EZEDoesIt

I was sitting at the gate and the (already boarding) flight to DTW had posted a couple minute delay. I thought it'd be fun to check the rebooking options on the website. I chose one, not knowing it would change my reservation without confirming. The GA was unable to get DTW-SFO back so I ended up having to take a CR2 to MSP and the MSP-SFO became MX delayed by over an hour.

One little click on the website can lead to arriving many hours later! DO NOT CLICK REBOOK unless you're absolutely certain you want it.

MSPeconomist

In the days of PMNW paper tickets, I confused the flight number with the departure time, something like 1145 versus 1014. After returning my rental car at IND, I couldn't understand why my flight wasn't listed on the monitors as I was entering the airport. Of course, it has just departed, ontime.

yohanson

I booked a MSP-SFO-MSP flight leaving Monday and returning Friday except in this case and without realizing it, the return was for the following Friday. It was only when I couldn't find the paper copy of my driver's license, which had its corner clipped because I had just renewed it that I found out because the woman at National that I was talking with said it was a 12 day rental. BTW, I had to get the State of MN to fax them a copy of my license and a few days later I found the original paper copy in a pocket in my backpack.

I then paid a considerable amount to rebook for that Friday on NWA and then book another flight for the following week. If that were to happen again I would have just booked a second flight SFO-MSP-SFO for the weekend.

18sas

Similar to the OP, I did book a OW ticket for the wrong direction once. Instead of booking two OWs: ATL>BOS and BOS>ATL, I booked ATL>BOS and ATL>BOS. I showed up at BOS and couldn't figure out why the kiosk wouldn't print out my BP.

Miraculously the correct ticket was the same price as the one I purchased. I don't remember if the agent at the ticketing counter charged me for the change fee, but this was when the change fee was only $50 or $75.

MastaHanky

I had to make an emergency trip once and I requested a family member to book me a flight to "any of the Bay-area airports". I got to the airport and found that they had booked me to Santa Barbara - they obviously weren't that familiar with the geography of California. I was lucky enough to be able to get moved to a flight to Sacramento instead.

jsbh

I thought it would be easier to fly into LGA vs PHL to drive to Allentown. And then (same trip) I thought the Hertz "EVER"Lost navigation would route me back to LGA in he best way possible.

Sooooo very wrong on both accounts.

aerostl

I usually drive my car to the airport but borrowed Mr. Aerostl's because mine was getting serviced. I tucked his keys away in one of the zippered pouches in my laptop bag.

I return and wander the garage waving my key fob around, trying to find my car. Give up, report it stolen, cab home. I start telling Mr. Aerostl that my car was stolen from the airport, and he flips out. We were both stressed out by my travel schedule at that point, and ended up having a pretty explosive argument. I storm off to take a shower and crash, and notice out of the bathroom window... "Why is my car parked in our space?"

Whoopsies! The next time I asked to borrow his keys, Mr. Aerostl gave me this dopey grin, goes down to the basement, and comes back up with his spares plus the 'new keychain' they were attached to - a crowbar. Sold the car a few years ago, but actually think we still have that keychain/crowbar.

GRALISTAIR

Yep - PHL or even EWR if you do not want to pay outrageous ABE prices. LGA -no, no, no.

FlyingUnderTheRadar

Oh I have done lots of dumb things while traveling by air:

Booked a return for 26 July rather 26 June - had to drive to a different airport to get home as all flights were booked for the next three days.

Read my inbound departure time instead of the outbound time - missed the flight cutoff by 15 minutes, lost all upgrades, and had to sit in the back of the bus. And I do mean back. It was also the one and only time I gave out JWD certs - the CSA gave a big smile with that.

My favorite - was doing lots of traveling and walked in to Logan Airport and asked where I caught the shuttle flight to Boston.

Esltroy

We only have one set of car keys. We bought a used car and that's all it came with. Mr. esltroy was in the hot tub so I decided to just take a taxi to the airport. I was going to be gone for a week for work. While passing through tsa I took the one set of car keys out of my pocket and realize that Mr. Esltroy would be keyless for a week unless I did some fast thinking. I knew he was in the hot tub without phone, so I called a friend who lives near the airport who quickly came and picked up the keys. Mr. Esltroy was surprised to see our friend walk into the back yard with out keys, and relieved.

Mrdonut

I was flying Southwest to SFO, with a plane change in LAS. The outbound flight to SFO was delayed with little info on a new departure time. Like a genius, I sprinted to another gate and was actually allowed to board a flight to OAK without a boarding pass change.

Arriving in Oakland, I waited and waited and waited at the baggage claim - and then it hit me. My suitcase was checked on the delayed plane to SFO. You can almost see SFO from OAK but I had to ride the BART train the entire loop around the Bay. And then I still had the delay of waiting for the flight and the bag.

The circumstances would probably be worse today because they would have recognized that there was a bag on board that did not match a passenger on the flight. That would have inconvenienced the SFO passengers and added delay, as well as getting me on a Do Not Fly list somewhere.

MSPeconomist

Domestic flights don't seem to require 100% bag match, but normally you're not supposed to voluntarily separate from your checked bags.

Detroiter

I once booked a PVD-DTW flight for the day after I was intending to fly. When I got to PVD the kiosk wouldn't let me check in so I went to the ticket counter where the TA explained that my reservation was for the next day. Luckily there were seats left in my fare class, so was able to rebook for $300 in change fees for the two of us. Now I double-check dates when booking online.

baccarat0809

Ohhh ... the HORROR ....

remember, remember, remember, its ALL about the miles

kettle1

What's the dumbest thing YOU ever did?

Get married.
Kidding. Going on 20+ years. Pure bliss, as I am always on a plane or in an airport!

Back in the 80's flying from ATL to PDX, ended up in PWM. Damn it was cold. It was a phone reservation and I never paid attention, just said Portland on the phone and Portland was on my BP and on the sign at the gate when boarding the flt. Who would have thunk there is more than one Portland.