LOVE this thread--thanks everyone for the entertaining stories!

A few years ago I had a 6:00am SFO-DAL flight to attend an ex-colleague's wedding in Plano, despite the fact that the flight time was only 1.5 hours after I got off the graveyard shift and I would get crappy sleep.. (The next flight on AS--I was MVP Gold that year--arrived at 5pm, which wouldn't get there in time for me to get ready by the 6pm start.)

I work about 30 miles away from SFO on the other side of the bay in Fremont, which takes 35-ish minutes with no traffic.

As I was exiting for the San Mateo Bridge I got a call from a number with the work prefix; it was my colleague calling to ask where I was because I had left my wallet on a console at work. At first I thought maybe I didn't need it as I had my phone and work badge (a RealID)--I could just get cash from an ATM with a mobile PIN and also still get on the plane.

Then I realized I needed my DL and CC to pick up the rental car and check into the hotel! GAH. Sadly, I had already passed the last possible exit before the bridge (now it was about 4:50am), and I had to drive all the way across in building morning traffic, turn around, and drive 25 miles back to work. My colleague texted me for my position during the drive back so she could meet me just outside the guard shack and do a handoff without me stopping the car. This happened about 5:03am.

I had prepaid for off-airport parking at a lot 5-7 mins from the terminal, and stubbornly refused to resort to plan B by spending a gazillion dollars for on-airport parking. I figured I could always take the later flight and show up fashionably late?

So now I'm driving all the way back to SFO in building rush-hour traffic, weaving past all the half-asleep tech company employees who live 2 hours away in the Central Valley. As I don't take that bridge to commute I didn't know which lane to be in for FasTrak, which kinda worked out in my favor because I managed to pass all the people who line up too early instead of using all the lanes of the freeway and merging like a zipper at the end. (Before you give me grief about this, read "Traffic" by Tom Vanderbilt.)

I make it to the parking place about 5:45am. There is a shuttle just firing up its engine, so I make eye contact with the valet, toss the keys onto my driver's seat, and jump on the bus. Right as we pull away from the lot, I get a push notification that the flight is boarding. I nervously wait for my stop (#2) and run off at 5:52am.

I breeze through with PreCheck and run to the gate. There are two people being helped at the desk. I flash the boarding pass to the gate agent and plop down in 4A to a million texts from the colleagues who are now on the day shift asking if I made it, and then the two previously at the desk come through the door.

I had 5 minutes to spare, and I wasn't even the last one to board!