Two weeks ago, I was scheduled for a 6:30 a.m. flight to Pennsylvania to speak at the CHAP conference. I set two alarms — one for 4 a.m. and one for 4:15 a.m. — and then went to bed.
When I woke up the next morning, I immediately realized something wasn’t right because it was light outside.
Then, I looked at the clock and saw that it was 6:30 a.m. Neither of my alarms had gone off and I was supposed to be on a flight right then!
I jumped out of bed and started to dash to get my things together when it hit me that it was pointless to try to get to the airport as soon as possible as the flight certainly wasn’t going to wait on me. 🙂
Jesse graciously got up and made some phone calls to get me on another flight while I showered, got dressed, and finished packing. I just prayed that I’d be able to get on another flight, because I was scheduled to speak the following morning at 8:30 a.m.
I was so relieved when he came in and told me he’d been able to get my tickets transferred to a later flight… to the tune of $500!!! That was our only and cheapest option. So we had to take it.
Yes, my irresponsibility in not turning on the alarms (I’d set the time on the alarms, but hadn’t flipped the switch to actually turn them on!) cost us $500. What was done was done. I couldn’t go back and fix the mistake, so I just had to cough up the money and pay dearly.
It was worth it — as I was so blessed by my time in Pennsylvania. But from here on out, I’m setting three alarms when I have an early morning flight. And I’ll probably triple check them, too!
Nothing like having to learn a lesson the very hard way. In fact, I think this is one of our most expensive frugal failures so far — much more expensive than even our $145 suitcase mistake.
Have you had any frugal failures recently? Hopefully it wasn’t as costly as mine was!
joy p says
Thanks for sharing. It’s nice to know others make mistakes too!
Sherilyn H says
Yes, I have! A few weeks back I was feeling a lil’ lazy so I told my husband to pick up some dinner on the way back from work. He wasn’t really happy about it, given the fact we had just went food shopping, he was hungry and tired. But anyway, he went. This is a place he’s familiar with. Since he was just gonna run in real quick and grab food, he parked his truck right out front. Out front where it said “no parking”. So he comes home with dinner, happy he only spent $13- but with a hefty $75 fine. Then it all became my fault for not cooking. Hehe, oh well. So next time it’ll be either that I’ll cook or he has to watch where he parks. 🙂 It happens. Whatever. Anyway, enjoyed your story…things happen for a reason.
Debbie Rioux says
Try your cell phone also. 🙂
Yolanda says
So funny, I was thinking about some costly mistakes I’ve made. One of the most costly was when my husband got tickets to a Broadway production that was coming to Chicago (we were going to drive from Ohio to see it). We made the purchase Saturday, for the next weekend, but didn’t print them out (we were out of ink or something). We got ink on Monday, and went to print the tickets and realized they were for the Sunday that had just passed. He’d put in the wrong date. to the tune of $105 a ticket. And what’s worse, we were going to surprise my mom and pick her up on the way. So that was a total $315 that was gone, and we couldn’t even call anybody to go on our place! We called and tried to get them to call us so we could go later. We never heard anything. 🙁
Ann says
What a nightmare! I used to travel a lot and this was my big fear.
Have you thought of using cell phone alarm too? Someone may have suggested. I find that always goes off.
Ann says
PS one suggestion for car rentals is to look at prices for rentals not at the airport, but at other rental locations. They are MUCH cheaper–you could just take a short cab ride from hotel or airport. This might not be for everyone or for business trips, but for vacations I think they might be a great idea.
Bethany says
This reminds me of my own flight failure a few years back. I made flight reservations for my husband to attend a conference In Minnesota in February – knowing it was likely he could get delayed or cancelled due to weather. He made it to the conference, but a blizzard struck up that way (and an ice storm for me and the three kids at home). As I was calling to get his cancelled flight rescheduled while he finished the last day of the conference, I discovered that I had made a HUGE ERROR when I made the reservation – I had set his return date for March instead of February. (You know how the dates are on the same days of the week every year in February and March – except leap year when day 29 gets thrown in). So, since his return flight wasn’t cancelled (since it was still a month away) we had to pay the exchange fee to get him home, plus all the other cancelled travelers were fighting for the same flights. He had to stay another night at the hotel, and fly from Minneapolis to Denver in order to get back to Ohio at about 1 in the morning. I was so frustrated with myself for making such a big mistake and not catching it. For once I was glad about the weather delay, otherwise he would have tried to board the plane only to find out his ticket was for a month later!
