airline/airport travel horror stories

share your airline/airport travel horror stories.
this thread is limited to airline travel only. no buses, road trips, bicycle stories

-when i landed in hawaii i found that someone stolen all my hemp jewelry and my cell phone out of my luggage

-i once had a 7 hour flight with a rotten little brat behind me kicking my seat. i complained to his mother and a flight attendant but they both acted like they were afraid of some 9 year old kid

 

Oh no, not the hemp jewerly!!!!!!

 

My luggage was lost on a flight to Pittsburgh form Nashville. My flight from Nashville to Sydney, Australia took nearly 24 hours. Nothing tragic just long and tiring.

 

Probably a dozen times sitting next to babies, children, smelly people, etc.

Lots of shitty terminals.

Cops.

One story that's worth telling did have a good ending. I was flying from Israel to New York via Frankfurt with Lufthansa. Plane malfunctions and makes an emergency landing in Switzerland. Get stuck in Switzerland for a day... mostly in the airport, pretty shitty. Next day fly to Paris, so that I could fly to London and fly to New York from there. Get stuck in Paris because of weather... spend two days there due to a lack of another flight. First time I was ever in Paris, rather nice actually, got to see the city and all. Found a direct flight to Houston from Paris, didn't even have to go through New York and day after.

Lulz.

 

I flew from Australia to Malaysia but had no return ticket. The airline lady told me I had to buy a return ticket. It's true you need a ticket out of the country but doesn't need to be return.. (Though it's far more lenient than she let on. She was a major bitch.) A ticket to Singapore would've been $100, I paid $400 for a return, thus emptying my Australian account..When I arrived in KL, I'd forgotten the PIN code for my other atm card as I hadn't used it in 8 months or so. Also my phone didn't work in this new country, and I was alone.

It was a growing experience.

 

I've only been on 4 flights ever and it was all the same trip and it wasn't terrible at all. *sigh* I can't participate.

 

You can be our token "Hot Chick".

 

hey now

 

I always get detained when entering the USA and asked why I was refused entry to Ireland. Your standard 'probe for nervous reaction' question that everybody of Irish descent is asked.

 

I had to spend nearly 14 hours at the airport in Newark, New Jersey once because the only ride I could find was the day before my flight because of nasty weather.

 

I had misplaced my train ticket while riding the Kuala Lumpur Airport Express and when I couldn't produce it to a guard I was escorted off the train, physically dragged into an office and told to wait for the police. After about ten minutes of frenzied searching through my luggage and my pockets I found the ticket buried at the bottom of a bag. Everybody laughed. I was free to go. Happy ending.

Sleeping overnight at Heathrow Airport is a horror story in itself.

Other than that I haven't had many bad experiences.

 

My flights have been cancelled on a few occasions, and delayed for hours several times. Once, I was at Heathrow and the airport (well the terminal I was in anyway) had to be evacuated.. that was crazy, so many people started panicking, thinking there was a terrorist attack going on or whatever.. But as it turned out, it was a small fire in Burger King, someone had overcooked burgers..

The day I moved to England was the worst though.. The night before, my friends had thrown a farewell party for me and we had drunk soooo much tequila. I was so hungover and obviously nervous too about moving, never felt so sick in my life.. And the flight to London was just awful. I seriously thought I was gonna die, and spent most of the flight in the toilet just throwing up.. That was not fun.

 

I've been strip searched 3 fuckin times, everytime i go to the airport i set off the alarms and it ends up being a big production with me taking off half my clothes and having a wand shoved down my pants...

i must look suspicious

the last time justin and i flew we both got strip searched and almost missed our flight because they detected explosives in his bag (he was wearing his combats and carrying his military issued bags) but they let us go after deciding it was probably just traces of gun powder...

i hate flying for that reason.

 

Most of the flying I've done has been pretty nice. I got a free flight in June to use whenever because the airline had overbooked, and I had to wait in the airport for like 5 hours. So worth it.

