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?

Left In A Lurch

December 27, 2009 Delay/Cancellation Stories

I used American Airlines for a college spring break trip and will never fly with them again. We paid $1000 for a week-long trip to the Dominican Republic. At the end of our stay, we were told there was a snowstorm in the US and we would be unable to fly back at our regularly [...]

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Butt Grabber

December 27, 2009 Passenger Stories

I was returning to Portland from reserve duty in Guam in January 2004. Another man from my unit went with me and we ended up seated next to each other on the way over and most of the way back. At least we didn’t have to sit next to complete strangers. On the Honolulu to [...]

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Fried Chicken Lady

December 26, 2009 Portly Stories

This is a long one (especially from my perspective) but worth the read: So I’m on this Continental flight from Houston to Kansas City sitting in the middle seat waiting for the rest of the passengers to board. I am 6 feet tall and weigh around 250 lbs. but easily can fit between the arm [...]

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Make The Airlines Pay For Property Destruction

December 26, 2009 Luggage Stories

I flew to the States from Europe with one traditional bag having the 99 cent lock and the other a very expensive hard cased bag I have had for more than 10 years with a combination encased as part of the bag itself. On picking up my bags I found that my traditional bag had [...]

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The Popsicle Eating Pilot

December 24, 2009 Attendant & Pilot Stories

This flight wasn’t really hellish, just funny. When I was in college in Ohio in the ’80′s, I would fly home to Connecticut for Christmas via La Guardia to our local small airport. The now-defunct airline that I took from LGA to Connecticut was called Pilgrim Airlines, and they flew a fleet of small turboprops; [...]

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A Splendid Trip

December 24, 2009 Odds & Ends Stories

Many years ago, I don’t remember exactly when, but it was certainly before 9/11 as you will see, I was on an Air Canada flight from Calgary to San Francisco. At the time, AC was running a “lucky seat” promotion. They would announce a seat number during the flight and the lucky person in that [...]

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Scolded For Showing Skin

December 23, 2009 Senior Stories

I was flying on an 8 hour flight from Boston to Frankfurt to start a semester abroad in Germany. I had the window, and next to me two little old ladies sat next to me. I was feeling pretty lucky cause they didn’t smell bad, or take up my seat, and kept to themselves. It [...]

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Slick, Sticky & Smelly

December 23, 2009 Odds & Ends Stories

The one night trip from Philadelphia to Miami included a same day meeting on arrival. My upgrade had come through so I printed my boarding pass at home. My first meeting of the day was at the airport lounge in Miami. All good. I stepped into the cabin and discovered that 3-C was now the [...]

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First Class Fiasco

December 22, 2009 Food & Drink Stories

Four years ago, I was returning back from Beijing to San Francisco with my mother. She had joined me on a business trip as she had never been to China and my father was not a big traveler. So this trip had been a big treat for her and it had gone very well. To [...]

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Whiffs Of Poo

December 22, 2009 Odor Stories

Just came back from flight from Boston to Tampa. I have 3 kids. I was sitting next to a father and his 3 year old, and behind us was the mother and an infant. We get airborne and I start smelling poo. I turn to the father and say, “Gosh something smells like poop on [...]

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Delayed, Detained & Stuck By A Chatty Cowboy

December 21, 2009 Odds & Ends Stories

So I was in Denver visiting my boyfriend. My United flight was supposed to leave Denver for OKC at 7:30 p.m. The flight was delayed until 10:00 p.m. Okay, I could deal with that. When we finally boarded the plane we sat there for an hour; I guess they had to refuel. After we finally [...]

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Mom Moans In Terror

December 21, 2009 Passenger Stories

I was flying back to Tampa from Miami and ended up across the aisle from a family (Dad, Mom, 2 kids). I knew we were in trouble when the Mom began moaning in terror before we even took off. Apparently she was deathly afraid of flying but would not take a tranquilizer and had to [...]

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