For the first time in my life, I missed a flight due to my own fault...
I am so upset with myself. I feel so stupid.
Sure, I have missed lots of flights due to weather, delays, whatever, but those were all due to circumstances outside of my control.
Today's miss was totally my fault. The bottom line was my poor planning / laziness / cutting things too close. As with most accidents, there was a chain of bad decisions that I made that ultimately led to the failure. Had any one of those links been different, I would have made the flight.
My scheduled departure time was 6:25 AM. I was flying out of South Bend, IN, which is a relatively small airport that has never been busy any time I've previously been there, so I figured arriving an hour prior to departure would be adequate - rather than the 90 minutes I usually give myself. I awoke at 4:30. I had showered, shaved and packed the night before, so I figured it would take 15 minutes to get from bed to the car. Instead, it took 30 minutes. Part of the reason I was slow getting out of the room is that I took time to check e-mail, but I didn't check in online because I didn't have a printer and I had a bag to check (neither of which would have prevented me from checking in). I should have driven straight to the airport knowing I was already 15 minutes behind schedule, but instead I decided to drive through McDonald's for breakfast, which took 10 minutes. Rather than double checking the drive time on Google Maps the night before, I assumed it would take 30 minutes. It was actually more like 45-50 minutes including actually walking to the terminal. I thought about trying to check in online on my BlackBerry while driving but decided not to. The reason this is significant is that had I checked in on-line, I could have showed up as late as only 15 minutes prior to the flight and still got on - although my luggage might now have. My flight showed as a Continental flight, so I went to the Continental counter and waited in line for 5 minutes before learning that it was actually a Northwest code share. By the time I got to the Northwest kiosk, it was 6:00 AM, and the flight had been closed five minutes earlier.
Had I changed any one of these decisions I would be boarding my flight for JAX right now rather than still being in transit to Detroit, where I will end up sitting for six hours.
I started really stressing out while driving to South Bend thinking I would miss my flight. I eventually calmed myself by telling myself that the worst that would happen is that I would miss my flight, and that wouldn't be the end of the world.
Well, obviously I was right - the world is still here, and at worst, this is an inconvenience and a disappointment that I lose 6 hours with my sweetie. To put a positive spin on things, it will give me some time (force me) to get caught up on the huge backlog of work I have.
I guess the months of 70 hour weeks are starting to take a toll. Last time I was this tired I was 15 years younger and ended up wrecking my car. I guess I had better make some adjustments before something worse happens than missing a flight and getting home 6 hours later than planned.
I know in the bigger scheme of things, missing the flight today is trivial, but oh, how I hate to screw up! I mean, I am supposed to be perfect, right? And even if not, I am never supposed to do something so dumb / slack as this.
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Posted by David at July 19, 2008 09:42 AM