my flight time was changed while I was on vacation in Australia one Christmas. After a month sunning on the beaches and bumming around, I arrived at the airport and was told I had missed my plane by thirty minutes - that my travel agent should have notified me. I replied I'd been in country for 30 days, etc. (I had no cellphone at the time).

14 hours later (I had to wait until a seat became available so that meant hanging around) , I was finally on my way back. It was a 20 hour flight.

BUT

It was snowing badly in NY, and so we had to land in Newark. We had to sit on the runway in Newark for just over three hours, couldn't get out, and all the time I was only 10 miles from home - I would've just climbed out of the plane and hailed a taxi if it was possible. Finally the snow let up enough for us to get to LaGuardia (26 miles away) and I was on the street.

Oh, and then my taxi had an accident on the offramp to my place; I ended up walking about a mile with a heavy bag from the BQE, in hard snow.