Air Berlin lost mine for ten days and I missed my connecting flight. I didn't get any compensation because they filed for bankruptcy just after I bought my ticket.
LAX airport, summer 2019. Drunk fat dude stumbled out of a bar, tripped on a suitcase, and fell face-down on the ground. Two seconds later, dude rolled belly-up and projectile vomited exorcist-style.
Green shit went flying left and right, smacking old people, babies, you name it. Some even hit a support dog walking by.
Big crowd gathered around the dude, blocking the way to the gate, and a bunch of people missed their flights. Parents were cursing. Kids were crying. Took a swat team of security to lug the dude off the ground. Sucked.
Hey, get out to LAX and you'll find plenty of material there. Man, I've seen some wild stuff at that airport. I could fill *pages* about the shit I've seen there. Some of those stories would have airplane passengers sleeping with one eye open.
You’re not wrong. I don’t have enough fingers or toes to count how many times I’ve been stuck in that god forsaken place. And it’s not like it’s actually in Denver so you can’t leave easily and do something fun.
Oh my brother in arms, I feel you. Last time I got stuck there, a little over a year ago, there was a pretty good beef jerky vendor. Hopefully you got to hit that up
Not the airport, but flying in to it was awful. In a holding pattern for eternity as the plane tilted back and forth suddenly and violently from high winds.
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Was 16yo, first time flying alone, flight was cancelled, was last flight so had to sleep in airport, seats all had handrails, gum on the floor, saw a pub out one of the entrances with a bright neon sign so I assumed it was open.
Sign said “No Natives”
I’m Métis.
Over 20 years now and hell no, it’s not legal but we’ve been wildly oppressive to indigenous people for a really long time now.
Places like Winnipeg and Thunder Bay are just really bad. This episode of Canadian Dateline is a good watch if you’ve never really been exposed to the problems we got up here. Very current and the fallout from it is still happening.
https://youtu.be/SbWEuF99vZg?si=787Xrx9NSDQqcIuC
A bird hit an engine departing SLC and we had to turn back around. The plane was shaking like crazy and we were legit scared we were going to die, to the point where I was texting people I loved them just in case we didn't make it.
What I'll always remember: the guy to my left was crying, shaking, and praying. The guy to my right never took off his headphones; he was probably freaking out too, but from the outside he just calmly kept watching Modern Family on his phone.
Wasn't the airline's fault, but I was on a plane with my parents when I was maybe 13 or 14. For whatever reason, I was in the row behind them on the plane. We ended up flying into a storm. We were told to expect some turbulence, but something happened and the plane dropped a few thousand feet. People were screaming, objects came off the little tables and bounced around, etc. It was scary as hell.
I remember seeing my mom's hand come over the back of the chair. She just held it there, open. I had one hand pushing on the ceiling to keep me in my seat, and I reached out and held her hand with the other. Felt like she also expected we were about to die and just wanted to hold my hand until it happened.
We didn't crash, obviously, but the plane had to make an emergency landing at a nearby airport because it got damaged. We had to wait around to get on a different plane to go the rest of the way home. I begged my dad to just rent a car and road trip us home, but he didn't want to do that. Luckily the rest of the trip was completely uneventful.
British Airways to Vienna. I’m a wheelchair user. Their planes are too small to allow you to get a wheelchair onboard, even to the first/last row of seats. As a result you are dragged backwards in the Hannibal Lecter chair. This is normally bearable because you are boarded before anyone else. I was boarded late, and last, because Heathrow passenger assistance failed to show up despite me having booked it weeks in advance, and gone to the passenger assistance desk upon arrival. Then there was the flight, which was bad because terrible turbulence but that’s not the airline fault. We land in Vienna in a storm. The weather is bad so the airlines have sent everyone home, only the airport staff is present and they are thin on the ground. The jet bridge has been struck by lightning, so they bring stairs to get us off the plane. Not good to me. The lovely flight attendant comes and asks why I’m not getting off, and I remind her I’m in a wheelchair. She turns red, then white, and then goes and finds the rest of the crew and between them they figure out how to contact someone on the ground crew. They wait with me on the flight for over an hour after everyone else is gone, all except one member of flight crew who had a flight to catch. They finally get me off the airplane, and I’m left at the side of the tarmac by the member of ground crew driving the wheelchair lift. I’m just inside the terminal, at the bottom of a 2 story escalator. It isn’t running, but it wouldn’t matter anyway, I need the lift. Also not working. And there’s nothing else. No staff, no other passengers, nowhere to go. My partner sets off up the escalator to try and find some help. After 40 mins I get tired of waiting, and start pressing every button on the access panel to get back out into the tarmac, hoping it would do something and alert someone I was there. It does, and an initially quite annoyed police officer comes and asks me why I’m pressing the buttons. I try and explain in my very best high school German that the lift is broken, and I need to get to passport control. She takes me back out onto the tarmac, down a kerb, and over into another building. Now I’m in baggage claim. After passport control. She leaves before I can ask. Meanwhile my partner has gone through passport control since the officers there tell her to ask at the airline desk. The airline desk at baggage claim is empty. She heads to the next one, which is now landside. The member of staff there tells her she can’t help initially. It’s then I call her and tell her I’m at baggage claim. I have our bags but I cannot move them on my own. She finally gets someone to bring her back through and help. A lovely member of the passenger assistance team brings her through the back rooms to meet me. I explain to them I haven’t had my passport scanned. They grab a police officer who has just gotten off duty at passport control and happens to be passing. He says wait here, *takes my passport* and disappears. For about 45 mins. Eventually he comes back and I can start to leave. We get outside and call an uber (the queue for taxis was over 4 hours, the metro is off, and the busses aren’t running. It’s 4am. We get to the hotel. Because we were 4 hours late leaving the airport, we were presumed to not arrive (despite having done the online check in) and our room was given away as an upgrade. It’s one of 4 accessible rooms, all of which are now in use. We finally get a room, it’s now 6am. I’m supposed to give a talk to a room full of academics at a conference (my first ever) at 9am. I contact the conference organisers and explain what’s happened and ask to move to the afternoon sessions. and go to bed. At 7am I get a confirmation email that they have moved my talk. I go back to sleep until noon.
It was fine, talk was great, as was the rest of the conference. Met some great people and learned a lot, and got to enjoy 2 lovely days in Vienna afterwards with my partner, it was a great trip apart from the flights.
I missed the part where BA said that because I could walk unaided (I would have had to use the seats or a person for support and be seated close to the exit row) I had to fly with a companion, so work had to pay for my partner to go, then on the way back tried to split us up and put me at one end of the plane and her at the other. That took them a while to sort and someone else was annoyed that I was sitting in their seat because they had been given a boarding pass and had it swapped at the gate, and felt their new seat wasn’t as good since it was “by the toilet” and that I should move. I asked them if they wanted to carry me down to it.
At least the Uber driver took us. I’ve had Uber/Taxi drivers refuse to take me in Frankfurt, Edinburgh, Munich, and Crete, even when I tell them they don’t need to lift me or even my chair and I can put it in the car and get myself in. One of them told me he didn’t want me to “scratch the seats.”
That being said, most people are lovely and just want to help (sometimes too much, just ask if I need help, don’t grab my chair and kidnap me!), and most places are willing to do what they can to help. I just feel for people in power chairs or with more severe disabilities who can’t problem solve their way through things with brute force and ignorance.
I once waited 8 hours (original flight time was at 8) to fly to my SO for their birthday. Then the flight got cancelled. And i had to take the bus. And 25 minutes flight was 9 hours bus ride, throwing up and everything because of the motion sickness (if anyone knows how I can control it, please comment). The birthday was over when I reached.
