Flight Horror Stories

[mjr_2013]

Be forewarned, this is LOOOONG.

I don't fly very often. This was only the second flight of my life after the eighth grade Washington DC field trip.

I was visiting a college in Florida. The following was supposed to be my flight itinerary</p>

4/09 - 630/810am - Detroit to Charlotte</p>
4/09 - 930/1109am - Charlotte to Tampa</p>
4/10 - 1025am/1209pm - Tampa to Charlotte</p>
4/10 - 100/246pm - Charlotte to Detroit</p>

Everything was going fine. Flights were going fine, security was easy, people were friendly, I visited the college, liked it a lot, everything was great!</p>

My flight gets into Charlotte on my way home ten minutes early. I grab a quick lunch and prepare to board for Detroit. I get a text from my mom to keep her updated on the flight status because there are supposed to be storms later. I say "ok, we're boarding now, so we should be good." (THIS kids is called foreshadowing)

The capacity flight boards at about 1230, the luggage is loaded, and there is a small delay in "communications" between CLT and DTW. Finally, after 30 minutes, it's 120 and we are ready for take off. Seatbelts on, electronics off... We taxi for 5-10 minutes, and then park. The pilot comes over and says "This is the ehhh Captain speaking. Unfortunately, ehhhhhhh, the ehhhh Detroit airport ehhhh has not given us clearence and ehhhhh they.... will ehhh not give us another ehhhh update for 59 minutes... I'm going to try and see what I can do in ehhhh... 15 minutes though. Please relax in the meantime."

15 minutes pass, captain comes over and says no update
Another 15, no update. We get free water and wafer cookies from the flight attendent.
Another 15: "they appear to be staying strong with their first time. Please find your ehhh seats as we could be taking off ehhh any time now."
25 minutes later (it's now 240 or so and we've been on the plane for over two hours): "This is your ehhh Captain, I've been instructed to ehhh return us to the gate for ahhh customer service representative to come on this flight. Please ehhh prepare to taxi."

We taxi back, and the customer service agent comes on the flight.

"Attention please!" [this plane is already silent because everyone is pissed] "Unfortunately, this flight has been canceled. Please gather your belongings and make your way to the ticket booth for re-booking." and leaves. No apology. No direction to where this ticket booth is, nothing... We all exit the plane. Those who know where this thing is go to it. Those who don't pretty much wander.... I wander for five minutes before approaching a TSA agent who I hoped would be helpful... I make friendly eye contact with him so that he knows I'm not doing anything stupid and that I'm coming to him... I politely ask him "Can you tell me where the ticket booth is? My flight was cancelled and I am totally lost."

He says, "Ok, you can just back up now." very rudely and forcefully as if I was threatening him! When I back up a step, he tells me "Down the stairs, to the right." REAL HELPFUL. There are like a hundred lines to my right when I go down the stairs.

Finally I find some nice people I met while we were stuck on the plane, and see they're in a line. I go to that line and ask if this is where we go. They say yes, that they were lucky enough to follow a frequent flyer who knew where to go... It's now about 330. There are three groups in front of me. One lady who is talking on her phone at the booth, then another lady, then the nice people I met, then me.

 

We're waiting in line. And waiting. And waiting. 350 comes and the SAME LADY is in line. When the lady who is second asks an agent what is taking so long and if they could take this lady to the side, she gets a very rude "These things take time" back.

Finally, at 4pm the lady who is first finishes. The next lady starts in, and this looks more complex than the last one. Two agents are there, one on the phone. She turns around and mouths "it's them!!!they're horrible!"... This is taking so long that the lines next to us are becoming short! I hop in one of those, get to the front, and it takes five minutes to get a weird receipt thing for a 630 Delta flight to Detroit that the lady tells me to take to the gate... I go through security (again) and get to the gate. Everyone is just sitting around, and we're talking... I realize that they still have boarding passes and I show them what I have. They say that they had to take their stuff to the Delta ticket booth to get a boarding pass. Of course the US Air agent failed to tell me this. :banghead:  

I go back and to the Delta ticket line. While in line, I realize I had forgotten my phone at the gate! Like, could anything make this worse??? After another 10 minutes in that line, I explain everything to the Delta agent, who apologizes profusely for everything US AIr and the TSA has f'd up!! This was the first apology I had received allll dayy... She prints my boarding pass quickly, apologizes again, and wishes me luck. One of the only NICE workers I met all day! I go back through security (AGAIN!!), where I meet a nice TSA agent as well, who wishes me luck when I tell I'm hopefully going to Detroit.

Out of security, I look at one of the big boards. The new flight is delayed.

 

To wrap this up without it turning into a full novel...

- All three of the groups I had met at the gate noticed I had forgotten my phone and gave it to the lady at the gate immediately. I got it back as soon as I got back to the gate

- US Air were ****************. I couldn't think of a word to describe them so I just put what would have been the censored version anyway.

- Delta was VERY nice. Even though they delayed the flight an hour, they gave all passengers who had their original flights cancelled by US Air a $25 meal vouchure!

- Overall TSA were jerks to me. I mean I suppose that's their job, but they could at least acknowledge the fact that for every one person they encounter who is a problem, there are a million who are not.

 

The flight to Detroit on Delta was delayed another half hour due to the need to fuel up... Then, the captain of this came over at about 800pm and said that the FAA had directed this flight to go south then west, then northwest, then northeast, then east, in a "C" shape to get from North Carolina to Detroit because of the storm!! And that the flight would take approximetely "2 hours and 55 minutes"!!

 

Luckily, the captain was competent enough to tell the FAA that he wasable to go through a portion of the storm and they created a new route, which took about 2 hours. It was turbulent, but not too bad.

