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Who booked an early flight day of disembarkation AND didn't make it?


myfuzzy
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Of the hundreds of threads asking if the 5am flight could be made, and all the opinions of the probability of NO, has anyone actually booked the first flight out...of any port or airline....and DIDN'T make it.

 

What happened, please share your stories and would you do it again

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Should we subtitle the thread:

 

"Who was silly enough to book an early flight in spite of warnings, got caught, and now has to publicly admit they were foolish?"

 

It would go well with this companion thread:

 

"Who was silly enough to keep waiting for an airfare "sale" and ended up having to spend hundreds more than they would have otherwise?"

 

FWIW, in my experience, people are all too happy to tell how they a) gamed the system, b) saved a ton of money, and/or c) had no problems and all was well. Few fess up to d) screwed that one up royally.

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Thankfully we have never missed a flight by booking one too early but we know several people who have over the years and I can at least tell you that they have told me never again.

 

Likewise I know people who booked a flight the day of the cruise and missed the cruise and the said the same thing. Never again.

 

Keith

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Should we subtitle the thread:

 

"Who was silly enough to book an early flight in spite of warnings, got caught, and now has to publicly admit they were foolish?"

 

It would go well with this companion thread:

 

"Who was silly enough to keep waiting for an airfare "sale" and ended up having to spend hundreds more than they would have otherwise?"

 

FWIW, in my experience, people are all too happy to tell how they a) gamed the system, b) saved a ton of money, and/or c) had no problems and all was well. Few fess up to d) screwed that one up royally.

 

HAHA good one.....I forgot to say in the original post...

 

We won't hold it against you

 

You CAN remain anonymous

 

AND....NOW its probably laughable

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We booked our first cruise through a travel agency because we didn't know any better. This agency was known for weekend bus trips but it was their first cruise. They had many people flying out the morning of cruise. My hubby and I were the only two out of the group booked on a different airline. Our airline had delay after delay. We missed the ship! Had to fly on to the first port and sleep under the stars that night because all the hotels were full. We had to pay an additional $600 to board the ship but thankfully were reimbursed10 mths later. Now we book our trips on our own!

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Too much at risk. I just don’t do it because I would be stressed until I boarded the plane. That kind of stress is not worth it to me. I once booked a trip out of LAX at 11:30 because I had no choice. I was traveling internationally for work and if I missed my flight I would not arrive for work for another 2 days.

I walked off on the first group, grabbed a cab, traffic all the way to airport. Took an extra 30 minutes from arriving to LAX and arriving to America Airlines. Inside was a cluster. I checked luggage, have TSA pre check and ran to the gate. I made it after my group boarded. Bin space was full but I got on.

 

I was stressed out of my mind.

 

Never again.

Flights only booked after noon for sanity sake.

 

My last cruise out of Port Everglades I booked an evening flight home because I didn’t want to risk that stress. I enjoyed my day in Ft. Lauderdale and leisurely arrived to MIA airport later that evening. Stress free and happy to be home that late evening.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Had this same discussion with my wife about our upcoming cruise in January. I could've rolled the dice and taken a 7:30 departure out of Toronto for FLL but all it takes is one snowstorm, deicing delay, or airplane that just won't start that morning and I'd be hooped. I'd be reminded of it for decades so we're going to fly the day before and enjoy a nice day in south florida.

On the way home I would be more inclined to roll the dice on an early flight after the cruise since there are options should the bird fly away without us.

But no, I'd never want to be chasing the ship!

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Of the hundreds of threads asking if the 5am flight could be made, and all the opinions of the probability of NO, has anyone actually booked the first flight out...of any port or airline....and DIDN'T make it.

 

What happened, please share your stories and would you do it again

 

Never again. On my first cruise I let my Father do the booking and he had the agent book me on an early morning flight from BCN. Let me tell you it was not pretty I had no time for breakfast.

 

Now we plan to spend a few nights in our disembarkation city. Oh how good it feels to be able to be one of the last people off the ship and your accommodation is minutes from the ship.

 

We had a great week in Rome, 5 nights in Barcelona, 4 nights pre cruise in Sao Paulo and 1 night in Santos next to the cruise, 4 nights in New Orleans pre-cruise.

 

This year were spending 1 night in Tampa at the Westin Harbour a mile from the ship and 4 night in Amsterdam. We arrive Amsterdam at 5 AM and need to be at our AirBnB by 11 AM or so this means a leisurly breakfast and we can be one of the last people off the ship.

 

You don't know how great it feels to be taking a leisurly pace on the day your cruise ends because your vacation continues. Even when we arrived Civetavechia it felt so good to go to Rome without rushing to our hotel.

