My mom- and hence, my parents, never can be anywhere on time. So, things like airplane travel can be very difficult for them. It is not uncommon that they will miss flights while traveling. When I was a kid, I remember spending several hours in O'Hare because my mom wanted my sister to see her cousin's bedroom. When we finally arrived to the airport, they wouldn't let us check our luggage because it was too late. I remember my dad trying to bargain with the poor ticket counter guy: "Can we just carry the luggage on?" No, it won't fit into the overhead bins. "If there are empty seats on the flight, we can just put our luggage on the seats." No sir, you are not allowed to do that. Anyways, you won't be able to get those bags past security- they won't fit into the X-ray screening machine.
So that was that, and we got bounced from standby flight to standby flight for several hours. I recall getting mighty bored in that airport, and my sister and I playing games for hours to pass the time.
My parents and I also missed our flight when we were headed to New York in 2002 to drop me off for college.
And my mom just missed a flight this past week heading back from Salt Lake City to LA.
Missing domestic flights is a bit of an annoyance, but imagine the stakes when my parents are traveling internationally. A few years ago, they went to Taiwan with my mom's sister, Chris. (The same aunt mentioned at the end of this story.)
On their return flight, it seemed that they- shockingly, were running behind. My dad texted my sister and I to let us know...
(*To reference my lack of surprise about their overweight luggage, see this post.)
