As I said, I've never missed a flight but here's one close call... ETA: Sorry for the long post, I didn't realize, I started typing and ended off with this
. Feel free to skip it.
On a flight JFK-LAX booked in AA F. We arrived at the airport about 1.5 hours before the flight -thinking of checking out more than one lounge- but upon taking out our luggage from the car we realized we're missing one suitcase... Standing there lost and thinking what to do and going over what we had in that suitcase we decided that our vacation will be miserable w/o it... (I later realized that it wouldn't have been more expensive to buy all these stuff in LAX... Oh well, it was a quick decision.)
I first went to check in the luggage we had and get our boarding passes and then I wanted to ask someone to get the suitcase from our house and send it to us with a car service. The only problem is... Our door is locked and I didn't leave a key with anyone (lesson learnt
). After a few phone calls to several locksmiths I got someone who was able to make himself available and and he was really helpful and willing to arrange with a car service to bring it to me.
By the time he got in to my apartment and arrange it all, it was 50 minutes to the flight and I had to wait before security so I can take the suitcase from the driver. His ETA on Waze was 23 minutes before the flight but the check-in agent claimed that the latest we can go through security is 45 before the flight...
I got really anxious and asked the AA agent if she could rebook me I the next flight. Going back and forth blah blah blah she was only willing to rebook in Y
so I decided to keep the original tickets and if I'll miss the flight... We'll see then.
The car finally arrived 20 minutes before the flight we ran to security with the big suitcase to find a huge line. I asked everyone to
please let us go before as my flight departs in less than 20 minutes and I was amazed that one TSA agent had tried to help us move forward.
We finally got to the gate less than 10 minutes before scheduled departure but thankfully the door was still open and we took off.
PS. I later got a $250 bill from the locksmith + I paid $75 for the car service (for risking a ticket and speeding for me...) so for $325 I could've bought all the important stuff in LAX. Oh well..