Last Chrismas I decided to spend the holidays in Sweden. One of my good friends had recently moved there and I was desperate to visit. The trip proved to be one of the best Christmas’ I ever had. But the story of my journey to Stockholm is one I will remember for the rest of my life. There are lessons in this story for any traveller and it’s a great written account for my own memories.
Being such a seasoned traveller, it almost surprises me that I’ve not had more experiences with missing a flight, but going through it for the first time really helps you prepare for the next time! At the end of the post, I’ve included some tips on what to do if you think you’re going to miss your flight and how to prevent that from happening and what to do if you do miss it! Knowing what I know now I feel so much more prepared in the event of missing my flight, and that it’s not the end of the world if you do.
The Backstory
I knew flights would be expensive around Christmas time but I had set my heart and mind set on going. And when I do that, there is little anyone can do to stop me. Luckily, a family friend managed to get me a discount code for my flights on a particular Canadian airline. When I went to book them, I unfortunately discovered the code wouldn’t work. I checked the fine print and knew there were no blackout dates so I couldn’t figure out what was wrong.
I called up the airline and they told me that since there are no direct flights from Toronto to Stockholm, I would need to make a stop-over in Copenhagen. And for some reason, the coupon code wouldn’t work for the second leg of the journey. Thinking I knew better than the system, I thought to myself, “Well then, I’ll just book the flight from Toronto to Copenhagen using the code and then book the Copenhagen to Stockholm flights on the other airline’s site directly.” I thought I had gamed the system, and started happily planning the rest of my trip.
Departure Day
The day of my flight arrived, the sun was shining in the morning and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. I was leaving right from the office so feeling relieved I went about my day and set to work. About 3 hours later I got up to eat lunch and turned to see a blizzard outside the window. My heart dropped. I immediately went online and checked the departures schedule on the Pearson airport website. When I opened the website I saw every single flight was delayed out of Toronto.
I had no idea what I was going to do. Why, you ask? Because I had done something very stupid. By booking my two connecting flights separately it meant that if I missed the connection, neither airline was responsible for rebooking me without a charge. I don’t know why this never crossed my mind. I had never done separate bookings before, so I think in my naive brain I just assumed that I could get on the next flight without paying for a new ticket. But after a quick google, I found out that was not the case (at least in most situations).
I only had an hour and a half to make my connection at Copenhagen airport. At this moment I had no idea what past Laura had been thinking, how could I have made a mistake like this? Especially in the winter when I knew there were always travel issues with the weather.
Arrival at the Airport
Eventually, the storm passed, but flights were still delayed. My stress was getting the best of me and I decided to go to the airport and be stressed out there. The airport felt deserted, so many flights have been cancelled and passengers were safely tucked away at home. I sat near my gate and watched the arrivals board like a hawk. I looked out the window, waiting for my outbound plane to arrive. To my surprise, as the snow dissipated, more and more planes began arriving and departing on time. Before I knew it my plane was sitting at the gate, hours before we planned to leave. The time on the board had us departing exactly on time and with no sign of bad weather, I thought we were in the clear….
Key Decision Making
As we were about to board they made an announcement asking passengers with carry-on luggage if they wanted to check their luggage to their final destination. I went up to the woman at the counter and sheepishly asked her if I could do gate-check instead. She told me that that wasn’t an option but I should take them up on the offer of checking my luggage to the final destination.
I told the associate how worried I was about making the connecting flight since the connection was only an hour and a half. She half laughed and tried to assure me it would be fine since they were set to depart on time and the Copenhagen airport wasn’t very large. I hemmed and hawed and she just stared at me blankly. I just had the worst feeling and knew that travelling with your bags is key to making connections. After a few more minutes of chatting with her, I declined the offer and kept my bag with me. This would be a key decision in this entire journey.
Finally Boarding!
We began boarding early and before we knew it, we had boarded the entire plane and we were ready for taking off. At least we thought so. The plane felt oddly empty… But I just assumed this was from all the delays. Then the announcements came on and they told us we were waiting for passengers to arrive who had late connections. But I knew to wait for them meant I would be late for my connection. My nerves started up again.
