[wordsworth]

Originally Posted by moralfibre

I am a paranoid traveller and way to early for all my travel schedules. If I have some pending work in order, I'll plan it such that I do it at the airport lounge instead and be there before time. Hence, in my entire history of travel as an adult over the last 20+ years, I have never missed a single planned bus, train or flight trip.

Same. Never missed a flight, bus or train. This includes India and multiple overseas travels across 4 continents.

Barring one. This was at the start of my work career in April 2007. I was to take a flight from Delhi to Chennai for our induction programme in Mahabalipuram. It was a morning flight around 7. I took the red eye airport bus from Chandigarh (my home town then) at 11 in the night (which everyday reached the airport before 5). When i woke up we were stuck outside Sonipat due to an unforseen accident and it was complete chaos. No alternate way to reach the airport from the highway and finally reached when the flight was on run way. Booked next flight and my new organisation was kind enough to get a cab arranged from Chennai to the resort where the induction programme was being held. Reached late among 75 odd people coming across various locations in india and was known as the guy "who missed his flight". That experience taught me to plan for contingencies.

[PontiacBandit]

I had to come from Hyderabad to Bangalore from train, and I had to come through the train 'Garib Rath'. I had travelled alone in train only once or twice before. I reach the train station, see that my 8:30 PM Garib Rath is already in platform. I saw my ticket, and saw that the train number was the same. Well, almost. 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. So, instead of going towards Bangalore, I was on my way to Vijayawada!

Luckily there was another gentleman who made the same mistake, and he knew the area and availability of trains / buses in the region pretty well. So we got off from Warangal, after facing an angry ticket collector, and decided to take a train back to Hyderabad. But they were so crowded that people were literally hanging off from the sides of it. So, we take an auto to the bus station, which had four people. And someone was streaming the last over of the Cricket World Cup finals. Chaos reigned at the bus station, and people were entering moving buses moving at 20-25km/h to secure a seat back to Hyderabad. Luckily I found a seat, and took a bus back to Hyderabad. Now it was 4:00 AM, and took an auto from the place the bus dropped us, to the bus station at Hyderabad, and took a day bus to Bangalore.

[sparky@home]

It was way back, I think 1984, I was to take the Dadar Nagpur express to Jalgaon. I reached the station and boarded the 1st class coach in which I had reservation, and to my surprise I see someone else had occupied my seat. On enquiry they claimed they had reservation for it, I checked their ticket and saw they were right, and I checked my ticket to confirm and found out that my tickets were for the earlier day, I was only one day late. I have been careful after this incident.
In another recent incident, I was travelling to Seoul with transit through Bangkok, and I just happened to check in early around 20:30 for the connecting flight which was actually showing 02:20. To my surprise I see that the flight was actually scheduled for 22:00, a printing mistake on the flight coupon, which if I had taken at face value would have been a problem.

[dhruv.bansal]

Oh this thread brings back those horrific memories of missing my flight once.
It was 2017, Mumbai to Delhi Air India flight.

I was in Mumbai for a business meeting with my team junior.
I remember telling the client that we have a flight at 5pm and we intend to leave by 1pm. He was pretty confident that we need to leave by 3pm and we would reach in time as the airport is very near.

We wrapped up the meeting and remember getting up to leave at 2pm finally when his cafeteria guy entered and spread the lunch infront of us. Our client said, "Sir, I hope you wont say no to our hospitality" & what unfolded next was the worst decision of our lives.

We hogged it quickly and finally left at 2.45pm.

We reached the airport at 3.30pm and got into the long dreadful security line at the Mumbai T2 Terminal. As soon as our turn came, the security guard told us that the flight is scheduled at T1 and not T2.
I skipped a few heartbeats. We ran out. Took a cab which costed a bomb and reached T1 at 4pm.

As soon as we cleared security again, we reached the Air India kiosk and the lady told us to go away because there is no way we can reach the main gate by the time the flight is to take off.
She was not willing to listen and we were asked to move out of the airport escorted by their staff. There were a minimum of 30 other folks who were escorted out that day for the same flight.
The next flight was at a premium of 2x and we were not willing to pay that much that day.

We then moved to the railway station and took some Amritsar Express which got delayed by 1 day. We finally reached Delhi after 2 nights in the train.
Such a long dreadful business trip it became. In addition, did no business with that client of ours because of some paper work issue later.

One key takeaway though: My team mate ensured he never travels with me again.

[SnS_12]

Well, my father is a type of person who will show up at a railway station 2 hrs before the departure time, even if its the starting destination for that train, which would mean there would be plenty of time to board once the train arrives on the assigned platform.

