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?

Bloggers Tread Treacherous Legal Water

January 5, 2010 Flying Hell Blog

Recently two travel bloggers – Christopher Elliott (Elliott.org) and Steve Frischling (Flying With Fish) were served subpoenas by Department of Homeland Security agents for posting a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) directive on their blogs. The directive outlined security procedures that were being implemented in response to the attempted destruction of a US airplane via a bomb [...]

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The Worst Day Of My Life

January 4, 2010 Delay/Cancellation Stories

Dude. I have a terrible story. I flew from Istanbul, where I was visiting my dad, to San Diego. After being thoroughly searched 3 or 4 times, one of which the attendant may now nearly claim carnal knowledge of my person, I boarded the flight from hell. The flight was 3 hours delayed while we [...]

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Mom’s Seat Arrangements Delay Flight

January 4, 2010 Baby & Kid Stories

I travel a lot for business. While waiting for a recent flight from Chicago to Charlotte I noticed a younger couple with three small children – one boy about 3 years old and then twin babies in infant carriers. I commented to my co-worker that I hope they are not on our flight. The gate [...]

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A New Year’s Eve to Forget

January 3, 2010 Delay/Cancellation Stories

My family (wife and daughters ages 6 and 3) and I just returned to Minneapolis from our trip to Florida over winter break and just when I thought customer service for airlines could not be any worse, Southwest Airlines went and proved me wrong.  Everything I had ever heard about Southwest had been fairly positive, [...]

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Common Courtesy Is Out the Window

January 2, 2010 Airport Stories

In November 2008, I was flying home to Oklahoma from Biloxi, MS. I had just completed Air Force Technical School, and I was excited to get home to see my husband and collect our things before the drive to my first duty station. My flight was originally scheduled for 10:45am, so I arrived at about [...]

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Overzealous Homeland Security

January 1, 2010 Airport Stories

May I address the “overkill” of our zealous Homeland Security employees? My husband is a Korean vet with a partial knee replacement, yet he is always treated like the most dangerous potential terrorist in the world. The hotel printed the boarding passes for our return trip, but we didn’t notice the first letter of our [...]

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Truck Collides With Airplane

January 1, 2010 Airplane Stories

I fly quite often on various different airlines throughout the year, however I never seem to have a lack of issues with travel. Recently, I was on a flight from Los Angeles to Denver. The flight was initially running a little bit late, but at first was nothing to worry about. I had been bumped [...]

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A Flight From Hell In Five Acts

December 31, 2009 Delay/Cancellation Stories

Prelude We were scheduled to go to a National meeting in Tampa on 9/16/06. Our flight and hotel arrangements were made months ahead of time. September 11, 2006 4:30 pm – automated phone call from Delta airlines at work. It was rapidly giving me a lot of information about a schedule change for September 12. [...]

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Some Things Just Don’t Change (Except For Better Wireless Service)

December 30, 2009 Delay/Cancellation Stories

I took my three children from Idaho to Virginia with a change of planes in New Jersey. The first leg of the trip was fine. In New Jersey, there were flight delays due to rain. There wasn’t enough room for everyone to sit down and it was very crowded. One man seemed to think it [...]

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Shorter Folks Need Overhead Bin Assistance

December 30, 2009 Luggage Stories

I am a short woman, less than 5 feet and I was flying from SFO to BOS. I had a carry on and could not lift it to the overhead bins. I asked a flight attendant to help me because I was afraid I would drop it on the person sitting below. She said that [...]

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Stuck In The Crapper

December 29, 2009 Airplane Stories

Good Morning Friends! Several of you may have received a rather cryptic text message from me yesterday that may have seemed like a riddle…”guess who got stuck in an airplane lavatory for over an hour?” is the question that was posed. Well, the answer to that riddle, folks, is ME. However, some of you may [...]

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Request For Assistance Leads To Insult

December 28, 2009 Attendant & Pilot Stories

I am certain that most of you have stories worse than mine, but I felt that those of you who have never flown with American Airlines in the southwestern United States should be warned. It was December 2003, airlines were hemorrhaging money, and you would expect that customer service would be a priority. Apparently, not. [...]

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