Friend ettiquette...The airport drop off

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I'm headed to Toledo this weekend to visit my gf. Work oh so graciously provided us with a 4 day weekend, and combined with some comp-time I have, I made it a 5 day. I picked up some cheapie airtran tickets about two months ago when we planned all this. It also coincides with valentines day too, so I'll get some brownie points there.

I've got a good friend who was supposed to pick me up for the flight yesterday. We made the arrangment a few days before, and he assured me he would be getting off work at 7. I called at 6 and things seemed to be on. He told me he would be able to make it. 7 comes and I call again. He says he's tying up some last minute bits at work and should be leaving in 15 minutes. I call again at 7:30 and he's still doing his thing. At that point, I'm starting to get nervous, as the airport here requires you to check in at the gate 45 minutes before departure.

I call my dad who usually gets off work about this time and beg for a ride. He's there within 10 minutes (7:45) at this point. I get to the gate, but of course Hartsfield's check-in gate has a half hour wait itself. Get to the teller only to have her tell me I've missed my flight, but they'd be happy to stick me on the next flight to the nearest city for $259 or the next morning for $75.

Ugh. I begrudgingly book for the next flight, and my friend apologizes profusely saying he should've just called to tell me he couldn't make it. He offers to drop me off the next morning because he has the day off. I declined. I didn't want to risk it.

Anyway, are you supposed to let the person make it up? I know its a silly seinfeldian question (pretty sure there was an episode on this), but needless to say, I was VERY pissed. I'm going to just do the park n ride and pay for the parking. Don't want to risk missing another flight.

Some friend. No one I ever arranged to take to the airport ever got that. And I have to say the people dropping me and picking me up have been very good, though their ideas of ON TIME and mine do not always match.

My response would be, to make my own arrangements, likely drop the issue which are either unavoidable accidents or come from your friend's defects and deficiencies, and keep up the friendship UNLESS there are signs of viciousness OR it starts to cost too much more than it gives.

It might be best in the future to NOT count on individuals for that kind of thing.
For a short term trip just drive yourself and park in the outer lots where it's cheaper to park (assuming they have security patrols and/or don't have burglary and vandalism issues).
For longer duration trips (or if you don't want to leave your car like that) use an airport shuttle service. Since they take vanloads of people to the airport it costs less than a cab. This is what they do for a living so it stands to reason that their reliability is much higher than that of someone doing it as a favor.
It costs but the peace of mind you'll have might make it worth it.