AM / PM what's the diff? ever done this?
 

Got my butt out of bed at 6am to make the 8:10 from MCO to DFW. Gate agent checks me in, hmmm you're not on this flight sir...but I have my receipt right here, see it says 8:10......doooh! 8:10 PM. Needless to say every MCO DFW flight is oversold by at least 15 people unil late this afternoon.

Am I the only one to have made this *rookie* mistake http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mad.gif

Not only a rookie mistake! I showed up at 5:15 pm for a 5:15 am flight from Honolulu to Kona. Managed to just barely make it on the last flight of the day on standby, but I was lucky.

Maybe a 24 hour clock system would prevent that from happening. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif I'm glad that you both made your flights, though.

I have a really funny story . . .

Two of my friends from when I was studying in London decided to take Easyjet to Dublin for a weekend (mistake #1 in my opinion). They got all the way to Stanstead only to realize that their flight was for the next week! So they go home.

Next weekend, they get back to Stanstead in the evening in time to make their 7:00 flight to Dublin. Only problem is that their fligth left at 7:00 AM, not PM! Dejected, they returned home to London, never to attempt another journey to Dublin.

Scary to think both are now practicing attornies!!!

I haven't done the "oops wrong time of day" mistake, however I have done the "oops, wrong airport" mistake.

My girlfriend (ex now) and I decided to hop a flight to LAS and spend the weekend rolling the dice. Well, after booking the flight, packing and calling a cab. We arrived at Chicago's Midway Airport. Upon walking up to the ticket counter and trying to check in, the agent told us that we were leaving out of Chicago's O'Hare Airport.

OH NO!!!!

We quickly jumped in a cab and hotfooted it over to ORD. With 20 minutes to spare, we made the flight.

It was a $95 cab ride. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

I've done the wrong day one a couple of times (booked the ticket for Sunday night by accident). I've also gotten ready in the morning for my evening flight and realized that I had completely forgotten to buy a ticket....

Fortunately it was still only 10am and only MDW-MSP where walkups on are relatively cheap, or else I'd have been out a bunch of miles!

Haven't made the time mistake yet. Just wondering if anyone has shown up on the wrong date and month due to date/month being transposed. e.g., a flight on 01/03 which could mean a flight on 3 January or 1 March depending on what system you're used to.

This is the #1 reason I call 1K desk, to verify my flights (along with requesting seats/upgrades).

It's helped me catch quite a few potential "OOPSIES"...

yep, i should have know better when i checked my flight and it was an MD 80 as opposed to 757...but..i thought..hey....AA is making some changes so maybe they changed the aircraft...again....my bad

A few months ago I was in BCN and in preparation for my departure the following morning a group of us went out, drank, caroused, had long drunken goodbyes, and went back to the hotel about 3AM where I decided to stay awake watching TV until leaving for my 7:35 flight at 5:30.

I fell asleep, woke up at 6:15, and ran unshowered from the Calderon to a taxi. I told the driver I'd give him an extra EUR20 if he got me there before 6:45. We made it about 6:50, and I ran to the Air Europa F line to check in. Sweating and gasping for air, I realized that I had left my carryon and laptop in the taxi and started to call the hotel to see if they could track him down for me. I got to the front of the line, handed the ticket to the agent, and watched as a group formed to scowl at my ticket, punch lots of keys on a keyboard, and look at me like I was crazy.

After a few minutes, the agent handed my tickets back to me. "Senor, el vuelo esta para manana."

As luck would have it my new best friend the taxi driver was heading into the terminal with my laptop. Back to the Calderon, where I explained to the clerk that I had checked out by mistake. I went up to the pool on the roof, got a couple hours of sleep, and did it all again the next night. This time I stayed awake, though.

-alan in seattle



[This message has been edited by alanw (edited 10-21-2002).]

Wouldn't that be great, and at the same time some "backward regions" could switch to the metric system. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif (Everyone on this board should be all for it, as collecting kilometers is faster than collecting miles!!)

[This message has been edited by Greg45 (edited 10-21-2002).]

I really like the Calderon... it's been a whole 2 years since I've been in BCN http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

I hope you tipped the taxi driver extra well. Many of the cab driver's I've been with may not have been so kind. It's always nice to meet courteous people like that.

On the family's first trip to TLV we were flying on CO FLL-EWR and then EWR-TLV on LY. We arrived at FLL on a Sunday, curbside the luggage and procede to the gate to check-in. At the gate we find out that our travel agent issued our CO tickets for the next day, monday. Half of the family made it to EWR on our intended flight, the other half made it on the next flight to EWR and we hauled a** to the LY counter. Thankfully the load to TLV was relatively lite and LY held the plane for a few minutes so we could make the flight. All I can say is "all's well that ends well".