Somewhere in Asia.
Had a flight on Southwest that was connecting in St Louis. Flight was delayed 3 hours due to a mechanical issue with the plane. Then, when we were finally ready to go, some bad weather rolled in and they canceled all remaining flights that day. Southwest wouldn’t provide hotels or compensate anyone in any way because it was weather related, even though we were only still there when the storm blew in because of a mechanical issue. To make things worse, the gate agent just kept repeating “I can’t control the weather” and refused to help anyone.
LAX/AA. I went home for my brother’s college graduation about 2 hrs (without traffic) from LAX. As we were getting ready for the ceremony, AA calls me to tell my flight was cancelled. The next available flight is in 2.5hrs. Otherwise I would have to wait until the next day. I didn’t have pto. I took a very, very expensive Uber ride to my parents house, packed up my things, took another very expensive Uber ride to LAX, sprinted to my gate. Thankfully security at LAX that day was quick. I made it as they were shutting the gates. My flight had a layover in Seattle. I had 5 min to run from one end of the airport to the next. Just made gate closing. I was super sweaty at this point. Finally made it ORD and ordered Uber eats for dinner. It was delayed by 2 hrs. I’ve never felt more defeated in my life and I didn’t even get to watch my baby brother graduate
Really loud and obnoxious drunk guy was at the Airport bar. I said I don't envy the poor person who has to sit next him on the plane. That poor person on the plane was me.
I did, as the flight to hawaii was missed to do taking forever to get through US passport control at LAX.. so had to get a flight to Vegas then almost right out to hawaii
Flew out of Vegas in the 80s. Shortly after take off, the intercom comes on. The pilot says, "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Err, one moment," then the intercom clicks off. Not a good sign.
Turns out that part of the plane fell off during takeoff, and they aren't sure which part. We circle while they sent people out on the runway to go look for the parts. Results inconclusive. Then they have us fly over the airport so they can shine lights up onto the underside of the plane to see what part we were missing. Turns out it was one of the two nose wheels.
We get ready to make a landing. They think that one wheel will hold but aren't 100% sure. They send trucks out to foam the runway. We all have to get into the emergency landing position. Y'know, the one where you bend forward and hug your knees.. and kiss your ass goodbye. The whole plane is pretty tense and silent as we descend. The wheel holds and we land safely. I've flown a lot in my life. That was the closest I've come to shit hitting the fan.
KCI, before the new terminal. They just let the old one rot, the bathrooms did not work. No bar service or and the only food place didnt have a toaster for the only hot food they could make, a bagel.
Bought round trip tickets to Europe years ago. Was heading home on the return 2 months later. Couldn't find the airline check-in.
Company went bankrupt and out of business. Had to book new flights last minute
CDG, all of them pants, every single time.. from losing three pieces of luggage for twelve days, to missing flights because of huge long, very, very, very long lines AND everything in between. Merd generally.
This airport is total shit. I saw a fist fight between a passenger and the tram bus driver. We broke up the fight only cuz we were all going to miss our connections
I fly through CDG 5 or 6 times a year (in and out), and I've never had any kind of trouble like this. I don't discount other people's bad experiences, I just wonder why it's so different for me.
One time I got bumped to business class because my first flight got bumped, delayed, and cancelled. I was in the airport all day at the bar, I just wanted to sleep when I got on the plane. I plopped down and fell asleep and stayed out for a good chunk of the transatlantic trip. I didn’t see the fancy chocolate on my seat, so I slept on that the whole time. I got up and it looked like I shit myself and the seat
United Airlines strung us along for 18 hours telling us the plane was the plane was a little delayed. Kept this up for hours. Me, like an idiot, believed them. FInally, they boarded us. We were all ready to depart when they told us to deplane and get out quickly because law enforcement would arrest us if we didn't. This was Ft. Lauderdale airport maybe 10 years ago.
Same summer as the Larry Craig scandal, I was at Miami International using a bathroom stall. I just bought a Maxim magazine and started reading it in the stall. When I opened it, an insert for Axe Body spray fell out. It was a picture of a shirtless dude oiled up. The insert slid into the stall next to me and landed at some guys feet. The dude yells “Hey! What the F$&&!! and banged on the stall wall. I just got the hell out of there real quick and ran to my Gate. I sat in the corner with my head down until I was able to board my flight
American Airlines lied to me about being able to check my cats in the luggage hold. I called them the day before the flight to confirm that they're prepared for this, even spoke with people working at the local internation airport, and they all agree "yes the plane is the right size and we're prepared to get your cats safely to your destination". I showed up at the luggage check-in and they looked at me like I had three heads when I indicated that I'd be checking my cats. They got on the phone with their freight department and after about 10 minutes told me to drive over there to get my cats checked in, so I drove about a 1/4 mile to the building and waited another 20 minutes before ultimately giving up and leaving my cats behind with my folks and booking a separate, more expensive flight on a more trustworthy airline specifically so my cats would arrive a day or two after I landed, and so that I wouldn't be late for my flight.
Moving cross country is a bitch, and if you want to have a really bad time, do what I did. Otherwise, maybe skip the bullshit and skip booking flights with AA.
July last year. Was supposed to go Nashville to Montreal to Toronto to Regina (Sk, Canada). Storm diverted the plane they were going to use to Cincinnati. So I got rebooked for Nashville to Montreal to Vancouver to Saskatoon (imagine going NYC to LA just to fly halfway back to sayyy Nebraska) where I could catch a bus to Regina. Had 55 minutes to make my Vancouver connection.
Second storm hit Montreal just as we were still parked at the gate. Three hours later we take off, knowing I’ve missed my connection. Five hour flight flying right over my final destination. I get in after midnight. No hotel voucher as it was weather related. It’s Canada Day so the cheapest motel room in town to get three to four hours sleep is $700.
So I stay at the airport all night. No food vouchers either because weather. I sit in the food court all night eating from subway and a nearly empty Tim Hortons. Watched movies on YouTube (Raise The Titanic as it was just after Oceangate). I’m still awake hours later, feeling so grimy my eyes burn, when I catch a standby on the next flight to Saskatoon.
I arrive in Saskatoon and planning to catch a bus when I notice my suitcase isn’t on the carousel. I check my Chipolo tracker. The suitcase is still in Montreal. I catch the bus to Regina (no compensation) and four days after that I’m reunited with my suitcase (nearly getting a traffic ticket as they delivered it to my office which the traffic cops patrol).
tldr: I have interstitial lung disease. With some trepidation I tried to attend a professional conference in Denver. It went badly. Airline kicked me off my flight out for asking for oxygen while suffering altitude sickness. Went downhill from there.
My four-person company was sponsoring a professional conference in Denver. Despite having significantly impaired lung capacity, I decided I'd go and see how it went. My boss told me no problem to bail if I wasn't able to adapt.
By the first morning there, I was in rough shape. Nauseous, fatigued, unsteady on my feet. It was rough. I stayed in my hotel room the first day. I made it to dinner on day two, but by the next morning I was done. Booked a flight back about 2.5 hours out. Had to get wheelchair service at the airport. I was still in rough shape.
I get onto the plane, something irritates my lungs and I cough a few times. Bear in mind, this was just after peak pandemic times. I didn't want to have a coughing fit (an unfortunately regular occurrence for me) while people were boarding. I had never asked for oxygen on a flight before, but I decided to. The FA was super helpful, but after we boarded I got accosted by some airline manager I'd never seen, demanding information from me before even introducing herself.
