This is the story of how I almost missed a domestic flight due to an entire series of unfortunate events...but ended up making it since it was delayed anyway.

I was taking a domestic flight with a local carrier. It was departing at 5.30pm local time. I left for the airport at 3pm as I had no check-in luggage. The journey was supposed to take 50-60 minutes based on Google Maps. However, the traffic was absolutely horrendous and I ended up reaching the airport at around 4.40pm.

The airport has 3 terminals. Even though the cab driver had told me to go to Terminal 3 as the airline I was flying with operated out of that terminal, Google showed that the plane was flying out of Terminal 1. There was no information on the flight receipt I got on this. I insisted on going to Terminal 1 because Google must be correct, right?

Big mistake. The flight was indeed operated out of Terminal 3 so I then had to embark on a long journey via the sky train between terminals. What was even worse was that the information screen at the sky train waiting area showed that my flight was departing at 9pm instead so I kept panicking and wondering if my flight had been delayed. But the departure time was still 5.30pm online. So I wasn't sure if I should still try to rush to the counter but decided to in the end.

Once the sky train arrived at Terminal 3, I dashed to the check-in counter. I finally reached the counter at 5.10pm (for a 5.30pm flight). However, the counter staff said that the check-in was already closed and asked me to check for flights on other airlines since that was their airline's last flight to my destination that day. After copious begging and complaining about how the information online had led me to the wrong terminal, they finally relented, printed a boarding pass for me and told me to hurry to Gate 15.

I was in full panic mode and ran with my carry-on bags to Gate 15. I reached the gate in a sweaty mess at 5.20pm. To my utter confusion, the staff at the gate mentioned that the gate for the flight had changed to Gate 23 and that I could walk there slowly since the plane we were using was just landing at the airport.

I was stunned - why didn't the check-in staff tell me this since I had just checked in 10 minutes ago?! Also, why did said staff refuse to check me in initially when the plane had not even landed yet so the departure was delayed anyway?

In the end, the departure was so delayed that I even had time to get a cup of coffee from Starbucks while waiting to board the plane... However, I almost didn't make it onto the flight again as I didn't have a face mask (which was still required for flights in the country I was in). The airline staff also had no spare mask to give to me. In the end, a very kind staff had to ask all the other passengers if they had a spare mask until a kind lady gave them one for me...

TLDR; almost missed my flight due to a series of unfortunate events. Managed to make it in the end but caused myself massive stress in the process.