Flights From Hell flies you into the crazy skies with stories about the adventures and anxieties of airplane travel.

Commercial airline travel takes us far, far out of our comfort zone. We're herded into cylinders that zip hundreds of miles per hour at 30,000 feet, subjected to security screenings, confronted with delays and lost luggage, rushed to catch connecting flights, constrained to small seats, scrunched up with strangers, and surrounded by pathogens. Is it any wonder we end up becoming a bundle of raw nerves by journey's end?

Sensitive Stomach Stressed by Stinky Passenger

November 8, 2010 Portly Stories

Working in Dallas and having family in Austin, I am used to a 3 hour transit period. So when I attended a scholastic logistics competition in Jacksonville and learned that the flight time was three hours from DFW, I thought that the flight would be cake, nothing compared to the overseas flights I had taken [...]

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Cigar Smoking Passenger Pollutes Plane

November 6, 2010 Passenger Stories

Believe it or not, back in the sixties smoking cigarettes was allowed on airplanes in the United States. Passengers and flight staff would breath in polluted air and reek of smoke when they disembarked from the plane. Yet no one thought anything of it because so many people smoked back then. I think that cigar [...]

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Knitter Drives Passenger Nuts

November 3, 2010 Passenger Stories

OK.  We all have had told or heard of classic airplane/airport stories.  I know when I traveled as an auditor in the early 90s I had experienced many; specifically, when a guy next to me tried to stuff his bag under my feet because he “wanted to stretch his legs during the long two hour flight.”  [...]

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No Flight From Hell on North Korean Airline

October 31, 2010 Odds & Ends Stories

By the end of September I went on a school trip to North Korea by flying the national airline Air Koryo. I would like to share my unique experience of flying with them. If you are expecting this to be a true flight from hell, it’s not. I’d go as far as saying Air Koryo is better [...]

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Baby’s Big Blue Eyes Make a Traveler Blue

October 28, 2010 Baby & Kid Stories

Here’s a different kind of kid story… On August 2, 2008 I had to fly from Houston to Milwaukee for work. While boarding the plane, there was a family with two small children and a newborn baby. Like most travelers, I hoped the children were going to be well-behaved on the five hour flight. The [...]

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Volcano and Other Troubles Torment Travelers

October 26, 2010 Odds & Ends Stories

Earlier this year I made two business trips to Europe to taste wine. The first trip, to Tuscany in Italy, was idyllic as it always is. Yes, the ash from the volcano in Iceland hit the skies while I was there and I had to spend another week in Florence before I could get back, [...]

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Fetid Flight

October 25, 2010 Odor Stories

Once upon a time on a flight from Germany to New York, around 50 people from India decided to visit their relatives. It would have been a nice flight, but I’m sorry to say that the spices they use in their food is not good for the atmosphere. Besides that, a couple had their little [...]

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Flier is Frustrated by Bags in Bins

October 24, 2010 Flying Hell Commentary

This isn’t so much one specific flight from hell, but more of EVERY flight that I’m on ever since airlines found a way to gouge even more money out of fliers by charging for checked baggage. I’m a frequent flier and also have one of those airline-partnered credit cards, so I don’t pay for checked bags [...]

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Seniors Have Issues with Seats

October 20, 2010 Senior Stories

Not necessarily a Flight From Hell, but it was a little frustrating, and one you just have to shake your head at. I was on American Airlines Flight 5 from DFW to HNL on Septmber 2nd, 2010. In the boarding area there were several children playing and laughing, and immediately my first thought was please let these children be [...]

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Traveler Enjoys Turbulence

October 19, 2010 Weather Stories

I probably made someone’s white knuckle flight — just a little bit worse. For business, I flew from Phoenix to Denver, then hopped on an 18-seater propeller airplane to get from Denver to Dodge City, KS. If you’ve never flown on a propeller airplane, there’s something you have to realize. “Air Turbulence” is caused by [...]

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