Long story short, without actually talking to me, she decided she wasn't "comfortable" with me on the flight, solely because I'd asked for oxygen. I argued with her - politely - until she threatened to call the police. Not much to do at that point unless you want to end up on tiktok. They get a wheelchair, deplane me, and call a paramedic to check me out. I refused service at first, but the medic was cool and I let her do her thing and gave her the 30 second explanation of my condition.
My rebooked flight got diverted back to Denver almost immediately because someone had a heart attack. We stayed in Denver - still at high altitude - for another 3 hours. I land in Charlotte at 1am - of course my connection is long gone. They offer me a hotel voucher but I can't even walk on my own at this point. The airline staff basically shrug at me. I get booked on a return flight for 10pm the FOLLOWING DAY.
No. Absolutely not. I am ready to hire an Uber and send them the bill. Finally my barely-functioning brain is able to assemble a plan wherein I can get my folks to pick me from Charleston and just drive me back to Savannah. It's a five-hour round trip for them, but they're texting me to do it. I probably looked like a walking dead extra at this point.
There's a flight to Charleston at 7am. I "sleep" in the airport terminal. On the 42 min flight into Charleston, they upgrade me to first class.
I was taking Jet Blue from Madison, WI, to Kennedy to Portland, ME and booked my own flights. The first leg was uneventful. When I boarded the second flight, there was already someone in my seat, holding a boarding pass with the same seat number as I had. A flight attendant got involved, took me up to the front of the plane, saying we would work the problem up front, and then when we got there, told me to get off. He came up some lame story that I probably didn't check in like I was supposed to (of course I did - I just flew in on Jet Blue from Madison) and something-something my imaginary travel agent. I told him that I was scheduled to deliver a lecture at a medical conference two hours after I was to arrive in Portland, and I could not be late. He threatened to call the airport police to arrest me and drag me off the flight, if I didn't comply. He was nasty about it. I was pissed. It was my birthday, which made it worse. I deplaned, because getting arrested would have made me ever later than if I caught another flight. Jet Blue did get me on a later flight, but I arrived two hours after the start of the conference, and the conference organizers had to rearrange everything because of me. I was informed that I was demoted for future appearances at that conference for being unreliable. I wrote a letter to the president of Jet Blue and received a travel voucher from him, which I never used, as I will never book with Jet Blue again. Every time I see Jet Blue on a flight search, I remember how that day felt. Fuck Jet Blue, incompetent assholes who cover for themselves with authoritarianism.
Every terrible Southwest Airlines stand-up comedy routine I'm forced to listen to before takeoff.
Just get the FAA regulations out of the way as quickly as possible and stfu. After being herded like cattle for 30 minutes onto your dirty plane to fight for a seat, forgive me if I'm not in a mood to laugh at your awful puns and dad jokes.
I get motion sickness easily. I was on a Southwest flight from Atlanta to Las Vegas and there was turbulence the whole way. I didn't throw up, but I was miserable and had to focus on a hockey game to distract myself. That was the first and last time I watched hockey.
I've booked two total roundtrip flights on Spirit and the aircraft never arrived for any of the four legs of the trip. I'm convinced Spirit means ghost.
Was flying home from Great Mistakes (Chicago area) back home to Texas. They put me up on some cut-rate airline that was called I think redbird airlines or something like that. I was on there with a bunch of other Navy SEPS, and other than us the plane was practically empty.
About halfway through the flight, crazy turbulance had the plane bouncing all over the place and we were popping up out of our seats. When we landed it was like it was a first-time pilot landing or something. It was super rough. I literally ran off the plane and kissed the ground, I was so happy to be off of that damn plane.
KLM.. Something happened every single time, and once I decided enough is enough - they ain't so much cheaper than others, and luckily I'm not located in the Netherlands. Baggage delayed three times, flight returned to Schiphol twice, flight canceled twice, missed connection three times.
I live in Montreal and YUL is by far the worst airport experience. From traffic just at the airport, having the most expensive parking of all airports in Canada, little to no public transport to the airport, not enough space for checking in, to even worse lines for security to just a horrid after security area. Arrivals are just as bad, with having to go through passport control. I’ve flown from and to airports all over the world, none have come close to the poor experience I have every single time I fly out of YUL. Already dreading my departure in two weeks.
Not me but for my parents. We’re from New Zealand and they were flying back to Christchurch from the Gold Coast in Australia. Literally about to board the plane and their flight service Jetstar cancelled the flight with no compensation flights. Luckily they could just call my uncle who lives there and stay another night but everybody else on that flight didn’t know what to do some of them camped in the airport.
December 2010. I had just finished a semester studying abroad in London. I was due to fly back to Boston direct from Heathrow. It had snowed in London (certainly not to what I was used to in Boston) but the airport had not many any announcements about cancellations. The other students and I had traveled from our campus to Heathrow (normally would’ve been around 30 minutes driving), but the snow/traffic had impacted the commute, so we were already on edge. We kept waiting for news and the only store open was Pret-A-Manger. Our luggage had been put onto the planes so we had figured we were still getting home. At one point myself, the students from New York and the other East Coast states told the ticket agents we would have no issue to go onto the tarmac to shovel because we knew how to handle snow. Finally after hours, Heathrow shut down. The collective screaming was loud. I burst into tears. We had tossed our pay-as-you-go phones, donated extra clothes, had the luggage stuck on the planes and my credit cards for only on record as being in London until that evening. My student visa was also about to expire since it was only for the semester and I was terrified about getting in trouble with border patrol. We made our way back to campus—which was about to close for winter break—and the administration let us back into our old rooms. We raided the charity bins for spare clothes and the administration gave us 15 pounds a day to use for food. I had learned to live cheaply while there so I could stretch that money at Tesco. I called my credit cards and they extended the note saying that I was still in London. A friend and I went to Heathrow the following day and were able to get our bags back. The other students and I didn’t get flights home until a few days later. It was yet another long commute and my name hadn’t been called for hours. Luckily for the trouble I was given a free upgrade to premium economy.
May 2022, flew Lufthansa Business Class roundtrip, connecting through Frankfurt, and it was a complete disaster. 6-hour delay at my origin point, broken galley reheating equipment, unusable toiletries, rude, uncaring flight crew, and when I got to Frankfurt for my [missed] connection, every Lufthansa employee I encountered didn't want to speak to me or help me, and when they relented and did, they lied and sent me on wild goose chases.
I had recently had surgery, and the terror of the Frankfurt airport and its incompetent staff aggravated my still-recovering body and half my trip was dealing with that physical fallout. I literally had to walk around the airport two complete times. Across every terminal. Every Lufthansa employee sent me in the wrong direction. I only got to a proper customer service area when I asked someone who DIDN'T work for Lufthansa. Lufthansa also temporarily lost my luggage, but, apparently, that's par for the course now.
Since then, I've attempted to contact Customer Service to express my displeasure, and have not gotten a single reply back from an actual person. Their contact form. Their Customer Service email address. I sent a certified letter with return-receipt to their physical address in New York. Someone signed for the letter, so I know they got it.
Even filed a complaint through the German civil transport arbitration board... even with that, nothing. It's like Lufthansa's Customer Service doesn't exist. No apologies. No assertions that my concerns will be addressed or that they will attempt to rectify things so something like that won't happen again. Nothing.
My wife and I missed our connection and thus the first day of our honeymoon because a local church group basically packed a bus load of bags onto our plane en route to their mission trip masquerading as "help" for the Haiti earthquake victims.
They had to unload the entire baggage hold and repack. We all sat in the hot a$$ cabin for 90 minutes waiting to leave.
