THE summer holidays are coming up, which means our jobs are about to get much busier – but it also means people are more likely to make stupid mistakes at airports.
Every year people miss their flights by being careless and then have the audacity to try and get some compensation from the airlines.
If it's your fault, I'm sorry, but you're not getting anything from us other than a lesson on why you are responsible for getting yourself to your departure gate on time.
In this week's blog for Sun Online Travel, I'll be talking about the stupidest reasons people have missed some of our flights – and how easily it can happen.
Firstly, one of the main reasons is people losing track of time in airport bars.
Alcohol is never your friend when you're flying, not when you're in the air, and certainly not before you fly.
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We regularly have to put out special announcements over the airport public address system telling passengers their flights are about to leave without them.
And nine times out of ten, they're in a Wetherspoons or one of the other airport pubs, paying absolutely no attention to the time, or which gate they're supposed to be at.
We get it, you're on holiday and you want to enjoy every minute of it before you have to go back to work.
But for the hour or two that you're in the airport, it's worth laying off the booze and focusing on exactly where you need to be and when.
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That goes for food and shopping too because if it's not people drinking, they're probably eating a meal somewhere because they stupidly thought they had enough time, or shopping in duty free.
What people tend to do is focus on their departure time and not when boarding closes, which is also printed on their boarding pass. That's the time you really need to pay attention to.
You can turn up at the departure gate and the plane could still be there, but if we've closed the doors and got everything ready for takeoff, we're not risking a delay just so you could have an extra pint.
Another key piece of information people need to pay attention to when arriving at the airport is which terminal they're flying from.
This should be included on your ticket, but for some reason, people still manage to get it wrong.
If you've checked in online and got a boarding pass downloaded for Heathrow Airport, for example, the scanners will let you pass through to security, regardless of which terminal you're in.
Once you've reached the departure lounges, you're in real trouble and it could be a race against time whether or not you make it onto your flight.
If in doubt, ask someone because we can't wait around for someone just because they were careless.
Also, make sure you have everything you need with you, including your passport and any visas you need to enter the country you're visiting. That's your responsibility and not ours.
You need to check the passport requirements for the places you're visiting long before you travel to make sure you have enough time to renew your documents for your trip should you need to.
All of this seems like it should be common sense, but every year, people get caught out for the silliest of reasons and that's their holiday and the money they spent on it gone.
Those incidents increase during the summer when people haven't taken the time they needed to properly plan for their trips away.
No doubt I'll be meeting some of those people very soon.
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