Airline question

[Alpo]

This happened to me, many years ago. I get off the plane and I look at my ticket and it says my connecting flight goes out of gate 7 in 45 minutes. So I go down the gate 7 and I wait, and it's been 40 minutes, and I'm starting to wonder why they haven't called the flight, and I pull out my ticket to verify that it was 45 minutes, and it says gate 9. Oops.

 

If I get up and I book it on down the gate 9, and get on the plane just as they're about to close the door.

 

But if I had missed my flight, because I had misread the ticket and was at the wrong gate, what would they do? Would they just put me on the next flight to my destination? Would they make me pay more money because I was stupid?

 

I know that if my flight is supposed to get in at 1:00 and my connecting flight is at 1:30, but my flight doesn't show up till 1:22 so I don't make my connection, they'll put me on the next flight. No charge because it wasn't my fault (at least that's what they would have done in the early 2000s. I don't know what the hell they do nowadays). But in my example, where it was completely my fault, what would they normally do?

 

I remember one time my flight was late, and when I got off they had a cart sitting there and a guy calling my name, and they drove me to the other end of the terminal, where they were holding the plane for me. But again, that was their fault.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

My fault? They sold me a ticket on tomorrow’s plane, at a good price.

 

my plane was late? I never entered the terminal, they sent a van across the tarmac to get me, took me straight to my plane, I was VIP.

 

THEIR FAULT?  They got me a room and a new flight.

[Marshal Dan Troop 70448]

Years ago, we waited at O'Hara Airport circling on the ground for several hours because of the weather. Luftwaffe was good to us and provided free drinks and a meal including a meal later. Most passengers including us did worry about the fuel and being eaten away on the ground.

When we arrived in Cologne our connecting flight was on hold and all of us were rushed to the gate by carts and told to hurry. As we entered the plane we were told take any seat and buckle up. The door wasn't even completely closed when they moved us away from the loading gate, then moved onto runway and I bet the whole thing took less then 5 minutes from loading gate to take off. We flew off that runway and rotated at a sharp angel.

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

1 hour ago, Marshal Dan Troop 70448 said:

bet the whole thing took less then 5 minutes from loading gate to take off. We flew off that runway and rotated at a sharp angel.

 

That was lucky. Those angel strikes are even worse than the goose ones.

[J.D. Daily]

I had a similar situation in the very early 80's out of SFO.  This was during the Rust Belt severe recession when planes were always 1/2 empty or less.  The baggage check counter told me the gate where the plane to Miami was loading.  I  jogged through the terminal to get to the gate.  I get there, no plane or clerk.  Went back to baggage check counter where I was told to go to baggage claim office.  I did but it was closed & my luggage wasn't there anyway.  I went back to the check counter; where they made some calls.  Turned out they plane's gate was not the one I was told.  It was another gate no. & the pane hadn't reached the taxiway so it returned to the gate where the passengers looked long & hard at me as I walked to my seat.   That was back before RR deregulated airlines so ticket prices were high & if 1st class wasn't full you could get a no cost or cheap upgrades.  It was one of my 3 trips to Colombia as a techrep for the CAT dealer I worked 35 years for.

[Jabez Cowboy,SASS # 50129]

One time I flew into Tronto Canada, to catch my flight to Holland enroute to Uganda ,,,, In Tronto they had a bunch of issues and we sat on the plane for 4 hours before we took off, we arrived in Skipo Holland 4.5 hours behind schedule. I hurried to make it to my departure gate. only to be told that I couldn't board the plane sitting there, and watched as they closed the doors and pulled away ... I was told they would get me on their next flight to Uganda. Well that was a wait of 19 hours ...

The airlines policy was that because it was a less than 24 hour wait, I was not entitled to a hotel and that they would try to get me on a "Partner Airlines " flight ...

I waited the full 19 hours, got on the flight 10 hours later I arrived in Uganda but my checked baggage didn't all arrive, it seems that one bag was left on the tarmac. It arrived 24 hours later with No apology offered ... 

But in my 13 round trips to Uganda, that was the only piece of straying baggage and it did show-up ...

 

Jabez Cowboy  

[Dusty Devil Dale]

Years ago, I flew from LAX to San Jose del Cabo with two friends, for five days of blue water fishing.  At LAX, the Pacific Southwest Airline desk told us space was available on a one hour earlier flight if we wanted to switch, so we did.  BAD choice.  

We arrived in Cabo several hours later, but our luggage (fishing gear) was not on the plane.   A bit over an hour later the original plane arrived.  No luggage.  

Through the language barrier, we finally found someone who could tell us what to do.  

We were told tovreturn the following day to see if our luggage arrived on a later flight.  (One paid fishing day lost). 

We came in the following morning, and were directed to a small desk at the side of the de-planing area.  (the new airport was under construction then)  The lady at the desk led us down a staircase to a basement room the size of a small Wallmart store.  She told us, luckily in English, to look through the isles and see if we could find our luggage.  There were at least 30 isles, stacked helter-skelter with peoples lost suitcases, many had been there for some time and were covered with thick construction dust.   

 

After a couple hours, I spotted a long skinny black piece of baggage 150 feet down one of the isles.  It was my rod case.  Beside it were all of our other suitcases (expensive reels) with our baggage claim labels.  We put them on a cart and muscled them up the long staircase only to find the door locked.   We banged on the door and a security officer appeared, who led us back down the stairs and out a rear door to the daylight (never checking out claim tickets).  We hauled the gear around the long building to the airport front where we summoned a taxi for a (OMG !) ride to the East Cape.  The next morning we were fishing and laughing, but wondering what system (or non- system) they had in place for tracking luggage. 

 

I bet all of those lost bags are still on those dusty shelves, long forgotten about and paid off by insurance.  

 

Mexico fishing can be spectacular!  I since braved the airlines to fish there nearly every year-- until the Cartels made it unsafe to travel down there. 

Sad.