[RoadKing]

A couple of weeks ago, I was on a BA flight to London. Arrived at the airport having an hour to stay in the lounge. Half an hour prior to departure I was to leave the lounge for boarding when I realized I had forgotten my passport.

Last hope was to get an emergency passport, as I was waiting for the airport police to finish their work the dreaded call from the BA gate desk came in…. With 15 minutes left, and me being land side there was no chance 🙁

Cudos to BA for trying to get a hold of me before they decided to dump me.

Unfortunately later flights were full, but SK did have an opening so I travelled with SK 2 hours later and had time to go back and fetch my passport. Wasted money.

Havin been a frequent traveller for almost 20 years, this is the second time it has happened. The other time was on a trip to France, back then I just took the chance and travelled without passport. Lo and behold, the French at CDG let me through on a driver license. I wish you guys on that Island out there could join the Schengen too and stop being so childish.

Having said all this, I know I am myself to blame, but I still dislike that airlines are allowed to cancel your return flight when you don’t do the out.

[flyingbunny]

Left passport on packed plane. Realised when the bus was approaching terminal building. Told driver who called plane and turned bus around. Drove back to the plane. Passengers looked annoyed. Cleaners boarded bus looking for person resembling photo in passport. Eventually I own up. Everyone looks at me like I am a loser.

[BRUSHES]

US AIRLINES….USUALLY ALLOW 23+ HOURS TO COMPLETELY CANCEL A RES AND APPLY THE FUNDS TOWARDS FUTURE TRAVEL. DOES BMI OFFER THIS?

[judynagy]

Of course RBrown is responsible for him/herself when flying. But there’s not a single excuse for missing a flight when you’re in the airline’s lounge. These people are paid to take care of you! I would REALLY make a fuss over this with the airline. 1) to spare someone else the aggravation of being similarily treated and 2) the airline should really compensate you in some way for the bad PR they caused.

[Deleted User]

Every time I am in the T5 BA lounge I only just make the boarding gate in time. I am often threatened with being offloaded, been accused of delaying passengers, quite often glared at when boarding as invariably I am the last one on.

I always blame BA, they just cannot sort the problem out, each and every time, I make the same complaint to the gate personel, yet on my next visit, the same tedious situation occurs:

The T5 lounges, each and everyone of them are so darn comfortable. Even the upstairs exec lounge has its nice quiet spots which I often use, instead of the downstairs Galleries lounge. The Concorde room personel are often amused when I walk straight through ignoring the top tier lounge in favour of another one.

So until BA start dropping the standards in the T5 lounges there is a very good possibility that if you see a 50 year old slightly balding 70 kilo 5 foot 7 inch tall gent, sauntering onto the aircraft rather late, then that could be me.

Judy, I do make a big fuss about being late at the gate, but hey, I must tell you, if I did miss the flight, I wouldn’t care less, cos back to the lounge I would go!

Tomorrow Friday, I will be in the T3 lounge from midday onwards for a 4pm flight. So if you are going to Helsinki and someone gets on the plane late, dont shout at me, shout at BA for making me feel so comfortable in the lounge.

Cant wait, life with a silver/gold card just doesnt get much better (at Heathrow of course)!!

[judynagy]

What a cute story, CMB. I can relate to it, having spent many enjoyable hours at the LHR Virgin Clubhouse. I arrange things so I have several hours there before my flight back home. However, I did spend 10 or 12 hours once with mechanical problems … there IS a limit of enjoyable hours in lovely lounges. I could travel forever shuttling back between the lounge and that luxe upper class cabin.

[r ryan]

You do indeed have my fullest sympathy. Sometimes life is just too darned complicated. I blame Gen X trying to keep us baby boomers under control, but that’s another story. I tend to be anally retentive and over organised, and yet…

I swanned up to the check in at Zurich airport at 8.30pm for my 10.30pm flight to Athens, thinking, ooh it’s very quiet here, to be told the aircraft was at that moment pushing back, and that 20.30 is not 10.30pm….how embarrassing. had to wait 24 hours as the next morning flight was full.

had a near miss in London City Arrived early, waiting for a Swiss flight to Zurich. Airport was closed “due to fog” so went to the restaurant. I could see the runway from my stool, which had not even one ounce of fog on it, and proceeded to indulge in lunch, with possibly one or two too many liquid components.

checked the screen periodically (delayed delayed etc) did not see the Swiss aircraft land, or indeed any other. At some point I checked the screen to see “closed” for my flight, ran outside the restaurant to hear my name being called. The desk told me to RUN (not pretty) and arrived at gate to find it shut. Staff took pity, opened the door and shouted at crew not to shut the aircraft door. staggered on board to a FILTHY look from first two rows, where unfortunately i was sitting. It seems the aircraft had arrived early and was there all the time before the fog shut down..and no announcements in the restaurant. what can you say

[PatJordan]

My ego was bruised one day when I tried to use Aer Lingus on-line check in for four sectors the following day. After literally dozens of times doing it, I couldn’t understand why the system wouldn’t recognise my bookings.

