I was talking to somebody from work on the phone while walking up and down Terminal 5 in O’hare. Getting some work done and putting in my steps too. Terminal 5 is fairly long, end to end.

As I was trying to wrap up the call, thought it would be a good idea to find out my gate before I went into the Skyclub. All I needed to do is scan the destination on each board as I walked and talked.

Sure enough – when I came to Gate M7, the name “Atlanta” was on display. The time matched too. Mentally, I did the math – about two minutes of walk from Skyclub. With that, I focused back on the call.

And kept strolling. As I came to the next gate – M6 – out of habit, I glanced at the board. It had “Atlanta”. My first thought was that it was a later flight to Atlanta. But then the time matched!!

Totally confused, I went back to the previous gate after explaining to my colleague that I am afraid I might have a 50-50 chance of going home tonight!!

That was a first again for me… two adjacent gates declaring the same flight!