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?

Hungover and Stuck Sitting by Bimbos

June 15, 2012 Passenger Stories

After partying in Las Vegas New Year’s Eve, I was hungover and had not slept for 48 hours. I was not going to pay for an overpriced hotel, so I curled up on a seat at the airport with my jacket over my head and napped until they announced boarding. We were stopping over in […]

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Hurled Upon During the Holidays

June 13, 2012 Baby & Kid Stories

I was at Manchester Airport thinking about a solution to my cancelled flight to Helsinki. I was going to go via Helsinki to Kittila on a business trip. When Kittila with Monarch Airlines (who don’t fly there any more) popped up on the departures sign, I wasn’t sure whether to go on the flight. It was a […]

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Family Has No Clue about Hygiene

June 10, 2012 Passenger Stories

My flight from hell occurred in November 2010. I was flying on EVA Air from Taipei to Los Angeles. EVA Airways is a wonderful airline to fly on and in some cases, more comfortable than some of the main US carriers. However, what was not so wonderful was an Asian family flying on that flight.

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Confused Senior Citizen Sleeps on Floor

June 7, 2012 Senior Stories

Just rude, and then just weird… I was recently on a flight from Hong Kong to Vancouver with Cathay Pacific. I had paid $100.00 CAD for the privilege of sitting in an exit seat for the 13 hour flight. I am not sure why, but this particular flight was jam-packed with elderly people. Being in […]

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Saliva-Laden Peanuts Passed out to Passengers

May 29, 2012 Attendant & Pilot Stories

Vomit on the back of the seat (1B)… Do you people take any pride in what you do? From my seat (2B) I could see L., our flight attendant in first class, having a gab session while the first class customers were thirsty. The attendants ate, drank and then took care of us…

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Flights From Hell Part of Research Project

May 21, 2012 Non-Stories

Flights From Hell was pleasantly surprised to find out via an article published in WSU News that it played a role in an academic research project. The project was run by Joel Anaya, a senior in Hospitality Business Management at Washington State University.

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Object from Overhead Bin Breaks Nose

May 17, 2012 Airplane Stories

Recently I had the misfortune of taking an AirTran flight from Atlanta to Washington DC. Before we left Atlanta we had to switch planes due to the WINDSHIELD WIPER needing replacement; its motor wasn’t working either. But it doesn’t end there…

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Irritated with Iberia

April 28, 2012 Odds & Ends Stories

In 1990, I flew from JFK to Málaga, Spain. I picked Iberia over TWA because the Iberia flight did not require a change of planes in Madrid, just a stop. Since I do not speak Spanish, I was worried about encountering problems at Madrid airport. However, when I arrived at JFK, I learned that Iberia […]

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Chaos in the Cabin

April 23, 2012 Airplane Stories

Living in Harare, Zimbabwe, Africa, my family and I decided to take a small holiday to Kariba Lake in Zimbabwe. Having arrived early at the airport to maximize our margin, we saw that the flight was delayed by an hour. This was already hard to handle as it was midsummer with scorching heat; the terminal […]

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Bumped Without Compensation

April 11, 2012 Airport Stories

Once again, Delta overbooked the flight. Not only did they overbook, but because the flight left from Accra, Ghana, Delta Airlines felt they could get away with bumping 60-70 people without compensation. The explanation: “Why didn’t you check-in for your flight 6 hours before takeoff like other people did?”

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Security Madness in Mozambique

April 7, 2012 Airport Stories

The first time I went to Mozambique I was en route from Swaziland to Zimbabwe and had a whole day’s layover in Maputo Airport. I was restricted to the un-airconditioned departure lounge for eight hot humid hours; I didn’t even have a book to read. At 4:00pm I wandered through the airport terminal when something […]

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Maggots on Planes

April 2, 2012 Non-Stories

Airlines aren’t known for the quality of their food, but a woman on a Qantas flight wasn’t expecting her snack to be a complete gross-out. While flying from Los Angeles to Melbourne, Australia Victoria Cleven discovered an unexpected ingredient in the package of trail mix that she purchased on the plane. While eating the food […]

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