n198ua

I hadn't slept all night and was booking itinerary after itinerary into BKK to see my s/o and I finally found a miles+more that worked for me. Made the reservation. No problem,
About 10 minutes later I was half asleep, but poking around my reservation looking at seats, making sure airports were correct etc, and don't ask me how I did this, but I CANCELLED IT. I barely remember doing it but it is indeed cancelled.

I hurried and called United but long story short and two supervisors later there was nothing they could do. The miles had already been refunded. He suggested I just re-buy the ticket but I'm one of the few people in the world with no CC so I'd actually have to wait for the refund to my debit card have the cash to use. Its unfortunate BKK is one of the most expensive itins in the system.

This is one of the most embarrassing things I've ever done.

narvik

Sorry to hear!

But count yourself lucky if that was one of the more embarrassing things you've ever done. I've done that and many more idiotic things.
Hope you eventually get to BKK.

n198ua

At least I had a good rep at UA that tried everything and felt truly sorry.

Repooc17

Decades ago, I missed a flight due to not checked in at the cutoff time. I was a young kid then thinking it was cool for me to check in at the airport. Then, no smart phones/airline app, but you could check in on any computer with internet access.

Left for airport in plenty of time, but unusual public transport delays got me to the airport late. I got to the airport, more important, at the check-in kiosk 1 minute after check-in cutoff. Flew on the next flight some 10 hours later, and didn't get to destination until after midnight...by then, rental car counter closed, so required two taxi rides to/from airport to get the rental next morning. Rideshares were still years away.

Lots of learnings.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

I showed up for a redeye flight at HNL heading for my first job in Houston after graduating college. I assumed the 11:30pm flight always left at 11:30pm. Thought it was strange there was nobody in the check-in lobby when I got there (for the flight that left at 10:30 due to dumb daylight savings time change on mainland). This was before pre-board security times, so one could show up at airport 30 minutes prior to departure. I'm smarter now that I've learned about DST.

tods27

When I was consulting and flying weekly to PHX for a project, I showed up at the PHX airport and found out my return flight was booked for Saturday instead of Friday. This was back in the days before SDC. I can't remember if I had the corporate TA rebook the flight or if the UA GA had pity on me and just put me on the Friday flight.

n198ua

I got on a 737 bound for Vegas instead of Des Moines b/c the GA was "too busy" to scan my boarding pass. To this day I still don't know how I got on that plane with an un-scanned pass. I couldn't figure out why everyone was talking about casinos and gambling (and not banking and insurance )

bmwe92fan

Years ago (in the time of paper tickets) I was late getting into CLT for my flight to Fayetteville, AR on my way to see Walmart. I pulled an OJ and ran as fast as I could from one side of the airport to the other -- and breathlessly ran on to the plane and sat down for the flight. Unfortunately I landed in Fayetteville, NC...

bmwe92fan

My worst mistake ever did not actually happen to me -- it happened to my boss but I took the blame for it....

Years ago airlines flew much more point to point (like Southwest does) and I was travelling back from Pittsburgh with my boss. Our plane landed in ROC and I got up to deplane and noticed my boss further back in the plane still resting -- so off the plane I got and went home never thinking about it again until later that evening when my boss called me from Toronto. He never woke up, the plane boarded in ROC and then flew to YYZ (this was pre 911 times when travel was so much easier). Needless to say he was pissed as he was now stranded for the night in Canada. He was like couldn't you have just waited for me to deplane?

Oops.

goodeats21

Had an Exec do the same with Charleston (WV & NC). I think they caught it before boarding though...and had a long talk with their Admin who books travel.

pampa

Funny, my wife keeps telling me to stop messing up with the reservation because she was afraid I would accidentally cancel it. I guess it is possible then.

SS255

Flying back to AVP from LAX when I was in college, back in the days of paper tickets. I put my ticket down in the bathroom and left it there. I realized just before boarding the LAX-IAD leg that I didn’t have my ticket. Mad dash back to the Ladies Room, where my ticket miraculously was just where I left it, since quite a bit of time had elapsed. Never made that mistake again!

jamiel

Last April booked for cash a Basic Economy flight DTW-PHX for Dec 20 and promptly forgot about it. The flight information went to my husband's email (and calendar) and entirely missed mine. In planning for our trip in October, I bought an AA flight and thought we were good. About a week before leaving, my husband asked "so we're leaving on the 20th?" and I said, "no, silly, the 21st". Hilarity ensued, and a partial credit was issued when I cancelled, but I still can't figure out where the itinerary went. (we normally only use UA booked through Aeroplan so have record of things that way).

returnoftheyeti

Booking separate PNRs from my wife and I, something like SFO-LAX-HOU, and my ticket was correct but hers was like SFO-SAN-HOU with a 5 hour layover in SAN. She was not amused and I changed it at the very expensive walk up price.

physioprof

Back in the mid-90s showed up on the day for our EWR-LAX flight with economy tickets & went to the gate & the GA was all "Your tickets were for yesterday". So we are all "OOOPS" & the GA tells us to sit down & wait & she'll see what she can do. Apparently, the flight was oversold or a bunch of displaced pax were trying to get on, because there were tons of people at the desk getting all agitated & yelling & gesticulating. We just sat there waiting. Just as boarding was almost finished, the GA called us over & gave us two boarding passes & said "Thank you for waiting patiently". They were 1E & 1F.