At the end of 2018, I was going on a multi-city trip that took me to Helsinki, then Berlin, then São Paulo, and finally back to Seattle.

My initial flight was to AMS and then on to Helsinki. I needed to be in Helsinki on time. I stupidly got to the airport late — like right past the hour time to check bags (both were carry-one). The initial rep told me I’d have to rebook my ticket to get my bags checked, which was a disaster.

Fortunately the special services rep told me to just go through security and make a run for it and she called the gate and told them I’d be gate checking.

At security, they gave me a hard time because I was panicked about missing my flight, but I managed to get on the air train in Seattle to the S terminal and make it onto the flight just before last call. The gate agent was annoyed they’d be gate-checking my bagS, but I was let on the plane. I even managed to get a PDB from the Delta One cabin crew, even though I was literally one of the last people on board.

I’ve missed plenty of flights but missing the first leg of an international flight when I had very little time for repositioning and had work reasons for be in Helsinki taught me an important lesson about knowing the cutoff time for bag check.