Your WORST ever flight?

[LondonJoe]

Whats the worst flight you have ever had?...i dont think mine have ever been that bad, but i guess when i got delayed for 14 hours FOR NO KNOWN REASON......


Whats yours?

[Alex - Spot-This !]

Every single time I flew with Iberia....

[seahawk]

TFS-DUS with AeroLlyod A320

Fake leather seats in charter layout. AC turned off and we waited 30 minutes in TFS in August. Then smoking was still allowed in the plane and it was full of heavy smokers and families with children of ages below 5 years, which meant that conflict was unavoidable. People screaming, children crying, children running around in the cabin and then the front toilet malfunctioned.
It was my "longest" flight ever.

[LondonJoe]

Every single time I flew with Iberia....

I always found Iberia to be quite good

[transitfan]

I guess my worst would be 6/1/95, LAX-ORD on a UA A-320. Flight crew was bad, and the 320 was just cramped for a long flight like that. That was my first ever flight on an Airbus, and I was ready to write off the whole company. Fortunately years later I had a very nice A-321 flight on US (FLL-CLT) and all my B6 flights have been pretty good (I still prefer Boeings) At the time of the flight, UA had been my airline of choice for 17 years, but after that, except for the return flight to LAX (on thankfully a 757), and a LAX-SFO-LAX on the old Shuttle by United the following year (and that was only b/c I decided to take the trip relatively late and the one AS LAX-SFo-LAX flight was fully booked), I was done w/ United, and I expect never to darken their doors again. (unless they merge w/ CO and end up keeping the UA name, I might consider it if I'm flying to Houston, and then only if WN has no non-stops from FLL)

[LondonJoe]

Flight crew was bad.

I agree, When i flew JFK-SFO on a 757 on UA, it was delayed for half an hour, it was almost midnight, and there was this lady feeding her child in the aisle, as there was no room in the packed jet.
An F/A came along and rudely told her to move out of the way.
The lady had no choice and had to go to the Out of order Restroom at the rear of the A/C.......
How were they bad on your flight?

[Alex - Spot-This !]

I always found Iberia to be quite good

Flew them 8 times european routes and 8 times transatlantic (Miami-Buenos Aires) and every flight was a nightmare in terms of service and sympathy of the crew. The only reason why I flew them is that they were way cheaper and I also liked to fly their old 742 on the Miami route.

[rohank4284]

I agree, When i flew JFK-SFO on a 757 on UA, it was delayed for half an hour, it was almost midnight, and there was this lady feeding her child in the aisle, as there was no room in the packed jet.
An F/A came along and rudely told her to move out of the way.
The lady had no choice and had to go to the Out of order Restroom at the rear of the A/C.......
How were they bad on your flight?

I guess when you ask people what they're worst flight was, UA was going probably going to dominate this thread.

I flew United since 1993, living in Denver, I really didn't have much of a choice. From 1993-1998, UA was a fabulous airline, great service from friendly employees,good food, few delays, and brand-new aircraft. Then the airline had some financial problems, 9/11 happened, add bankruptcy, more crappy management and you get what you have today. A mixed batch of employees (some who try hard to make customers happy, and others who hate the passengers), shoddy aircraft, and if something goes wrong you're hung out to dry.

The sad thing is many of the flight attendants I have met on UA provide great service, but some rotten ones ruin it for everybody. Their pathetic check-in personael basically don't know the definition of service. All they have to do is tag the bags, check your ID, and smile and they still screw that up. However, my flights with them back in January were pretty good.

My worst experience with UA was in June 2001 when the flight attendant strikes were in full swing. We were flying DEN-IAD-LHR-DEL. At DEN, the cargo door of our 777 was somehow damaged by the ground crew, leading to a 2.5 hr. delay + 20 minutes due to microbursts, we had a 3 hour connecting time in IAD for our flight to Heathrow, so we asked the gate attendant to rebook us on a different flight, which she refused politely saying that we were most likely going to make our connection and that only the UA staff at IAD could rebook us if we missed our flight (a lie). Well, our flight from DEN arrived at IAD, 3 hours late and despite running across the airport we missed our flight.

We were rebooked the next day and thankfully we got a hotel and found 2/4 bags. The next day when we got to the airport everything was normal until about 35 minutes prior to departure when during engine testing, the Boeing 777 PW engine shot out huge plumes of black smoke. We knew it wasn't good and the UA gate attendant said to expect a small delay. We ended being told to change gates 4 times over the next 8 hours before UA could finally get a replacement plane! We got our Heathrow flight rebooked and made it to India in one-piece, but it took another 7 days to find our bags.

Regards,

Rohan

[LondonJoe]

I think this thread should be called....

"Anybdy like UA?"

[11Fan]

Probably the time I was in Spain and had to go pick up my brother in Florida and then needed to get to Fiji to see some family and then back to London.

[LondonJoe]

what the hell .....i actually need to do that...y would i make up such a stupid route for no reason, plz i ACTUALLY do need help.

[rohank4284]

I think this thread should be called....

"Anybdy like UA?"

United used to be one of my favorite airlines, when they were really good. Poor management, leading to grumpy employees and shoddy planes, 9/11, and the 2001 and the current US recession have basically screwed them.

After the hell the airline put me through in 2001, we haven't flown UA internationally, but I flew them recently in Jan 2009 from DEN-EWR and the flights were good. My flight review is still up, so maybe you can find it. I don't hate UA, they're alright, but I wouldn't go out of my way to fly them. Domestically, I still fly them if the price is good and the schedule matches mine. Internationally, there are so many better carriers that many times saving $200 isn't worth it. The service quality varies scignificantly and the shabby condition of much of their fleet doesn't impress. I feel bad for the UA employees who try so hard to please customers, but are let down by rude collegues and management.

Regards,

Rohan

[the_Yeti]

Heh - United. I flew LAS to SFO in January and as we were boarding the plane they announced they were participating in a "Voluntary TSA Security procedure". Basically they pull people out of the boarding line and frisk them. Totally unnecessary, and I was PISSED I got picked.

Then last week, due to thunderstorms in Denver my flight from LAS to SFO was delayed over 2.5 hours. I needed to be in San Francisco for a meeting so I ended up flying a Southwest flight that was scheduled 40 minutes later and took off on time. Of course my return flight that was scheduled for 10:30 PM didn't take off until after midnight.

2 times booked on United, 3 screwups.

Not my favorite airline

[shamrock]

Worst flight for me has to be with Iberia from Madrid to Santiago de Chile in December 2005.

Hit every single lump, bump and crappy bit all the way there, the airline refused to honour my long standing prebooked window seat - I wanted to take some photo's of the Andes - they stuck me up in the tail of the 340 in the middle rows. The food was inedible, the crew...what crew?...oh and kids ran riot the entire flight eventually ripping a door off a toilet...and still no crew anywhere to be seen.

The flight back from Buenos Aires wasn't much better apart from I did get my window seat and the 340 was alot younger and wasn't falling to bits. My suitcase managed a 30 hour extention to the holiday though.

[WhiteKnuckles]

Wish I had a grisly story to tell. I do remember a flight to Virginia many decades ago where the stop at Chicago came with circling over O'Hare for an hour or so. I think the airline handed out free drinks, so that wait was pretty pleasant. That was PRE-deregulation, so airlines weren't fighting to stay out of bankruptcy.

So far post-deregulation, my flights have gone from mediocre to great. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I fly all kinds of airlines (except no regional, the stories of "regionals gone wrong" have insured I'll never book on a regional airline). And it seems like the cabin crews are always trying their best under trying circumstances. Maybe I have more empathy with working people than people who fly more than I do.