Laura Jane @ Super Sweet Life says
Mistakes happen. They usually happen with the thing you’re not worried about. It’s really inevitable. I missed a flight once. I’m usually very organized and had been on hundreds of flights before and never missed one or even been close to missing one. I knew the flight was on Sunday afternoon, and checked my reservation e-mail the day before to see exactly what time. The flight left at 3:30 pm, so I arrived at the airport at 2 pm. It wasn’t a really big airport, so that was plenty of time. I got to the luggage check-in counter and found out my flight actually left at 1:30pm and ARRIVED at 3:30pm. I felt like such an idiot. I was so careful about getting there early, but I didn’t think to really check the reservations twice. I just glanced at them and thought the plane left at 3:30. I was very lucky in that they did have a flight that left 5 hours later going to the same place and charged me nothing to get on it.
I really think the moral of the story is that we all make costly mistakes and whenever possible having an emergency fund keeps those from being any more stressful than they already are.
Ginger says
What exactly is the lesson? “Don’t ever make mistakes”??
Crystal says
There were many lessons for me from this experience. But the biggest takeaway was to triple check my alarm clock next time I need to be somewhere early in the morning. 😉
I shared this with you all to encourage you that we all make mistakes and have frugal failures — it’s part of life. I think it’s good to remember this if you’re feeling discouraged over a mistake you made… though I hope that none of you have to experience anything like the $500 mistake I did!
Rebecca says
But you probably had the money stored away in an emergency fund that even though you had to spend the money (and it hurt) it didn’t really hurt (if that makes sense). It’s good to know that we are all human and make mistakes.
Beth says
the alarm thing happened to me twice while I was in college. Once I slept through 1st hour and the second time I woke up 7 minutes before class started. Thankfully it was a small campus so I was in class on time. I just looked rather disheveled though:).
Ever since then I have been really paranoid about alarms and double check them several times before bed. Probably the extra stress doesn’t help me sleep.
I just had a 5:45 am flight a couple weeks ago and set 3 alarms. The alarm of my driver didn’t go off, but they were willing to take me in their PJ’s :).
Mary Beth Patnaude says
My husband and I recently travelled to Orlando for a conference. It was a rare getaway alone (we left our 5 kids at home). We hadn’t been on a plane in a very long time, and I was very excited. We booked through Expedia, but ended up getting ripped off by the car rental place, to the tune of over $200, got bumped from our hotel, and had to pay $100 extra for the bags to be checked. Our return flight was delayed, so we wasted 4hours sitting in the airport. If we had paid a little extra up front for a direct flight, this wouldn’t have happened. Time, as they say, is money!
We tried to be frugal by booking through Expedia, but it wound up costing much more in the end. Next time, I’m booking everything separately, probably over $500!
Meme says
I would try contacting expedia as I’m pretty sure they have a policy that guarantees the rate you booked at. I could be wrong though and it could be another one of the popular booking sites. The worst thing they can do is say no to compensation which is where you’re at now. Also I would be contacting each of those companies with a complaint asking for some sort of compensation/reimbursment as they shouldn’t have upped rates, bumped you from your reserved room unless you were late getting there and so on. Plus do it on the companies social media pages ie twitter, facebook, and whatever other public forums they have. Companies are more likely to respond quickly and try to make things right when things like this are made public as they don’t want they negative attention it causes.
Lana says
About a month ago the 25 plus year old second refrigerator in our garage died. After seeing at least a $60 reduction in our utility bill from not having that energy hog running I realized that we could have had a new refrigerator from the savings in a very short time. My rationale that the second refrigerator was saving me money by allowing me to stock up was in reality costing us money.
