<p>Our S was able to catch an early flight to SFO & then SFO to HNL. It was cheaper than his non-stop LAX to HNL. We’re glad he’s home!</p>
<p>The one time I missed the connecting flight, they said they were calling my name but we could hear them from the in-terminal restaurant where we were having a snack. Turned out to be an expensive and time-consuming break in retrospect but could have been worse.</p>
<p>travelnut, I heard that, too, but I think it was for no-shows. I don’t know how late you have to be from your flight to be considered a no-show.</p>
<p>jrparr funny story. Actually a Southwest ticket counter employee told me that they had some lattitude with “missed flights”…I got hit on my way to Midway several years ago and missed the flight. My car was somewhat driveable but the airbag was hanging out and the higway wrecker guys said to take it to the airport and deal with it after my trip since i was only a few miles away from the ramp and let me keep going. Southwest put me on the next available flight with no upcharge.</p>
<p>My son’s reservation was either United or American, I can’t remember which one now. I think a number of airlines give some flexibility to gate agents on rebookings if you are actually at the airport.</p>
<p>As everyone has said, it’s the NICE squeaky wheel who gets the help. If you don’t succeed with the first agent or the second, keep trying until you find one who is sympathetic. A kind agent can have quite a bit of latitude about how they can help. When our flight was cancelled due to a mechanical problem, they told me that the next flight was several days later. I begged a nice ticket agent and told them I needed to be with our D who was starting college in LA. Miraculously, they found H & me seats on the same flight the next day instead of several days later. ;)</p>
<p>My D overslept for her flight at Thanksgiving. She begged a TSA Agent to let her go through the priority lane instead of waiting in the long line. She made her flight by minutes.</p>
<p>I’m really worried about her waking up in time for her 9:40 am out of LGA tomorrow morning. She needs to get on the bus around 7 am. We had a “discussion” about it tonight. She was really offended that I wanted to call her or use her “where’s my droid” app to make sure she was up. Ugh. She better wake up for this flight tomorrow. There are no seats on any other flights from LGA to DTW tomorrow.</p>
<p>All people should try to allow extra time for TSA and crowds this time of year. Of course, there will always be LOTS of folks rushing at the last minute to catch their planes–sometimes they are lucky and manage to catch their planes. Often they are miserable & make others around them unhappy as well. </p>
<p>It’s especially frustrating when you can’t pre-check and have a lot of delay working with the ticket agent, then more delay at TSA. One of the benefits of premier is being able to go in the priority lane (not many TSA agents will let those who don’t have the status switch into the line, even if begged).</p>
<p>My niece has slept through when she was supposed to fly home. The next time she had an early morning flight, she stayed up all night & caught the shuttle. She was afraid if she went to sleep before the flight she’d miss it again.</p>
<p>In situations where one misses there flight, many airlines used to have a “flat tire rule” that let one standby for the next available flight for free. While this may no longer be an actual rule for the airline you’re flying, being nice to the ticket agent will often help ones cause. For piece of mind, many will pay the $50 or $75 and SDC (same day confirmation) themselves to another flight. SDC is often free for those with high enough elite status, which is beneficial when meeting end early or one has a better chance of a first class upgrade on a different flight. Note that Southwest requires one to upfare to a full fare ticket in order to SDC, which can be a lot more costly than $75.</p>
<p>When booking flights, I try to give myself enough time to make my flights and get to my destination. This way, if I oversleep or my flight is delayed, there is a greater chance I can get to my destination within a reasonable time frame. </p>
<p>I haven’t tried this without elite status, but when I know that I might miss a departing or connecting flight, I’ll call the airline and ask to be “protected” onto a later flight. This has proved very beneficial in the past as while people are frantically trying to get on the standby list for a flight, I can usually just walk up to the gate agent and get a boarding pass with a confirmed seat assignment because I was protected on the flight a couple hours beforehand.</p>
<p>It always pays to know alternate flight options for your itineraries, particularly ones that are on the same airline and have available seats in coach. I have found that the Google-owned ITA Software’s OnTheFly app (the mobile version of the ITA Matrix website) is extremely useful in this case as it enables one to easily see available flights to their destination.</p>
<p>It’s important to give enough time to reasonably make your connection as well, especially if there are few flights to your final destination. It’s important to remember that if you allow yourself too small a window, you are more likely to have to rush and have everything go perfectly. </p>
<p>I tend to give myself at least 90 minutes to make a connection whenever possible instead of <60 minutes that some people prefer. I’d rather wait a bit for the connecting flight that be stressed because things take longer than expected. Best yet, I prefer to book non-stop flights whenever possible, even if it costs a bit more–the reduced stress and peace of mind is valuable to me.</p>
<p>I think our family mantra of being early is much better than being late has sunk in with the kids. We like to get to the airport with enough time to leisurely go through security and have a nice meal before boarding the plane (almost 2 hours).</p>
<p>DS was flying home yesterday and yes, I text him to make sure he was up. Once again, being early matters – he waited almost an hour for the bus to the airport and then the traffic was heavy (another hour). Good thing he headed to the airport 3 hours before his flight. With all the delays, he still got there an hour before the flight. He would have missed the flight if he didn’t leave extra early.</p>
<p>I gave my son the choice of two flights. He understood though that the earlier flight had substantial savings. To his credit, he chose the early flight knowing this. Next time, I think I will recommend staying up through the night. As late as he stays up, it shouldn’t be too difficult.</p>
<p>Thanks again for sharing. I’ve learned a lot about how airlines work and will keep everything in mind for future travel.</p>
<p>I also always allow 90 minutes when changing planes. In June DH and I changed planes at LAX en route to Vancouver on Delta/Alaska Airlines. Alaska had new terminal just opening adjacent to Delta. Our gate # was posted on departure board when we got off plane in LAX and we headed that way so that we could locate where we had to go and stopped to eat lunch on that concourse. We heard our names being paged and hightailed it to info desk at concourse where we had passport check. OK Fine… but we noticed our flight was not posted for gate departure. We were told not to worry, it was still on schedule as far as they knew… they worked for airlines but departure boards operated by airport itself… So we sat down where we could check the departure board as well as the gate we had been given. flight was never posted. About 20 minutes before boarding time, a plane arrived, passengers deplaned and a sign posting our flight thrown up, and we boarded. That flight never appeared on the departure board whatsoever… it was all fine… but a reminder that you do always have to aware of what is going on.</p>