I rang Aer Lingus more than a little annoyed: why can’t I check in for tomorrows flights???

Because, Mr Jordan, they were actually for yesterday……………tuesday, not thursday.

Grovelling apology to the Aer Lingus agent whilst she arranged refund of taxes & charges.

Severely bruised ego for me…

Much giggling from Mrs Jordan at the so called frequent flyer’s boo boo!!

[LuganoPirate]

Fell asleep in 1st class lounge in Riyadh. Woke up, dashed to gate and all that was left of the flight was my baggage on the Tarmac by the gate.

Forgot passport twice but made the plane as I live 10mins from Lugano airport. On one occasion Swiss held the flight for me while the security officer rushed to meet my wife in the car park to get the pp to me that much quicker.

Son (6) refused boarding to JFK at Zurich as his passport was issued to late for visa free travel. Wife and other son them had to wait till next day flight while emergency passport was issued by Swiss authorities at the airport. Shame this can’t be done at LHR for British pp holders!

Flying Miami – NY I ended up in SFO as I boarded wrong plane on walking from the gate. Pax count was correct so plane took off. Turned out another pax had coincidentally boarded the NY plane instead of the SFO plane!!! They flew me FOC to NY and upgraded me to first to boot. This was in the mid 70’s so doubt it would happen today.

Overslept once to miss return flight from Port Harcourt.

BA once refused to let me board for my First class flight JNB to NBO as I was wearing shorts and they felt this would upset the other passengers!!! Really!

Finally, most embarrassing moment. In 1996 I was flying to Dubai in first and got chatting to my neighbour. He introduced himself as “Colin Montgomerie” and as one does, I asked him what he was going to Dubai for. He answered “for the Golf” and I asked him if he was any good? His response was to effect he was known to play a few good strokes, subject changed and that was that.

Imagine my horror on turning on the tv next day to see him being interviewed, then playing and going on to win the championship. I’m not a golfer and had no idea who he was, till then!!!

[judynagy]

Wouldn’t worry about hurting the golfer’s feelings, Lugano, my sister once spent a 3-hr flight chatting with Glen Campbell … as they landed he told her that he was DELIGHTED that she didn’t know who he was because he “enjoyed a regular conversation like a regular human being” instead of discussing the meaning of the lyrics to “By the Time I get to Phoenix”. Your golfer no doubt enjoyed chatting with you on subjects other than golf. I’ll bet he’s still chuckling about not being recognized.

[Ahmad]

Hi LuganoPirate, I am really interested in knowing what happened after you missed your flight at Riyadh Airport since I travel to Saudi often and have noticed that the airport staff is not very accommodating. Did the Riyadh incident happen recently? Regards.

[JJ51435]

You are right Rbrown. Although it is the sole responsibility of the passenger to be at the gate on time, most airlines make an extra effort to find their business and first class passengers by paging several times and sometimes even holding the flight for a few minutes. I noticed from posts here that a lot of people fall asleep in the first class or business lounge… I would advise not to stay there – although you are entitield to it – but instead chose the tough plastic chairs in the loud terminals reserved for the cattle car class. You would never fall asleep there as you will be too busy watching your luggage and babies being breast fed.

[CharlesRhona]

Many years ago we flew into Jakarta with BA. My wife was very tired and for some reason laid her handbag down on a ledge as we queued to go through passport control at international arrivals. We then re-checked in at the domestic terminal for our onward flight to Bali. Only once airside did she realise that she had lost her handbag. You can look down from the departure area to the international arrivals and believe it or not we could still see her handbag sitting where she laid it down! I looked around and noticed there was a connecting staircase between the two areas. Taking a chance I tried the gate and found it unlocked! Quickly I nipped down the stairs, grabbed her handbag, and returned to departures. Nobody questioned me!

[GoonerLondon]

I also have arrived at the airport a day late for the flight I booked (I was a young lad in cheap economy, and BA just switched my flight for free – so that was nice!)

But that very same flight my friend drove me to the airport in my car, so it could be left at his parents house for cheap airport parking. I thanked him and waved him off – only remembering at last minute that the keys to my suitcase were on my keyring that was in the car with my mate being driven away at speed….

I went to the BA baggage people and said “Do you have a generic key that works for my case” – which they did – problem solved…

[LuganoPirate]

Hi Judynagy, thanks for that, at least I’m not the only one. I would have recognized Glen Campbell though, he was one of my favourite musicians. Happy flying. LP.

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