How to avoid missing your flight.

Did you miss your flight?

Recently when I was on a trip to San Francisco, I missed my flight(Virgin America) to Las Vegas. I was staying in a hotel(Roadway Inn) in downtown. I checked out of the hotel 2 hours before the flight. As per our GPS it was supposed to take only 20 minutes to reach the airport. As we (I was with my friend) were driving the traffic got so bad that we were driving in circles. Most of the streets in San Francisco were one way unlike the ones in Vegas. When we reached the airport it was only ten minutes left for the flight to depart. The counters for boarding pass were already closed. We were given another standby boarding pass for the next day.

We were driving a rented car which we had already returned. Now, we approached South West Airlines to see if they could send us on the same day at reasonable price. We were hoping that some seats would be empty and they might offer us some good deal. Instead they asked for $240 for one way trip to Vegas. I had my round way ticket from Vegas to San Francisco for $100. Now $240 was too much to pay. So we took a BART from the airport and reached the downtown and walked to the same hotel. Luckily they had an empty room for us. We had our flight at 7AM next day. So we asked the hotel staff to wake us up at 4. They also contacted a pick up van for us.

Next day, exactly at 4 we were woken up. The pick up van picked us up at 4:30. We reached the airport without any hassle.

From what I went through, I have few suggestions:

1)If you have a rented car, return the car earlier.
2)Ask your hotel staff to wake you up if your flight is at early morning.
3)Your hotel might have a pick up van themselves. Even if they don't have they are in a contact with pick up services from airport. So ask them to arrange a pick up van for you. Tell them your flight and departure time. Pick up van will set the pick up time accordingly.
4)Sometimes, your pick up van might also get stuck in a traffic jam. So if a BART station is near by, always go for it.
5)Always print your boarding pass before you arrive at the airport. Airlines allow you to print your boarding pass from 24 hours before the flight. You just have to visit their site.