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?

Disabled But Charged To Sit Up Front

March 3, 2010 Odds & Ends Stories

I don’t have any long horror story about my fellow passengers, just about the airline itself. Recently when I checked into my United flight, I found that we had been assigned seats in the very last row. As I am in a wheelchair, I called the airline to request something a little closer to the […]

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Violin Is Verboten On Flight

March 2, 2010 Luggage Stories

I can’t even tell you how excited I was to be heading to this particular music camp. Not only was it out of state (a big venture for someone who had been in Florida her entire life), but it was a very renowned program that would give me a ton of experience. Seeing that it […]

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Big Mess Left In Searched Bag

March 2, 2010 Luggage Stories

Summer 2007, I flew SWA from St. Louis to Oklahoma City to attend my sister-in-law’s baby shower. The flights themselves were no problem at all. However, when I got home and opened my bag to unpack, someone had dumped out EVERYTHING in my bag and just stuffed it all back in willy-nilly. Even my makeup […]

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No Shame

March 1, 2010 Passenger Stories

[Mature content] My family was taking a flight from San Francisco to Bangkok. Flying in business class, we got nice treatment all the way from the attendants. The flight was made terrible by a group of Asian men. The got as drunk as they could, belching and laughing while around them others tried to sleep. […]

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Clandestine Tobacco Chewer

March 1, 2010 Passenger Stories

A couple of years ago, I sat next to a guy who chewed a wad of tobacco for the entire flight. He would spit into a water bottle every couple of minutes, and hide the bottle between his legs when a stewardess would walk by. Utterly disgusting…

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Flight Freak Outs

February 28, 2010 Non-Stories

What is it about flying that makes seemingly normal people go bonkers? There are countless news stories, including some on our site, about passengers who turn belligerent, become violent, or commit bizarre acts. Transgressions aren’t limited solely to passengers. Recently a Delta flight was canceled because two female flight attendants reportedly got into a fistfight, […]

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Terror In The Skies

February 28, 2010 Weather Stories

When I was a boy in my late teens my mother and two of our friends were flying back home to the UK after spending a week in Portugal. While we were boarding our plane we noticed that it looked old and rusted and seemed to be falling apart by the second. The inside was […]

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Tortured By Children On Planes

February 27, 2010 Baby & Kid Stories

During Christmas 2006, I fly home from California to Massachusetts to spend holidays with the family. My fiance and I board the plane to MA to take the 6 hour flight and he agrees to change seats with me as I was sitting directly next to a toddler and did not want to. Odd behavior, […]

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Given the Runaround, Literally

February 26, 2010 Delay/Cancellation Stories

As a student, I tend to travel as cheaply as possible, but my frequent trips also necessitate air travel. Spring break my senior year found me traveling from my hometown of Sioux Falls, SD, to Waco, TX, to interview for a graduate school. Timing was tight, and I was due to return on the Sunday […]

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Kid Kick’s Passenger’s Face

February 25, 2010 Baby & Kid Stories

July 2nd, 2003 I was on Northwest flight 852 from Anchorage, Alaska to Detroit, Michigan, approximately a 6 hour red eye on a 757-300. I was only 15 at the time and by myself. Surprisingly the flight was packed full. My seat was back in row 43 and as always I had a window seat. […]

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Do Not Disturb

February 25, 2010 Attendant & Pilot Stories

I’m in the back of coach, on Singapore Airlines from Colombo to Singapore, sleeping. Suddenly, I was being pushed. I opened my eyes to see an SQ blue girl (most junior) above me. Her statement “just tidying up the wrapper for your blanket, sorry to wake you.” I didn’t sleep the rest of the flight. […]

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Grumpy Lady

February 24, 2010 Senior Stories

I was recently traveling in a large group on a late night flight from Miami to Boston. Being a savvy traveler, I had changed my seats online, separating myself from the rest of the group. After about an hour and a half of delays and annoying gate agents, all the passengers boarded the aircraft. I […]

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