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?

Preferred Status Guy Saves The Day

January 8, 2010 Delay/Cancellation Stories

In March of 2009 I flew from Newburgh, NY to Buffalo, NY by way of Philadephia with USAir. The whole trip was meant to take 3 hours, so the stopover wasn’t a big deal. The first leg of the travel went fine. I sat down at my gate in Philadelphia, and with 15 minutes until […]

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FA Fails To Communicate

January 7, 2010 Attendant & Pilot Stories

There is a certain nationally known advocate for the deaf who frequently travels the country giving lectures on behalf of deaf awareness and bridging the gap between hearing people and the deaf community. On a recent trip she was sitting in her seat writing emails on her Blackberry waiting for departure. The flight attendants gave […]

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Passed Out From Lack Of O2 Or BO

January 7, 2010 Portly Stories

I have traveled overseas fairly often in my young life and have discovered many interesting things about myself. I enjoy plane food, but I hate pretzels. I really like old movies like National Velvet. But my favorite experience was when I discovered that I was claustrophobic. I was unfortunately given the seat in the exact […]

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Smokers + Child On Lap + Long Flight = Total Wreckage

January 6, 2010 Baby & Kid Stories

I can laugh about it now, but it wasn’t funny at the time. Several years back, while in the Navy stationed in Japan, my wife, my nearly 2 year old daughter and I, flew home to Providence RI for vacation. To save money, we elected to hold my daughter in our lap, instead of paying […]

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So Close And Yet So Far Away

January 6, 2010 Senior Stories

In February I was flying from LAX to Miami on AA when they announced that we had to stop at El Paso, TX, because of engine problems. We landed safely and were told that they were going to make some repairs and that we should be on our way ASAP. However, we stopped 20 or […]

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Federal Agent Roughed Up By TSA

January 5, 2010 Airport Stories

This is more a combination security nightmare and flight dream for a change; hope that’s okay. I am a Staff Sergeant (E-5) in the USAF. I was assigned to embassy detail in Iraq before the great new state of the art embassy was completed. I was three days from flying home and the diplomatic convoy […]

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Bloggers Tread Treacherous Legal Water

January 5, 2010 Non-Stories

Recently two travel bloggers – Christopher Elliott (Elliott.org) and Steve Frischling (Flying With Fish) were served subpoenas by Department of Homeland Security agents for posting a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) directive on their blogs. The directive outlined security procedures that were being implemented in response to the attempted destruction of a US airplane via a bomb […]

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The Worst Day Of My Life

January 4, 2010 Delay/Cancellation Stories

Dude. I have a terrible story. I flew from Istanbul, where I was visiting my dad, to San Diego. After being thoroughly searched 3 or 4 times, one of which the attendant may now nearly claim carnal knowledge of my person, I boarded the flight from hell. The flight was 3 hours delayed while we […]

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Mom’s Seat Arrangements Delay Flight

January 4, 2010 Baby & Kid Stories

I travel a lot for business. While waiting for a recent flight from Chicago to Charlotte I noticed a younger couple with three small children – one boy about 3 years old and then twin babies in infant carriers. I commented to my co-worker that I hope they are not on our flight. The gate […]

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A New Year’s Eve to Forget

January 3, 2010 Delay/Cancellation Stories

My family (wife and daughters ages 6 and 3) and I just returned to Minneapolis from our trip to Florida over winter break and just when I thought customer service for airlines could not be any worse, Southwest Airlines went and proved me wrong.  Everything I had ever heard about Southwest had been fairly positive, […]

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Common Courtesy Is Out the Window

January 2, 2010 Airport Stories

In November 2008, I was flying home to Oklahoma from Biloxi, MS. I had just completed Air Force Technical School, and I was excited to get home to see my husband and collect our things before the drive to my first duty station. My flight was originally scheduled for 10:45am, so I arrived at about […]

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Overzealous Homeland Security

January 1, 2010 Airport Stories

May I address the “overkill” of our zealous Homeland Security employees? My husband is a Korean vet with a partial knee replacement, yet he is always treated like the most dangerous potential terrorist in the world. The hotel printed the boarding passes for our return trip, but we didn’t notice the first letter of our […]

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