Had a bad experience last night with Ethiopian Airlines, and I'd like some advice about whether or not I should try to get compensated. Here's the story:

I'm mobilized in Djibouti, Africa for the year. It isn't a particularly pleasant place, but we do get to take two 96-hour liberty periods off. They've tightened the rules, so it is really only 96 hours (before last month, you could fly somewhere and not get the flight days counted against the four days).

Anyway, my girlfriend and I decided that we would meet in Istanbul, Turkey, because it only takes me 10 hours to get there, and it takes her about 14 (total with layovers) from Boston.

My flight last night was scheduled for 7pm out of Djibouti, to Ethiopia. I printed my boarding pass on my computer, went to the airport, went through customs, and then waited for the plane. When it was time to board, the gate agent wouldn't accept my self-printed boarding pass. He let everyone else go first, then he said, "come with me." We walked back down to the check-in (it's a tiny airport), and he asked them to get me a new boarding pass.

About two minutes later, I hear a plane start its engines, and I think, "I hope that's not my plane." It was my plane. It took off without me, and no one stopped it.

After a lot of yelling by all the people at the airport, they finally scheduled me for another flight today, which will get me in about 12 hours later than originally planned. So much for my 96-hour vacation -- now it's 84 hours.

So of course my girlfriend has to navigate through Istanbul by herself and isn't thrilled (and esp. after the woman from NYC was found dead). Luckily I was able to text her before she got on her cross-Atlantic flight, so she knew I wouldn't be there to meet her.

Question: should I email the airlines to tell them I'm upset? If so, should I request some sort of compensation? Is it even worth it to bother? I'm still going to enjoy the shorter trip, but I'm peeved that it was cut short because of airline/airport staff mistakes.