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It hasn’t happened to me but I have two stories to tell.

 

I’m an Airline Pilot, and one time I was operating the first flight of the day from Louisville KY to Minneapolis, MN. One of the gate agents came down the jetway where I was standing a few minutes before closing the door and he said that they were waiting on 8 passengers that had checked in but were stuck at the security checkpoint. One of the passengers showed up and frantically said that the rest of her party was still at the checkpoint, some of them seniors with mobility issues. The agent told her that she had to make a choice to go on without them or deplane. She said that they all had to get on. They were connecting to Vancouver to catch their cruise departing that same afternoon. When I heard this, I told the agent that we would hold the flight as long as necessary, something that he didn’t like for several reasons. I told him that I would take responsibility for the delay and that I would not leave without them. About 10 minutes past departure time, all of them showed up. I was waiting for them on the jetway and made them raise their right hand and swear to NEVER fly on the same day of their cruise. They laughed and it eased the tense moment. Had I not been there, they would’ve missed their flight, subsequent connection, and cruise.

 

Second story was flying passengers nonstop from New York to Orlando. We were severely delayed because of weather in the northeast. A couple approached me and asked if it would be much longer. When I said that we were stuck indefinitely, they started crying. They were on their way to the Disney Magic to take the transatlantic cruise. I told them that unfortunately there wasn’t much that we could do but wait and hope for the best. We were finally given the green light to go and we landed in Orlando around 3pm with a 4 hour delay. I still don’t know if they ever made it.

 

Personally, I haven’t missed a cruise, but we almost missed our flight home when we returned to New York after a Canada and New England cruise. Beautiful day but the currents in the Hudson River made it impossible to dock for several hours. We finally docked around 2pm. Thankfully our flight home wasn’t until 5:30pm so we made our flight, but a lot of people with earlier flights weren’t that lucky.

 

So based on that, and on what I see on a daily basis at work, I would NEVER recommend that anybody takes a same day flight, even if it’s the first flight of the day, or if it’s a short nonstop, or if there are several backup flights later on. That there are other flights doesn’t mean that there will be a seat available on any of them, specially these days when many flights operate at full capacity. If a flight is canceled, you will be one of 180 passengers also fighting for a handful of seats.

 

 

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On our second cruise, San Diego to FLL, via the Panama Canal. Ship had issues and we arrived in Florida probably too late to make our flight, to Providence via Baltimore. Because we’d booked through the cruise line, they changed our flights for us, to FLL to Orlando to Providence. It worked out okay although we had a looong wait for that flight to Orlando. There was a $700 increase in cost for the flights, but our travel insurance reimbursed us. I’m a much more experienced traveler now, and will never book a flight that early again...I think it was about 11 a.m. We always go a day or two early now, and often wait a couple of days before we go home, too.

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On our second cruise, San Diego to FLL, via the Panama Canal. Ship had issues and we arrived in Florida probably too late to make our flight, to Providence via Baltimore. Because we’d booked through the cruise line, they changed our flights for us, to FLL to Orlando to Providence. It worked out okay although we had a looong wait for that flight to Orlando. There was a $700 increase in cost for the flights, but our travel insurance reimbursed us.

 

Just curious, if you booked your flights through the cruise line, and it was their fault that you missed it, why wouldn't they have paid the difference?

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It hasn’t happened to me but I have two stories to tell.

 

I’m an Airline Pilot, and one time I was operating the first flight of the day from Louisville KY to Minneapolis, MN. One of the gate agents came down the jetway where I was standing a few minutes before closing the door and he said that they were waiting on 8 passengers that had checked in but were stuck at the security checkpoint. One of the passengers showed up and frantically said that the rest of her party was still at the checkpoint, some of them seniors with mobility issues. The agent told her that she had to make a choice to go on without them or deplane. She said that they all had to get on. They were connecting to Vancouver to catch their cruise departing that same afternoon. When I heard this, I told the agent that we would hold the flight as long as necessary, something that he didn’t like for several reasons. I told him that I would take responsibility for the delay and that I would not leave without them. About 10 minutes past departure time, all of them showed up. I was waiting for them on the jetway and made them raise their right hand and swear to NEVER fly on the same day of their cruise. They laughed and it eased the tense moment. Had I not been there, they would’ve missed their flight, subsequent connection, and cruise.

 

Second story was flying passengers nonstop from New York to Orlando. We were severely delayed because of weather in the northeast. A couple approached me and asked if it would be much longer. When I said that we were stuck indefinitely, they started crying. They were on their way to the Disney Magic to take the transatlantic cruise. I told them that unfortunately there wasn’t much that we could do but wait and hope for the best. We were finally given the green light to go and we landed in Orlando around 3pm with a 4 hour delay. I still don’t know if they ever made it.

