Worst Flight Experience

[Mungous]

Mine was on Pacific Blue, CHC-MEL. Hard seats, no entertainment, ran out of food and babies crying. And one of the cabin attendants fell asleep.

[TS L1011]

My worst experience would have to be on Lufthansa quite a number of years back. My mom and I were flying back from Frankfurt to Vancouver and were sitting in the very last row of the plane on the side (I can't remember what type of plane, likely a 744). There was a bit of empty space behind use due to the doors and lavatories in the back. Partway through the flight two German men came and stop around back there. They stood around behind our seats (often bumping the back of the seats) and talked in german (i'm german so I understood them). They were drinking bottles of wine or some other liquer which we assumed they bought from the duty-free. As they drank more they became louder and more obnoxious. At one point we saw them go up to the galley and return with another bottle of drinks (there were no flight attendants around there at the time). As they finished off their bottles, they simply put them under the back of ours seats. By this time they were getting pretty loud and obnoxious, constantly leaning on our seats and commenting (to each other) about the homework I was trying to do and joking about what music I might be listening to. They assumed we were american and that we didnt understand them. At one point my mom decided it was enough and decided to go and find a flight attendant and get them to take care of it. She went and talked to a flight attendant who assured her that they would take care of it. We waited and waited and noone came to the back to get rid of these guys who were still getting more obnoxious. Finally my mom went and found someone again and finally they came to take care of these two guys. We were assured by the Purser that they would be returned to their seats and would not be served any more liquer (not that they were served any at first, they just took it from the galley). Soon after that it ws lunch time. Immediately after lunch both these guys came to the back of the plane each with a glass of wine in his hand (so much for not serving them anymore alcohol). They said something along the lines of "It's too bad you can't understand our Jewish culture" to my mom. To their credit the crew immediately noticed them back there again and immediately took care of it. We didn't see them for the rest of the flight.

After we arrvied home my mom wrote a complaint letter to Lufthansa. A while later a response from Lufthansa came, complete with to free flights to Europe.

[expoITHscohen]

Mine was on American...

I was about 8-10 years old and we were going to Florida with routing through DFW (don't ask) from a starting point of YYZ. In Dallas they asked us (my mother, father and me) if we wanted to be bumped off (due to overbooking), and, of course, with the promise of three free flights any were in the 48 contiguous states, we said yes (especially since the next flight was in circa 2 hours to FLL). About 15 minutes after taking our tickets, an employee came over and said that they did not need our tickets and gave them back, but not with different seats inked on. Rather than being together (which we origonally were) we were scattered all over the plane.
The notion of having to leave her 8-10 year old son in the hands of strangers (who turned out to be extremely nice in the end) meant that my mother was furious. She tried to get our seating assignments changed: it was futile.
As a final kick in the nuts (I think this metaphor suits the situation) AA did not give us anything for the fiasco initially. After the completion of our vacation, however, my mother wrote a letter to American and asked for something; anything. All they offered us though was $50.00 off our next flight on AA. It was a big help, since I had already vowed never to fly American again: I still haven't. Maybe I should let it go, but I just hate them so much, oh God I hate them. Anyway, now I fly United and Air Canada. Although not every flight has been hunkydory on AC and UA, it is consistantly good; so i keep going back.

Everyone has such bad experinces with overbooking. Mine was great. My sister was on a later flight (1:30 hours later) and we wanted to fly with her but when we bought the tickets we did them for 1 person (ie 3 times) well her flight went up in $100 so we said screw that. So we ask if we can get her on standby and the person at the gate said "Well if you want to get her stand buy on next years flight sure!!!" She told us she can switch our seats and get us free tickets cause ours was overbooked. They needed only 4 volunters. Right before they were gona hand us our tickets they look at the F class seats (2 of the volunters had F tickets) and found out that 4 people went on the eairler flight and I got to ride F class for 3 hours!!! (Well 45 minutes on the ground which included 2 drinks and 2 snack services for F class) I have never really had a bad flight IMO. Only good ones. You pay for what you get is what I always say!

