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?

Shame On You JetBlue!

April 24, 2014 Delay/Cancellation Stories

OK – Newark Airport seems to be undergoing much needed construction – perhaps the best kept secret of all. That does not excuse JetBlue for constantly delaying flights for hours on end, leaving customers to sit for hours with no information other than the constant e-mail, text and on-screen updates – 9:45 delayed – expected […]

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High School Band’s Travel Troubles

April 21, 2014 Delay/Cancellation Stories

It is Spring Break 2013, and I am flying from YVR (Vancouver, Canada) to LAX (Los Angeles, California) with my high school band to go to a major music festival. The first problem is that all 100 students arrived at 5:30 am and had lined up waiting to be checked in. I arrived at 6:00 when […]

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Smashed on the Nose by a Smartphone

April 11, 2014 Odds & Ends Stories

Despite being a cold January the 3rd afternoon, the children’s excitement of escaping the cold of Buffalo Niagara in favour of Orlando and Walt Disney World had a buzz in both of the limousines that it took to bring our party of 10 to the airport from the hotel. Thankfully the curbside check-in was open, […]

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Traveler Makes the Best of a Bad Situation

April 6, 2014 Delay/Cancellation Stories

This isn’t really a flight from hell, just an experience that I would love to share with you guys. Okay, so in July I went from SEA (Seattle) to YOW (Ottawa, Canada) with a stopover in EWR (Newark). The returning flight was the same, but with a stopover in YYZ (Toronto, Canada). The outbound flight was […]

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Tough Looking Travellers & Their Untamed Kids

March 31, 2014 Baby & Kid Stories

My husband and I were flying from LHR to CUN for a friend’s wedding. Even though our flight was scheduled to depart around 11am, we were in full holiday mode so we decided to make our way to the gate to sit down with a celebratory drink before boarding.

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Frustrated Over Cancelled Flights

March 28, 2014 Delay/Cancellation Stories

I normally fly SouthWest Air. But they didn’t have a morning flight from PHX to San Antonio. US Airways — US Airways Express — used to be America West Express – really is Mesa Airlines – had an 8:45am flight. Anyway, get to the airport and voila, airplane is 2.5 hours late. Should’ve taken SW […]

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Little Monsters Create Mayhem

March 23, 2014 Baby & Kid Stories

Last year my friend and I were traveling back from Egypt to JFK on EgyptAir, when we noticed two children – a girl and boy both under 10 years 0ld – with their parents in the terminal. The kids were being kids playing with each other when we overhear the mother remark in dramatic tones […]

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Seatmate Invades Personal Space

March 18, 2014 Passenger Stories

I am one of those travelers that always tries to book a window or aisle seat in advance or I arrive early to request it. With the first flight it was no issue, but unfortunately the second was fully booked with the only seats remaining being the middle seat in the middle row.

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Seatmate’s Snack Creates Smelly Hell

March 14, 2014 Odor Stories

I loathe flying. The entire experience is miserable, but worst of all is the seatmate lottery.

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Pestered by a Peculiar Seatmate

March 9, 2014 Weird People Stories

This happened in 2012, on a flight from Jakarta to Dubai where I changed flight to JFK. Hell happened in the first leg on a Boeing 747-300ER. Because of the plane configuration, several seats in the back were 2-4-2 instead of 3-4-3. I chose the two-seats row, sitting by the aisle.

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Flying Through a Typhoon

March 7, 2014 Weather Stories

I fly fairly often and don’t mind turbulence, normally. However, on that day in 2009 I flew back from Taipei to Cork via Hong Kong and Amsterdam and I did mind it… a lot.

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Third-Party Site Changes Flight

March 2, 2014 Odds & Ends Stories

Over Labor Day weekend, my girlfriend and I decided to take a trip together to Seattle to sightsee and get away from work for a little bit. We had booked our flights separately, and I chose to book using Expedia to get a better deal on the hotel room as well as the flight. My […]

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