Melissa Carter says
Okay, I had a frugal failure recently! I am doing some recycling and decided to use a plastic bottle (out of the recycling already in the back of my van). Intended to return the bottle left the back hatch of my van open inside the closed garage. I forgot to return the bottle and did not close the hatch. Next day I go to leave and hit the garage door button to open. Our garage is barely big enough to fit the van so you can imagine the crunching and and screeching sounds. Fortunately we did not have to get a new garage door (although my husband had to spend some of his precious free time hammering out hinges and such and we did have to buy a new part that completely broke from the ceiling. That was a great way to start my mother’s day weekend!
Pamela J says
Sorry to hear of the aggravation this caused you.
Am I the only one surprised that you will have to pay this? I thought the compensation usually includes covering the airfare (and hotel, meals, conference admission, etc.) of the speaker. Maybe I am missing something?
Crystal says
Yes, my travel expenses were covered, but this was extra because it was my mistake.
D.M. says
Oh no! So sorry that it happened! We have missed a flight once and luckily, we were able to just move it since we were flying Southwest. We realize that it is unwise for us to have an early morning flight since we most likely will not make it.
One of our needless financial mistake actually involved our IRA contributions, two years in a row! The first time, DH deposited $5000 twice into the same acct (mine). So, we had to pay a 6% penalty ($300) and he missed being able to make a contribution that year. Next year, we decided to mail in the check to our own accounts so that we won’t make the same mistake again. Well, for some reason he didn’t realize that we longer qualified for Roth IRA, but still deposited into his Roth account. I didn’t discover the mistake for two years. So, that’s another 12% penalty ($600) and he missed another chance to make a contribution (so $10000 of potential tax-free growth). I still cringe when I think about it, but I try to remind myself that we are lucky enough to be able to make contributions.
Mary says
The last time I set an alarm it didn’t go off but I couldn’t figure out why.
Phone on? check
Alarm set? check
When it went off that evening, I realized you also have to get the AM/PM thing right too.
My last frugal failure was failing to clean the frig daily (in all fairness, I was out of town for a week but still …). Throwing out a good portion of pot roast, some organic chicken sausages, and an entire container of greens broke my heart. That would have made two (really good) meals.
Shelley @ FamilySavings.com says
Ya know, sometimes stuff happens and we just have to roll with it. It COULD always be worse! (that’s what I always try to remind myself!)
Our recent failure was the dishwasher. It quit draining. We checked everything suggested and then ordered a $70 pump. (better than buying a new dishwasher, right!?) Got the new pump and attached it and it still didn’t work. We went through the whole process again…and then we saw it! The piece we *thought* was apart of the hose was not…it was what was clogging it and not allowing it to drain! (We still have no idea what that piece was or how it got there!) But, it works….and I have the “old” perfectly fine pump stashed away in case the new one ever goes out! I don’t know what was worse wasting the $70 or knowing that I handwashed dishes for 3 weeks while we waited on the part to come in! Ah well! Lesson learned! 🙂
April says
Not that anything has happened recently, but this reminded me of when we missed our flight back to Germany when we lived there. My husband and I both had the date wrong! I remember getting up on a Monday and having a nagging feeling to look at the tickets, but ignored it. We left for O’Hare on Tuesday when our flight was the day before (should’ve looked at the tickets). We paid what I thought was dearly back then, but 12 years later, it wasn’t too bad. 🙂 We had a very gracious attendant who was more than willing to help us out and still remember what she looked like! Sometimes, blessings are like that.
Ann Marie says
I know how aggravating that can be. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve either forgotten to turn my alarm on or inadvertently set it for pm instead of am. Fortunately, I’ve never missed a plane because of it, though. My recent frugal failure cost us $5.00. I accidentally put regular rice in the dinner casserole instead of instant rice. Fortunately we were able to fix it and eat the casserole for dinner the next night but had to settle for a Little Caesar pizza to keep everything on schedule. It didn’t kill our budget but I was very disappointed that I wasn’t able to achieve my goal of cooking all meals at home for the week.