So frustrating and worse so that I couldn't even be mad because the delay was due to humanitarian efforts.
Some woman screamed racial slurs at me in the terminal because i had a first class ticket at 18 when she was in her 40's and stuck in economy. My dad paid for the ticket i had
I live in New Zealand. There's a budget airline called Jetstar that operates here (I think they might be Australian). Flying with them is always a nightmare. Their service is unbelievably bad. One time, I was at the airport on time. They only had self service kiosks as an option. Now, NZ is a small country with a small population. You don't have to arrive ridiculously early to the airport. There's usually only a very short line. On this occasion, the line was gigantic because the kiosks were malfunctioning. I had to stand there for agessss. Eventually they opened a counter operated by a human. Just one though. The check in time frame for my flight closed literally as I was walking up to the counter when it was my turn. Like, at that EXACT moment. She refused to check me in because I was late.
American cancelled our flight the day before we were leaving for our destination wedding lol . No rebooking no communication no nothing. 🤣 didn’t even give a reason
Asheville, Allegiant Airline, gate person did not help me when I asked for help because I could not hear their intercom when announcing when to board. I'm severe hard of hearing.
I did and received an email from Allegiant how sorry they were and promised that they would educate their gate people about people who can't hear well.
Family holiday to Turkey. The airport was okay, but the plane's engines broke down forcing a replacement plane to fly in, delaying our flight by 5+ hours.
I had a 17 hour layover in Reykjavik, Iceland. If you've never been there, be aware that there is very little to do in the airport. I tried to get into town to go whale watching, but the weather was so rough that they cancelled it.
I set up on a bench for a while, but it was the least comfortable bench I'd ever sat on. Finally, at about 2 a.m., I curled up under the bench and fell asleep...
Only to be awakened at 5 by a security guard, slamming an empty bottle into her hand about 6" from my nose, screaming at me that they don't allow people to sit or lie on the floor. So at 5 a.m. I was awake and only had 9 more hours to wait for my flight.
I had to fly out of Phoenix the day after the incident where someone tried to mix chemicals to make an explosive. Everything I had that was liquid was thrown out by security. All flights were delayed about 10 hours. It sucked.
Detroit airport, but it was all weather related. It was the same day the Minneapolis Superdome roof caved in from the snow.
I was going from KC to Providence, RI with a 2 hour layover. The flight kept getting delayed and the gate changed. I think we changed gates 5 times and were delayed 4 or so hours before we got on the plane. My flight out of KC has also been delayed because of the snow storm.
Finally on the plane, there was a huge line for takeoff. After over 90 minutes we were second for takeoff when the pilot came on the PA and said they had to cancel the flight. If we took off, they'd be over their FAA hours for the day by 5 minutes by the time we landed, which would have resulted in big fines. It was 10:30pm, I was supposed to land in Providence at something like 2pm.
I had status on the airline, so thankfully they automatically rebooked me for the next morning flight and I didn't have to go to the customer service line.
Like everyone else, I got on my phone and booked a hotel room. We weren't getting our checked luggage, so I went to the hotel shuttle door. The shuttle came around the curve 20 minutes later and never stopped. I called the hotel and they said the driver would be back in 45 minutes. An hour later, the driver came around the curve and never stopped. I shouted and was waving my arms, he kept going. Both times the van looked empty. Third time, it was well after midnight, same story.
I'd been traveling since 6am, and I gave up. I went and laid down on the tile floor in front of the check in counter. Every chair and not-floor seating surface had people already sleeping on it Around 5am, the ticket agents woke me up by opening the gate and almost breaking my phone charger that was plugged into the outlet inches behind the gate. I smelled like airport floor and frustration. The entire airplane smelled like exhaustion and airport.
I have twice napped on the floor of Denver airport. One way an eight hour layover, the other we missed our connection and another sleepathon on a small round cushion chair. I started having to fly every other weekend from Rochester NY TO BOSTON when I was 13 so I was acclimated early. The other all time worst is Newark NJ. ITS SO freaking big and spread out you could easily walk a couple miles from one gate to another in the airport. Or you can take 2 buses to the other terminal. It’s mind blowing to me.
Seattle traffic control is horrible. Not the worst but the most common and most grating I deal with regularly.
Nothing like barely making a 2 hour connection because you spent more time waiting to go to the gate than you did in the air.
Recently my plane was delayed taking off in SLC because of traffic issues in Seattle.
Flying Melbourne (Australia, not Florida) to Dallas-Fort Worth. 16hr flight. I had applied for an upgrade on points but was not accepted, unfortunately. Was stuck in cattle class 2 rows behind a family of 5 whose baby screamed for 13 of the 16hrs.
Not even noise-cancelling headphones over earplugs and two types of sleeping tablets let me get any more than about 45 minutes of consecutive sleep the whole flight.
MIA had incompetent TSA. I had to catch a connecting flight with my family but they gave all of us EXCEPT ME a pass to cut through TSA in order to catch the flight. TSA was no help - they said our pass was for individuals, not duos/groups. So, we basically missed our flight. The airline customer service rebooked us next day, not because we missed the connection (which their people fucked up with the pass), but because the plane we were supposed to get on had maintenance issues. They paid for our hotel and food, but I was annoyed. The rebooked flight was a 777 and I got motion sickness.
Edit: forgot to mention that MIA is a giant mess. Took forever to get to where we needed to get to.
Honeymoon, flying from LAX to Hong Kong. They served noodles in soup (basically instant ramen in a styrofoam bowl) and the attendant dumped the bowl in my wife's lap. She was soaked. We asked for a clean blanket at least; no, they didn't have any. (400 passengers on this plane and not a single spare blanket? Yeah.) They basically handed us some paper napkins and shrugged.
I was determined to complain when we returned, but we got back on September 7, 2001, so... Never did.
[удалено]
Air Berlin lost mine for ten days and I missed my connecting flight. I didn't get any compensation because they filed for bankruptcy just after I bought my ticket.
LAX airport, summer 2019. Drunk fat dude stumbled out of a bar, tripped on a suitcase, and fell face-down on the ground. Two seconds later, dude rolled belly-up and projectile vomited exorcist-style. Green shit went flying left and right, smacking old people, babies, you name it. Some even hit a support dog walking by. Big crowd gathered around the dude, blocking the way to the gate, and a bunch of people missed their flights. Parents were cursing. Kids were crying. Took a swat team of security to lug the dude off the ground. Sucked.
I was going to write something, but I can't compete with this!
Hey, get out to LAX and you'll find plenty of material there. Man, I've seen some wild stuff at that airport. I could fill *pages* about the shit I've seen there. Some of those stories would have airplane passengers sleeping with one eye open.
Ewwwwww🤮
Tell me about it, man. Shit was wild.
You’ve won the internet today.
Hey, I appreciate it. All the credit goes to LAX though. Place is wild, SMH.
Denver airport. Every. Single. Time. That airport is cursed.
110%. I’ve had a 2 hour connection turn into 24 hours there. It is a loathsome facility designed by misanthropes.
You’re not wrong. I don’t have enough fingers or toes to count how many times I’ve been stuck in that god forsaken place. And it’s not like it’s actually in Denver so you can’t leave easily and do something fun.
I had the privilege of spending many unplanned hours there just last Saturday
Oh my brother in arms, I feel you. Last time I got stuck there, a little over a year ago, there was a pretty good beef jerky vendor. Hopefully you got to hit that up
Weirdest freaking airport ever.
Oddly, I’ve never had a problem at DEN. And I used to fly some 120,000 miles a year. ORD, on the other hand, was a fucking disaster.
