2 missed flights, whilst sitting in the lounge – sympathy or no sympathy….?

[quote quote=884315]Many people miss those ‘just after midnight flights’. They have a huge no show rate which is balanced by accommodating the people who missed it the night before. [/quote]

It may sound unbelievable but many years ago I had a Qatar Airways flight with a departure time of 00.00 from Hong Kong. I think THAT shouldn’t be allowed. I was flummoxed and had to ask Qatar Airways which day it was.

[quote quote=884328] It’s just plain stupid, should be 2359 or 0001.[/quote]

Me too, I couldn’t believe it when it happened. If I recall correctly the same flight not long after that was scheduled for 00.01 or 00.05, can’t remember which but that was better.

@GivingupBA — Unbelievable a flight designated as 00.00. Never seen that ever.
I used to take regularly (in the good old recent years) a QR flight out of AUH to DOH and that was always timed as 23.59

I think it’s easily done to be honest. Almost happened to me when I was doing an internal flight in the US on AA – I hadn’t realised that the flight information boards in the lounge only showed which gate a flight was departing from, not when boarding had started and it wasn’t until I checked my boarding pass and then looked at my watch and realised the gate must be about to close (even though there was nothing on the board to suggest it had begun boarding) that I wandered down and discovered they were literally about to close the door. I got chewed out by the gate agent and had to do the walk of shame as the last person on board. Means that I now make sure I’m always at the gate at least 10 minutes before the time on the boarding pass.

1F

Forgot to add – I am mostly travelling SQ now and SQ apps also has a flight alert facility

The ever-useful AwardWallet app sends an alert one hour before (and also four hours before) departure for any trips it knows about – although I’m not sure whether that’s the scheduled departure or whether it can get live updates for delays etc. Also seems pretty good at automatically identifying trips from your email (on iPhone at least).

I also use Malaysia Airlines’ app to keep track of all my OneWorld flights.

Hi Martyn
Like most people, no real sympathy, although a lot of empathy from me…..

Missed a Frightmare flight from DUB, even though we were sat about 50 yards from the departure gate having a last pint of Guinness.
Actively watching the boards the flight showed “Go to Gate” , after a while we went to investigate and found that the flight, or rather the buses had already left and the flight was closed. We could see the plane as people queued to climb the stairs.
We were told personal announcements happened and it was our responsibility to be at the gate 30 minutes before hand. Simply the FR desk agent neglected to change the boards, and as we went to collect our off loaded luggage pointed out that the flight still showed “Go to gate” even though there was still a host of flights showing “boarding” and “final call .
To no avail we had to pay £110 for a new one way flight to EDI…The original price was only £40 return !!

My lounge story , totally my fault. Back in the good ol’ days of BMI I almost missed my MAN-EDI flight . Arriving a tad late to change to the earlier flight and a few hours before my scheduled flight I sat back and took advantage of my top tier status. In other words drinking 18 year old Glenkinchie rather than 12 . Feeling a bit tipsy I went for a walk around the terminal, eventually returning to the lounge. Looked at the board to see the flight had just moved to “Boarding” status. Before I could take a sip , it changed to Final Call . leaving the lounge I started the trek to the gate , with my name piercing through the terminal speakers I was rushed on to the aircraft. Then the penny dropped , an Embraer is a hell of a lot smaller than a A320 !! Lucky boy and happy to the scowls from the cabin crew.

@Bath_VIP
My FR experience above is similar to your EZY issues at EDI and GLA. Especially if a bus is being used. LCC’s will rigidly enforce the gate closed time rather than when the plane actually leaves. I now make sure I’m at the gate at least 10 minutes before the ½ hour. My missed flight to EDI left at least 10 minutes before its scheduled slot , yet everybody bar us ,were on the bus as the gate as it closed.

I’m against technology , purely because I ‘d assume that it would change passengers behaviours. And rather than be at the gate in a timely manner, they’d wait for the final ping on their phone, thus negating the benefit of getting a notification. Not to dissimilar to the selfish behaviour that capetonianm mentioned.