Minutes counted down on my phone and soon we had been waiting for more than 40 minutes for these passengers. When they finally arrived we pulled out from the gate. I asked the flight attendant if we had a clear flight plan and she assured me that even with the 40-minute delay we would arrive with enough time to make my flight. There were 25 other passengers on the plane that were in the same boat as me so she assured me we’d all be ok. I tried to relax but as the plane began to pull away from the gate, I could see we weren’t going in the right direction. I know this airport and the runways, and in a moment I knew where we were going…The dreaded de-icing.
De-icing
If you’ve never flown out of an airport during the winter, feel blissfully lucky. De-icing is a necessary evil for winter flights but it adds sometimes hours to your take off. All the planes have to line up to be spewed with a bunch of sludge to ensure the engine doesn’t freeze upon take off. Necessary? Sure. Disappointing when trying to make a connection? YES!
As we crawled through the line of planes, we slowly realized that none of the passengers who were attempting to make that connection were going to make it.
I asked the flight attendant and she said all those with Air Canada connecting tickets would simply be rebooked onto the next flight out and not to worry. I told her I didn’t have an Air Canada ticket, as I booked the second part of my journey with SAS directly. Her smiling face dropped and I knew this has a bad sign. She said more than likely I would have to buy a new ticket as my only option. She gave me the most sympathetic look and as my eyes filled with tears.
Buying a new ticket was out of the question, it would have cost me too much money. Almost as much as the entire trip combined. I quickly grabbed my phone and started to look for alternatives. I knew there was a train that left from Copenhagen to Stockholm every few hours so I took a few screenshots of the schedule. This was my backup plan. I had a good little cry in my seat but knew I just had to keep my heart focused on the joy I would feel upon seeing my friend. These things were completely out of my control and I shouldn’t let them get the best of me.
The Kindness of Strangers
To add insult to injury when my special gluten-free meal arrived (I have celiac), it was a fish dish. Not only did it smell to high heaven, but I’m also allergic to fish. Things just weren’t coming up roses for me today. When my kind-eyed flight attendant walked by I asked her if there was anything I could buy since I couldn’t eat this meal due to my allergy and couldn’t eat the regular meal due to being a celiac. She took my meal away and came back with a fruit tray. It was her diner, the one she ordered but gave it to me since she could see I was really having a hard day. It was a little touch of kindness that went a long long way in this kind of situation.
I watched a few movies and tried to fall asleep. When I awoke I checked the flight plane and saw we had made up some time in the air and our plane was to arrive about 20 minutes before my connecting flight was set to depart. I had been to Copenhagen airport before but couldn’t’ remember the size of it. But even in some of the smallest airports, 20 minutes to taxi to your gate, disembark and get to your new gate was an impossibility. The man sitting beside me on the plane was also on this connecting flight. We had chatted briefly during the descent and had made a plan to try to run together to our flight if there was a chance of making it. A pack between seatmates!
The pilot came on the PA and made an announcement. He blurted out that upon landing could almost all passengers please not disembark the plane. He asked that they allow the 25 passengers attempting to make the Stockholm connection to deplane first. My flight partner and I looked at each other with a glimmer of hope. But upon landing they announced, instead of our connecting gate number, that we needed to head directly to the customer service counter. Since we didn’t know what this meant I tried to keep a positive attitude.
Run for It!
The second the seat belt light went off my seatmate and I ripped off our belts, grabbed each other’s bags and ran out the plane. We immediately sprinted to the customer service counter, followed by a few dozen of our fellow passengers. When we got there, a surly flight agent told us very curtly that our plane had already left and to please form a line so that we could be rebooked onto other flights. My heart dropped.
All this hope and it had been dashed in one sentence. But I was confused. I looked at the clock on the wall. We still had about 15 minutes until the plane was scheduled to leave. I looked at the bright blue, digital gate sign behind the gate agent. Displaying on the board was our flight, “BOARDING AT GATE B4”. I knew in my heart and in my seasoned traveller brain that planes never left that early. Especially when they still had so many passengers left to arrive. And without thinking I started to run.