However, I have missed one flight till date and that too on a day which we can never forget. I and my wife were flying to Bangalore from Mumbai to celebrate our first wedding anniversary. It was a Jet Airways flight scheduled at 10:30 am and we left our house at around 8 am on a weekday, which is peak traffic time but the journey should have taken a max 1.5 hrs. However, our luck was so bad that we arrived at the airport exactly at 10:30 am.

As we reached the counter and inquired about our flight we were told that it was on time and had taken off. But however in a surprise turn of events as soon as i inquired about the next flight and if seats were available, we were informed in the affirmative for a flight in the afternoon. Mentally I was prepared to pay a bomb for the tickets as my original flight was booked using my Jet Privilege points, but to our surprise we were booked for the next flight absolutely free of cost

I almost missed a flight for second time but this time along with my boss when we were on a one day work trip to Kolkata. Our return was in Indigo flight at 5 pm and again we got stuck in traffic. But the saving grace was that we had already checked in and had only hand luggage so Indigo actually waited for us to arrive and we managed to reach at 4:55. I would have never sprinted so hard accompanied by Indigo staff to get on the plane. It was a sight clearing security at record speed and boarding the flight with everyone staring at you wondering which lounge we were relaxing in...

[IshWish]

It was August 2010. We as a family went to Amarnath Pilgrimage. We booked a couple of rooms in Pahalgam for the whole week, which were aligned with our Amarnath Cave Tracking and our Flight Tickets. Last Day arrived, we packed our bags and were ready to leave for Srinagar Airport from Pahalgam. So we decided it would be wiser to leave 3 hours earlier than our scheduled departure time, which was 11 AM as situations on Kashmir's roads can be highly unpredictable.
Boy! We were so wrong.
It took us more than 3 hours to cover 54 odd kilometres because of stone pelting incidents, blockage of roads, Army movement and whatnot! Unfortunately, we missed our flight from Srinagar to Delhi by a couple of minutes. No more flights were available. Everything was booked.
The father decided that we would take a Taxi from Srinagar to Jammu and would catch a Train which was suppose to depart from Jammu Train station at 10 PM. So we had to cover 270 odd kms in 10 hours.
It was the most uncomfortable ride we had in our life on mountain roads. Everyone was sick and dozzy but thanks to our cab driver, we caught our train on time. It was a wild and uncomfortable day, to say the least.

[mrleopard]

All my life, I've been proud of the fact that I've never missed a flight or a train, even though there have been close shaves at times.

Once I had to board the Mumbai Rajdhani from Delhi, and with only 2 minutes to spare, entered the New Delhi Railway Station from the platform completely opposite to the one the train was starting from. I had to bypass the security check by requesting the person in charge, and run with all my luggage, across ~15 platforms, and caught it while it had just started to move (got on to the bogie nearest to me, and then went internally to my seat).

However, this lucky streak was broken last year, where I had to take a flight to Vadodara, and due to sheer incompetence, I read the 'Arrival time in Vadodara' as the 'Closing of check-in counters in Delhi'.

I was already in the cab to the airport when I realised this mistake, and having no other option decided to try my luck at the airport, where again I was extremely lucky that I got the next flight, just an hour later, for only 1500 Rupees.

My guess is that the seats were anyways going vacant, and hence the airline had reduced the price by a lot to at least break even. Nonetheless I always triple check the check-in time now

[fazayal]

I have missed a couple of times and had a close shave a few times.

Missed flight : I had to go to Rajkot for some work. There were only two flight to Rajkot from Mumbai in those days. One in morning and one in evening. Mine was a morning flight, I reached a couple of minutes late and they closed the counter. Didn't give me boarding pass or allow me to board. I cancelled the ticket, took a flight to Ahmedabad and took a bus from Ahmedabad to Rajkot. I reached Rajkot at 2. Got all my work rescheduled and somehow managed as my plan was to be there for two days.

Missed train : I was called for an interview in a factory in Bhandara district in Maharashtra. I had to take a train to Nagpur and from there a bus to Bhandara which was a I reached there a day in advance. I was told that the interview would get over max by 4 PM. I had booked return journey on 7.30 PM train since the distance was around 2 hrs. The interview needlessly got delayed because the interviewer was stuck up somewhere. I reached Nagpur station at around 8 PM. Missed the train. Naturally there was no reservation available in next train. Took an unreserved ticket, however there was no way I could get in. Entered a sleeper compartment. Paid the fine and spent the night near the exit gate. Also, I had a plaster in my left hand during this experience. It was really very difficult period.

