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?

Qantas Practices New Sleep Deprivation Tactics – On Me

March 6, 2011 Delay/Cancellation Stories

Qantas Airways (Australia’s market leader) is obviously doing so well in the travel business, it’s decided to move in on the lucrative ‘torture of suspects’ business as well. Qantas’ opening foray into this market would appear to be the use of ‘sleep deprivation tactics’ and I was lucky enough to be one of the airline’s [...]

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Passenger Singled Out for Peed Pants

March 2, 2011 Passenger Stories

I was on the way to Georgetown, Guyana. I left New York with a confirmed flight from Port of Spain, Trinidad on a flight originating in London which I would join for the short hop. I had an aisle seat next to a man who I eventually learned was named Panty or Pandy. He had [...]

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Seating Arrangements Go Awry

February 22, 2011 Seat Stories

It was November 2009 and I was visiting my sister in Hawaii for Thanksgiving. I had booked tickets and seats (through Orbitz) for both of us and our kids to visit another island for a couple of days. I was checking all 6 of us in online and discovered that the seats that I had [...]

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Blogs by Male Flight Attendants

February 20, 2011 Flying Hell Blog

There are a number of blogs that do a commendable job describing the lifestyles and on-the-job experiences of flight attendants. The vast majority of them are written by women, reflecting the greater preponderance of women in the profession. While male FAs are a decided minority (approximately 26% of FAs in the U.S. are male), at [...]

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Fumed Over Family’s Inconsideration

February 8, 2011 Passenger Stories

Wednesday, February 2nd, AA flight 1499 from Dallas, Texas to San Jose, CA. I am 6′ tall, long legs. I always book my flights way in advance to be sure that I can reserve an aisle seat to avoid being cramped. As we are boarding there is a mother, father and small child several people [...]

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Psycho Passenger

January 31, 2011 Passenger Stories

February 5, 2007 a friend and I were returning from western Canada to Ontario. My husband is a pilot so we were on family passes. It was a large plane with two first class sections separated by curtains and 3 rows of seats consisting of 2 seats an aisle, 3 seats an aisle, and 2 [...]

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Middle Seat Maneuver

January 28, 2011 Seat Stories

I was on an international flight from Amsterdam to San Francisco. Luckily, I had the aisle seat. Unfortunately the middle seat was empty. Additionally, I was directly behind one of the service areas so both my bags were in the overhead bin. The flight was fairly full but there were still open seats. About 1 [...]

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An Absolute Raving Ahole

January 26, 2011 Passenger Stories

I never upgrade. This isn’t because I’m cheap, but because I’m broke. My fiancée and I are in the middle of immigration hell and immigration hell costs, so while others may be able to choose that option, I can’t. That said, I sometimes wish I could… This has resulted in hellish flights, but this time [...]

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Passive Aggressive Passenger

January 25, 2011 Passenger Stories

I am generally a very considerate person and I realize that we are all sharing a relatively small space when flying. That being said, I must admit that I have had my fair share of passive aggressive moments. My favorite one was being stuck in front of two preppy, whiny, teenage girls who were about [...]

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Story & Comment Ratings on Flights From Hell

January 23, 2011 Flying Hell Blog

Flights From Hell now offers story and comment ratings. We’ve added these services to help boost story and comment quality, promote more interaction, and enhance the overall experience of using our website. The story rating service comes from Polldaddy and the comment rating service comes from IntenseDebate. Both companies were purchased in 2008 by Automatic, [...]

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Vignettes From Heck

January 16, 2011 Odds & Ends Stories

None of the following vignettes really raise up to a level of “hell,” but they were certainly inconveniences. The first: In 1977 I was invited to a conference in Lynchburg, VA for high school students. My father arranged the flight through his employer (AT&T). When I went to the airport to fly home, Piedmont had [...]

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Happy New Year – Your Flight is Canceled

January 5, 2011 Delay/Cancellation Stories

I decided to visit my family in La Verne, California the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. There are several airports in the Los Angeles area, with Ontario International Airport being the closest one. I booked Delta flight 4756 from SLC to ONT the morning of Christmas Eve. Other than sitting next to a [...]

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