Gate B4
Upon seeing me sprint away, my seatmate and a few other passengers started running alongside me. We all caught each other’s eyes and collectively gave each other the look of, “well, let’s give this a try!” The ground sped underneath our feet and we blew by slow-moving passengers carrying bags of Christmas presents. I had worn every single heavy piece of clothing I had packed in order to save space in my luggage so the second I set off I was sweating bullets. We had arrived at the “A” gates so I knew we had to run to an entirely different terminal. But I still didn’t stop. I am not a fit person and running is not my forte. But I kept repeating the name of the gate in my head as I went like a mantra. “B4, B4, B4”. I was making good progress, tracking how many gates I would pass every minute. I thought to myself for a second, I’m going to make it….and then – PASSPORT CONTROL.
“NO!” I thought to myself. This meant talking to an agent and who knows how long that would take. But no one was in line so I ran up to the counter.
The agent at the front took my passport and I just yelled at her out of sheer panic, “STOCKHOLM!” She looked at my passport and then up at me indignantly and said, “...is the captial of Sweden?” I grunted and repeated, “No, no that’s my destination!” She simply shrugged, glanced at my return ticket (which I had printed out and passed to her with my passport) and stamped my passport. I was off again! I saw out of the corner of my eye, my seatmate leaving the EU passport control booth. He smiled at me with an exhausted look and we kept running. I could see our gate coming up in front of my eyes. We had 2 minutes to make it.
And then suddenly, I could see my seatmate’s knapsack start to open as he ran in front of me. I guess all the running had loosened the zippers and everything had started to fall out. I knew if I stopped and helped him I might miss the flight. But as I screamed at him to stop, a stuffed animal in the form of a Canadian moose fell out. I knew I had to be a good Canadian and help him. I stopped and gathered his things in my arms and we kept running together. We rounded the corner to gate B4 and tore up to the gate and screamed, “WE’RE HERE FROM THE TORONTO FLIGHT!” With one minute to spare, I thought we had made it…
An Airport Miracle
The woman at the counter looked at us with a sad expression and said, “Oh you’re the Air Canada passengers? I’m sorry you’ve already been rebooked.” But then I remembered, I wasn’t technically an Air Canada passager. I had a separate SAS ticket. They might not have even known I was a connecting passenger, just a late arrival. So I exclaimed, “WAIT! I have an SAS ticket!”
The gate agent looked up at me frustrated but glanced down at her computer and began typing. Then she glanced back up at me with a sly smile on her face and said, “are you Laura Lytwyn?” Relief rushed through my body. “YES! YES, I’m Laura Lytwyn!” She looked down at my bags. “And you don’t have any checked luggage?” I shook my head and repeated, “No, no it’s all with me!” She gave me another wry smile and pressed the red button on her desk to reopen the closed metal gate. “It’s your lucky day, the flight is still loading passengers on the jetbridge. You can get on Ms. Lytwyn.”
I collapsed in tears upon hearing these words and must have looked pretty ridiculous. I wandered down the jetbridge in a daze and onto the plane. When I finally sat down in my seat, I turned to my new seatmate and whispered, “Excuse me is this the flight to Stockholm?” He chuckled, “Yes. Oh, do we have a Home Alone situation on our hands?” I laughed and exhaled loudly, “No, I just can’t believe I made it.”
I wiped the dripping sweat off my face and closed my eyes in sheer exhaustion as we took off. When they came down the aisles offering beverages I immediately asked for a huge glass of water. Which of course they don’t have, so they gave me two small plastic cups instead. I honestly think I looked like I had been through hell and back and the flight attendants were just hoping I didn’t have a heart attack on the plane. I watched Copenhagen drift off into the distance as we flew off and felt one of the biggest waves of relief wash through my body.
Arriving in Stockholm
I immediately fell asleep, even though the flight was only 40 minutes, my body didn’t care and just shut right down. I awoke, to the jostling of the landing plane, Swedens’ countryside was splayed out in front of me. I stumbled clumsily off the plane, half from exhaustion half from being so dehydrated from my run. After disembarking I took a moment to sit down with my bags, buy a huge bottle of water and change into something less sweaty.