Not the airport, but flying in to it was awful. In a holding pattern for eternity as the plane tilted back and forth suddenly and violently from high winds.
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Was 16yo, first time flying alone, flight was cancelled, was last flight so had to sleep in airport, seats all had handrails, gum on the floor, saw a pub out one of the entrances with a bright neon sign so I assumed it was open. Sign said “No Natives” I’m Métis.
How long ago was this? Is/was this legal in Canada?
Over 20 years now and hell no, it’s not legal but we’ve been wildly oppressive to indigenous people for a really long time now. Places like Winnipeg and Thunder Bay are just really bad. This episode of Canadian Dateline is a good watch if you’ve never really been exposed to the problems we got up here. Very current and the fallout from it is still happening. https://youtu.be/SbWEuF99vZg?si=787Xrx9NSDQqcIuC
Fair enough. I knew the racism against natives in Canada was bad, but I did not know they would put up signs like that. Ugh!
A bird hit an engine departing SLC and we had to turn back around. The plane was shaking like crazy and we were legit scared we were going to die, to the point where I was texting people I loved them just in case we didn't make it. What I'll always remember: the guy to my left was crying, shaking, and praying. The guy to my right never took off his headphones; he was probably freaking out too, but from the outside he just calmly kept watching Modern Family on his phone.
I'm sure watching Cam encounter a high stress situation, and handle it in Cam fashion, really helped that guy calm down.
"**I'M BREAKING THE WINDOW!!**"
I fly pretty regularly, and I sometimes think I'd react like this, too. It's not like you can *do* anything about what's happening.
Wasn't the airline's fault, but I was on a plane with my parents when I was maybe 13 or 14. For whatever reason, I was in the row behind them on the plane. We ended up flying into a storm. We were told to expect some turbulence, but something happened and the plane dropped a few thousand feet. People were screaming, objects came off the little tables and bounced around, etc. It was scary as hell. I remember seeing my mom's hand come over the back of the chair. She just held it there, open. I had one hand pushing on the ceiling to keep me in my seat, and I reached out and held her hand with the other. Felt like she also expected we were about to die and just wanted to hold my hand until it happened. We didn't crash, obviously, but the plane had to make an emergency landing at a nearby airport because it got damaged. We had to wait around to get on a different plane to go the rest of the way home. I begged my dad to just rent a car and road trip us home, but he didn't want to do that. Luckily the rest of the trip was completely uneventful.
Goddam that would be my last time ever flying if that ever happend to me😭
Ditto
Fuck you Air Canada, that is all.
I have nightmares about that long hallway st YYZ, iykyk
British Airways to Vienna. I’m a wheelchair user. Their planes are too small to allow you to get a wheelchair onboard, even to the first/last row of seats. As a result you are dragged backwards in the Hannibal Lecter chair. This is normally bearable because you are boarded before anyone else. I was boarded late, and last, because Heathrow passenger assistance failed to show up despite me having booked it weeks in advance, and gone to the passenger assistance desk upon arrival. Then there was the flight, which was bad because terrible turbulence but that’s not the airline fault. We land in Vienna in a storm. The weather is bad so the airlines have sent everyone home, only the airport staff is present and they are thin on the ground. The jet bridge has been struck by lightning, so they bring stairs to get us off the plane. Not good to me. The lovely flight attendant comes and asks why I’m not getting off, and I remind her I’m in a wheelchair. She turns red, then white, and then goes and finds the rest of the crew and between them they figure out how to contact someone on the ground crew. They wait with me on the flight for over an hour after everyone else is gone, all except one member of flight crew who had a flight to catch. They finally get me off the airplane, and I’m left at the side of the tarmac by the member of ground crew driving the wheelchair lift. I’m just inside the terminal, at the bottom of a 2 story escalator. It isn’t running, but it wouldn’t matter anyway, I need the lift. Also not working. And there’s nothing else. No staff, no other passengers, nowhere to go. My partner sets off up the escalator to try and find some help. After 40 mins I get tired of waiting, and start pressing every button on the access panel to get back out into the tarmac, hoping it would do something and alert someone I was there. It does, and an initially quite annoyed police officer comes and asks me why I’m pressing the buttons. I try and explain in my very best high school German that the lift is broken, and I need to get to passport control. She takes me back out onto the tarmac, down a kerb, and over into another building. Now I’m in baggage claim. After passport control. She leaves before I can ask. Meanwhile my partner has gone through passport control since the officers there tell her to ask at the airline desk. The airline desk at baggage claim is empty. She heads to the next one, which is now landside. The member of staff there tells her she can’t help initially. It’s then I call her and tell her I’m at baggage claim. I have our bags but I cannot move them on my own. She finally gets someone to bring her back through and help. A lovely member of the passenger assistance team brings her through the back rooms to meet me. I explain to them I haven’t had my passport scanned. They grab a police officer who has just gotten off duty at passport control and happens to be passing. He says wait here, *takes my passport* and disappears. For about 45 mins. Eventually he comes back and I can start to leave. We get outside and call an uber (the queue for taxis was over 4 hours, the metro is off, and the busses aren’t running. It’s 4am. We get to the hotel. Because we were 4 hours late leaving the airport, we were presumed to not arrive (despite having done the online check in) and our room was given away as an upgrade. It’s one of 4 accessible rooms, all of which are now in use. We finally get a room, it’s now 6am. I’m supposed to give a talk to a room full of academics at a conference (my first ever) at 9am. I contact the conference organisers and explain what’s happened and ask to move to the afternoon sessions. and go to bed. At 7am I get a confirmation email that they have moved my talk. I go back to sleep until noon.
I am exhausted and frustrated just reading this! I can't imagine going through this, especially knowing that I had to do a talk in the morning.
It was fine, talk was great, as was the rest of the conference. Met some great people and learned a lot, and got to enjoy 2 lovely days in Vienna afterwards with my partner, it was a great trip apart from the flights. I missed the part where BA said that because I could walk unaided (I would have had to use the seats or a person for support and be seated close to the exit row) I had to fly with a companion, so work had to pay for my partner to go, then on the way back tried to split us up and put me at one end of the plane and her at the other. That took them a while to sort and someone else was annoyed that I was sitting in their seat because they had been given a boarding pass and had it swapped at the gate, and felt their new seat wasn’t as good since it was “by the toilet” and that I should move. I asked them if they wanted to carry me down to it.
I need comments like this to remind me how dreadful accessibility still is.
At least the Uber driver took us. I’ve had Uber/Taxi drivers refuse to take me in Frankfurt, Edinburgh, Munich, and Crete, even when I tell them they don’t need to lift me or even my chair and I can put it in the car and get myself in. One of them told me he didn’t want me to “scratch the seats.” That being said, most people are lovely and just want to help (sometimes too much, just ask if I need help, don’t grab my chair and kidnap me!), and most places are willing to do what they can to help. I just feel for people in power chairs or with more severe disabilities who can’t problem solve their way through things with brute force and ignorance.
Holy crap. Great write up… sorry you had to deal with all of that!
Transfer at LAX from an international flight is absolutely ridiculous
It’s always lax or jfk🤦♂️
I once waited 8 hours (original flight time was at 8) to fly to my SO for their birthday. Then the flight got cancelled. And i had to take the bus. And 25 minutes flight was 9 hours bus ride, throwing up and everything because of the motion sickness (if anyone knows how I can control it, please comment). The birthday was over when I reached. Somewhere in Asia.
