[LuganoPirate]

Hi Assumedscreenname, it happened in the late 80’s – so things could be verybdifferent now. I eventually found someone from Saudia and they booked me on the next flight to Jeddah. He advised not to use their comfortable lounge to avoid a repeat. I asked him about my bags and he told me “do not worry about your bags”. I did worry, the whole flight, and of course, when I got to Jeddah, after a 15 minute wait they dropped onto the carrousel! I was impressed I must say.

As a by the way. On another occasion, on a direct flight to London with a 747, we were all seated about to depart, when on the intercom we were suddenly told to collect our belongings and disembark immediately. In the pandemonium and panic to get off, enflamed by the FA’s who almost pushed us 1st class pax out the door, I had forgotten my book, which annoyed me as I only had 2 chapters to go.

After about an hour we were told we would fly to London via Jeddah. We boarded another 747, flew to Jeddah, and were told we then had to disembark and reboard the plane next to us. No gate, nothing, just down the steps and up the next one. I asked about my baggage and received the same cryptic response as before. I was this time twice as worried as I could see no baggage handlers!

Back on the plane we all took our same seats, and, lo and behold, in the seat back was my book!!!

Halfway to London when everyone was asleep I finally got the truth out of a Steward. The King’s plane had a technical fault and the only one ready for immediate t/o was ours. Hence we were herded off so he could fly to Jeddah, and as ours was all prepped for London, with our bags on board, the simplest thing for Saudia was to fly us to Jeddah, swap planes and carry on to London.

[dmiller91]

Leaving Mexico city. Flight left yesterday.

So tired, so wanted to go home. Luckily seat on same plane that day… never mind the fee 🙂

[SimonRowberry]

No flight boo-boos so far (that I remember). However, I managed to almost board a Finnair rather than BA flight to HEL from LHR a while back (both left within 15 mins of each other) and had to run like ‘HEL’ to catch the correct one.

I have turned up to both the Hilton Brussels and the Strand in Helsinki a day later than the booking. At the latter I got upgraded to the Presidential Suite (at no additional charge) as it was all they had left; at the former, it was also full so had to move to the Sheraton. In fairness, at neither hotel did they charge for the no-show.

This year I turned up at the Hilton Warsaw for a two-night stay. They insisted I’d only booked for one night. Before making a fuss, I checked on the Hilton iPhone app and they were indeed, correct. The hotel had no rooms for the second night so they booked me into the Bristol for a very low rate, where we were upgraded to a suite…

I doubt whether I’ll fall on my feet like this if (when?) I miss a flight or forget my passport at some point in the future.

Simon

[SimonRowberry]

Oh – sorry, another close call comes to mind.

Went to New Zealand with my mother in 2000 for my uncle’s funeral. MAN-KUL-AUK in MH Business Class.

The return trip was a bit emotional for the old dear and I had to keep a close eye on her. We sat in the MH Lounge at KLIA for a while and then I thought we’d better get to the gate. I remember a leisurely stroll, thinking it was 30 minutes before the gate closed. I never paid any heed to how quiet the pier was, or to the three guys who went hell-for-leather, running past us to the gate (the departure time was just before midnight, I think).

When we finally got there, we were severely reprimanded by the gate staff who said that we’d delayed the flight and that we were about to be offloaded. It seems that the battery on my watch was running down and the watch was 40 minutes slow. We then had to do the walk of shame onto the plane, up the stairs and to the front of the upper deck cabin. If the looks of the crew and other passengers could kill…..

Simon

[Author]

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