Near miss of train 1 : I had a train to catch from Bandra terminus. I was going to Ahmedabad. In those days there used to be severe traffic en route to Bandra terminus. Somehow I reached there but train was about to depart. I had two bags. Found a helpful coolie. Gave him a bag, I carried the other one and we ran towards the platform. He somehow made me enter the train. My compartment was on the other end so had to move from one end of the train to other end with my luggage and somehow reached my seat before TTE could mark me absent and give the seat to someone else.

Near miss of train 2: Somewhere in 2011, the train numbers were changed. I was waiting on the platform and saw that the train standing was having a different number than the train number on my ticket which was booked in advance. I asked the stall vendor when would "XYZ train come" (Don't recall the name). He said "Sir, its already started to leave". It was the same train which was standing on the platform. I ran towards it. Guard was in the last coach. He saw me running and was kind enough to open the gate and let me in. I showed him the ticket and explained what happened. He told me not and issue. I can get in the passenger compartment once the train stops at Maninagar which would come after 10 minutes. I did as he said and had a close shave.

Near miss of flight: I had a return flight from Ahmedabad to Mumbai in evening. My meeting got delayed. Then I got stuck in traffic. I reached the airport late and was mentally prepared that I would miss my flight. The counter was closed. I went in their office and requested an officer. He asked me where was I from. I replied that I am from Mumbai. Then he asked why I got late. I said that I got stuck in traffic. He asked there is much more traffic in Mumbai, so why didn't I leave early. I told him, "Sir, now even Ahmedabad is as developed as Mumbai and gets huge traffic in evening". He laughed and gave me the boarding pass! Another close shave.

[Pynummoottil]

I have missed a train only once because as my daughter always says, "Appa likes to warm the bench in the Railway station for at least one hour before actual departure time." The reason I missed the train was due to an entirely different reason. I had booked two berths on the night train to Nilambur from Thiruvananhapuram to board from Thiruvalla in Kerala. I had booked on the Rajya Rani Express to travel one Wednesday night to reach Nilambur on Thursday morning, from where I would be picked up to be driven to Gudalur in the Nilgiris, which was my final destination.
The Rajya Rani express timing had changed recently and even though it left Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday night, it’s actual departure time from Thiruvalla was a few minutes after midnight and hence the next calendar date. I had not taken this into account because the change in departure time from Thiruvalla was recent and I had travelled by this train many times in the past. We were in the station when the train arrived and discovered to our great amazement and distress our mistake when the TTE explained that we had booked for the previous day’s train.
I am a Surgeon and I was traveling to operate pro bono in a Hospital run by a friend and College mate for hill tribes and since the cases had all been already given appointments for Friday morning onwards for the next three days, my wife and I drove 330 Km through the night to reach Gudalur on Thursday in time for a very late breakfast, rested the whole day and was able to do what I came to do without any untoward incidents.

[yesyeswe]

My first ever flight, so excited to sit in the aeroplane for the first time, flight was in the morning at 6 am, i couldn't sleep due to excitement, at around 4 am i dozed off while sitting on the chair, missed my flight!

[satishv1987]

I have never missed a train/flight/bus because I was late. I have however missed a flight because I reached too early!

In 2016, I had to travel to the Netherlands on a business trip. I was supposed to fly from Bangalore to Amsterdam (via Abu Dhabi). My flight was at 3 AM on June 26.

I arrive at the airport at midnight on June 26, complete all the check in formalities and proceed to immigration.

The immigration official asked me where the Netherlands was and whether it was ahead or behind India. I told him it is 3.5 hrs behind India. He was in deep thought for a couple of minutes and then asked me at what time I would reach the Netherlands. I told him that after a lengthy layover at Abu Dhabi, I would reach Amsterdam at around 10 PM CET ( on the same day). It was then that he pointed out that my Schengen Visa was valid from June 27! A silly oversight on my part while booking the ticket meant that my ticket and visa were not in sync. So had I boarded the flight, I would have reached the Netherlands a couple of hours before I was legally allowed to do so. That meant there was a very real possibility of being deported back to India.

I did not board that flight and had a re book another ticket for the following day.

[vkivaturi]

I missed flight once and train once. Both are interesting stories.

Missed train - We had to catch our train from New Delhi and reach Vijayawada. Started from our college in Pilani (Rajasthan) to Delhi and this was a bus arranged for students. I think it was a 6 hours drive back then. Mid way, bus had a flat tire. 45 minutes to fix. After a while, another flat tire. Another 45 minutes. And a little while later, one more flat tire! Three in a row. Bus finally reached Delhi and we had just 30 minutes left to reach the railway station. Then we go stuck in traffic jams due to Metro construction. And that is how we missed our train. Waited for 4 hours in the station, took a different train and travelled in unreserved coach to finally reach Vijayawada next day.

