I Missed My Flight! Here’s What You Need to Know If It Happens to You

I made a rookie mistake of the century and missed my flight! Although not completely my fault, it happened. It kills me to write this post, but I’d rather you learn from my mistakes than make them yourself.

During the last year, I’ve become a fare chaser. I look for deals and book cheap flights to certain destinations, even if they don’t leave from my home base in Salt Lake City. Oftentimes, cheap fares pop up from many U.S. cities to all corners of the world. The key is to book a deal as soon as you see one and figure out the logistics later.

A few months ago, I booked a great fare out of New York City to Porto, Portugal, then to Casablanca, Morocco, and back to New York for just $400 on Royal Air Maroc. Pretty good, right? I then booked a positioning flight from Salt Lake City to John F. Kennedy International Airport on Delta Air Lines. Since they’re separate tickets, I made sure to leave a long enough cushion at JFK for my transfer—just shy of three hours.

The day of my flight, I received a notification from Delta saying my flight to JFK was delayed. Federal Aviation Administration imposed the delay because of a runway construction at JFK and traffic control. Uh oh. This isn’t something you want to hear at the beginning of your trip.

While at the Sky Club, I kept hoping for the delay to be lifted, but just in case, I called Royal Air Maroc to let them know it might be tight. The phone agent told me that check-in closes an hour before departure, which was not an option for me because my Delta flight would arrive after that time. I asked if I could check in online and print my boarding pass, to which she replied that I’d have no problem as long as I had the printed boarding pass.

Fearing the worst but hoping for the best, I armed myself with three most important things I needed to make my connection: carry-on luggage, boarding pass and running shoes to go all the way from JFK’s Terminal 4 to Terminal 1. My anxiousness on the four-hour flight just about killed me.

The plane landed about an hour before my next flight. I sprinted as fast as I could from Terminal 4’s end (Why do they always land so far away?) to the AirTran while praying to the Old Gods and the New.

With my boarding pass in hand, I ran up to TSA line in Terminal 1 and was stopped. I was mere feet from the departing gate when the agent told me I could not pass through security with my supposedly invalid boarding pass. She said it had to be issued by the airline. I told her it was issued by Royal Air Maroc’s website, which sounded pretty direct and valid to me, but she wouldn’t budge. Unfortunately, nobody was at the check-in desk any longer and I couldn’t get a different boarding pass. I was literally trapped between the TSA line and the inability to obtain another boarding document.

And just like that, I missed my flight. Tchau, Porto.

Lesson No. 1 – Give Yourself Enough Time to Transfer

This is the most obvious lesson, but if you decide to pull off a crazy move like this and make an airport transfer from one ticket to another, you better have enough time to do it. Originally, I was supposed to have three hours, which was already questionable for such a busy airport, but an unpredicted delay messed up all my plans. Even our Delta pilot said that he didn’t find this specific delay necessary, but because it was FAA-imposed, there was nothing the airline could do.

Lesson No. 2 – Not All Boarding Passes Are the Same

Apparently it’s not possible to go through TSA with print-at-home boarding passes issued by certain airlines. I don’t know why. The TSA agent divulged little information about why she had just hugely inconvenienced me and ruined my trip. In fact, she told me she’d call security if I kept asking questions.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with my boarding pass. The paper included the words “Boarding Pass” on it and a scan code, just like every boarding pass in the world. It’s not like I tried to use my smartphone, and the document came directly from Royal Air Maroc’s website. Why offer the option to check in online if I can’t use the boarding pass given to me? Absolutely ridiculous!

Lesson No. 3 – If You Miss the First Leg, Say Goodbye to the Rest of Your Ticket

Yup, Royal Air Maroc canceled the rest of my itinerary, which included flights from Porto to Casablanca and from Casablanca back to New York City. I called the airline and requested to reinstate the ticket, especially because the original agent told me I’d have no problems with a printed boarding pass. However, the other rep I spoke with wasn’t helpful and told me my ticket was canceled, even after I requested to speak with a supervisor.

I ended up flying to Porto the same night on a last-minute ticket with TAP Air Portugal and booked a return from Casablanca with Iberia by transferring American Express Membership Rewards points to Iberia Avios. As far as the middle leg from Porto to Casablanca, I booked a revenue flight on Royal Air Maroc. I hated giving them more money, but there weren’t other nonstop options.

In Conclusion

Please don’t make the same mistakes I did. Give yourself enough time to connect because the alternative is just not worth it. Because of the delay, my trip to Morocco ended up costing me three times more than I paid for the original ticket.

 

Have you ever had to connect on separate tickets? How much time do you normally give yourself to make the next flight?

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