After catching my breath, I wandered through the Christmas laden gates of Stockholm airport. It felt like walking into a dream. There were twinkle lights everywhere I looked and Chrismas music was playing throughout the airport. After all this stress it felt like a sweet reward. I barely remember anything about how I got from the terminal to the airport bus towards the city. It was like I blacked out in my Christmas stupor.
I took the bus from the airport to the centre of town where I was met by my friend’s wonderful partner (my friend was at work when I arrived and couldn’t pick me). He greeted me with a HUGE smile and a bouquet of flowers. As I got off the bus, he gave me the biggest hug and I collapsed in tears in his arms. He laughed and asked me if I was ok. I laughed through tears of joy and we walked off as I told him the entire tale over Fika in an adorable coffee shop.
What to Learn from this Experience?
Today, this is one of my favourite stories to tell. Was it stressful and dramatic? Yes. But did I learn a lot? Yes. The experience reads like an exaggerated tall-tale but trust me, it did happen just like that. But what can we learn from this experience? Well, here are my top tips for ensuring you don’t miss your flight or what I learned to do if you don’t make it to the gate in time!
Don’t Book Connecting Flight Separately!
Although the booking of the two separate tickets was in the end why I ended up making the connection, I still wish in retrospect I hadn’t. If I had booked my connecting flight together with just one airline, I would have been WAY LESS worried since I would have simply been rebooked on one of the next flights out, which ran throughout the day. The way I had done it, if I hadn’t made that flight, I would have had to either pay for an entirely new ticket, (which would have been very expensive during the Christmas season) or taken the 6-hour train ride in Stockholm (assuming I could even get a seat on there either). Make sure that if you’re booking a connecting flight you do it all on one ticket!
Call in Advance
One thing I learned is that if you know you’re going to miss your flight, you should call the airline in advance to let them know. By doing this you might be able to make a last-minute flight change for a fee (which would be much much cheaper than an entirely new ticket.) The airlines appreciate you calling in advance since they then can open that seat up for a standby passenger. If you’re lucky and ask nicely, they might even waive the fee since you were nice even to give them a courtesy to call in advance.
Flat Tire Rule
There is some evidence that certain airlines have an unofficial “flat tire rule” which they can use at their discretion that allows the ticket agent to rebook your flight at no charge. This wouldn’t work if you’ve just slept in but if you went through something like I did (where its the other airline’s fault) they might be more inclined to use this discretion. Just don’t rely on that happening, but its always worth asking. They might only charge you a rebooking fee or ask you to pay the difference between the new flight and your old one, but either of these options is more than likely still cheaper than a new ticket.
Don’t Risk Short Connections
The other thing I learned was to NEVER book a flight with that short of a layover during the winter seasons. There are always bound to be delays due to the winter weather (at least in the city I live in). As much as you might wanna get to your destination ASAP, a longer layover will just mean you don’t have to worry as much and your trip will feel much more stress-free.
Ditch the Checked Luggage
If you think there might be any chance of missing a flight, be sure to pack carry on luggage only! In the end, having a few fewer clothes is well worth being able to catch the flight. While this is a decision you can’t make at the last minute, it’s just a good piece of advice for travelling altogether.
Talk to Your Flight Attendant
Being kind goes a long way, and I found that asking my flight attendant questions was so helpful. I was sure to do it in a way that didn’t make them feel like I was upset or blaming them. My flight attendant was so helpful in calling ahead to try and see where our gate would be and to check to see if that flight perhaps has been delayed itself (in which case we would have been able to more easily make the connection).
Never Give Up
Lastly? Never give up. Ask questions nicely, people are more likely to be helpful than not that way. And help others even when you’re in crisis yourself. Good karma is never a bad thing to have on your side. The enormity of the stress I felt on arrival just meant that I treasured the rest of the trip so much more. Everything felt like a dream and I just felt so lucky to be there, on time and on budget. Anything that went wrong just slid off my back and I didn’t take it to heart. All that mattered was that I was there, in Sweden, at Christmas, with my friend, and making memories that I will hold in my heart forever!
I’d love to hear your worst travel stories and see what tips or tricks you might have learned from them! I hope you’re all keeping safe and healthy!
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