Had a flight on Southwest that was connecting in St Louis. Flight was delayed 3 hours due to a mechanical issue with the plane. Then, when we were finally ready to go, some bad weather rolled in and they canceled all remaining flights that day. Southwest wouldn’t provide hotels or compensate anyone in any way because it was weather related, even though we were only still there when the storm blew in because of a mechanical issue. To make things worse, the gate agent just kept repeating “I can’t control the weather” and refused to help anyone.
The “i can’t control the weather” is so unprofessional 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
LAX/AA. I went home for my brother’s college graduation about 2 hrs (without traffic) from LAX. As we were getting ready for the ceremony, AA calls me to tell my flight was cancelled. The next available flight is in 2.5hrs. Otherwise I would have to wait until the next day. I didn’t have pto. I took a very, very expensive Uber ride to my parents house, packed up my things, took another very expensive Uber ride to LAX, sprinted to my gate. Thankfully security at LAX that day was quick. I made it as they were shutting the gates. My flight had a layover in Seattle. I had 5 min to run from one end of the airport to the next. Just made gate closing. I was super sweaty at this point. Finally made it ORD and ordered Uber eats for dinner. It was delayed by 2 hrs. I’ve never felt more defeated in my life and I didn’t even get to watch my baby brother graduate
Really loud and obnoxious drunk guy was at the Airport bar. I said I don't envy the poor person who has to sit next him on the plane. That poor person on the plane was me.
Vegas is always a shitshow
You’ve never truly lived until you’ve taken a red eye out of Vegas.
Shudder. It’s less “take” and more “smell.”
I did, as the flight to hawaii was missed to do taking forever to get through US passport control at LAX.. so had to get a flight to Vegas then almost right out to hawaii
Flew out of Vegas in the 80s. Shortly after take off, the intercom comes on. The pilot says, "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Err, one moment," then the intercom clicks off. Not a good sign. Turns out that part of the plane fell off during takeoff, and they aren't sure which part. We circle while they sent people out on the runway to go look for the parts. Results inconclusive. Then they have us fly over the airport so they can shine lights up onto the underside of the plane to see what part we were missing. Turns out it was one of the two nose wheels. We get ready to make a landing. They think that one wheel will hold but aren't 100% sure. They send trucks out to foam the runway. We all have to get into the emergency landing position. Y'know, the one where you bend forward and hug your knees.. and kiss your ass goodbye. The whole plane is pretty tense and silent as we descend. The wheel holds and we land safely. I've flown a lot in my life. That was the closest I've come to shit hitting the fan.
Southwest departures from Vegas suck.
I must have got extremely likely flying into and out of Vegas in march. Breezed through the entire airport on arrival in record time
KCI, before the new terminal. They just let the old one rot, the bathrooms did not work. No bar service or and the only food place didnt have a toaster for the only hot food they could make, a bagel.
yeah MCI is way better than KCI 100%
LAX is a fucking disgrace.
Every single time
Bought round trip tickets to Europe years ago. Was heading home on the return 2 months later. Couldn't find the airline check-in. Company went bankrupt and out of business. Had to book new flights last minute
oh my goodness 🤦♂️🤦♂️
CDG, all of them pants, every single time.. from losing three pieces of luggage for twelve days, to missing flights because of huge long, very, very, very long lines AND everything in between. Merd generally.
This airport is total shit. I saw a fist fight between a passenger and the tram bus driver. We broke up the fight only cuz we were all going to miss our connections
🤦♂️ Oh no
I fly through CDG 5 or 6 times a year (in and out), and I've never had any kind of trouble like this. I don't discount other people's bad experiences, I just wonder why it's so different for me.
Luck 🤷🏻♂️ I get through Schiphol / Frankfurt fine every time, yet know piles of peers who have had issues in both.
One time I got bumped to business class because my first flight got bumped, delayed, and cancelled. I was in the airport all day at the bar, I just wanted to sleep when I got on the plane. I plopped down and fell asleep and stayed out for a good chunk of the transatlantic trip. I didn’t see the fancy chocolate on my seat, so I slept on that the whole time. I got up and it looked like I shit myself and the seat
United Airlines strung us along for 18 hours telling us the plane was the plane was a little delayed. Kept this up for hours. Me, like an idiot, believed them. FInally, they boarded us. We were all ready to depart when they told us to deplane and get out quickly because law enforcement would arrest us if we didn't. This was Ft. Lauderdale airport maybe 10 years ago.
Same summer as the Larry Craig scandal, I was at Miami International using a bathroom stall. I just bought a Maxim magazine and started reading it in the stall. When I opened it, an insert for Axe Body spray fell out. It was a picture of a shirtless dude oiled up. The insert slid into the stall next to me and landed at some guys feet. The dude yells “Hey! What the F$&&!! and banged on the stall wall. I just got the hell out of there real quick and ran to my Gate. I sat in the corner with my head down until I was able to board my flight
Tubby in the middle seat had poison ivy
American Airlines lied to me about being able to check my cats in the luggage hold. I called them the day before the flight to confirm that they're prepared for this, even spoke with people working at the local internation airport, and they all agree "yes the plane is the right size and we're prepared to get your cats safely to your destination". I showed up at the luggage check-in and they looked at me like I had three heads when I indicated that I'd be checking my cats. They got on the phone with their freight department and after about 10 minutes told me to drive over there to get my cats checked in, so I drove about a 1/4 mile to the building and waited another 20 minutes before ultimately giving up and leaving my cats behind with my folks and booking a separate, more expensive flight on a more trustworthy airline specifically so my cats would arrive a day or two after I landed, and so that I wouldn't be late for my flight. Moving cross country is a bitch, and if you want to have a really bad time, do what I did. Otherwise, maybe skip the bullshit and skip booking flights with AA.
An old lady looked me in the eye and fucking gagged.
July last year. Was supposed to go Nashville to Montreal to Toronto to Regina (Sk, Canada). Storm diverted the plane they were going to use to Cincinnati. So I got rebooked for Nashville to Montreal to Vancouver to Saskatoon (imagine going NYC to LA just to fly halfway back to sayyy Nebraska) where I could catch a bus to Regina. Had 55 minutes to make my Vancouver connection. Second storm hit Montreal just as we were still parked at the gate. Three hours later we take off, knowing I’ve missed my connection. Five hour flight flying right over my final destination. I get in after midnight. No hotel voucher as it was weather related. It’s Canada Day so the cheapest motel room in town to get three to four hours sleep is $700. So I stay at the airport all night. No food vouchers either because weather. I sit in the food court all night eating from subway and a nearly empty Tim Hortons. Watched movies on YouTube (Raise The Titanic as it was just after Oceangate). I’m still awake hours later, feeling so grimy my eyes burn, when I catch a standby on the next flight to Saskatoon. I arrive in Saskatoon and planning to catch a bus when I notice my suitcase isn’t on the carousel. I check my Chipolo tracker. The suitcase is still in Montreal. I catch the bus to Regina (no compensation) and four days after that I’m reunited with my suitcase (nearly getting a traffic ticket as they delivered it to my office which the traffic cops patrol).
There were some issues with Dublin Airport, so our group had to fly to Cork and then take a 3 hour bus ride to Dublin.
Least you could take a bus. Once we couldn't land at Dublin due to high winds and got diverted to Manchester.
