Ever miss a connecting flight?

Zunardo

Zunardo

Well-known member
How many times have you ever missed a connecting flight, and if so how long did it take to get a new flight? Anybody spend the night in an airport because of this? Or did you ramble and scramble like Steve Martin and John Candy?

It's never happened to me or Mrs. Zunardo, but we came very, very close yesterday. Coming home on American from Orlando with 29-minute layover in DC. Usually not a problem. But we were in the air 20 minutes longer than the pilot said we'd be, plus they changed our connecting gate at the last minute from four gates away to one 200 yards away. The next plane takes off in 15 mins and I'm thinking "we are not going to make it".

Once we made it out of the jetway, our stress increased hearing our names over the PA ("Will stragglers Mrs. and Mrs. Zurando PLEASE make your way to gate E53??"). I have finally accepted that I can't sprint at my age. But the gate lady saw me huffing and puffing from afar and held the plane for us. Whew.

That second flight left DC at 5:00 PM. Not sure if there was a later flight to CMH in the evening. Would AA have tried to put me on another airline?
 
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More than a few times, but in most of the cases, I knew before I even took off from the home airport that I was going to miss my connection, so I was able to change my connecting flight ahead of time. Only once did I totally get stuck in an airport (O'Hare), but my company was able to get me into the airport hotel so I could sleep before flying out the next morning.
 
Only twice.

#1 We flew from LA to San Francisco for the connection to Cleveland. It was the day that the FAA decided to ground the Boeing Max 737's. Spent about 14 hours watching the world walk by.

#2 Dallas. The standard Delayed-Delayed-Delayed-Cancelled routine with the late night/early next morning shuttle to and from a hotel.


HaHa, one time in Atlanta we taxied to the runway for take off and the pilot comes on the intercom to announce "Ladies and Gentlemen, we are Number 36 in line". Met with sighs and WTF's. :)
 
More times than I can remember on business travel. Most memorable:

- slept in O'Hare terminal for 4 hours rather than find a hotel, commute, and commute back for 5 am flight

- storm delays left me and hundreds of others stranded in LaGuardia - was taken to the only hotel available near the airport - it had hourly rates and scary people hanging around. I was pretty sure I would die that night.

- in Atlanta my wife and I missed a connection coming back from vacation - another scary airport hotel arrival at 1am - a pimps-n-hoes party going on in the main conference room. And me without my big feathered hat.

Good times...
 
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Not yet, but every time it’s been close to happening, I think this 👆.
😉
 
wolves82 said:
- storm delays left me and hundreds of others stranded in LaGuardia - was taken to the only hotel available near the airport - it had hourly rates and scary people hanging around. I was pretty sure I would die that night.

- in Atlanta my wife and I missed a connection coming back from vacation - another scary airport hotel arrival at 1am - a pimps-n-hoes party going on in the main conference room. And me without my big feathered hat.

Good times...
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I need to hang out with you more often. :cool:
 
My worst experiences with connecting flights (ranked in order of suck-iness):

3. Flying with my family to England for a Baltic Sea cruise (2018). Flew Air Canada to Toronto, but the flight out of Cleveland kept getting delayed over and over. Pretty quickly we realized we were not going to make our connection in Toronto. The problem was, there really isn't an Air Canada customer service desk in Cleveland (it's code-shared with United), so nobody was there to help us. We could see online that there was a later flight that had seats on it that we should be able to make, but trying to get someone to assist us moving flights was seemingly impossible. Gave my wife all the credit in the world - she literally just kept calling the Air Canada customer service line until she got a person actually willing to help us. Probably 5 or 6 phone calls. Got moved, finally got out of Cleveland and made the new connection with about 30 minutes to spare. Added bonus, we ended up with Premium Economy seats for no extra charge. We did, however, miss most of a day that I had planned in London, but we still had a full day there to explore before heading to the cruise ship.

2. (Technically not a missed connection) Flying with my wife with Delta on a trip to Athens for her firm's new partner meeting (2005). They had us on a goofy itinerary that had us flying into NYC LaGuardia, then taking a cab over to JFK for our flight to Athens. When she booked it, we figured we'd be ok, since there was like a 3 hour layover in between flights. Got to Cleveland and found our flight out was delayed for at least a couple hours. My wife started talking to her firm's travel agency for options on how we could get to JFK in time for the Athens flight, as there weren't a lot of other options if we missed that one. They ended up switching us to a Cincy flight that then flew into JFK, but the flight to Cincy sat on the jetway waiting for a gate to open once we arrived so we barely made the connection there. And then once we got to JFK, sprinted all the way to the gate, we were told our seats were given away because we hadn't checked in yet. :mad: My wife went apech!t on them and they managed to find two seats left on the flight, so we sat in completely different rows for the overseas flight, but managed to make it at least. Probably one of the 2 or 3 most stressful trips we've ever taken.

