If You've Never Missed a Flight, You're Probably Wasting Your Time

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Missing just one flight can ruin everything for a week. It also puts you off being casual with time. Most of us here are probably a bit obsessive about getting to the airport with plenty of time considering most have lounge access. Certainly make a difference for me. Get there nice and early and enjoy breakfast at leisure instead of a rushed job at home.

This must be for people with no lounge access.
 
This is total and utter BS.

1 missed flight can easily equal the combined minutes of "wasted" time at an airport. Not to mention the wasted cost of needing to pay for a new airline ticket (at last minute prices), how long will it take you to save up the $400 for a new ticket, not to mention the cost of needing a hotel over night if it was the last flight of the day, how many minutes of wasted time could that be? 1,440?

The closest I've ever come to missing a flight was such a shock to me that I now arrive perhaps a little too early. But the way I see it the time spent at an airport is not wasted time. I use that time whilst waiting to catch up on what's going on in the world or spend that time with a drink in hand looking out over the airfield and let my mind relax. Something which can be all too rare in the everything now everything on world we've created
 
Missing flights in the US is ok because they'll generally try to put you on the next one. Missing a flight in Australia and you usually lose the ticket unless it's fully flexible.
 
Missing flights in the US is ok because they'll generally try to put you on the next one. Missing a flight in Australia and you usually lose the ticket unless it's fully flexible.

Never lost my ticket when missing a flight on QF. Being either on semi-flexi or red-e-deal, was always transferred to the next flight available.
JQ on the other hand is a different story...
 
Generally I can sort of agree with the sentiment. Definitely when on flexible fares on the golden triangle I have "missed" flights because of maximising time at destination, but is the flight "missed" when you call to move your flight 30 mins later, enroute to the airport? Also, despite having lounge access I still find I want to minimise my time at airports and get there as late as practicable for the particular airport - not so much that I miss flights, but certainly so I am not wasting time hanging around yet another airport or lounge.

But also I think there's a bit of a US perspective where people tend to get to the airport very early. If you look at Australian airports, it's different, people can still get to the airport (35mins before) and check luggage in at a time on many US carriers, boarding would have already commenced. And in Australia with OLCI at quieter times of the day, without luggage, it's easy to arrive 20 mins before and still make the flight, something that just wouldn't be possible in the LOTFAP.

Even when travelling internationally (ex MEL or ex SIN), I know my airline cutoff times and I have a reasonable idea when traffic will be bad (or taxis will be difficult to get) I usually aim to get to airport 15-20 mins before luggage cutoff. Of course if on non-flexi fares or an LCC I had a bit more "fat" into the schedule, and try to arrive a little earlier in case there's an accident or something.
 
1 missed flight can easily equal the combined minutes of "wasted" time at an airport. Not to mention the wasted cost of needing to pay for a new airline ticket (at last minute prices), how long will it take you to save up the $400 for a new ticket, not to mention the cost of needing a hotel over night if it was the last flight of the day, how many minutes of wasted time could that be? 1,440?
Well this depends on how much your time is valued at, plenty of people have time valued at more than $100/hour so doesnt take many instances of being an hour or two early to make up for this. Clearly people value on their own time (and the risk) varies so I dont totally oppose the concept he's expousing even if I dont think it applies to me.
 
Well this depends on how much your time is valued at, plenty of people have time valued at more than $100/hour so doesnt take many instances of being an hour or two early to make up for this. Clearly people value on their own time (and the risk) varies so I dont totally oppose the concept he's expousing even if I dont think it applies to me.

Here is the question for those "my time is worth $100 an hour" people. Would you have actually earned that amount for you time?
Depending on what I'm doing, I typically charge between $166 to $208 per hour of my time ex GST. But of course I'm only paid that during hours which I'm working, and not all of that goes directly to me. I don't get paid for sitting around watching TV, so at that instance, my time is worth exactly $0 an hour.

So in my instance, it'd take around 2 - 3 hours to save up the $$$ to purchase the replacement flight. However what of the original flight (let's say that cost $166 to be nice and simple). That is an hour of work now wasted. I will never get that time back, and since it was me who chose to miss my flight by taking the risk the airline probably isn't going to say "there there, here have a new ticket" without me purchasing a very expensive flexi-ticket in the first instance.

I'll agree that there are instances where missing a flight and just paying the costs for doing so can be beneficial. I once chose to forgo a $150 flight because there was a five figure contract about to be signed. There it was a decision that five figures meant more to me than a $150 flight. But that was a special scenario, and not something I would do just because.
 
We have no intention of missing a flight.Too many experiences of a flight missing us and the shambles that causes to ever want it to be our fault.
 
I got to the bit where it said 'arrive two hours before and miss flight 2 per cent of the time' and thought what rubbish.

It should be 'arrive two hours before and never miss flight' to be more accurate.

it seems to me the rest of the argument is then flawed. You have to weigh up never missing, vs missing.
 