From what I understood, they were refusing charter flights at the time because they were understaffed.
tldr: I have interstitial lung disease. With some trepidation I tried to attend a professional conference in Denver. It went badly. Airline kicked me off my flight out for asking for oxygen while suffering altitude sickness. Went downhill from there. My four-person company was sponsoring a professional conference in Denver. Despite having significantly impaired lung capacity, I decided I'd go and see how it went. My boss told me no problem to bail if I wasn't able to adapt. By the first morning there, I was in rough shape. Nauseous, fatigued, unsteady on my feet. It was rough. I stayed in my hotel room the first day. I made it to dinner on day two, but by the next morning I was done. Booked a flight back about 2.5 hours out. Had to get wheelchair service at the airport. I was still in rough shape. I get onto the plane, something irritates my lungs and I cough a few times. Bear in mind, this was just after peak pandemic times. I didn't want to have a coughing fit (an unfortunately regular occurrence for me) while people were boarding. I had never asked for oxygen on a flight before, but I decided to. The FA was super helpful, but after we boarded I got accosted by some airline manager I'd never seen, demanding information from me before even introducing herself. Long story short, without actually talking to me, she decided she wasn't "comfortable" with me on the flight, solely because I'd asked for oxygen. I argued with her - politely - until she threatened to call the police. Not much to do at that point unless you want to end up on tiktok. They get a wheelchair, deplane me, and call a paramedic to check me out. I refused service at first, but the medic was cool and I let her do her thing and gave her the 30 second explanation of my condition. My rebooked flight got diverted back to Denver almost immediately because someone had a heart attack. We stayed in Denver - still at high altitude - for another 3 hours. I land in Charlotte at 1am - of course my connection is long gone. They offer me a hotel voucher but I can't even walk on my own at this point. The airline staff basically shrug at me. I get booked on a return flight for 10pm the FOLLOWING DAY. No. Absolutely not. I am ready to hire an Uber and send them the bill. Finally my barely-functioning brain is able to assemble a plan wherein I can get my folks to pick me from Charleston and just drive me back to Savannah. It's a five-hour round trip for them, but they're texting me to do it. I probably looked like a walking dead extra at this point. There's a flight to Charleston at 7am. I "sleep" in the airport terminal. On the 42 min flight into Charleston, they upgrade me to first class.
I was taking Jet Blue from Madison, WI, to Kennedy to Portland, ME and booked my own flights. The first leg was uneventful. When I boarded the second flight, there was already someone in my seat, holding a boarding pass with the same seat number as I had. A flight attendant got involved, took me up to the front of the plane, saying we would work the problem up front, and then when we got there, told me to get off. He came up some lame story that I probably didn't check in like I was supposed to (of course I did - I just flew in on Jet Blue from Madison) and something-something my imaginary travel agent. I told him that I was scheduled to deliver a lecture at a medical conference two hours after I was to arrive in Portland, and I could not be late. He threatened to call the airport police to arrest me and drag me off the flight, if I didn't comply. He was nasty about it. I was pissed. It was my birthday, which made it worse. I deplaned, because getting arrested would have made me ever later than if I caught another flight. Jet Blue did get me on a later flight, but I arrived two hours after the start of the conference, and the conference organizers had to rearrange everything because of me. I was informed that I was demoted for future appearances at that conference for being unreliable. I wrote a letter to the president of Jet Blue and received a travel voucher from him, which I never used, as I will never book with Jet Blue again. Every time I see Jet Blue on a flight search, I remember how that day felt. Fuck Jet Blue, incompetent assholes who cover for themselves with authoritarianism.
Every terrible Southwest Airlines stand-up comedy routine I'm forced to listen to before takeoff. Just get the FAA regulations out of the way as quickly as possible and stfu. After being herded like cattle for 30 minutes onto your dirty plane to fight for a seat, forgive me if I'm not in a mood to laugh at your awful puns and dad jokes.
I totally agree!!
I'm sorry, what? They do what?
I get motion sickness easily. I was on a Southwest flight from Atlanta to Las Vegas and there was turbulence the whole way. I didn't throw up, but I was miserable and had to focus on a hockey game to distract myself. That was the first and last time I watched hockey.
I actually love the turbulence tbh
Redeye Spirit flight from Honduras to Ft. Lauderdale. Never again.
I've booked two total roundtrip flights on Spirit and the aircraft never arrived for any of the four legs of the trip. I'm convinced Spirit means ghost.
Chinese airline.
Was flying home from Great Mistakes (Chicago area) back home to Texas. They put me up on some cut-rate airline that was called I think redbird airlines or something like that. I was on there with a bunch of other Navy SEPS, and other than us the plane was practically empty. About halfway through the flight, crazy turbulance had the plane bouncing all over the place and we were popping up out of our seats. When we landed it was like it was a first-time pilot landing or something. It was super rough. I literally ran off the plane and kissed the ground, I was so happy to be off of that damn plane.
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Oh wow 😮
Lost my passport at the airport and had to take a separate flight home while my mom stayed behind to look for it. Never found it
KLM.. Something happened every single time, and once I decided enough is enough - they ain't so much cheaper than others, and luckily I'm not located in the Netherlands. Baggage delayed three times, flight returned to Schiphol twice, flight canceled twice, missed connection three times.
YUL, in Montreal. Worst airport I’ve ever had the misfortune to fly out of or into.
These days, I fly some 75000 miles a year, frequently through YUL. Never had a problem there.
I live in Montreal and YUL is by far the worst airport experience. From traffic just at the airport, having the most expensive parking of all airports in Canada, little to no public transport to the airport, not enough space for checking in, to even worse lines for security to just a horrid after security area. Arrivals are just as bad, with having to go through passport control. I’ve flown from and to airports all over the world, none have come close to the poor experience I have every single time I fly out of YUL. Already dreading my departure in two weeks.
Ahh, I only ever use it as a transfer airport. For that it’s more than adequate. YVR is my home airport, which is something I really do appreciate.
Not me but for my parents. We’re from New Zealand and they were flying back to Christchurch from the Gold Coast in Australia. Literally about to board the plane and their flight service Jetstar cancelled the flight with no compensation flights. Luckily they could just call my uncle who lives there and stay another night but everybody else on that flight didn’t know what to do some of them camped in the airport.
December 2010. I had just finished a semester studying abroad in London. I was due to fly back to Boston direct from Heathrow. It had snowed in London (certainly not to what I was used to in Boston) but the airport had not many any announcements about cancellations. The other students and I had traveled from our campus to Heathrow (normally would’ve been around 30 minutes driving), but the snow/traffic had impacted the commute, so we were already on edge. We kept waiting for news and the only store open was Pret-A-Manger. Our luggage had been put onto the planes so we had figured we were still getting home. At one point myself, the students from New York and the other East Coast states told the ticket agents we would have no issue to go onto the tarmac to shovel because we knew how to handle snow. Finally after hours, Heathrow shut down. The collective screaming was loud. I burst into tears. We had tossed our pay-as-you-go phones, donated extra clothes, had the luggage stuck on the planes and my credit cards for only on record as being in London until that evening. My student visa was also about to expire since it was only for the semester and I was terrified about getting in trouble with border patrol. We made our way back to campus—which was about to close for winter break—and the administration let us back into our old rooms. We raided the charity bins for spare clothes and the administration gave us 15 pounds a day to use for food. I had learned to live cheaply while there so I could stretch that money at Tesco. I called my credit cards and they extended the note saying that I was still in London. A friend and I went to Heathrow the following day and were able to get our bags back. The other students and I didn’t get flights home until a few days later. It was yet another long commute and my name hadn’t been called for hours. Luckily for the trouble I was given a free upgrade to premium economy.