How about this one?

Flight scheduled for TPE-HKG-LAX. Experienced flyer confidently arrives at airport ~70 minutes before departure, knowing he can clear check-in and immigration within 10 minutes and have a good 20 minutes in the lounge before boarding.

Arrive at the airport to find that his flight departed an hour ago, because he arrived at TPE just in time to catch his HKG-LAX flight.

Read the FIRST entry.....

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

I had a more bizarre one than that once (though with less dramatic consequences)--one Saturday in Feb., went across town for a chess tournament, no one there, get back home and discover that I had the right day, wrong month!

Not time-related, but a true story: A few years back one of my then-coworkers had to travel to Geneva, Switzerland, where our European headquarters were located, for a meeting. Her secretary somehow booked her on a flight to Genoa, Italy, and my coworker either didn't notice, if that is possible, or didn't realize there was a mistake, and she made the trip...

Fortunately for her, the distance between the two isn't that great, but she was extremely embarrassed when she returned. Of course, everyone in our company found out about it...

A friend of mine who is working at the airport told me a funny story:

There was an elderly turkish lady who wanted to travel from FRA to somewhere in Turkey. Her family member where only allowed to accomply her to the immigration and she went alone to the gate (as she was only visiting her family and not living in Germany she couldn´t neither speak german or english). When they flight was announced she boarded the aircraft with all the other passengers without wondering that there were no turkish passengers on this flight. The gate reader didn´t work so the gate staff boarded all passengers manualy by entering the seat number (it must have been a pretty full charter flight with about 300 pax onboard and they didn´t check thorougly the destination on the boarding passes). As the load was o.k. they "closed the flight".
After a little while the turkish lady onboard the aircraft wondered why the flight was so much longer than the outward flight and someone explained to her (don´t ask me how) that she was sitting on a plane to Punta Cana in the Carribean...
Sometimes travelling isn´t that easy especially when you´re in a foreign country...

I have a worse error: OOPS WRONG TICKET!!!

I had 2 flights (totally seperate) booked with paper tickets. I got to the check in counter and to my horror I had grabbed the wrong tickets. Thank god JFK is only 15 mins from my house. I quickly went home and got the right one.

I actually have another one. I was connecting at MIA and was sitting at the Burger King chatting with my travel partner. I was waiting for my flight to JFK on AA and had lost track of time. By the time I got to the gate they were 75% done with boarding. Just made it.

I've done the wrong time booking before... booking at AM instead of PM flight; though I managed to catch it and they changed it for me without a fee. Can't say I've shown up at the wrong time or airport before, at least not yet.. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Never done the wrong time before, but I have done the wrong airport.

When I still lived in Chicago, I was in Palm Springs for a family emergency. Emergencies being what they are, I ended up having to continually reschedule my return flight. The problem was that every time I rescheduled it, I ended up changing airports as well. One day it would be ONT, another PSP, and still another LAX, and this rotated multiple times.

Sure enough, when I was finally ready to go home, I showed up at ONT worried that I was already running a little late only to realize the moment I pulled onto the airport property that my flight was leaving from LAX.

At least the reschedule that followed that flight was booked out of ONT, so I was able to get a hotel there and be ready to go right away in the morning!

I have, moe than once, flown from West Coast USA city to West Coast USA city by way of SLC (on DL) or DEN (on CO when they had a hub there).

(I do it for the miles of course!) http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

SLC and DEN are on Mountain Time, while the West Coast is obviously on Pacific. More than once I have gone wandering when I should have been boarding, but so far, no missed connections!

(Thanks to PHX having their odd time system, I am more aware any time I have flown through Arizona on HP)(Which I will never do again, thank you HP)

Try this...Getting on the plane for the wrong destination. GA/FA/passenger all missed the "destination check".

HNL-ITO
Fifteen minutes after we pushed off from the gate, and right after we were certainly the next to take off, the purser made an announcement. We had to go back to the gate because they accidentally boarded three Maui-bound passengers, on our flight. Oh geez. These people didn’t know where they were going? The agent didn’t scan their tickets? The passengers didn’t hear the “destination check” announcement?
Another ten minutes later, we returned to the gate and three “locals” (certainly not tourists) disembarked. Another passenger decided she didn’t really want to go to Hilo afterall, and also disembarked. Shouldn’t we have another security sweep then? What if the four passengers left carryons on the flight? I bit my tongue. Just get me to Hilo.

Oh boy.... While in HKG, I thought the flight to NRT was 9PM. To my suprise my flight was 12 hours earlier