Missed flight - this is the funny one. Happened outside of India. It was a business travel. Me and my manager reached airport on time, cleared security, reached the flight gate and started to talk. My manager started to share all his knowledge. Lots of it. (hope he is not reading this post). After an hour of lecturing, I suddenly realised nothing much is happening at our gate. We checked and realised the gate got changed. We rushed to the new gate, only to find the flight slowly getting towed away from the terminal. We took another flight few hours later. When we reached the destination, came to know our luggage got lost.

[urban legend]

Never missed a flight or train in my life as I am extremely punctual and always plan my travel meticulously, keeping a buffer for all sorts of situations. However one incident comes to mind when we almost missed a flight and how!
We were travelling back from Bagdogra to Mumbai after an excellent vacation in Darjeeling and Gangtok. We reached Bagdogra at around 9 pm and the flight to Mumbai was at 1 pm the next day. Me being me I booked a not so great hotel but which was very near the airport. Since it was just a night’s stay and the food was great, the wife and kids did not complain. The next day we reached the airport in just 15 minutes and well in advance at around 10 am. To my horror the airport was packed to the brim. There was some major system problem and the airline counters were not able to do the check in and issue boarding passes. The lines were crazy long and since it’s a small airport there was no place to sit too. We literally had some snacks and tea while in the line with the kids sitting on the baggage trolley and me and the wife taking turns sitting and standing whenever possible. Many times I went and met the airline staff and asked them to do something but they just did not cooperate
To make matters worse the air conditioning was also not working.
After a weary 2 and half hours finally our turn came and we literally ran to the security check.
There another horror was waiting for us. Due to the sudden overload of passengers and many passengers being angry and irritated , a mini civil war was going on between the passengers and security personnel( of words of course. No violence), and some passengers were fighting among themselves to get ahead in the queue. And then 2 guys started hitting each other. That was it! The head of airport security came and threatened that he would detain all passengers if they did nt behave. Luckily for me a nice lady from the airlines we were travelling in was passing by and I requested her to get my wife and kids out of this situation. She took my wife and smaller child with her through the security, but me and my elder son had to wait our turn. By the time we reached security, the flight departure was announced and my son started crying. I was even ready to give up the damn flight and travel the next day, but my wife was not picking up her phone which was understood as she either could not hear it or could not get it out of her handbag.
Finally after we cleared security, we spotted them and all of just ran to the departure gate. Luckily for the first time I was glad to see a long line there which meant everyone was late and everyone would be taken on board.
Once on the flight the mood was very foul, most of the passengers were complaining to the air hostess. There was not an apology or an offer of any refreshments. Throughout the journey we were just tired, sweaty and hungry as the airlines did not even have any decent food (it was a budget airline). Finally when we reached Mumbai we took a nice and relaxed break at the departure cafes to refresh.
Needless to say, e mails to airlines about out ordeal went unanswered.

[Shan_Kmu]

Yup. Had only one experience

Was Going to attend a marriage in Coimbatore. Booked a ticket in Cheran Express from Chennai Central which departs at 10:10 pm. I usually take local train (from Urapakkam) and it takes around 50 mins to reach Park station where we cross the road to reach Central station. So I came to Urapakkam station to catch local train at 8.30 pm. Unfortunately, after 10 min, it got announced that the train got delayed and it will arrive at 9.15 pm.

Wasn't sure whether this train will reach park station at right time but anyhow decided to board it as taking bus to central will definitely take more time to reach. Boarded the local train at 9.15pm and it exactly reached park at 10.05 pm. Sprinted along the road and crossed the signal to reach central and found the train in the platform. Boarded the train exactly at 10.09 pm. After some 30 secs, the train blew horn and departed.

[anshumandun]

I am guilty of missing the original as well as the rescheduled flight on the same day

10 years ago, I was studying in Madison WI and my then girlfriend (now wife) was visiting me. We had a vacation planned to the west coast and had a early morning flight from Milwaukee (100 miles away from my place in Madison) to Los Angeles.

We just miscalculated the driving time and reached the boarding gate 15 minutes before the departure. The gate was closed and we were not allowed to board even though the plane was standing right there!

Luckily, we were given a free rescheduled flight 2 hours later from a different gate. Determined not to miss the flight this time, we went straight to the boarding gate and sat down right in front of the gate. As fate would have it, we both dozed off and when we got up,the gate was already closed and again the flight left in front of our eyes! My wife has still not forgiven me for the mistake 'we' made

We were again given a free rescheduled flight 8 hours later that evening. We did not miss this one!