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?

The Gate Agent From Hell

June 17, 2009 Delay/Cancellation Stories

My husband and I were taking a short vacation to Tempe, AZ to watch Oakland A’s Baseball Spring Training. We had to drive from Modesto, CA to Oakland, CA, about a 60 mile distance to the airport. We allowed ourselves 2 hours for the trip, and as it would happen, there was a car accident […]

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Camera Carried Away On A Mule

June 17, 2009 Luggage Stories

I travel quite a bit and normal delays really are just part of travel. But when I am flying on business I need my photo gear to shoot the job. I arrive early to get through TSA and wait by the gate, as the airline has computer check in and if you check in 24 […]

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Encounter With A Political Pooh Bah & Camped Out In A Hobo City

June 14, 2009 Odds & Ends Stories

In 2007 I was asked to be in a wedding of a former college roommate. I lived in Tennessee, the wedding was in Nebraska. On top of that, the wedding was the weekend before Christmas (which was on a Tuesday.) My family lives in Michigan, which I was leaving Nebraska and flying straight there for […]

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Sealed In A Sardine Can

June 13, 2009 Airplane Stories

My wife and I took a round trip flight from L.A. to Bangkok on Thai Air. The flight to Thailand was marvelous! The food was superb, the service was excellent, and the plane, along with all the amenities, was great. However, the return trip was quite the opposite. Our plane was taken out of service […]

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Don’t Eat Chili Dogs Before A Flight

June 10, 2009 Food & Drink Stories

It was late on a Friday afternoon. A bunch of us were flying from Memphis to Little Rock on a puddle jumper. The flight was delayed so we all decided to get something to eat. In the Memphis airport at the time, about the only food to eat was hot dogs. All of us got […]

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Merry Christmas And A Not So Happy New Year

June 8, 2009 Odds & Ends Stories

On a flight from Miami returning to the UK on new years eve 2005 (arriving in the UK in 2006) we had a lovely time…. The first problems were the reclining seats. The passengers in front of us had their seats pushed all the way back. Fine, that’s what they are for. So, we all […]

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Request To Sit By Grandmother Denied

June 6, 2009 Seat Stories

On a Friday night I took a United flight from Boston to Chicago. I was sitting in an aisle seat with extended leg room when this 20ish woman asked if I would change seats with her so she could sit with her grandmother who was sitting in the middle seat. When I asked her where […]

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Space Invader

June 6, 2009 Seat Stories

I was on the 2nd leg of a trip back home, flying from Vienna to Washington D.C. I was already desperately tired after being in Armenia for a few weeks. It was daylight out for the duration of this flight, and I was looking forward to tilting my seat back a few inches in an […]

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Pregnant And Squashed By A Seat

June 6, 2009 Seat Stories

One of the worst flights I had ever been on started as one of the best flights. I was 8 ½ months pregnant, almost 6 weeks from my due date and had no choice but to fly from Frankfurt Germany to Sacramento CA. Yeah a long flight. All the gate agents/attendants were really nice and […]

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Crushed Computer

June 5, 2009 Seat Stories

I was flying to Los Angeles from St. Louis and the man in the seat next to me set up his laptop to do some work. He opened it up and started working, all of a sudden the seat in front of him reclined back and his laptop was stuck in the groove from the […]

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Don’t Crush The Cat

June 5, 2009 Seat Stories

On a flight from Paris to Cincinnati, I was in front of a woman who was kind of annoying. Periodically, she kept punching and kicking my seat. When I was just about to say something, she leaned forward and asked me to put my seat up straight for a moment because she had a CAT […]

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Leave It In The Terminal

June 4, 2009 Odor Stories

I was taking a commuter flight from LAX to San Diego several years ago and was tired from a long cross country flight…I just wanted to get home peacefully. We boarded like normal, took our seats and I settled in for a quick trip back to God’s Country. We began to taxi to the runway […]

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