second one - in June 2018

I had to get into a bus from Bangalore's Kempegowda Bus station towards Raichur. The bus was to depart at 2130hrs - I was still at home in Bannerghatta road at 2000hrs. There was not a single cab or auto available and I finally managed to get an auto to the nearest metro station (JP Nagar) by around 2015hrs - this guy was a very abnormal autodriver - he never exceeded 40kmph, even after requesting him to go fast! I finally reached the metro station around 2100hrs - if there was a train immediately, I would have easily made it on time. But then, I missed a train right as I entered the platform. The next train was only after 15 minutes! I called up the conductor, told him a story of how I was stuck in traffic block and requested him to wait. In stern voice, he said NOT POSSIBLE and cut my call. I decided to test my luck nevertheless - got into the next train, which dropped me near the bus station at 2131hrs - exactly a minute after the departure time of the bus. I tried calling the conductor - he was like, "we are waiting for you only sir. Please come fast". I literally ran - those days, the exit to the bus station wasn't yet opened, and one had to take a long way from the metro station to the bus station. I ran this distance, and got into the bus around 2140hrs - profusely sweating, gasping for breath. I cannot forget this conductor. After this, I am always at the bus station atleast 30 minutes before my bus!