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?

Theft On A Plane

February 10, 2010 Passenger Stories

I was on a flight from Florida to Tennessee, returning home from a vacation. A lady a few seats back got settled in, then got up to do something, came back, and her cell phone (which she’d left on her seat) was missing. A stewardess noticed her searching all around on the floor for it, […]

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Give Obese People A Break!

February 10, 2010 Portly Stories

Every non-obese flier has a story about the obese person who ruined their flight. I’m a normal sized woman who flies on lots of transatlantic flights. Recently on a flight from Paris to Atlanta, I was seated in the center seat of the three seat center section of a 767. On either side of me, in […]

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Loose Dog On A Flight

February 10, 2010 Animal Stories

We were flying back home to Portland, Oregon from a Thanksgiving holiday visit in Sacramento, California. We were on a small Alaska plane for the short hour and half flight. I was about 6 months pregnant, and was traveling with my husband and my 2 year old daughter. The plane was configured for 2 seats […]

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Voice In Dream Warns Of Plane Problem

February 8, 2010 Odds & Ends Stories

Can a flight where nothing bad happened be a flight from hell? Several years ago, I was flying UA from Burbank.  At this point, I don’t even remember where I was going.  I just remember that it was a two-plane trip – it had a stop where I had to change planes.  The night before […]

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Runny Nose & Trading Seats

February 8, 2010 Odds & Ends Stories

Flying home to Detroit from LA. If that wasn’t bad enough, sat next to a mother and child, roughly 7-8 yrs old. Kid was really too sick to fly as he coughed, hacked, sneezed while strings of mucous dripped from his nose. Did his mother wipe or blow his nose? No. Did the kid wipe […]

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Battle Of The Overhead Bins

February 7, 2010 Luggage Stories

On a recent trip from Hawaii to San Diego, my brother and I lost the boarding pass lottery and ended boarding the plane last to be seated in bulkhead seats behind first class passengers. It was a two aisle plane and we had the window and aisle seats together on the left of the plane. […]

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Where Is My Bag?

February 7, 2010 Luggage Stories

I wanted to have this experience of flying alone internationally without my parents or anyone tagging along with me… I was excited to visit India and Taj Mahal… I couldn’t wait. So, I finally arrived at the New Delhi airport with my heavy book bag on my weak shoulders, a rolling handbag, and a huge […]

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Seat Taken Away Due To Security Purposes

February 6, 2010 Airport Stories

I had planned my trip home for Christmas well in advance, to make sure I would get a comfortable aisle seat for my large 6’5″ frame. I arrived at SFO and checked in at the gate well in advance (about 2hrs) of my flight. A few minutes after boarding the plane, an elderly gentleman came […]

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Sloshed Spouse Creates Chaos

February 5, 2010 Couples Stories

My husband is the worst air-traveler; he doesn’t follow the rules and always wears the most security-risking, time-consuming accessories and shoes. After 25 years of trying to convince him there’s a better way, he still dresses like this when flying. This flight from hell actually took place after the flight, and took place just before 9/11. […]

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Getting Even With Bad Attitude FAs

February 4, 2010 Attendant & Pilot Stories

I want to start off by saying that after flying over 2 million miles in the past 20 years, that 99.9% of the flight attendants that I have flown with were fantastic professionals who deserve our respect and admiration for doing a tough job. However, once in a while you get one with a really bad […]

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Don’t Allow Babies And Toddlers On Flights

February 4, 2010 Baby & Kid Stories

Let me begin with a little background: I am in my 40’s, I have 3 children (ages 18 -28) all of whom I never took on a plane until they were age 7 or older – obviously I don’t believe in babies and toddlers on airplanes. To parents of small children I say, “Drive to […]

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Smelly, Portly Passenger Pours Over Seat

February 3, 2010 Portly Stories

Upon boarding an Alaska Air plane for home from Seattle to Los Angeles just after Christmas of 2008, I sat in my aisle seat and put my belongings away ready for take-off. A husband and wife came along to take their seats in my row as well, whereupon it took the very, very large woman […]

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