[timb]

Flying EGCC to GCLP.

We had about an 16 hour delay, had to stay over in the Britannia Hotel (not that horrible old brown one), the chicken was nice, didn't get a wink off sleep due to some Chinese men celebrating Chinese new year. We got back to the airport, well the plane got there the day before, but staff hours or something put a spanner in the works. Finally after getting some deodorant we were off. Jid Webb got a picture of the plane (F-GYYY) as it left. The seats were comfy.

[screaming_emu]

No way!? The A320 is very comfortable.

when will people understand that the comfort has absolutely nothing to do with what kind of aircaft you are in, but rather what kind of seats and at what spacing the AIRLINE decides to put in the airplane.

[UA-F9 Guy]

UA A320 ORD-DEN

I was in First class and was about to take a sip of my drink (Sitting in the Aisle) when the flight attendant smashed my elbow with her cart and rammed my drink into my face, spilling fairly hot tea all over me and burning my face/mouth. She was so nice to me though, hot too. She even wanted to see if she could get me a voucher for 25 dollars off my next flight but i told her it was fine because she was so nice. It was horribly turbulent, shaking me from side to side but that isnt anyone's fault. Just a miserable flight kind of..

( She also got me anything i needed for the rest of my flight and convinced the pilot to let me sit in the FO's seat after we landed to look at the cockpit. So it was bitter sweet. )

UA 772 SFO-ORD

After a 14 hour Asiana flight which was NRT-ICN-SFO in business i was worn out because it was too turbulent for me to sleep. We board the triple seven and we had business on that flight too. So the drink cart comes around, i ask for a club soda with lime. The flight attendant looked at me like i was using my poo as a crayon to write on the wall or something and with the most offensive aditude i have ever heard in the most disgusting old woman voice you can imagine, slightly loud..."We dont HAVE club soda, does this look like a bar?!", and i looked at her and simply said, "I'll take whatever diet soda you have than", i wasnt sneering or upset, i mean be the better person right? she retorts with the same tone "We have more than one...Diet pepsi than?" i nodded, she fills HALF of the small plastic cup and moves down the Aisle...I ask her as she passes my by again if i could have the rest of the can and she says, "No" and kept walking. Once we land in ORD im worn out and alot unhappier than i was staring at the Asian beauty on my Asiana flight to SFO. So i was one of the last business passengers off the plane, i pass her and she says, "learn to be a little less demanding", i couldnt take it and be polite anymore so i told her to fuck off and kept walking. I thought her skull might implode. She looked so pissed and i just went home and went to bed.

[electrogeek77]

BOS-LGB on B6

This was going to be the first flight that my boyfriend and I have ever taken together, so I hoped that everything would go perfect. JetBlue was awesome, and it was almost a perfect flight...except for HER. I sat in 5A, Jason (my bf) in 5B, and the cranky lady in 5C. She looked kind of nervous, so we tried to make some small talk with her to distract her, but that didn't go very far. So we figured that she might keep to herself.

Once we were in flight, that's when the issues arose. I have a tendency to be overly cautious about not wanting to disturb others with my conversations, so Jason and I spoke to each other in the quietest voices we could, short of having to shove our faces in each other's ears. Suddenly, Cranky Lady snaps at us, telling us to quiet down. Wuh...what? We could barely hear each other, so how the hell could she hear us?

Sometime during the approx. 6-hour flight, I had to use the bathroom. So I asked politely if I could get through, and literally apologized with each step. When I came back, Cranky Lady turned to Jason and asked, "Would she like to switch seats with me?" I could tell that I had this horrified look on my face, but Jason didn't look too bothered, so I thought that maybe I was overreacting. I was thisclose to yelling, "Hey, I chose and paid for MY seat (to be honest, I didn't pay for it - I won my ticket in a contest...but I still chose my seat!), and you chose and paid for yours, so deal with it. Next time, think about where you're going to sit. And I rather you ask questions for me TO me, instead of asking him!" But, of course, I clammed up and kept to myself.

Those were two of the many things that she did, and the two that irked me the most.

