I was once denied a boarding pass. I was going to another country for a week, and I had 3 or 4 months left before my passport’s expiry date. The country I was going to requires a minimum of 6 months passport validity, I had no idea that was even a rule, I didn’t even think to check.

I felt very foolish.

Travelling from Austria to Croatia - got to the airport at 8pm for our 11 o’clock flight. Initially wasn’t concerned when our flight wasn’t showing on the boards. Became increasingly worried as time went on.

Spoke to the desk and were told the only flight to Croatia was 11AM that day… (Not 11pm)

Spent the night sleeping in the airport while waiting to check in to a airport hotel the next day as the next available flight to Croatia was 2 days after our original flight.

Used my bag as a pillow and accidentally broke some souvenirs we had bought. Cost us an extra $500 each in total for new flights and accomm as we had no travel insurance.

Sorry to hear you missed your flight - hope your experience isn’t too rough!

I only missed a flight once and i felt pretty stupid at the time as well. I took the metro to the airport and then I realized that I forgot some medicine.

I barely had time so I headed back but I messed up pretty badly because my medicine was the whole time in my backpack I just didn’t find it or was so sure that I forgot it.

Then I obviously missed my plane since I didnt get there 3 hours earlier. I missed one day in the beautiful city of Rome, but it wasn’t that bad. I think I was high at that time

Charles de Gaulle Airport. Nothing more to be said

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

Traveling out of Dulles I arrived with 60 minutes to spare by train. Couldn’t get checked in, talked to the airline desk. My flight was out of Reagan. That was a costly mistake.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So this one time Seth MacFarlane…

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

As for the story:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Not really a missed flight story, because I am flying for free on standby.

Anyway, I am currently stuck at the Denver Airport. So far I have spent 13 hours here and I still have a little over 1 more hour to go before I find out if I get to leave or not. If I get out of DIA on this next flight I will either spend an hour in Miami’s Airport, catching my last flight home, or I will spend 12 hours in Miami hoping to catch my last flight home.

At one point I had a boarding pass and was on the plane, but my seat was taken and so I had to get right back off the plane. The agent at the gate who gave me the seat couldn’t figure out why it appeared open on the computer, but it wasn’t a big deal.

I am staying optimistic, but anything can happen. I haven’t had this hard of a time flying standby before, but I have only done it a few times. It is basically the risk I pay for being cheap. I knew what I was getting into and I regret nothing.

“sir, that flight was yesterday”