1. Flying home on a business trip to Tokyo. Landed in Chicago only to find out that a huge thunderstorm had pretty much cancelled every connecting flight in a 5 state radius around Chicago. My wife and I had a wedding to go to the next day and the option of staying in Chicago and taking a flight out the next day wasn't going to get me home in time. I got on the phone with my company's travel services and they were able to land me a rental car (just in time, as I was far from the only one who had that idea). The problem ended up being that it took like 3 hours for the airline to get our bags off the plane. Hundreds of us from all the flights that got cancelled stood in baggage claim waiting for flights to get announced that were going on the conveyor belt, like some odd Bingo game. By the time I got my bags, I made it to around the Indiana border before I had to pull off and find a hotel room before I crashed the rental by falling asleep at the wheel. Got up the next morning and made it back to Cleveland in time to drop off the rental car and get home to get ready for the wedding.
 
I did within the last year. I didnt attempt and OJ and running through the airport.

THInk I got another flight fairly easily. We landed earlier enough, but got stuck on the tarmac for awhile.

Man...there were some peple were just flat out jackalopes and downright nasty and assssshats during the whole ordeal, it was quite funny
 
Thavoice said:
I did within the last year. I didnt attempt and OJ and running through the airport.

THInk I got another flight fairly easily. We landed earlier enough, but got stuck on the tarmac for awhile.

Man...there were some peple were just flat out jackalopes and downright nasty and assssshats during the whole ordeal, it was quite funny
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Yeah, I have witnessed a lot of jackalope behavior as well when flights have issues. It is usually the less experienced travelers getting bent out of shape and screaming at the airline employees, who are generally blameless. Saw a couple go ballistic in Phoenix and get arrested. How's that vacation working out for you now???

Experienced travelers know this stuff happens. I'm just thrilled when things are on-time at this point.
 
I’ve missed a few over the years. Most memorable was flying to Paris with a layover in Iceland. The original plan was to fly the now defunct Iceland Air to Paris with a layover in Reykjavik, spend 2 days in Paris and then 4 days (over NYE) back in Reykjavik. Weather delayed us a few hours, missed the connection and they couldn’t get us to Paris until the following afternoon despite landing at like 8am. Got a voucher for a hotel but didn’t use it was it wasn’t nearly as nice as the hotel we had booked for the backend of the trip.

Ended up being awesome, we got to see the Northern Lights which we would have missed otherwise, did a helicopter tour and landed on a mountain top where we had champagne and ate at a restaurant we would have otherwise not had time for that had puffin and reindeer. Both were tasty.

Another good one was coming back from Europe through JFK and knew it would be a tight connection. Slight delay before we took off all but ensured we wouldn’t make it. Just logged onto Delta on the plane, got a flight 7 hours later. Called some friends in NYC and had myself a Sunday Funday in the city.
 
eastisbest said:
Me neither. I'm feeling left out.
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So that's four of us out of twelve? 33%, not too bad. I thought I'd be the only one.

With the gradual shift in do-it-yourself ticketing, it seems scheduling margins are razor-thin these days. My first flying experience 40 years ago, I knew nothing about schedules, just walked up to the Eastern counter a few weeks beforehand and told the clerk I wanted to buy a round-trip ticket. They had me on a 90-minute layover in Atlanta both outbound and back. I was happy about that. being a natural worrier about not being late. Helped me decompress a bit.

Nowadays I plug my dates in and select the first flight, and I pretty much accept what it gives me on connectors. Will have to study the booking websites and see if I can give myself more of a cushion next time.
Orin Swift said:
I’ve missed a few over the years. .... coming back from Europe through JFK and knew it would be a tight connection. Slight delay before we took off all but ensured we wouldn’t make it. Just logged onto Delta on the plane, got a flight 7 hours later. Called some friends in NYC and had myself a Sunday Funday in the city.
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Aaaand, the prospect of change - getting an app and learning to use it. Aurgh, lol.
 
On our way back from Mozambique we landed at JFK 45 minutes EARLY. This left us with close to 2 hours to clear customs and make our connection. Well, clearing customs took 1:15, we lost another 15 riding from the international arrivals terminal to the United Terminal, lost another 10 waiting in line to recheck our bags. Sprinted to the gate only to find out our next plane hadn't even arrived yet. Plane finally arrives and we depart JFK for Dulles. As we are landing at Dulles, we watch our next flight take off. We go to the United desk and are given a number of options, all that will require our party to split up and be on different flights. We finally find a flight into Cincy at take that.
 
Not a connecting flight, but my flight home last year from John Wayne Airport to CVG on Breeze was delayed 8 hours before eventually being cancelled. Geared turbofans really suck. Booked a red eye home from LAX via IAH, got a taxi across town and then waited for another 6 hours at LAX. All in all it took 26 hours to get to CVG from LA, which isn't really that much faster than driving. Budget airlines can be great for a quick get away but they will really bite you in the arse when things go wrong.