Once we got off the flight, I didn't bother saying anything, since I just wanted to start our vacation on the right foot. But suddenly, everything that Jason was holding in started coming out! "Dammit, if she didn't %(@*ing want to %*($ing get up, then she shouldn't have picked that %$(#ing seat", and a whole bunch of stuff that I won't put up.

Sure, my issue was pretty miniscule, but when you're sitting in a tube in the air for hours it seems pretty big.

[cx777]

I can't believe you flew on a C5! Damn that must have been awesome...

yea... but didnt quite like it though... the only thing that i liked was when we came down from a steep flight of stairs that connected the flight deck with the main cargo hold... it was awesome... they were like stairs on a ship...

[polishsausage248]

actually it was just back here during spring break in late march:

So we arrive at FLL airport and go to check in to our flight for continental connection flight to tampa bay.(cant believe my dad got this flights for us)So the check in in went well, and they told use we had to get our bags in tampa and go back to airtran ticketcounter to check our bags back in for our last leg to MKE. It said on our tickets that we would have 4 hours in tpa so that gave us plenty of time. Little did we know we'd need more time than that. So we get to our gate and it shows the flight is delayed 1 hour due to weather.(there was not a cloud in the sky as far as i could see)So its time for the flight to depart and they annoucce its delayed another 2 hours! Now we got a little worried but the people at the gate told my mom to ask the ramp workers in tampa to directly transfer our luggage.(I knew they were lying)So the plane arrived at the gate and we boarded. It was a beech 1900 in the gulfstream livery. We enter and I could not believe how small it was! We had to last row which was 3 seats across. Before departure the captain came down and told use to move forward because of to much weight in the rear.(this kinda worried my mom). the seets were ripped and so were the magazines. So we taxied and took off and the whole time the plane was rocking back and forth with turbulence. There even a point where i heard beeps coming from the cockpit.So we landing very roughly. When we got out the aircraft it was 3:15, the exact time our flight to milwaukee left. The ramp workers told use the people in FLL lied about our bagage.(what a suprise)So we got our luggage and went to the airtran ticket counters and found out that the flight to mke was delayed. Possibly the only high point on this trip. So we had the last 3 spots on the aircraft which was a 717 in the eltons john livery. We got to the screeneing area and what do you know...they put use in selective screening! Well that did not take to long so when we got to the gate right in time. So we boared the aircraft and my mom and brother had first class while I was in the back rows of the plane! So we clicmbed out smootly and then we hit bad turbulence as the captain told the flighty attenddants to sit down. From then on it was all ok.

[NOTAR520AC]

It was Oct of '94... i was 9 years old... we booked for a flight on the Military Airlift Command of the USAF at Yokota AFB, Japan... but... we were booked as chance passengers.. our destination was Travis AFB... we had to wait for 3 days to get a flight( we were in the base for 3 days).. The third day came, we got a flight... we got on the waiting room... i saw this huge airplane sitting on the tarmac... it was so huge, it dwarfed the plane next to it.. (it was a 752, i think!).. i asked my dad what the plane was... he answered, "thats the C-5 Galaxy.." all i could think of then was, "wouldnt this plane crash coz it was too big..."

Our boarding time came... we walked for about 200 feet to the airplane where a tall staircase led to the top level at the rear of the a/c... once, we got in, the first thing i noticed were the seats that were facing the aft of the a/c... there were about 50-70 seats there... we got a seat beside a tiny window... after the door closed, an airman gave away earplugs... we were supposed to wear those during the duration of the flight... my dad said we wont wear them for a long time coz we were going to have a stop over at Busan AFB, South Korea... Then the huge a/c took off... with us facing the rear.. hehee... imagine that...

when we got to Busan AFB, we got off the plane and someone told us that this was a 5 hour stopover... whoa!!! during the 5-hours, i watched the airmen load something in our plane... i asked someone what were those... he told me those are the dead bodies of victims killed in a helicopter crash in Korea... Then it was time to board again... During the flight, i couldnt get to sleep coz i was thinking about what were carrying down below on the cargo hold... Finally after 11 long hours, we arrived at Travis AFB in CA....

