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?

Ticked Off over Travel Annoyances

March 24, 2012 Odds & Ends Stories

I’ve never enjoyed flying, but traveling the world is a passion of mine too great to give up, so flying is an obvious necessity. I’ve actually had positive experiences flying for the most part as well… until recently coming back from Cape Town, South Africa. 

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Standby Passengers Given Priority

March 18, 2012 Delay/Cancellation Stories

We were flying to DCA from ROC for a meeting on US Airways through Philadelphia. The first flight was delayed. We arrived in Philadelphia with boarding passes in hand for the PHL-DCA flight, and fortunately the gate was immediately next to our arrival gate. The flight was boarding. Standby passengers were waiting at the gate […]

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Flight Problems and Peculiar Hotel Check-In

March 14, 2012 Odds & Ends Stories

I had thought/ hoped that I´d never have a story of my own to share here, but while this is maybe minor stuff compared to many other stories, it does qualify, I´d say. My co-worker and I were supposed to fly to Amsterdam and continue from there on our connecting flight to Germany. Due to […]

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Barf Bags Needed after Baritone’s Bender

March 10, 2012 Illness/Medical Stories

My flights from Hell began with fifty other people, all of whom I knew. By the time we reached our destination together, none of them would have continued to associate themselves with me had we not needed to sing together for the next two weeks. This was the Colby Chorale; this was Spring Break; this […]

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Travel Purgatory Turns Heavenly

March 6, 2012 Delay/Cancellation Stories

I flew from PHX to Des Moines for work. Only direct flight was sold-out. Next best option? PHX-Denver-Des Moines. Sold out. OK, how about PHX-Minneapolis-Des Moines? Good to go. Only bad thing was the flight home. Only way was Des Moines to Detroit then Detroit to PHX. Ugh. So the flight there was uneventful. Flight […]

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Christmas In Pittsburgh

March 3, 2012 Odds & Ends Stories

There I was, trying to fly the day before Christmas. Barely twenty-one, and still naïve enough to think the world should open its door up to me and give me everything I wanted. I spent the past week down in the south, wearing shorts and eating well with friends from long ago. Christmas lights on […]

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Angry Bag Man

February 20, 2012 Passenger Stories

Every year my dad and I fly from California to Indiana for the Indianapolis 500 over Memorial Day weekend. We either leave on Friday or Saturday and then come back on Monday (depending on fares and our schedules etc.). Both my father and I, being AAdvantage Platinums, tend to fly American when we can to […]

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Passenger Singled Out for Political Views?

February 15, 2012 Passenger Stories

During the period from 2007-2010 I took many flights, either from PHL (Philadelphia International) to RDU (Raleigh-Durham), or from DTW (Detroit Metro) to RDU. Always a round trip, as I was visiting my girlfriend at Duke. During that period, on somewhere between 50-75% of the flights after everyone had boarded, the gate attendant would board […]

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Perfume Lady

February 12, 2012 Illness/Medical Stories

In summer 2010, my parents and I were on a 14-hour flight from Tel Aviv to Newark, returning from our Israeli pilgrimage. In a row just in back of us, a woman kept on spraying perfume like she was trying to kill a mosquito with bug spray. She would NOT stop spraying it. 

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Grumpy Gate Agent Rips Up Boarding Pass

February 9, 2012 Airport Stories

Every December my parents take my family down to our annual winter vacation in Aruba (AUA). Living in Ottawa (YOW), there are no direct flights to Aruba and usually have an overnight connection at any of the Eastern Seaboard HUBs or Toronto (YYZ). Much to my dismay, we continually fly US Airways. People usually fly […]

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Plane Switch Leads to Loss of Eau de Toilette

February 6, 2012 Airport Stories

This took place in January of 2011. I was supposed to return to Montreal from Atlanta through Toronto with Air Canada. I get to the airport on time, and am told that I have to take another flight to Toronto, since Air Canada switched the plane to a smaller one and there is no room. I […]

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Passenger Screwed after Paying Change Fee

February 2, 2012 Airport Stories

This took place in October of 2011, as always with United and purchased through Expedia. I had a flight from Montreal to Costa Rica. I had checked prices and they were around $900 round trip. The day I come to make my purchase, the price has jumped to $1300. Fearing that it will only go […]

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