 

I got back to DTW at about 1045 and we left the airport at about 11. I got home at about 1215am.  ... Overall, I was between shuttles, airports, and airplanes for 18 hours.

 

SOOOO, I've talked to family with similar stories (my cousin had a Boston to Detroit flight cancelled and her re-book made her go to Minneapolis before Detroit!)... What's your worst experience or the worst you've heard from a friend??

[mstaylor]

I was going to Atlanta for a NCAA meeting. I let my buddy do all the booking because he travels constantly as part of his job and had all kinds of miles. To save money we were to fly from Balt to Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh to Atlanta. The first flight was at 9:00, first meeting in Atlanta at 5:00. We had a two hour drive the airport. This was when you had to allow two hours to get through security. The morning we were to leave he was late picking me up. I start calling him, cell only. Two hours after my pick-up time, he calls, overslept, be there in a bit. He picks me up when we should have been entering security. We hit the airport at flight time. Stand by time.  Southwest puts on the stand by list. No openings on the next two flights. The SW rep says we will have better luck going out of Philly, so they fly us to Philly. Remember the first meeting is at 5:00. We get a flight at about 6:00 or 6:30. We finally make Atlanta at 9:30. Meetings all day Saturday, we are at dinner Sat. night and I asked what time we were flying on Sunday, 9:00 AM. uhhhhh, we have class at 9:00. I guess we are missing them.   Flights home were good but I missed two out of three days because of a stupid partner. It was a mess trying to get a flight but SW was great. 

[mjr_2013]

I was going to Atlanta for a NCAA meeting. I let my buddy do all the booking because he travels constantly as part of his job and had all kinds of miles. To save money we were to fly from Balt to Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh to Atlanta. The first flight was at 9:00, first meeting in Atlanta at 5:00. We had a two hour drive the airport. This was when you had to allow two hours to get through security. The morning we were to leave he was late picking me up. I start calling him, cell only. Two hours after my pick-up time, he calls, overslept, be there in a bit. He picks me up when we should have been entering security. We hit the airport at flight time. Stand by time.  Southwest puts on the stand by list. No openings on the next two flights. The SW rep says we will have better luck going out of Philly, so they fly us to Philly. Remember the first meeting is at 5:00. We get a flight at about 6:00 or 6:30. We finally make Atlanta at 9:30. Meetings all day Saturday, we are at dinner Sat. night and I asked what time we were flying on Sunday, 9:00 AM. uhhhhh, we have class at 9:00. I guess we are missing them.   Flights home were good but I missed two out of three days because of a stupid partner. It was a mess trying to get a flight but SW was great. 

 

I like how he is a buddy at the beginning of the story and a stupid partner at the end

 

I flew SW in my first time flying to DC without a problem. Our flight home for that was actually delayed an hour (I am 0/2 on getting home in time), but I met and took a picture with JOE FLACCO by the gate while waiting to board the delayed flight! That was very cool, and made the delay worth it.

 

To be clear, the wafers and water didn't make this one worth it. lol

[mstaylor]

I took my wife and boys to Las Vegas for karate training. Our only problem was sitting on the tarmac, the pilot is announcing take-off and stuff. He says if you look to your right you will see Air Force One. He says hopefully we get out before he is ready to go or it will be a two hour wait. We got out, the instructors didn't. 

On the way back we were flying direct, no problems. One of the dads was afraid of flying, he was flying under duress. His flight was LV to Denver to Philly. They take off and he tells his attendant that there was an odd vibration that shouldn't be there. They poo-poo him, he does it again and they tell all is well and to settle. Five minutes later the pilot announces they are making an emergency landing, the door seal was not right. (Let's review those loss of cabin pressure procedures) They almost had to handcuff him and stick him on the other plane.

[Thunderheads]

I've been traveling for business since 1995 ............... the stories are never fun ...........

 

Glad you're back Matt ........I'll keep you posted on tomorrow .........

 

The field those scrimmages are held DO NOT hold water well .....we'll see

[BRUMP]

Not really a friend (actually he's a pain in the ass) but I know a guy who ended up on this flight. I think that kicks the crap out of our stories. http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Airways_Flight_1549

[mjr_2013]

I've been traveling for business since 1995 ............... the stories are never fun ...........

 

Glad you're back Matt ........I'll keep you posted on tomorrow .........

 

The field those scrimmages are held DO NOT hold water well .....we'll see

 

I received one email from him at 1106am, another from him at 1107, and one from you at 1108.

I know what those fields are like, I've played on fields where it will pour the night before and the infield will be a lake for the 6pm game the next evening!

[HokieUmp]

I got back to DTW at about 1045 and we left the airport at about 11. I got home at about 1215am.  ... Overall, I was between shuttles, airports, and airplanes for 18 hours.

 

 

While my flight wasn't horrific, I just got back to Japan after nearly a month in training in Maryland, arriving Sunday afternoon, Japan time.  If you count the "heading for the airport (an hour away) to drop the rental car" portion as part of the journey, at the 18 hour mark, I was still about 4 hours from getting to my house.

 

On the other hand, mine was a non-stop, Dulles to Narita, and there were no storms involved, so once the plane took off, it was uneventful the rest of the way.

[mbrown2097]

Taxi during storms in Atlanta.  Sat in line for takeoff for an hour.  When we were next in line, the pilot announced that we had waited in line too long and the plane no longer had enough fuel to make our destination.  Returned to gate, waited, refuled, waited,  pilot came back on and announced that he and the co-pilot were now past their service hours and the flight was being cancelled.  Darn near had a mutiny on that flight!!!!