I can't believe you flew on a C5! Damn that must have been awesome...

[Crunk415balla]

It was Oct of '94... i was 9 years old... we booked for a flight on the Military Airlift Command of the USAF at Yokota AFB, Japan... but... we were booked as chance passengers.. our destination was Travis AFB... we had to wait for 3 days to get a flight( we were in the base for 3 days).. The third day came, we got a flight... we got on the waiting room... i saw this huge airplane sitting on the tarmac... it was so huge, it dwarfed the plane next to it.. (it was a 752, i think!).. i asked my dad what the plane was... he answered, "thats the C-5 Galaxy.." all i could think of then was, "wouldnt this plane crash coz it was too big..."

Our boarding time came... we walked for about 200 feet to the airplane where a tall staircase led to the top level at the rear of the a/c... once, we got in, the first thing i noticed were the seats that were facing the aft of the a/c... there were about 50-70 seats there... we got a seat beside a tiny window... after the door closed, an airman gave away earplugs... we were supposed to wear those during the duration of the flight... my dad said we wont wear them for a long time coz we were going to have a stop over at Busan AFB, South Korea... Then the huge a/c took off... with us facing the rear.. hehee... imagine that...

when we got to Busan AFB, we got off the plane and someone told us that this was a 5 hour stopover... whoa!!! during the 5-hours, i watched the airmen load something in our plane... i asked someone what were those... he told me those are the dead bodies of victims killed in a helicopter crash in Korea... Then it was time to board again... During the flight, i couldnt get to sleep coz i was thinking about what were carrying down below on the cargo hold... Finally after 11 long hours, we arrived at Travis AFB in CA....

wow bodies on the flight...that'd have to be scarry, I'd freak out. My moms boss was on a PHX-SFO flight where a 101 y/o on his way to a retirement home here in millbrae died suddenly, and was seated in the row infront of her boss. I can only imagine what thats like.

[cx777]

It was Oct of '94... i was 9 years old... we booked for a flight on the Military Airlift Command of the USAF at Yokota AFB, Japan... but... we were booked as chance passengers.. our destination was Travis AFB... we had to wait for 3 days to get a flight( we were in the base for 3 days).. The third day came, we got a flight... we got on the waiting room... i saw this huge airplane sitting on the tarmac... it was so huge, it dwarfed the plane next to it.. (it was a 752, i think!).. i asked my dad what the plane was... he answered, "thats the C-5 Galaxy.." all i could think of then was, "wouldnt this plane crash coz it was too big..."

Our boarding time came... we walked for about 200 feet to the airplane where a tall staircase led to the top level at the rear of the a/c... once, we got in, the first thing i noticed were the seats that were facing the aft of the a/c... there were about 50-70 seats there... we got a seat beside a tiny window... after the door closed, an airman gave away earplugs... we were supposed to wear those during the duration of the flight... my dad said we wont wear them for a long time coz we were going to have a stop over at Busan AFB, South Korea... Then the huge a/c took off... with us facing the rear.. hehee... imagine that...

when we got to Busan AFB, we got off the plane and someone told us that this was a 5 hour stopover... whoa!!! during the 5-hours, i watched the airmen load something in our plane... i asked someone what were those... he told me those are the dead bodies of victims killed in a helicopter crash in Korea... Then it was time to board again... During the flight, i couldnt get to sleep coz i was thinking about what were carrying down below on the cargo hold... Finally after 11 long hours, we arrived at Travis AFB in CA....

[Crunk415balla]

SFO-ORD-MSP on UA.