Allison V. says
My alarm clock from Walmart is always “On”. I have a snooze or off button but it’s always set to go off the next day. I don’t even turn it off for the weekend because I’d forget to turn it back on for Monday!
Lauren @ Funky Monkey Embroidery says
This wasn’t recently, but when I was in college and my now husband ( then boyfriend) was in Army training, I was in charge of booking him a ticket home to come see me. I searched and searched and searched for the cheapest flight, and finally found one and booked it. Turns out I booked it for the wrong day, and that’s why it was so much cheaper than the others I was comparing it to. He showed up at the airport in the morning and the flight he had a ticket for had left the day before. We ended up having to buy a whole new ticket. I don’t remember now how much it was, but it was a very stressful and upsetting event!
KimH says
Oh dear.. that is a terrible feeling when you realize… sigh… I quit smoking years ago because I was on a layover & I just had to have a smoke.. then I got caught in the scanning area and almost missed my flight.. they had the doors shut & were starting to walk away from the area and I came running & yelling to hold the plane.. Thank God, they did. I quit soon after, I was so mad at myself. 😉
I make a frugal mistake every time I walk into Costco & get a buggie.. True story that!
Tammy Skipper (@Tammy_Skipper) says
I RAN through the Dulles airport a few years ago for a flight to FL with almost the same scenario except I *just* had enough time to make the flight. Mainly due to answered prayers and God putting the shuttle driver and terminal bus drivers exactly where I needed them. They literally shut the plane door on my backside and my seat neighbor kindly offered me gum when I told her I’d literally done nothing but zip up my suitcase, throw on my shoes and start running from the moment I’d woken up an hour earlier! FYI, it’s not always an option, but Southwest has NO change fees, just the price difference from whatever you paid before to the new flight you select.
Yvonne says
I do have a suggestion since I have the same fear, and my sister has missed her flight back home which could have been a costly mistake :/ We normally fly Southwest Airlines because they don’t charge a fee to change your flight. My sister got to the airport with plenty of time, she had breakfast with us and during the security checkpoint, was asked to check her bags. This resulted in missing her flight by 2 minutes 🙁 We didn’t find out until we were an hour away doing touristy things. She tried doing the standby thing but didn’t get a seat number and each flight back home was full 🙁 So I was able to rebook her flight for the next day and only had to pay $7 for the difference of the new flight – original flight. That’s why I fly Southwest if I can because I’m always, always afraid I’ll miss my plane. Just a thought if they service your small airport.
KimH says
I love SouthWest… They’re my favorite airline!
jennifer says
I really think that things happen for a reason. Maybe your sharing is going to prevent several other people from making the same mistake, people who might not be able to afford the cost of switching a flight.
Or maybe it’s a sign you’re not getting enough rest.
Rebecca says
Don’t think twice about it. God had a purpose in it. Just thank Him for always taking care of you and the wonderful blessed opportunity to help people.
Crystal says
He’s so faithful, isn’t He? So thankful and blessed… but I AM going to do a better job of checking my alarm clock in the future. 🙂
Amanda says
I don’t know how many times we have tried to save money by doing some type of home repair or other project ourselves! The first year we were married, we needed to paint our kitchen and bathroom. We lived in an old house with lots of nooks and crannies and smooth walls so paint didn’t stick very well (of course we didn’t think of any of that at the time!). We wanted help, so we invited some of my husband’s high school students to come and help us paint in exchange for pizza after it was all done. As you might guess, it was a disaster! We ended up with a huge mess, a sloppy paint job, and it was all our fault. We were out the cost of paint plus the cost of pizza to feed about 10 high school students (I’m not sure which was more!). We had to hire someone to re-do it a year later. We have also moved twice and both times asked friends to help us move, resulting in some broken furniture both times that had to be replaced. Over the years we have learned our lesson that some things are best left to the professionals! Even though it costs more initially, it saves us the time, stress, and money of having the job re-done later on.
