I have been blessed to successfully fly on very many airplane trips during the past few years. For all of my independent passenger flights that go like clockwork, I have mixed up some small logistics on three notable occasions.

My Top Air Travel Blunders
- January 2005 - Meherabad, India
Somewhere en route from Atlanta to Mumbai via Milan in November 2004, I lost the paper copy of my return airfare. I think that I accidentally gave the Delta ticket agent both copies of my ticket, including the return, in Atlanta. The fantastic story is that I had to fill out several police reports in rural Maharashtra, India stating that I lost my ticket before Alitalia airlines would re-issue another paper copy. Their "form letter" for a lost airline ticket was only a single blank sheet of paper; it was very important to the Police Chief that I signed my lost ticket statement letter "Sincerely Yours." What a bureaucratic nightmare!
- March 2003 - Atlanta, Georgia
I was returning to Wake Forest and Winston-Salem via Atlanta after a Spring Break in Los Angeles on the set of the movie American Wedding. I had taken Amtrak from Chicago on the Chief line- nice, scenic trip- but opted to fly home instead of taking the long train ride. My layover in Atlanta was just long enough to grab a bite to eat and totally miss my departure time. The plane left and everything for the next 20 hours was booked. Very embarrassing.
- June 2005 - New York
I wrote down the wrong departure date in my memory calendar and missed my flight to Manhattan by 24 hours. The cost of the lost ticket wasn't nearly as bad as losing travel face to friends; nobody can put a price on lost opportunity friendship cost.
If there is a lesson to be learned here, it is... No matter your travel kits, mind the flight details!