First we go to the gate where our 744 was wating for boarding. Well atleast, it SHOULD have been waiting. the flight was annonunced to land in 10 minutes. And then It did. But it taxied right past our terminal to the INTERNATIONAL terminal. We ended up waiting 45 minutes for it to come at our gate. Then we board. Im in buisness class and I'm looking around. Then an F/A comes on the PA and says something like "I'm sorry, but please allow 20 minutes for our pilots to arrive. They are comming in from Waterloo and it shouldn't take long." 40 minutes later 4 pilots come running up the stairs to the flightdeck. We push back and Line up for 1R. Where we wait in the line up for an additional 15 minutes. Then 2 hours and no less then 5 minutes after schedualed departure, we finally are airborne. The rest of the flight was good enough. Then we are told while on approach "There has been a fire on a moving walkway at ORD, so those of you connecting on United flights (listed several flights including mine) will have to find an alternate route to your gate. We're sorry." Shortly after we are in a holding pattern for 30 minutes. Finally we land in ORD. Over 2 and a half hours late.

Then we go to our gate using the "alternate" route, and see a 757 bound for SNA at the gate. WTF?! It seems our flight has been changed to a gate on the other side of the terminal. We get there to find an empty gate. The Gate agent annonces our flight arriving from Jacksonville is in a holding pattern. Then brings more good news 10 minutes later that it had to go around. Finally, a 732 full of pissed off passangers pulls up at the gate. If this 732 had been ontime, we wouldn't have made it. Then when boarding beings, my dads names and the other names of some other employees using free passes to fly are given a very nice message. "Your bumped." So we have to go back to the gate next to the origional one where the 752 was. When we got there a 732 was waiting. I was seated somewhere in the middle of the aircraft, with a window seat. We were then told that the pilots were having a problem with a computer in the cockpit(FMS mabey?) and would require 10 minutes to fix it. Then we finally start taxing. After being stuck in a lineup caused by bad weather that we were in for god knows how long, we were up for takeoff. Listening to Channel 9, i knew why we had been holding short for over 10 minutes. Air Force 1 was paying a visit to chicago and we had to wait for it to taxi and depart. Then we finally depart.

Then we arrived at MSP almost 4 hours and 45 minutes after I should of. After waiting 10 minutes for our gate to be avalible, we park. Heading down to the baggage claim we find out our luggage is comming on another flight. an hour later, after 3 diffrent flights arrive from ORD, our bags come.

At the time their motto was fly the friendly skies. I think we spent more time on the ground, and the stressed employees were very unfriendly. But hey, when you fly them for free, you get what you paid for.

[ATrude777]

mine has to be on AA.

i was scheduled to fly MWA-STL-OKC. i arrived at MWA to find out my STL-OKC flight was cancelled. grrr, so after much debating, i decided to be routed through DFW, so my new routing was MWA-STL-DFW-OKC. I flew MWA-STL, and landed. I walked to the D concourse where my STL-DFW was supossed to be. Gues what, it was moved. grrrr so i had to walk all the way to the C concourse and find the gate where my DFW flight was leaving. we are 20 minutes from boarding, and no plane at the gate. it is coming from LGA. I only have 30 minutes to change planes at DFW. So I am a bit panicked. finally the flight is now delayed for 45 more minutes. I thought there is NO WAY i will make my connection in DFW and would have to stay the night in DFW. Not going to happen. So I asked to be off this flight and routed through ORD. I coudl be routed through ORD but the ORD-OKC flight had already left. shit, shit, shit. I said what can i do?! she called the dallas reservations center and said that ther ewas one more flight to OKC leaving 5 hours later if i wanted i could be placed on that seat and as compensation she would give me seat 7F, a bulkhead seat well i couldnt complain then so I agreed. once I was confirmed I walked to the gate where it was leaving from (which of course was the last gate in the C concourse) and stayed there for 5 hours. That was boring as hell. finally i heard an announcement that our flight would be delayed for 15 minutes. WHAT?!?! NO ONE WANTS ME TO FLY NOW DO THEY?!?! finally 15 minutes later the plane landed, and we boarded the flight. i finally landed at OKC at 11:10pm. when I was supossed to be there at 6:00pm.

i was livid, and I swore id never fly AA again. but honestly I dont have much of a choice when i fly out fo MWA LMAO.

Alex

[GreekNYC747]

Not a really horrible experience, since there was no accident involved, but my recent trip on IBERIA was pretty much a big ordeal. See my review here and on www.AirlineQuality.com. An airline to avoid if you have a choise.