TJ says
I drove to the airport in a nearby city, because the flight was cheaper. However, once there, I discovered my luggage wasn’t in the car. And it was an hour and a half drive, so no way for hubby to bring it to me. $150 to ship just my toiletries a pair of shoes and 2 changes of clothes.
Krissy @ Just Take Two Bites says
Ouch! So sorry that happened!
deborah says
That would be very frustrating, especially the $500. Yet, you never know and may never know, if there was a reason you were supposed to miss the flight. When I get delayed or my plans aren’t working like I think they should, I try to remind myself that God sees the big picture and He knows how things will play out and sees things I can’t. Glad you had a good trip!
On the up side it makes a good post to share here. 🙂
Nancy says
We had to cough up hundreds to change tickets we got through Orbitz because we needed to change the return date. From now on, we are booking tickets with Southwest. They don’t charge for changes or cancellations.
Chelsea says
I find that when something like this happens, I don’t make the same mistake again. 🙂
Earlier today, I had an important meeting. I was so careful to have all of my paperwork together and ready to go- then walked out the door without my purse which had my ID! I didn’t realize it until I showed up 5 minutes early and couldn’t find my purse. Since I didn’t have the time to go home, I went to my meeting, apologized profusely, and had to reschedule because without my ID we couldn’t proceed.
Ahh! It was pretty humiliating. Until I remembered your post about perspective from yesterday. 🙂
Kirsten Oliphant says
I hate those kinds of mistakes. Sorry that happened, but thank you for sharing so we can all feel better for ours. 🙂
Jeri says
After reading everyone’s expensive frugal fails, I’m too embarrassed to admit my $6 or so Starbucks mistake in buying a packet of iced Via that I now know we’ll never drink. I’ll just go return it tomorrow. I wish that all of your mistakes could be fixed as easily!
Crystal says
Well, at least you can be encouraged, eh? 🙂
Lisanne says
Was this the CHAP convention in Harrisburg, Pa? If so, don’t feel too bad because there was a HUGE accident on the highway that shut it down for hours and no one could get to the farm show complex for the convention. I feel for you! I hate wasting money too!
Crystal says
Yes, it was. And it all ended up working out — that accident was crazy! So thankful no one was hurt!
Victoria says
If you slept that soundly the night before a flight I am guessing your were overtired when you went to bed which causes errors (like not setting the alarm) which is very human and something we simply need to forgive ourselves for, and realize God provides to take care of our errors too. I remember this one time when my husband was in school and had either been in classes or working for 12 days straight, he had a day off and went to a movie with us, but midway through the hospital called and wanted him to come in right away for an interview for a job that would give us better pay and more family time, so he left mid movie. I got out of the theater to see that someone had driven into the floor to ceiling glass front of the theater, and walked around the mess “grumbling, about who would be silly enough to drive into the front of a glass theater”. When my husband got home several hours later he said “good news is I got the job bad news is I was so tired and excited about the interview that while I was backing out of the theater parking lot I backed right into the front of it”, but God in His mercy provided a bonus check just in time to cover what insurance didn’t and my husband was injury free and somehow the owner of the theater did not make a big deal out of it and simply grabbed his info and let him leave for the interview. We laugh about it all now.
Jennifer says
I get so nervous about waking up for early flights, that I often don’t go to bed!
Tracy says
My husband once panicked that he left his phone at the ballfield. He pulled over on the side of the highway and pulled everything out of the trunk to see if he’d left his phone in the chair drink holder at our son’s ballgame. He found his phone, got back in the car and we went home. The next day in getting ready to take our son to practice again we couldn’t find his baseball bag anywhere. It took about 10 minutes of blaming each other for putting it where it didn’t go before we realized that my husband had never put it back in the trunk the night before. We went back to the spot on the highway and the bag was gone. It ended up costing my husband well over $300 to replace our son’s glove, bag and other “supplies”. We held off on a bat till Spring, so probably really cost us over $500!
