Flights From Hell flies you into the crazy skies with stories about the adventures and anxieties of airline 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?

Skiers Get Tanked, Then Things Really Go Downhill

November 20, 2007 Passenger Stories

Some years ago my husband and I signed up for an all-inclusive ski trip to Austria sponsored by a ski club in our area. I don’t think it was a ski club – more like a drinking club from a local bar that decided Austria would be a good place to party. The flight over [...]

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Yakking Yuppie

November 20, 2007 Passenger Stories

Here’s a note scribed to my friends while I was on a cross country flight home recently:
Sitting on the flight home from Seattle just starting to doze… The poster boy for yuppiedom came from first class to chat with an elderly couple he knows sitting in the row in front of me. Plunked his bloated [...]

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Man Wants To Take A 30,000 Foot Stroll

November 20, 2007 Passenger Stories

I was on a flight from Hong Kong to New York in first-class. It’s a 14-hour flight and about 7 hours in, a man began getting up, walking to an area specifically for the flight crew and walking back. Soon, I noticed they were telling this man to take his seat and NO, he could [...]

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The Pleasures Of Flying These Days

November 16, 2007 Delay Stories

I received automated telephone notification from American Airlines that my noon flight from NY to LA would be delayed an hour. When I got to the gate the equipment wasn’t there and departure time came and went. A half-hour later the flight was cancelled. We then had to go to the ticket counter, get our [...]

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Baggage Bungle

November 16, 2007 Luggage Stories

When my wife and I flew to Italy, the first two legs were on American Airlines. The first flight was supposed to be a non-stop from San Francisco to JFK. It circled Ohio for a while and then had to land at Newark to refuel for the 15 minute flight to JFK. We were told [...]

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Holy Bovine!

November 16, 2007 Luggage Stories

Air India: Holy Cow! (Pun intended.)
I just flew them from Newark to Paris.
1. On arrival, my luggage was delayed by TWO HOURS.
2. On departure, the flight from Paris was delayed by FIVE HOURS, leaving me to miss my connection to SFO.
3. At Newark, I had to spend TWO HOURS waiting on line (once I figured [...]

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Customer Disservice

November 16, 2007 Luggage Stories

On July 10, 2007, my one year old daughter and I were to leave from NYC on US Airways. That flight was supposed to leave at 1.23 pm; boarding was supposed to begin around 12.45 pm. At around 1.30 the gate agent informed us that the aircraft (it was a prop plane) was too hot [...]

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Two Ring Circus (Bus Bumps Plane & A Human Cannonball)

November 12, 2007 Airplane Stories

I will never fly on this airline again, ever.
This flight originated in Newark, N.J., and was supposed to be a one hour commuter hop to Burlington, Vt.
It was a very hot and humid July afternoon in Newark, and you can imagine the mood of the weary travelers and workers in the lower level commuter Newark [...]

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Pilot’s Prevaricated Prognostication

November 12, 2007 Airplane Stories

August 17, 2007: American Airlines 525, Boeing 757 nonstop from Miami to Chicago O’Hare, sunny skies all the way, no delays taking off from Miami. No hassle, you’d think? Alas, no. Two hours into the flight, the pilot announces there is bad weather in Chicago and we must land in Indianapolis. In fact, he says [...]

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A Great Martini

November 10, 2007 Food & Drink Stories

A good friend flew in from Chicago to NY, business class. His seatmate asked the stewardess for a martini. When she brought it, he thanked her and said that it was one of the best he ever had. A while later, to thank her again, he mentioned that he noticed that her bangs needed cutting, [...]

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