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?

Truck Collides With Airplane

January 1, 2010 Airplane Stories

I fly quite often on various different airlines throughout the year, however I never seem to have a lack of issues with travel. Recently, I was on a flight from Los Angeles to Denver. The flight was initially running a little bit late, but at first was nothing to worry about. I had been bumped […]

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A Flight From Hell In Five Acts

December 31, 2009 Delay/Cancellation Stories

Prelude We were scheduled to go to a National meeting in Tampa on 9/16/06. Our flight and hotel arrangements were made months ahead of time. September 11, 2006 4:30 pm – automated phone call from Delta airlines at work. It was rapidly giving me a lot of information about a schedule change for September 12. […]

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Some Things Just Don’t Change (Except For Better Wireless Service)

December 30, 2009 Delay/Cancellation Stories

I took my three children from Idaho to Virginia with a change of planes in New Jersey. The first leg of the trip was fine. In New Jersey, there were flight delays due to rain. There wasn’t enough room for everyone to sit down and it was very crowded. One man seemed to think it […]

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Shorter Folks Need Overhead Bin Assistance

December 30, 2009 Luggage Stories

I am a short woman, less than 5 feet and I was flying from SFO to BOS. I had a carry on and could not lift it to the overhead bins. I asked a flight attendant to help me because I was afraid I would drop it on the person sitting below. She said that […]

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Stuck In The Crapper

December 29, 2009 Airplane Stories

Good Morning Friends! Several of you may have received a rather cryptic text message from me yesterday that may have seemed like a riddle…”guess who got stuck in an airplane lavatory for over an hour?” is the question that was posed. Well, the answer to that riddle, folks, is ME. However, some of you may […]

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Request For Assistance Leads To Insult

December 28, 2009 Attendant & Pilot Stories

I am certain that most of you have stories worse than mine, but I felt that those of you who have never flown with American Airlines in the southwestern United States should be warned. It was December 2003, airlines were hemorrhaging money, and you would expect that customer service would be a priority. Apparently, not. […]

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Children Separated From Parents

December 28, 2009 Baby & Kid Stories

In 2006 we were flying from Frankfurt Germany to the east coast. We were traveling with our two young children ages 3 & 4 years old. The airline (which previously we had good experiences with) gave us all separate seating in areas where we could not even see each other. We thought once we pointed […]

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Left In A Lurch

December 27, 2009 Delay/Cancellation Stories

I used American Airlines for a college spring break trip and will never fly with them again. We paid $1000 for a week-long trip to the Dominican Republic. At the end of our stay, we were told there was a snowstorm in the US and we would be unable to fly back at our regularly […]

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Butt Grabber

December 27, 2009 Passenger Stories

I was returning to Portland from reserve duty in Guam in January 2004. Another man from my unit went with me and we ended up seated next to each other on the way over and most of the way back. At least we didn’t have to sit next to complete strangers. On the Honolulu to […]

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Fried Chicken Lady

December 26, 2009 Portly Stories

This is a long one (especially from my perspective) but worth the read: So I’m on this Continental flight from Houston to Kansas City sitting in the middle seat waiting for the rest of the passengers to board. I am 6 feet tall and weigh around 250 lbs. but easily can fit between the arm […]

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Make The Airlines Pay For Property Destruction

December 26, 2009 Luggage Stories

I flew to the States from Europe with one traditional bag having the 99 cent lock and the other a very expensive hard cased bag I have had for more than 10 years with a combination encased as part of the bag itself. On picking up my bags I found that my traditional bag had […]

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The Popsicle Eating Pilot

December 24, 2009 Attendant & Pilot Stories

This flight wasn’t really hellish, just funny. When I was in college in Ohio in the ’80’s, I would fly home to Connecticut for Christmas via La Guardia to our local small airport. The now-defunct airline that I took from LGA to Connecticut was called Pilgrim Airlines, and they flew a fleet of small turboprops; […]

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