Susan says
Oh no! Definitely give yourself Grace on this one. Mistakes happen to the best of us! No one was hurt, and it all turned out OK. And now you have a great example of why it’s important to have an emergency fund! 😀
Susan
Tara G. says
An international move and lots of craziness buying a new house and arranging painting and taking delivery of 3 shipments and home schooling and birthdays and holidays caused us enough brain drain to forget to submit our claim on time for the damage done to our household goods in the move. My dining set took a beating and the estimate came in at $1000. {Cringe.}
Ellen says
Don’t be so hard on yourself! It was a mistake — not irresponsibility or failure. Irresponsibility would have been not setting an alarm and hoping to wake up on time. Failure would have been giving up and cancelling the trip. It stinks when our mistakes cost money, but it was just a mistake. It was probably nicer to travel with a little more sleep in your system too! 🙂
Brandy Wright says
If you have a smart phone you can set multiple alarms on your phone too. Even if your ringer is off your alarm is audible (at least that is true with my iPhone).
Amy says
That alarm would be a blessing in this situation but can be a curse if you forget it’s set. A concert I attended was ruined when an iPhone alarm went off on stage even though the singer had turned the phone off. The singer was ousted from the choir for disobeying their phone policy.
Kerrye says
Mine would be not checking all pockets before doing laundry and washing my son’s iPod Touch a couple months ago. ~$250. It’s still sitting in a bowl of rice – I can’t let it go yet!
celina says
when the baby threw mine in the washer…sigh..yep..anyhow….apple has a one time switch thing…you bring it in and you get a refurbished one for 100-150$ still not cheap..but cheaper than the new 32g to replace mine would have been.
Erin says
Don’t be too hard on yourself; I’d say your son owns a share of the blame. Interesting to know neither Apple could be salvaged; I heard lots of tales about the wonders of rice! I’ll have to be keep that in mind. . . . Though I did once wash my husband’s Blackberry without any problems. It worked right out of the washer–we were shocked!
Jessica says
I remember being in High School and setting a 4am alarm to catch the bus for a volleyball game. The only problem was I had it tuned into a radio station that didn’t come on the air until 5am. So I missed the bus but it still effects me today because I will check my alarm 10 times in a row if I have to wake up for something important.
I hope you are not paranoid of another alarm slip up like I was for years and years. 🙂
Sarah says
We once actually scheduled our round-trip flights for my husband and I a full day before we were supposed to leave and never even realized it until a couple of hours before when we THOUGHT our flight was. Since it was a round-trip, we couldn’t even schedule a one-way and catch the returning flight. We had to eat the entire cost of the trip. Sickening! Don’t worry. You are not alone!
Crystal says
Oh, that would be awful!
Cynthia Alsup says
You know Crystal, my experience is that since you weren’t irresponsible, just fallible there was very possibly a reason you can’t see yet, a divine one, for your mistake. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Lord himself caused you some confusion to change your plans. If it was in God’s plans then your $500 loss will be small compared to the greater outcome.
Crystal says
That was one thing that kept going through my mind — maybe there was a reason I was supposed to miss that flight and be on another flight? It did give me peace throughout that morning, even though my mistake will definitely propel me to triple check alarm clocks in the future. 🙂
Karen says
That’s what’s called being human!!! 🙂
Imagine how much more upset you’d be if paying the extra money actually set your family back!
When it comes down to it though, even if it impacted your family negatively, it’s STILL only money. …and many more mistakes in life have far greater consequences!
Liz @ Wonder Woman I'm Not says
Ouch! I think we’ve all done things that in one swoop unravels all our frugality. When that happens (or even when we have some unexpected expenses like car repairs). instead of getting upset I try to turn it around and be thankful that while inconvenient and frustrating, we typically have the resources to cover it.
I’m glad you were able to catch a later flight and enjoyed the conference.
Mandi says
We had something like that happen to us. My husband had made the reservations and I never looked at what time our flight was going to leave until I sat in the car waiting for him to lock up the house. The plane was leaving at 4:15 in a city we had a 2 hour drive to- the time was 3:00…. yup, no way that was going to happen. I called Frontier and told them we were going to miss our flight. When we got there they simply moved us to a different flight and didn’t even charge us for our bags. Maybe they could tell I was a little stressed out.
