We asked for your ‘missed flight’ stories, and you gave them to us

Missing a flight must be one of the worst feelings going. You’ve forked out the cash, made the plans, boasted on social media, only for a series of events to roll out that ultimately prevent you from the main event: lift-off.

And thanks to the availability of modern transport, the rate at which we’re taking to the sky means that most of us have probably experienced missing a flight at least once over the years. And for those of you who haven’t? Count your blessings, and learn from our combined mistakes.

We put a call-out on Twitter for people to share their flight-missing stories with us, and many, many unfortunate souls opened up about their experiences. While some tales make us wince, and others pull on our heart-strings, we’ll admit that we couldn’t help but stifle a few chuckles over the incredibly unfortunate and tragic nature of some of these scenarios…

Twice both times from London! First time overslept..second time was going over and back within a day and it was too tight, missed the flight and had to pay hundreds for the next one

— Margaret Young (@MargaretMMYoung) April 3, 2018

Myself & 2 friends were visiting a friend in Portugal. Extremely excited, we arrived 4 hours early for the flight, only to wait at the WRONG GATE. The worst part about it was trying to convince our pal that this wasn't a joke. She just wouldn't believe us. It was truly awful.??

— geraldine carton (@gcarton) April 6, 2018

@Holly0910 & I LITERALLY just missed our flight leaving Barcelona. Currently still here and stranded.??

— Rob Kenny (@RobKenny_) April 3, 2018

Me and the fam were flying to Aus through Heathrow and my dad (being a trad player) decided to bring his Uilleann Pipes. The case was put through the scanner and next of all alarm bells go off and we're surrounded by armed guards..

— Boring Old Niamh (@Niamh_Not_Neeme) April 3, 2018

Turns out that the my dad had bees wax in the case which security thought was a bomb threat. Terrorised tears and screams later, my dad got his beloved pipes back (and case and bees wax), and we ended up missing our connecting flight. THANKS DA

— Boring Old Niamh (@Niamh_Not_Neeme) April 3, 2018

https://twitter.com/greylayers/status/981130458309234689

As an 18th birthday pressie, my lovely parents brought me to Paris for a few days. The trip was fab and we had a leisurely morning strolling around the city before a nice train to the airport for our 7pm flight. Until we got to the airport and it wasn't listed anywhere….

— Erin Lindsay (@its_erinlindsay) April 6, 2018

So it turned out that we'd missed our flight by 12 hours. Had to pay for last minute seats on the next Aer Lingus flight a couple of hours later, which were not cheap at all. We still don't speak of it to this day ???

— Erin Lindsay (@its_erinlindsay) April 6, 2018

Yes to New York! Got bumped up to business on the next flight! Missed a flight to the UK where I had to get a connecting flight to Dubai. I also was rejected from getting on a flight because it was overbooked. That was a nightmare!!!

— Dani Masterson (@Dani_Masterson) April 3, 2018