I'm flying to Europe through Newark next Monday. Already wishing I had chosen to fly through ORD. I really like United and Lufthansa but the operational issues at all NYC airports these days have made it a risky to connect thru there.
 
No, but my luggage didn't. Flying into Chicago (O'Hare) and the flight was late and they switched terminals on me for the connecting flight. Had like 10 minutes to catch it. Just made it, but my luggage didn't.
 
LELL said:
No, but my luggage didn't. Flying into Chicago (O'Hare) and the flight was late and they switched terminals on me for the connecting flight. Had like 10 minutes to catch it. Just made it, but my luggage didn't.
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Never, ever check a bag anymore. Airlines are too unreliable. If it can't fit in a carry on, leave it at home
 
1967--flying home for Christmas from college from Daytona Beach to Pittsburgh on student stand-by. Had to get off the plane at a stop in D.C. since I was on Stand-by. Got bumped by some servicemen, so missed the plane which went on to Pittsburgh with my luggage. Called home and had my mother call Pitts. airport to have them page my dad to get my luggage, since he would be there to pick me up. There were still 2 more flights to Pitts that night and 2 other college students and I got bumped from both by servicemen. I had left my checkbook in my luggage and I had $.52 in my pocket. Both of the other students were from Pitts and one had a car in DC so he decided to drive home instead of waiting till morning for a flight. We sold our tickets back,caught a cab, and picked up his car. He dropped me at the Pitts bus station and I caught a bus to Steubenville. Then caught a local bus to Wintersville and walked the last 1 1/2 mile home. Nothing to it when you're 18 tears old.
 
Thavoice said:
Man...there were some peple were just flat out jackalopes and downright nasty and assssshats during the whole ordeal, it was quite funny
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I fly two weeks out of every month and see this type of behavior all of the time. I chalk it up to those that do not fly often as they just do not know any better. They are usually a bit nervous and on edge. AND I'm always amazed at the amount of people that feel the need to drink to take the edge off when they fly.
 
Most of the time when I fly there are people on the plane panicky about missing a connection. I always tell them to relax and that the 30 - 45 minute window is plenty of time to make their connection. One time flying through Atlanta I had to go from A terminal to E terminal and I believe it took me 6 minutes.

And I always tell people to avoid discount airlines for many reasons but one big one is the ability of the Big 4 (Delta, American, United, Southwest) to get you on another flight relatively quickly and without hassle. Most airports that serve these airlines have multiple flights in and out each day.
 
Sig Hansen said:
Never, ever check a bag anymore. Airlines are too unreliable. If it can't fit in a carry on, leave it at hom
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On the way to where I am going I have a carryone with the essentials of what I need to survive if my checked gets lost.
On my way home I check all the bags and just easily waltz from one flight to another.....
 
irish_buffalo said:
Most of the time when I fly there are people on the plane panicky about missing a connection. I always tell them to relax and that the 30 - 45 minute window is plenty of time to make their connection. One time flying through Atlanta I had to go from A terminal to E terminal and I believe it took me 6 minutes.

And I always tell people to avoid discount airlines for many reasons but one big one is the ability of the Big 4 (Delta, American, United, Southwest) to get you on another flight relatively quickly and without hassle. Most airports that serve these airlines have multiple flights in and out each day.
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I hate people so I dont talk to anyone at the airport....
 
It has happened to me too many times to count. Slept in airports. Been put up in hotels for a few hours. Rented cars and finished the last leg that way....typically from ORD. I think it's just me at this point.
 
LELL said:
No, but my luggage didn't. Flying into Chicago (O'Hare) and the flight was late and they switched terminals on me for the connecting flight. Had like 10 minutes to catch it. Just made it, but my luggage didn't.
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I have had my bag lost on a direct flight before. And I was there at least 3 hours before take off. And I wasn't the only one...about half of the flight had their bags lost on that flight.

I mean that had to almost be on purpose.
 
winbypin said:
I have had my bag lost on a direct flight before. And I was there at least 3 hours before take off. And I wasn't the only one...about half of the flight had their bags lost on that flight.

I mean that had to almost be on purpose.
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I had my bag ‘stolen’ by Disney. Had a conference in Orlando. Went to baggage claim and all the bags came off. Customer service just kept telling me that they showed the bag arriving. Took them like an hour to figure out what happened - Disney’s Magical Express scooped up my bag with all the vacationers and took it to their sorting facility. Took another three or four hours for them to deliver it to my hotel room.
 
Missed a connecting flight from Atlanta to Athens in 2021. There were bad storms around Atlanta and we were flying around the area so long we had to land in Greenville to refuel. We had a heck of a time finding our luggage as well.
 
I once almost missed my connecting flight out of ATL because I was running from store to store trying to find allergy meds for my little brother.
 
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