Slides 'n Sandboxes says
Good thing you guys have two businesses and a few rental properties helping you with the income. I think in our case I would not have been able to come up with this much money and would have had to to cancel all scheduled appointments.
Really glad that it ended up being a blessing that you were able to go. Thank you so much for sharing.
Carol O. says
So glad it worked out in the ong run. Might I suggest that you can set a wake-up call with the hotel as well as an alarm or 2. 🙂 I am obsessive about the alarm thing and then I never sleep well before a trip. 🙁 Glad you got a good night’s sleep, even though it cost you $500. That is a painful expenditure. 🙂 I agree with the person who said that the blessing of a frugal life is not in the frugality as a virtue but in what it allows you to do instead. In this case, it allows you to make up for an error that could have happened any time to anybody, wihout you being stuck in a foreign city with no recourse but to find the Greyhound station. God Bless!
Crystal says
Yes, the good night’s rest was nice. 🙂 And I try to always set a wake up call when I’m staying at hotels — I need to figure out how to do that at home, too! {Anyone know if there’s a free service for that?!}
rosie says
I think snoozester is still free.
Rachel says
When my husband has a really early starts he sets 2 alarms and uses Siri, on his iPad, as a backup. Before he goes to bed he tells her to set an alarm.
Betsie says
Oh no! That is always my biggest fear when we travel and have an early flight. I’m glad you were able to make it, and thank you for sharing your failures – it helps to hear we’re all human, and we all make mistakes!
Miriam T. says
I missed my flight once because I went to the wrong airport (eek!) Another option is to get to the airport as soon as you can to see if you can fly standby on the next flight. If there’s a lot of empty seats, they’ll usually tell you so you have a good chance of getting on the flight without having to pay extra money.
Sharla says
I missed a flight a few months ago. I was in tears at the airport and couldn’t fly out until the next day. In my case, it turned out that God had a plan to use that missed flight and teach me about Him always knowing better than I do. In my case, it was all about the blessings that came from missing the flight and pain that I avoided by not catching it (ironic) but in your case, perhaps it’s as simple as God teaching you to slow down and take a breath so that you can switch the alarm on or about your husband coming through to help you and how you guys are a team. I don’t know the lesson for you but I do know that God’s even in the little things.
Alissa says
Oh No!!! Days that I have to get up earlier than normal, I can never seem to sleep, and am up every flippin hour until its time to get up..
Emily says
That is exactly how I am.
Roxanne says
The true moral of the story is you live your life a certain way so that a $500 mistake doesn’t ruin or cancel anything for you. You live lean as a habit so when surprises and mistakes happen you have the excess stored away to fix problems.
We have had a few events like that over the years, and that is always what remind ourselves :-Q
The money was in the bank and not slotted for food/heat/etc, so it all ended fine.
I want to know how close you live to the airport though?? You set an alarm for only 2.5 hours before the plane was supposed to take off? Or did you sleep in your clothes?
Crystal says
We’re blessed in that we have a small airport and I only have to get there an hour to an hour and a half ahead of time in order to have no problem at all getting to my gate early (especially now that I can check in online ahead of time since I don’t ever check bags). The downside of small airports is that ticket prices are usually more. But there are pros and cons to everything, right?!
Beeb says
Don’t be so hard on yourself! You set two alarms – nothing irresponsible in that. Accidents are inevitable. The extra $500 would really hurt, but try not to get too down on yourself.
Mike Moroze says
Crystal,
Don’t beat yourself up too badly. From a usability perspective, the alarm failed you. A simple interaction flow from a user interface design perspective would have captured that you made a change to the alarm and either automatically set it to on, or it the alarm was a smartphone or other ‘smart’ device, asked for a confirmation to set it to on.
In any case, technology exists to make this problem – which probably occurs more often than we think – just simply go away…
Mike
Crystal says
You’re kind! And this is probably one more reason why I should convince myself to stop using my old-fashioned alarm clock. 🙂