OT: Your worst airline experience
As I await my standby* Houston to Detroit flight for 7:05 am, I would like to share my experience in the last 24 hours and hear about other airline "horror stories". Yesterday, the 22nd for those of you keeping score, our flight from Colorado Springs to Houston was delayed. Thankfully, the flight from Houston to Detroit was also delayed. No big deal, right? When we boarded the plane, 2 hours later, there was a "computer" problem. Another delay. With some rough calculation, I estimated we would be in Houston at 8 pm, with our flight to the D at 8:30. I was fairly close and our flight landed and we were off the plane at 8:15. Earlier, the flight attendant told us that our gate was move to E**. Nope. We went to the gate and were told that we had to go all the way to C**. Ok. We go to this next gate. Nothing. Gates closed, sign changed, 5 minutes before the flight was scheduled to leave. Usually this isn't a big deal, but when you have an exam to make the next morning in Dennison, it just sucks. On the bright side, if you need a place to stay in Houston, try the Towne Place Suite. Really nice. Continental Airlines, however, not so much.
Now that that's over with, what's your worst airline experience?
*Still waiting as of 7:29 EST
I've been pretty luck on my flights so far. Most of my horror stories involve delays and the only delay that caused me to miss a flight was the last flight of the evening so Delta got to put me up in a pretty nice hotel in Atlanta.
But my favorite one is coming back from Kaui to LA. This was right after 9-11, my wife was quite pregnant and security out of Kaui was slow so we were late getting in to our Honolulu connector back to LA.
As we land flight attendant tells us and another couple (honeymooners I assume) that our connector to LA has been oversold and only one couple (the first to get to the gate) will be able to get on the plane.
The have some sob story about getting back for a funderal (boo hoo!) and being highly competitve me and the very pregnant wife start trotting then the other couple does too and we essentially flat out spring race them about 1/4 mile to the next gate to check in.
We kicked their asses! However when we got to the gate there was planty of time and actually not oversold. pretty uncomfortable sitting next to them the whole way home!
a) I don't imagine it's terribly good for the baby for your wife to be in all-out prego sprint mode.
b) If she's outrunning that couple, either she's incredibly fit (and you're a lucky man), or that couple is severely out of shape.
Sadly I always win these things. When I was 16 I was supposed to fly home to Alaska from Michigan on a Saturday. I was travelling by myself and there was a bad snowstorm. I didn't leave Detroit until Sunday, got stuck in Minneapolis for 2 nights (it was supposed to be 1 night but the agent gave me a ticket for a flight that didn't exist), then flew to Salt Lake and on to Seattle where I spent another night before finally going home. I didn't have my bag the whole time and had to buy some clothes in Minny. So yeah, I arrived home 5 days late and received no compensation from the airlines.
Worst Connection:
<br>London-Paris-Cincinnati-Atlanta-Ft Myers
<br>Lost bags at the end were obligatory
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<br>Worst Delay:
<br>Delayed for 4 hours after boarding in Genoa with no explanation... until they tell us that they will put us on another flight because the plane was hit by lightning and unsafe to fly
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<br>Worst Food:
<br>Dried plumb thingy on China Southern
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<br>Worst seat
<br>Had a used diaper stuffed under it from the previous flight
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<br>Worst Passenger
<br>Some bitch that didn't want to sit near a toddler threw a tantrum until see got new seats
I was driving by O'Hare Airport on May 25, 1979, when AA 191 crashed to the ground and exploded, killing 273 people.
And no one linked to this-
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<br>http://mgoblog.com/content/spirit-airlines-sucks
i'm a little late to the party, but oh well.
this story doesn't involve me, but rather a friend's mom. she was on the christmas day flight to detroit involving the underwear bomber. she sat only a few rows away from him. scary stuff to say the least.
Spring Break 09... 8pm AA flight on a Sunday from Ft Meyers to Charolette. All of a sudden it decided to blizzard up there. We circled the airport for and hour and a half.... finally the pilot was brave enough to attempt a landing. Second scariest moment on a plane in my life. Second to an hour of straight turbulance and altitude drops while flying over the middle of the Pacific en route to OZ. So by the grace of God we land safely. Get off the plane to find out the entire airport is shut down. Its 10:45 pm at this point. We wait our turn at the counter to get our flight rebooked yada yada. We got tickets for a 7am flight the next morning back to Cinci and a voucher to stay a hotel in town. This doesnt sound so bad right. We get out of the terminal to find that all 6 of the hotel shuttle buses we stuck or slid of the road. Ok so we'll take a cab. There was a 4 hour wait for cabs that simply weren't ever going to show up. So we were left with no choice. We went back through security, went to the bar and drank until about 3 am. Finally we decided to try and get some sleep. So we went searching for those foam mats that they hand out. Well instead of supplying them in each concourse, they distributed them only from councourse D. I can't remember where our gate was at... all i remember is that we had a far ass walk to get there. Finally I grab a stack of mats for my girlfirend and I. As im walking out of concourse D an airport official starts barking about me about how the mats cant leave that concourse even though our gate was on the otherside of the airport... I fought with her for about 5 mins but then we were interrupted because she had to go and try and stop some other people trying to leave with mats. After about 30 seconds of that it was a free for all and i took of with the mats to my gate. Finally try to go to sleep and some rude old lady unplugged my phone charger from the outlet. And the outlet was 5 inches from my face. I acted like I didnt notice, so when she walked away i unplugged hers and chucked it. Finally its 7 am. Only there was no plance and no crew at the gate... Get put on standy then for a flight to Boston, then to get on a plance back to Cinci... Said hell no to that why would i want to go north so i can just get stuck i another airport. Finally i think at the end of it all we left Charolette on a flight at 8pm.... The longest 22 hours of my life.