As I’m writing this blog, I’m sitting in a small airport in the middle of nowhere on the Côte d’Azur (French Riviera)…instead of on the AirFrance plane bound for Paris that left about half an hour ago. And when I say small, I mean this airport is so tiny that by the time I showed up 5 minutes late for my flight, both the check-in counter and the security line were already closed. I wasn’t even given the opportunity to beg to be let through!
At the beginning of this weekend trip, I had bragged to my family that I had never missed a flight before in a decade of traveling solo. I said this as I knocked on wood, but my mother jokingly reminded me that I had actually knocked on a compressed wood table from IKEA. Apparently this nulled my good fortune, and boy was she right.
Recently, I’d gotten especially daring with my airport arrival times. For my DoC group flight from Boston to Amsterdam, I showed up to the gate right as the flight started boarding, much to the chagrin of my TA. I’d always considered rushing through the airport as a necessary evil if I wanted to take my time eating, saying goodbye to friends, and generally procrastinating before a trip.
But in hindsight, there were a lot of things I could’ve done differently before my trips while still having time to enjoy the city I was leaving. The following are some tips I’ve picked up over years of trial and error (most recently, error) to keep in mind at or before you arrive at the airport:
1. Be conscientious of the country’s passport control
I almost missed a flight from Dublin to Stuttgart because I wasn’t allowed through the gate until I had my US passport checked at the check-in counter…before security. I learned the hard way that if you’re traveling through Europe without an EU passport, you are usually required to take an extra step in your passport control. I’d always seen all of these European nationals walk to the gate with no care, and thought I could’ve done the same. Because it’s the 21st century, I figured I could have download my ticket on my phone, scanned it at security, and gone on the plane. But when they scan your ticket at security, they don’t check what country your passport is from and won’t remind you to go back…
Now, some airlines are stricter about this than others. EasyJet was lenient and allowed me to have my passport checked at the gate. Ryanair was the airline that made me go all the back through security and to the check-in counter. But they’re also the airline that wants to start charging passengers for using the bathroom…so tread carefully.
2. Know the check-in procedures of your budget airline
A friend who was visiting me recently missed her flight from Paris to London, as Vueling Airlines (a Spanish budget airline) only allowed her to retrieve her boarding pass in-person at the airport. Budget airlines are notorious for having you go the extra mile to get your boarding pass, check your bags, etc. Cutting corners is how they can afford to offer you a $20 flight to another country. She had to wait in line for several hours with other disgruntled passengers who had failed to read the fine print, and they all ended up having to take the next flight.
3. Know the security procedures of the country you’re in
The airport security in the States always tells people to store their 3 fl. oz. liquids in a 1 litre bag, and to put them through security separately. They say this, but I never actually separate my liquids as I’ve rarely actually seen this enforced. I tried this same thing in France and was actually taken out of the line, given a bag, and chastened for not following the rules. One couple actually had to throw their stuff away because it couldn’t fit into the “1 bag a person” rule. When I traveled through the Nairobi airport in Kenya—which has a huge animal trafficking issue— all our “suspicious” bags were put through an additional machine that scanned for ivory. You never know how strict things will be in the country you’re traveling through, so if you’re going to give yourself extra time at the airport, allot it for complications going through security.
4. Be careful about booking connecting flights on separate reservations
When I first started traveling on my own, I remember almost missing a flight from the Caribbean because I booked two legs of my trip separately. Although I generally blame my father for letting a 13-year old book her own flights without supervision…there’s still a lesson to be learned. If you book several legs of a flight on different websites or reservations, the airlines won’t know if you have what they consider a “tight connection time”. I’ve successfully made the dreaded 45 minutes layover in LAX before, solely because both flights were booked through Delta, and they were aware of arriving passengers with a tight connection.
Recently I was in the airport anxiously waiting for my friend to arrive from her New York to Paris flight on AirFrance, which gave her 20 minutes to meet up with me for our domestic Paris to Nice flight on EasyJet. Not only were we switching from international to domestic terminals, but they were two completely separate airlines with differing check-in procedures and cut-off times. I probably lost a decade off my life that day due to stress.
5. It never hurts to ask nicely!
Luckily for me, this current conundrum I’m in has a happy ending. Once the check-in counter opened up for the next flight two hours later, I went up and explained my situation (“I really don’t know what happened…I’m so sorry, I’m always at least two hours early for my flight!”). On the phone, AirFrance had told me that all flights were booked up until the following day at 6:00 PM. As much as I would love skip class for the beach, Sciences Po has a strict “2 absences and you fail” policy, so I had to make it back to Paris by the morning. Once they were aware that they held my future and wellbeing in their hands, they said they’d “put me on the waitlist” and “see what they could do”. Due to the bureaucratic nature of both airlines and France, this usually never ends wells. But maybe because we were in an airport and French cultural norms don’t apply, they made the impossible happen!
So I’m now waiting at my newly assigned gate, three hours after my original planned departure. Even though AirFrance has told me that I’ve made standby, I won’t quite believe that I’m in the clear until I’m sitting in my seat. But until something goes wrong, I consider this one a win! My other alternative was taking an 11-hour overnight train back to Paris, with hotel yogurts as both my dinner and breakfast. I guess my new claim to fame will be, “I’ve never missed a flight and had to stay an extra day somewhere”…
