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What happens if I miss a connection flight and it's my fault? Let's say I got distracted or something. The airline may not book me onto the next flight because it wasn't their fault. And if I don't have the money to book another flight I'm stuck in the airport.

What would be the best course of action under these circumstances?

While this is a real fear of everyone with a connecting flight, it's actually not something that is very likely to hurt you. First, precisely because you worry about this, you're not likely to get so distracted that you forget why you are at the airport. Second, the airline pages people who are in danger of missing their flights. Hearing your own name should snap you out of your daydream pretty quickly. I've even seen airline staff wandering around other gates asking people if they are the missing passenger.

On top of that, airlines have some leeway to help you out. You're right there, you're upset, and you have some sort of story to explain what happened. They will probably just take care of you for little or no charge. I've missed two planes in my life -- both in Atlanta as it happens -- and one was not my fault (taxi arrived very late then broke down on the way to airport and limped me there after a partial roadside repair) and the other was totally my fault (spaced and thought my 14:30 flight was at 4:30). In both cases I was put on the next flight no fuss no muss even though it was clearly my fault in the second case. I understand it wasn't a connection, but leeway is leeway and I am quite sure there's no "only if you had trouble actually reaching the airport" rule.

Then finally, few people who can fly cannot come up with the funds for a ticket home. Yes, putting hundreds of dollars on your credit card would hurt, and might leave you with a bunch of issues when you get home about how to pay rent or buy groceries, but you could at least get home and show up for work so you keep getting a paycheque.

However, let's pretend all these incredibly unlikely things materialize: you are on your way home with no cash, nothing in your bank account, no room on your credit card, no line of credit, nothing, and you zone out and semi-deliberately miss your flight and the airline takes no pity on you and says "$400 or sit here for the rest of your life, we don't care." You can call your family or friends. Some will be alert for a "Grandma scam" but you can probably convince someone that you're really you and you need them to go to the website of a rival airline and buy you a ticket home. (You're not going to give money to the people who wouldn't take pity on you, are you?) If you are an orphan or all your other family members are as tapped out as you, then I suppose a GoFundMe and a social media campaign are your next step, though that might take a few days.

You're far more likely to get a bad sunburn, a jellyfish sting, or food poisoning, not to mention the dreaded "caught a cold on a plane" than you are to find yourself stranded because you missed a connecting flight. If this truly worries and concerns you and you can't talk yourself out of it, spend your connection time at the outgoing gate, and check every 15 minutes that the gate hasn't changed, while never ignoring a single overhead announcement. That's what most of us do anyway, and it will protect you from this highly unlikely scenario. (At least, better than sitting in a restaurant 20 minutes from the gate drinking, ignoring announcements, etc.)

Your options not necessarily in order of preference are:

1. Call Family and ask




2. Call Friends and mooch off them




3. Setup a Gofundme and compose a tearjerker




4. Ask random strangers at the airport




5. Camp out at the airport until the airline or airport authorities have mercy on you (Scroll to 32:30 mark of video)




6. If you’re a citizen of another country and missed your flight home in a foreign airport, your embassy might lend you funds to get back to your home country. You will likely have to pay them back. Emergency Financial Assistance for U.S. Citizens Abroad




7. I would have said call the airline frequent flyer/customer service number however you’ve already indicated the airline refuses to help.

Note

Because this is a connection flight you can’t rely on the flat tire rule to help you out.

Get some money. Try and find the cheapest trip home.

If you have an ID with you, ask family/friends for a Western Union remittance.

If you have no ID, the remittance with them might be possible, but the amounts allowed are limited.

Sell something you have with you. Try a pawn shop. They won't offer you a fair price, but solve your liquidity problem.

The issue here, though, is to have backup plans upfront.

Airlines often overbook flights so they won't have empty seats if someone doesn't show up.

Occasionally, they'll actually 'bump' people off a flight that have a reservation because they overbooked and everybody showed up.

So just because you miss your flight doesn't mean that the airline took off with an empty seat. They may have filled it with someone who would otherwise have gone on the next flight but was waiting in case someone didn't show up to go on the earlier flight.

Since that guy took your seat and paid for it, they can give you the seat he would have had without losing money.

I think in that case they would be more likely to allow you out on a later flight without charge.

The only way to know for sure is to read the fine print of every carriers policies because those are the legally binding policies and thus the ones they're most likely to follow.

Still, to be safe, I would assume it's going to cost you if you miss one and, if at all possible, have the money to purchase another ticket.

If you don't, then at that point, you're homeless in an airport and it becomes security's job to remove you if you have no legal business there.

The world is cruel.

People become homeless not because they were able to deal with the unexpected.

People become homeless because they weren't able to deal with the unexpected.

You can panhandle but that's probably illegal in an airport and often illegal in most places. So the next place alot of people end up is in jail. It's called a string of cascading negative events and it can ruin lives if you don't have anyone to help you or the money to help yourself.