Not really a missed flight story, because I am flying for free on standby.
Anyway, I am currently stuck at the Denver Airport. So far I have spent 13 hours here and I still have a little over 1 more hour to go before I find out if I get to leave or not. If I get out of DIA on this next flight I will either spend an hour in Miami's Airport, catching my last flight home, or I will spend 12 hours in Miami hoping to catch my last flight home.
At one point I had a boarding pass and was on the plane, but my seat was taken and so I had to get right back off the plane. The agent at the gate who gave me the seat couldn't figure out why it appeared open on the computer, but it wasn't a big deal.
I am staying optimistic, but anything can happen. I haven't had this hard of a time flying standby before, but I have only done it a few times. It is basically the risk I pay for being cheap. I knew what I was getting into and I regret nothing.
Well my trip wasn't planned out. It was a very last minute emergency type of thing. You can definitely make the "time is money" case, but I can work from anywhere as long as I have my laptop. Even with out the laptop my phone will do in a pinch.
As far as food goes I have only spent $20, and I brought a water bottle. I definitely agree that it isn't for everyone, but I did save a lot of money doing this. Plus, I have never had this much trouble getting out of an airport before.
I made it to Miami and I am currently waiting for my last flight to board. Looks like I will make it home soon. The real problem was trying to fly through Dallas/Fort Worth. Each flight was overbooked. I could have tried going through Charlotte but each one of those flights was delayed by several hours. It really was just a bad luck sort of thing, in my opinion.