I was flying to Alabama with a coworker who got sick and ran to the bathroom on a flight with a lot of turbulence, and was glad I didn't get puked on.

I only do carry on because I'm an experience traveler, so I never lose anything.

 

Omg I just hate airports.

One trip I got kicked out of the country I had traveled to by an over officious immigration officer and had to return the next day when I walked through with no trouble whatsoever.
Another time I missed a flight because a customs officer wanted my insulin tested! My baggage still went with the flight though.
I've lost stuff, got food poisoning, had several small children throw up on me.
In fairness, I do travel a lot so these incidents are a very small percentage of my overall traveling experience.

 

does anyone happen to know the maximum weight for carry ons?

edit- also, my first time flying i got really air sick and we arrived at zurich airport. the whole airport smells like fuking chocolate. bleeeeeh

 

also - when i was about 11 or 12 i flew by myself from atlanta to boston. flying alone wasnt the big deal, it was the fact that airport security was comprised of incompetent fools and the flight attendant i was assigned was an idiot.

some guy from airport security asked me if anyone had asked me to hold their bag/luggage for them. i was a little hard at hearing and nervous so i just nodded and smiled. he went nuts and like 5 people come over and questioned me. they asked me a ton of questions but didnt listen to a word i said. it took them about a half hour to realize that i was trying to say that the answer was no and i was just nodding to be polite.

i got stuck next to this obese man with a cold who thought i was just "the cutest little kid". right after i sat down my flight attendant came over and said in a loud voice "oh my goodness, look at this little girl! her bag is bigger than she is! can someone help me put her bag in the overhead compartment!? she cant sit there with that thing on her lap!"

i told her i wanted to get my gummibear packs out first and she started laughing so loudly that everyone looked over to see what was so funny. this woman seriously slapped her thighs and said "of course you do! gummibears make a flight a happy flight".

then she continued to annoy me and ask questions until everyone else boarded.

THEN when we landed in boston she had me sit in a chair and told me not to move until i saw my mom and when i found her to come get her so my mom could fill out paper work.

40 minutes went by and I never found my mom so the stupid flight attendant told me she was going to take to some room where people will try to get in touch with my family to see what was going on.

On the way there I saw a family friend waiting at another gate for me. I yelled his name and i could tell he was wondering where the hell id been. i told the flight attendant i could go with him and my mom was outside in the car. she said i couldnt be released to anyone other than my mom so then she had to come in fill out some forms which took another 20mins.

 

travels a bitch--i always claim a bad back and preboard so i get a seat with legroom---yeah i have No shame also drink up l love flying drunk--ill tell u my worst fear--that the wheels will pop while were landing---i've flown about 100 or so times and had to learn all these tricks---also i made a vow that im going to talk to whoever sits next to me even if it a nun--and a conversation or argument is alot better than trying to read on a packed flight--i even like it when i get to bug a reader or computeruser--hell im drunk what do i care lol---have lost luggage but it was hand delivered a few days later

 

The flight home from my honeymoon was delayed an hour because they had to substitute a different airplane. All the seat assignments had to be redone, and we were told that my wife and I could not sit together. My wife complained to the employee that she was on her honeymoon. He replied, "I'm not a counselor. I don't care about your personal problems."

She asked another Delta employee about how to go about reporting the rude employee to the supervisor. He told her, "Ma'am, that is the supervisor. Everybody here works for him."

We didn't fly Delta again for about ten years after that.

Another cancellation turned out to be fun. We were stuck in Jackson, Mississippi overnight because of a heavy snowstorm, very unusual in the deep South. We got a room with a great view looking down on the governor's mansion, in a pristine white winter wonderland. Two friends that were traveling with us didn't take the cancellation news so well. The guy got so hostile that he almost got arrested. He and his wife slept in the airport that night and never went anywhere else with us again.

 

It was my first time on a plane, i was young and by myself. i am extremely clausterphobic, and i was silently freaking out. all the while the person sitting next to me was napping and her baby kept crawling on my lap which made me even more anxious for some reason...