It should be 'arrive two hours before and never miss flight' to be more accurate.

I am sure there have been people who've arrived, 2, 3 or maybe 4 hours before and missed their flight. Asleep or drunk or both, so there's almost certainly a point (for some people) where the probability of missing a flight goes up again, the earlier you arrive at the airport the more likely you are to miss your flight. Especially with lounge access with free beverages ;) :D
 
I would have thought it meant "leaving home in time to arrive 2 hours before your flight" - that's really the only way you'd miss a flight on that time scale. Accident in the Sydney Harbour Tunnel (my nightmare) sort of thing. Train derailment on the airport line...

But if you arrive 2 hours before your flight how could you miss it except by incompetence? (no offence).
 
Never missed a flight; I have booked flights and never turned up at the airport but that doesn't count.

I almost missed 2 flights this year.

One was international; I was almost off loaded from the flight; 2 things that saved me was no baggage and ground crew were still on the aircraft.

Second time I arrived at the airport about 20 minutes before the flight departure went to the lounge to say I had arrived they said I was late but paged the gate saying I was coming through security, I think I was 2nd last too board.

If I had really missed those flights it would have screwed up a lot of things, I think one near miss is a good reminder to be on time.
 
Here is the question for those "my time is worth $100 an hour" people. Would you have actually earned that amount for you time?
Depending on what I'm doing, I typically charge between $166 to $208 per hour of my time ex GST. But of course I'm only paid that during hours which I'm working, and not all of that goes directly to me. I don't get paid for sitting around watching TV, so at that instance, my time is worth exactly $0 an hour.
I'm not really sure with this view that my leisure time is "worth" exactly 0 an hour (even though that's clearly what I get paid when I am not working). Over the years I have had plenty of opportunities to work extra hours or a second job, work weekends etc. for which I would have got paid. However I have chosen not to in many cases because I value my leisure time, so personally I think this is confusing "value" with price/cost.
 
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It also depends which flights we are talking about. If it's a short MEL-SYD flight I would sometimes risk missing it to get an extra hour sleep in the morning. Worst case take the next one 15 or 30 min later, no big deal.
Missing longer flights is a different story and it can screw up the whole business day/ connections/ holiday, doesn't worth risking it.
 
I'm not really sure with this view that my leisure time is "worth" exactly 0 an hour (even though that's clearly what I get paid when I am not working). Over the years I have had plenty of opportunities to work extra hours or a second job, work weekends etc. for which I would have got paid. However I have chosen not to in many cases because I value my leiesure time, so personally I think this is confusing "value" with price/cost.

One of the things I learned years ago when running my own business, I might value my time at an amount, but I can only state my time is worth $x whilst someone is willing to pay me for that time. If someone is not willing to pay me for the task I am currently doing, then at that point in time, my time is worth $0 since I am doing something and yet not been paid for it. Now actually getting someone to pay for you to sit around an airport for 4 hours because you decided to follow the advice of turning up 30 seconds before check in closes but you missed the check in could be difficult, and at a minimum would raise a question or two from the person actually holding the purse strings as to why they now need to pay extra.
 
Ah yes, this article appeared on Facebook, too.

And I'll repeat what I said there: the author of this idea is an utter idiot. It's also irresponsible advice for people who are not so seasoned travellers.
 
Now actually getting someone to pay for you to sit around an airport for 4 hours because you decided to follow the advice of turning up 30 seconds before check in closes but you missed the check in could be difficult, and at a minimum would raise a question or two from the person actually holding the purse strings as to why they now need to pay extra.
Well I find people are reluctant to pay for my travel/airport waiting time when I turn up early too! In fact many are more than prepared to pay the extra for a flexi on the way home precisely so they can have me working up until the last minute and potentially missing that flight, and be able to get onto the next one. As I said I think this depends on how different people value your (and their) own time and there is no one size fits all. Personally my view is probably more aligned to yours but it dont think is BS just because someone has a different view to mine.
 
I've only ever missed 3 flights, none of which were my fault.
2005, CBR-MEL. QF cancelled the flight and moved everyone to an earlier flight. They called the wrong number and I arrived at the airport for my original flight
2013, HND-HKG. Weather in Tokyo caused trains to shut down (Typhoon Wipha). The normally 20 min trip from Shinagawa to HND took 2 hours (after giving up on the train and looking for alternate transport at a small single line station half way to HND). Other people on the train were heading for the same flight. CX transferred everyone to the next flight. The 8 hour delay into JFK saved me a night at the airport. AA changed my connecting JFK-BOS flight, but I lost my pre booked ground transport to NH.
DXB-LHR. Connecting to QF from BA. BA refused to check me in to QF. DXB transfer desk staff kept redirecting me elsewhere (inc the QF branded transfer desk). Made it to the EK lounge, but flight closed while they were trying to sort it out. QF transferred to next flight - stuck in DXB for 24 hours.
 
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