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?

Misinformation Leads to Missed Flight

August 28, 2012 Delay/Cancellation Stories

My daughter and I were booked on an AirTran flight from Milwaukee to Washington DC on Sunday Aug 5th. During the day I went online and realized early that the flight was delayed by two hours, re-scheduled to depart at 9:30 PM. But common sense and advice tells you to go to the airport as […]

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Angry Passenger Attacks Seatmate

August 26, 2012 Passenger Stories

As I am getting on my long flight from Salt Lake City to NYC, a middle aged fat lady is seated next to me. I put my things in overhead bins and nicely say excuse me to climb over her. My seat was in the middle and hers was by the aisle. As I am […]

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Travel Tribulations on the Way to Winnipeg

August 21, 2012 Delay/Cancellation Stories

Recently while travelling from Nashville to Winnipeg, what began as a typical Monday morning standard routine flying day turned into one of the most miserable travel experiences I have experienced in over thirty years of travel. I arrived at the airport at 4:30am for a regularly scheduled flight on Delta to Minneapolis at 6:05am and […]

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Air France Flubs Baggage Return

August 19, 2012 Luggage Stories

Our family went to Italy for a week. We expected that not everything would run smoothly. We had been told that in Italy, nothing works, but everything works out. On July 31st, 2012, my wife, 8 year old daughter and I took an Air France flight to Naples, Italy, via Paris. We packed a reasonable […]

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Amused by Senior’s Hip Swivels

August 15, 2012 Senior Stories

This peculiar although hilarious incident happened recently onboard an eight and a half hour flight from London to Orlando with myself, step-mother, father and younger sister (aged 10). We were seated in the back row which wasn’t much fun. We were the last to get our food, had to deal with people standing next to […]

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Traveler Suffers Multitudinous Delays

August 8, 2012 Delay/Cancellation Stories

Flying from Nashville to Columbus via ATL. Outbound flight was 1 hour delayed for mechanical reasons. Fine, still had enough buffer in my layover for my connection. Board the plane and there was a miscommunication between the pilot and ground crew; not enough fuel was loaded (there was bad weather and needed extra in case […]

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Air Travel Troubles

August 5, 2012 Odds & Ends Stories

Flights From Hell received an email in which the writer shared correspondence which he said he wrote and forwarded to the customer service department of an airline. Posted below verbatim is his correspondence to the airline:  Yesterday was I n t e r e s t I n g. I remember now why flying is not […]

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Dreadful Delays and Diversions

July 29, 2012 Delay/Cancellation Stories

A few weeks ago I was flying to Seattle for work, out of Raleigh, NC. I had a connection in Dulles International Airport (IAD). It was the worst flying experience of my life.

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Beset by Jokester and Booted Off Plane

July 15, 2012 Odds & Ends Stories

Let’s go back to the early seventies – when air travel was then a pleasure, be it business or otherwise. The ad agency art director where I worked (oddly enough, his first name was Art) and I occasionally flew together to service client accounts in distant cities. Canadian-born, Arthur was himself a veteran aviator, having […]

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Frequent Flier’s Flight Attendant Observations

July 6, 2012 Flying Hell Commentary

For many years I traveled frequently from my home base in Colorado to the Orient. I flew United Airlines (UAL) in order to grow my Mileage Plus account. I occasionally flew other non US flag carriers. I was always in international first class. Here are my observations:

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Businessmen Barf on Passenger’s Belongings

June 20, 2012 Passenger Stories

I live in Switzerland and needed to go home on short notice for my grandfather’s funeral. It was a stressful time, as I was leaving my husband and year-old daughter at home in Zürich; this would be the first time I had been away from her overnight. I was also four months pregnant with my […]

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Passenger Sneaks a Smoke

June 19, 2012 Passenger Stories

Oh, god, this is so ridiculous, I wouldn’t believe it, but I swear it’s true. Flight from Zurich, Switzerland to Atlanta on Delta Airlines (I take this flight every year home to visit my family). A man and a young girl were sitting a few rows behind me. I only remembered him because he was […]

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