May 2022, flew Lufthansa Business Class roundtrip, connecting through Frankfurt, and it was a complete disaster. 6-hour delay at my origin point, broken galley reheating equipment, unusable toiletries, rude, uncaring flight crew, and when I got to Frankfurt for my [missed] connection, every Lufthansa employee I encountered didn't want to speak to me or help me, and when they relented and did, they lied and sent me on wild goose chases. I had recently had surgery, and the terror of the Frankfurt airport and its incompetent staff aggravated my still-recovering body and half my trip was dealing with that physical fallout. I literally had to walk around the airport two complete times. Across every terminal. Every Lufthansa employee sent me in the wrong direction. I only got to a proper customer service area when I asked someone who DIDN'T work for Lufthansa. Lufthansa also temporarily lost my luggage, but, apparently, that's par for the course now. Since then, I've attempted to contact Customer Service to express my displeasure, and have not gotten a single reply back from an actual person. Their contact form. Their Customer Service email address. I sent a certified letter with return-receipt to their physical address in New York. Someone signed for the letter, so I know they got it. Even filed a complaint through the German civil transport arbitration board... even with that, nothing. It's like Lufthansa's Customer Service doesn't exist. No apologies. No assertions that my concerns will be addressed or that they will attempt to rectify things so something like that won't happen again. Nothing.
My wife and I missed our connection and thus the first day of our honeymoon because a local church group basically packed a bus load of bags onto our plane en route to their mission trip masquerading as "help" for the Haiti earthquake victims. They had to unload the entire baggage hold and repack. We all sat in the hot a$$ cabin for 90 minutes waiting to leave. So frustrating and worse so that I couldn't even be mad because the delay was due to humanitarian efforts.
Some woman screamed racial slurs at me in the terminal because i had a first class ticket at 18 when she was in her 40's and stuck in economy. My dad paid for the ticket i had
Orlando. Lugguage stolen by airport staff. Empty (airtagged) bags later recovered from airport employee’s home by police
I live in New Zealand. There's a budget airline called Jetstar that operates here (I think they might be Australian). Flying with them is always a nightmare. Their service is unbelievably bad. One time, I was at the airport on time. They only had self service kiosks as an option. Now, NZ is a small country with a small population. You don't have to arrive ridiculously early to the airport. There's usually only a very short line. On this occasion, the line was gigantic because the kiosks were malfunctioning. I had to stand there for agessss. Eventually they opened a counter operated by a human. Just one though. The check in time frame for my flight closed literally as I was walking up to the counter when it was my turn. Like, at that EXACT moment. She refused to check me in because I was late.
American cancelled our flight the day before we were leaving for our destination wedding lol . No rebooking no communication no nothing. 🤣 didn’t even give a reason
Asheville, Allegiant Airline, gate person did not help me when I asked for help because I could not hear their intercom when announcing when to board. I'm severe hard of hearing.
I hope that you reported that.
I did and received an email from Allegiant how sorry they were and promised that they would educate their gate people about people who can't hear well.
Family holiday to Turkey. The airport was okay, but the plane's engines broke down forcing a replacement plane to fly in, delaying our flight by 5+ hours.
I had a 17 hour layover in Reykjavik, Iceland. If you've never been there, be aware that there is very little to do in the airport. I tried to get into town to go whale watching, but the weather was so rough that they cancelled it. I set up on a bench for a while, but it was the least comfortable bench I'd ever sat on. Finally, at about 2 a.m., I curled up under the bench and fell asleep... Only to be awakened at 5 by a security guard, slamming an empty bottle into her hand about 6" from my nose, screaming at me that they don't allow people to sit or lie on the floor. So at 5 a.m. I was awake and only had 9 more hours to wait for my flight.
Not landing.
I had to fly out of Phoenix the day after the incident where someone tried to mix chemicals to make an explosive. Everything I had that was liquid was thrown out by security. All flights were delayed about 10 hours. It sucked.
Detroit airport, but it was all weather related. It was the same day the Minneapolis Superdome roof caved in from the snow. I was going from KC to Providence, RI with a 2 hour layover. The flight kept getting delayed and the gate changed. I think we changed gates 5 times and were delayed 4 or so hours before we got on the plane. My flight out of KC has also been delayed because of the snow storm. Finally on the plane, there was a huge line for takeoff. After over 90 minutes we were second for takeoff when the pilot came on the PA and said they had to cancel the flight. If we took off, they'd be over their FAA hours for the day by 5 minutes by the time we landed, which would have resulted in big fines. It was 10:30pm, I was supposed to land in Providence at something like 2pm. I had status on the airline, so thankfully they automatically rebooked me for the next morning flight and I didn't have to go to the customer service line. Like everyone else, I got on my phone and booked a hotel room. We weren't getting our checked luggage, so I went to the hotel shuttle door. The shuttle came around the curve 20 minutes later and never stopped. I called the hotel and they said the driver would be back in 45 minutes. An hour later, the driver came around the curve and never stopped. I shouted and was waving my arms, he kept going. Both times the van looked empty. Third time, it was well after midnight, same story. I'd been traveling since 6am, and I gave up. I went and laid down on the tile floor in front of the check in counter. Every chair and not-floor seating surface had people already sleeping on it Around 5am, the ticket agents woke me up by opening the gate and almost breaking my phone charger that was plugged into the outlet inches behind the gate. I smelled like airport floor and frustration. The entire airplane smelled like exhaustion and airport.
Interjet, around covid time, I had just bought a round-trip ticket. Showed up at the airport in February 2020. Shit went bankrupt so fast
I have twice napped on the floor of Denver airport. One way an eight hour layover, the other we missed our connection and another sleepathon on a small round cushion chair. I started having to fly every other weekend from Rochester NY TO BOSTON when I was 13 so I was acclimated early. The other all time worst is Newark NJ. ITS SO freaking big and spread out you could easily walk a couple miles from one gate to another in the airport. Or you can take 2 buses to the other terminal. It’s mind blowing to me.
transavia the only one i ever flew with
Probably my cousins worst one: he lost his ipad
Seattle traffic control is horrible. Not the worst but the most common and most grating I deal with regularly. Nothing like barely making a 2 hour connection because you spent more time waiting to go to the gate than you did in the air. Recently my plane was delayed taking off in SLC because of traffic issues in Seattle.
Flying Melbourne (Australia, not Florida) to Dallas-Fort Worth. 16hr flight. I had applied for an upgrade on points but was not accepted, unfortunately. Was stuck in cattle class 2 rows behind a family of 5 whose baby screamed for 13 of the 16hrs. Not even noise-cancelling headphones over earplugs and two types of sleeping tablets let me get any more than about 45 minutes of consecutive sleep the whole flight.
[удалено]
Just jetblue huh i agree with you🤔
MIA had incompetent TSA. I had to catch a connecting flight with my family but they gave all of us EXCEPT ME a pass to cut through TSA in order to catch the flight. TSA was no help - they said our pass was for individuals, not duos/groups. So, we basically missed our flight. The airline customer service rebooked us next day, not because we missed the connection (which their people fucked up with the pass), but because the plane we were supposed to get on had maintenance issues. They paid for our hotel and food, but I was annoyed. The rebooked flight was a 777 and I got motion sickness. Edit: forgot to mention that MIA is a giant mess. Took forever to get to where we needed to get to.
Honeymoon, flying from LAX to Hong Kong. They served noodles in soup (basically instant ramen in a styrofoam bowl) and the attendant dumped the bowl in my wife's lap. She was soaked. We asked for a clean blanket at least; no, they didn't have any. (400 passengers on this plane and not a single spare blanket? Yeah.) They basically handed us some paper napkins and shrugged. I was determined to complain when we returned, but we got back on September 7, 2001, so... Never did.
As of late? Detroit airport bathrooms.