Your WORST airline experience story

[Ketabcha]

I was on vacation in Great Britain and Northern Ireland back in the late 70s for two weeks. All was great getting there. Coming home was another story.

First though, I have to mention Aer Lingus, the Irish airline. What a delight that was. Truly. Great airline. The problem was flying from Glasgow to Dublin. It was in the midst of the Irish "troubles", don't cha' know. This was way before the security we go through now at the airport. We were flying into Dublin for the day. Well, that was suspicious to the Scottish airport police. We had to be interviewed before we were allowed on board. I think they thought we were IRA or Sein Fein members who were smuggling money for arms to the boyos in Belfast because who actually spends the day in Ireland and flies back to Scotland the same day? Very suspicious.

Anway, back to Scotland. It was time to fly home to the US. The airline ground employees were on strike (it was a now-defunct British airline). We had to carry our own luggage out to the flightline and load all that stuff into the baggage compartment of the plane ourselves. That was a hoot. We had bought a lot of stuff. I'm sure it was funny watching two women trying to cram baggage into the belly of a plane.

To this day I really appreciate baggage handlers.

[KYBob]

1980 I was flying from LA to Chicago for my sister's wedding. The flight was packed and I was in the middle seat of the last row just in front of the johns. Ihe guy in the window seat comes in drunk and has two drinks before the plane gets off of the ground. 30 minutes later he starts blowing chunks and proceeds to do so for the next two hours. It was all over the seat, all over me and there wasn't a spare seat in the plane. - My most memorable plane trip!

[Beau&Cloe]

I have two actually. I used to travel a lot on my old job. One trip, LaGuardia to Ft. Lauderdale, I was seated in the center seat between two men who were obviously travelling together and one must have wanted an aisle seat and the other a window seat. They acted like I wasn't even there. They smelled and ate and spit food everywhere while they both leaned over me and blabbed the entire trip. Gross!!!!

The other was from Ft Lauderdale to Des Moines with a layover at Midway. I was still new to airplane travel and didn't know the difference between planes. Well during the layover and at the bar at Midway, I sat for quite some time and drank draft beer while chatting with other passangers when I suddenly realized that I needed to get to my flight and at the same time, I really needed to pee. No problem, I thought, I can hold it until I get on the plane. Boarded the plane and it was a prop plane, no bathroom. I was so miserable and never thought I would make it without wetting my pants but I did. Aaahhhhh!

[henry1]

Originally Posted by Ketabcha

.First though, I have to mention Aer Lingus, the Irish airline. What a delight that was. Truly. Great airline. The problem was flying from Glasgow to Dublin. It was in the midst of the Irish "troubles", don't cha' know. This was way before the security we go through now at the airport. We were flying into Dublin for the day. Well, that was suspicious to the Scottish airport police. We had to be interviewed before we were allowed on board. I think they thought we were IRA or Sein Fein members who were smuggling money for arms to the boyos in Belfast because who actually spends the day in Ireland and flies back to Scotland the same day? Very suspicious. .

went back a couple of times dureing the 80s with wife along with me beening stationed in Germany it made a lot easlyer to go there for the hoilday and see her side of the family ..

normaly it was flying saight into Dublin but because of bad weather we did land in Belfast let say it was fun trying to explain why we had stuff for the family for the gifts ..i had bought over alot of food stuff from the house to give to them .someone had nick a couple of the items that we had in the suitcase for the family ..

my wife turned to me as we got into Dublin and said i love and i love America for she would got the whole work up from the British Security service there in Belfast if they had thought she was Ireland trying to get into south Ireland dureing the troubes ..

for they never question her about why she was going into southern Ireland with me when we held up our America passports and i basically did the talking with i was going to see family ..they rang up one of the uncles and put him on the phone with me and i told i was in Belfast and i would comeing in the 9/pm plane and he could come to the airport pick up us and the kids.. before he goes and gets off the phones he tells to guard the suitcase for they will nick someout of it and they are all a bit dodgey up there he tells me before he hangs up the phone ..iam standing there going sorry and they let me go out to where the family is waiting and we are allowed to go to the check in counter ..

when i got down to the Dublin i had found out that the boys had blew something up and everyone was on edge about it ..

[jtur88]

My worst airline stories are the gems that, when remembered later, make travel worthwhile. They are no different from the worst non-airline travel stories, all of which I've survived intact.

[slackjaw]

These are all really interesting, reps all around thanks ya'll.

[slackjaw]

btw my worst was flying into Saigon on Vietnam Airways during a heavy storm. That is one of the few times in my life I was seriously worried about dying.

[MB0909]

My worstwas coming back from London to Dulles in a 747 about 23 years ago. I am not sure what happened-wind sheer or pilot error-but we slammed down in the runway very hard. People screamed, oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling, we were slammed forward in our seats. My boyfriend and I were sitting in front of the aTV. As we slammed forward, the TV screen flew up, inches from our face. It was insane. Pilot never said anything.

[GeoffD]

I hit really severe turbulence once connecting over Philly. I have my private pilot's license and I own a sailboat so I'm used to getting bumped around but not like this. I was doing 100,000 miles with US Airways at the time so I had a free club membership. I wobbled off the plane and to the US Airways club near the gate. It took about an hour in the club to get my inner ears functioning again. I felt like a frog coming out of a clothes dryer.

I'm enough of a road warrior that I've hit all the usual travel debacles. Stuck in Paris for an air traffic controllers strike for a week (not exactly a hardship). Missed connections where I spent the night at a hotel by the airport. I have credit cards and money so it's not like I'm going to ever sleep in an airport. On those rare occasions where I check luggage for ski trips or long duration trips, it's certainly been lost or damaged a number of times. I've never had a bag vanish completely. I've flown right after major terrorist events where I hit the insane airport security lines. One of my missed connections with a night at O'Hare was after the shoe bomber thing on a December 26th flight. I've certainly had the little monster kids kicking my seat and terrorizing all the passengers around them. I've had screaming infants who defeated my noise cancelling headphone and iPod technology. I've sat next to the world's largest woman. I've had passengers next to me get airsick or drunk and vomit. I've flown a transatlantic flight in the last row middle seat smelling the blue toilet water. I'm 6'2" and an airline in Europe once swapped in a 29" seat pitch aircraft and changed my business class seat to a middle seat in a plane with no business class section. I remember the airport security screening in Tel Aviv that was more rigorous than most job interviews I've had in my life. I've failed the TSA explosive sniffer swab test a half dozen times. After all these years of flying constantly, I don't let most of that elevate my blood pressure. The bratty kids with oblivious parents are really the only thing that really pisses me off.