@ttyymmnn said in Well, that was close....:
I've never been Tail End Charlie before.
Somebody has to be last, and on several occasions I've stood up proudly and done my part.
Fortunately Southwest is pretty tolerant about people who are barely making a connection, or made the mistake of checking their e-mail just one last time before leaving the office, or whatever. If you make it before they close the door (or, less commonly, give up on you and start calling stand-by passengers), you're in, albeit not necessarily in a desirable seat.
On Northwest, a late connection once got me the gold standard of non desirable seats â all that was left was the one 'way in the back end of a DC-9 that has a blocked out window because there is nothing to see but the inboard side of a nacelle anyway. Then, with everybody strapped down for takeoff, I realized that the bag containing my noise cancelling headphones were trapped in an overhead bin a couple rows forward. Fortunately it was a short flight; my new best friend "JT" on that antique jet had a lot to say and was kind of a loud talker!