 

Personally, I haven’t missed a cruise, but we almost missed our flight home when we returned to New York after a Canada and New England cruise. Beautiful day but the currents in the Hudson River made it impossible to dock for several hours. We finally docked around 2pm. Thankfully our flight home wasn’t until 5:30pm so we made our flight, but a lot of people with earlier flights weren’t that lucky.

 

So based on that, and on what I see on a daily basis at work, I would NEVER recommend that anybody takes a same day flight, even if it’s the first flight of the day, or if it’s a short nonstop, or if there are several backup flights later on. That there are other flights doesn’t mean that there will be a seat available on any of them, specially these days when many flights operate at full capacity. If a flight is canceled, you will be one of 180 passengers also fighting for a handful of seats.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

I love when i fly and a FA or pilot is seated next to me. (either heading to/from work or just a mini vacation) you guys have some of the best stories. Especially the FA's, there is NO way I would have the patience for that job. I went to Hawaii this past summer and had a FA in the seat next to me for the flight to KOA. He was heading to the islands for a mini vacation. He knew almost the whole flight crew and hooked my up with free food, beer and a tablet. Plus had great stories. Made that long flight enjoyable.

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Should we subtitle the thread:

 

"Who was silly enough to book an early flight in spite of warnings, got caught, and now has to publicly admit they were foolish?"

 

It would go well with this companion thread:

 

"Who was silly enough to keep waiting for an airfare "sale" and ended up having to spend hundreds more than they would have otherwise?"

 

FWIW, in my experience, people are all too happy to tell how they a) gamed the system, b) saved a ton of money, and/or c) had no problems and all was well. Few fess up to d) screwed that one up royally.

 

 

 

Wow you just know everything dontcha? Why not give the facts? The percentage of pax who fly in day of? Then the percentage of those who fly in the day of who miss the flights?

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Wow you just know everything dontcha? Why not give the facts? The percentage of pax who fly in day of? Then the percentage of those who fly in the day of who miss the flights?

 

No, Flyertalker is just an extremely knowledgeable frequent flyer who calls it like he sees it.

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Wow you just know everything dontcha? Why not give the facts? The percentage of pax who fly in day of? Then the percentage of those who fly in the day of who miss the flights?

 

Let's start with the reality that NO ONE knows those percentages. A cruiseline may know how many guests on a particular ship flew with their air program, but that still leaves a large number that it has no idea about. Further, that data would be a proprietary "trade secret" that they would have no reason to release. As to how many miss flights, again, problems both with data acquisition and dissemination.

 

Missing flights and cruises falls into a combination of game theory and black swans. The game theory part is that although the likelihood may be low, the resulting negative value can be quite high. Whether one wishes to accept that risk/reward payoff is part of individual choice. The black swan part is that it is difficult to impossible to predict these events. Who knew that an electrical fire would basically put Delta out of commission. Computer system crashes caused UA and AA and DL to implode. Freak weather has no predictable nature. Mechanical failures don't happen on a schedule.

 

If I had those numbers, I would share them. But logically look at the difficulty in obtaining and producing. Too many people want simple, concise spoon-fed answers, bypassing their need to think on their own. And, when one doesn't have clear, accurate data, one is forced to rely on that increasingly rare commodity - judgment.

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I don't know when flying in the day or so before a cruise came into effect, but years ago, you did NOT do this. We took many cruises a long time ago that you flew in the day of the cruise and that was that. I honestly think that's the way most people travelled and it was not a problem. I don't know when or why it became an issue. I don't mind flying in early now but I can't remember when that started to become the norm.

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I don't know when flying in the day or so before a cruise came into effect, but years ago, you did NOT do this. We took many cruises a long time ago that you flew in the day of the cruise and that was that. I honestly think that's the way most people travelled and it was not a problem. I don't know when or why it became an issue. I don't mind flying in early now but I can't remember when that started to become the norm.

 

I would think the "wake up" call came because of 9/11 now with stricter security and more people flying, and all the other possibilities like shortage of pilots, mechanicals, unforseen acts like weather, how about that power outage in Atlanta last week. Now, you never know. Yes, I remember the time where we could actually park our car near the airport and walk directly to the gate, unfortunately no more. Now we need to be proactive rather than reactive. Hense the possibility of more people missing their flights. Which the poised question....we like to think of the way things were

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a long time ago that you flew in the day of the cruise and that was that. I honestly think that's the way most people travelled and it was not a problem.

 

I'm sure it WAS a problem for some people some of the time. You just didn't hear about it because life wasn't plastered all over social media and 24 hour news outlets.

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