I have another story of missed flights but it doesn't involve me. I was sitting at the gate on my first ever MR. Was handed my upgrade for the trip home in advance so was happy. I was there early enough to see a previous flight boarding to leave. The GAs were calling a party of three numerous times. After about the 7th time they decided to close the door. I was thinking to myself that either the missing party was in the airport bar or they were inexperienced enough that they didn't know to show up enough in advance.

Sure enought the family of three (parents + baby) showed up at the gate. The GA said "we called you 7 times, you were not here, the flight is closed. You will need to be booked on the next flight".

Now the dad gets angry. He says "We were in the President's Club. I travel ALL THE TIME and never heard a gate announcement. How dare you shut the door on us!!" Now, I (as poster) can't say I've ever been in the SEA PC, but I can say in every other PC I've been to, they never announce domestic departures. But even if they did (which may be the case in SEA?), as a seasoned traveler, I never rely on announcements, I rely on the time the flight was supposed to leave and base my decisions on that (i.e. I get to the gate before boarding time). I still at that family today. Especially daddy-o. They did manage to make it on the next departing flight.