I showed up a day before my flight...having got the date wrong. The check-in staff smiled ...and put me on the flight.

I am sure I was the subject of some conversation. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

I did it to an ex-girlfriend one time. She lived in Plano, I lived in South Texas. We were flying CO to EWR and she flew down early so we could go together. It was only when we were on our way back EWR-IAH that I realized she'd flown OUT of DAL but was flying BACK to DFW! D'OH! As luck would have it, I couldn't get her on IAH-DAL so I ended up giving her a $100 for a cab (I figured it was my screwup, she deserved the extra...). Ooops. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

[This message has been edited by kanebear (edited 10-23-2002).]

international clock, i always use, set on my electronic watch as well. was able to avoid the AM/PM when i did RTW crrazily.
(how can you distinguish between 6am or 6pm if you are in jet-lag? the sky looks the same)

here are my stories

1. 20:00 => 10pm? forgot it is -12 not -10 and missed the train!
2. my flight was XX1630, departing at 1730. i glanced at my tkt and hurried to the airport, arriving at 1530, 2 hours early! good the flight number wasnt 1830 http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I did a similar thing on a RTW three years ago. I had just finished a very pleasant two days of business in MIL, including dinner the night before with a charming friend of mine (the highlight of which being her taking me to a restaurant which was serving pasta smothered in white truffles, transiently in season). I woke up with plenty of time for my 2 pm flight back to FRA in order to catch CX 288 to HKG (in F, natch). While dressing, I checked the ticket, and found out that the FRA-HKG flight left at 2 pm, not the LIN-FRA flight (which had left without me at 705 am).

This wasn't as bad as it sounded, as it gave me the excuse to spend an extra day in Milan, although I didn't have the heart (or the lire) to eat white truffles again.

I screwed up the dates on a LAS-SFO-HKG. Had a crazy night go to checkin, and told it is tomorrow.. Ohh no not another day/night in LAS. Well next morning no wakeup call at LAS hilton miss LAS LAX flight standbye to SFO in coach middle seat, no time to get luggage, have to buy friend lunch and dinner in future to bring me my luggage, made it to HKG!!!

Almost made this kind of mistake a couple of days ago. I am one of those people who can't stand to get to the airport any earlier than I have to.

Thought my flight was at 11:45. Arranged for car service to take me to airport at 10:45. Car service came twenty minutes early. Got to airport at 10:50.

After clearing security, I see people boarding at my gate and "ask, is they boarding flight ____ to _____ already?" Response: "Already. Sir, the flight is scheduled to leave at 11:05." Check the ticket, turns out I was wrong, but by some miracle made it in under the wire. Whew!

A couple months ago, I flew into TUS late at night. Great flight, feel like I am walking on a cloud when I get off the plane. Then I hit the rental counter. They can't find my reservation and are sold out. Next place is sold out, next is sold out, and on down the line. Finally get a car for about twice what I had reserved. Thinking I am out of the woods, I head to the hotel.

Upon check-in, the clerk informs me that my reservation is for the NEXT week and that they are sold out. Turns out the travel agent made my flight reservations for the one week and my car and hotel for the next.

Silver lining: I found a great place in Tucson, the Miraval Resort. Highly recommended. Plus, I haven't used a travel agent since.

jh

Not really flying related but two weeks ago I was visitng friends in Vienna after 2 weeks of hard business in Amsterdam and Paris - I had not seen these cats in a long time - needless to say I got to bed at 5am the first night. Woke up some time later with my dual time zone watch showing 9 and 3 (analog watch) and I could not remember which zone was home (SEA) and which was current (again late night) and to be honest I didn't know if it was 9am / 9pm / 3pm (pretty sure it was not 3am the next day) - what a moment - not sure which 12 hour period your in. Much to my surprise it was 3pm (I needed some sleep I guess) -

A number of years ago my cousins went to TLV from MEL on AZ via FCO. They arrived at the airport a day early (the flight was at 2345, which I would've spotted had I seen the ticket) but managed to get to FCO on that day's flight but had to spen an extra day in FCO.

goodo

Asked our corporate travel agent to book me an e-ticket on the 06:40 EDI-LHR shuttle.

Arrived at EDI in plenty of time for tea and toast.

Feel extremely relaxed and rather superior for having got up early enough to have breakfast and not be rushing like everyone else.

Checked in using easy-checkin machine, even changed my seat to one a few rows further forward.

Sat in lounge until 06:29 then trundled to Gate for 06:30 (unusual for me - I usually go as soon as the flight is called)

Boarding card rejected in machine

Tried again

No joy

Double check boarding card. Seems I'm actually booked on the 07:30 shuttle.

S**t!!! My meeting's at 09:30 and I CAN'T miss it.

Run accross to check-in desk......'can you get me on the 06:40?????'

'You'll have to go downstairs to change ticket......'

'Aaaaaagggghhhh'

'Wait a minute - let me call them - what's your cc number......'

Two minutes later I have the Golden boarding pass for seat 36B (or something rotton like that) but I'm on the 06:40 and get to the meeting on time!

Thank you BA!

Forget about the different end of the day, showing up at 0515 for an 0515 flight means you would generally miss it anyway! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Dave

[This message has been edited by thadocta (edited 11-01-2002).]

Oops.

[This message has been edited by thadocta (edited 11-01-2002).]

Yeah- but for those of us not used to 24 hour clocks, it's easy when glancing at an itinerary (or trying to remember one) to automatically convert it to base 10, so 1400 hours = 4pm.

A rookie mistake, I know, but I saw this happen with a co-worker (British, so he should have known better)- we got to LHR at about 1pm for our 4pm flights, but it turned out that mine was at 1600 and his was actually at 1400! He barely made it, but he did.

I guess being off by 2 hours is better than being off by 12!

[This message has been edited by landspeed (edited 11-01-2002).]

May I introduce you to my former secretary (now gone, so I can write this). Turn up at London Heathrow with a confirmation number for the 7.00 pm plane to find I had been booked on the 7.00 am that morning! The cost of a ticket on the spot was double what we had paid, which fortunately was refundable. But it wasn't - she had booked a no-refund ticket too, despite standing instructions. So it cost triple the original!

Bah. I have never actually messed this up. But this summer, my best friend and I were meeting up in London for a vacation (he was coming in from the US and I from Greece). We made plans to meet at the Contiki office in downtown London to save me the ridiculously expensive and time consuming train into Gatwick early in the morning. I waited and waited and waited and then began to panic. Three hours, a call to my parents back home, and a trip to the internet cafe to check my email later I convinced one of the Contiki reps to look up for me his flight information (they had booked it for him). Turns out his flight wasn't LEAVING the US until that afternoon. He apparantly didn't realize that he would be arriving in the UK the day AFTER he left the US. Silly Boy. On a good note, I got to spend the day shopping with a friend in the city and then watching the last performance of CATS from Covent Garden.

~Tallia

I had a 1:00 am redeye from SFO-CLE-EWR last year. I checked into a cheap hotel by the airport at 6pm and asked for an 11:00pm wake up call.

For some reason I am startled and wake up at 12:14.No wake up call.
I throw all my stuff into a bag and run to the desk. There is a shuttle bus but it is on a return trip from the airport.It arrives at 12:35.
I take the ride and get to the airport at 12:47.
Get my boarding pass and haul butt to the gate (of course its the farthest possible gate from where I am).
Go through security at 12:55 and run to the gate. I get there and the flight is delayed 1 hour due to equipment problems. I drop my bags and collapse in front of the podium. LOL