Once Bitten, Twice Shy!

Have you missed a flight before? I did it twice.

The first time was my flight back to Cairo from Tanzania in 2019. I'd like to emphasize that it wasn't my fault. The flight from Dar es Salaam departed quite late. As a consequence, when we arrived in Addis Ababa, where we had a layover, the flight to Cairo had left. Luckily, the airline provided another flight the following day and accommodation in a hotel, including the transfer and meals for free.

The second time occurred in 2023. It was a flight from Nairobi to Kigali. This time was totally my bad. Simply, I missed the flight because I mistakenly mixed up the arrival and departure times. And do you know what? I believe it happened because of karma. To tell you why, let me go back in time to the beginning of my trip to Kenya.

When I was in Nairobi, I was planning to travel to Mombasa by train with R. However, he missed the train because he had attended a party the night before. He didn't hear his alarm and slept through it. He said I was lucky I didn't go to the party so I was able to be on time for the train. I harshly told him that even if I had gone to the party, I would never be late for the train.

I spent roughly three weeks in Mombasa. I had a good time volunteering with a Pastor's family. Also, I stayed with two Pakistani siblings for a couple of days. In addition, R and I got to know each other better when he hosted me in his place for more than a week. On my way back to Nairobi, I had a train and everything went smoothly.

After spending two days there, it was time to leave Kenya. I thought the half-an-hour flight from Nairobi to Kigali was at 6:30 pm. While I was on my way to the airport, I re-checked the flight details to find out that the departure was at 5:30 pm! When I arrived at the airport, I made another stupid mistake. Instead of asking people to allow me to cut in line because I was late, I just kept waiting in the queues, thinking this was what I should have done.

When I was finally at the counter, I was told that the check-in was closed. The clerk added that there had been someone calling for the flight a bit earlier! I explained that I’m hearing impaired, and I would have noticed it if it was shown on a screen or something that could be seen instead of heard! But I was blatantly told that the gate was already closed and nothing could be done. 

Later, I went to the Airways help desk to get another ticket. After being blamed for not skipping the queues, they gave me a flight on the following day. Unfortunately, I had to pay for it. Much to my chagrin, the accommodation wasn't included. I had to stay awake while sitting and freezing the whole night in the lounge. I couldn't help but think this was a consequence of being harsh on R when he missed the train.

I must confess that wasn’t my first time to misread info related to a flight. During my travel from Cambodia to Nepal, I had a transit in Singapore. I read that the gate for the flight to Kathmandu was A8. I went to the gate and kept waiting there. Nobody showed up, even up until half an hour before the flight departure. I went out to check whether I was at the correct gate. After looking up the flight, the boarding staff told me that the gate was A18, not A8.

When I went out, I read a banner saying “Skytrain A18” which meant the gate wasn’t as close as expected. I had to take the train to reach it. I was about to have a heart attack. I jumped off the train running to the gate. I was the last passenger who got on the plane.

I wish I had learned the lesson that time so I wouldn't have missed my flight to Kigali.

In the end, I came through sadder but wiser after all my travel experiences.