Airport horror stories

Shat myself trying to let a fart out, while boarding; only packed one pair of underwear for two days... stupid stupid....

reverse horror story - few years ago, the airline held a plane for an hour and a half for me because my connection was late, I was 16 and an unaccompanied minor so they were legally required. Score for me, horror story for everyone else.

So many delays and definitely more than few cancelled flights. Some bad ones:

Coming back from Rome, flying Rome -> JFK -> West coast. Rome to JFK takes 10 hours, no delays and everything's all good. Land at JFK, get through customs in 10 minutes (which never happens), have a 4 hour layover. So at this point we've been traveling for 16 hours or so. Board the plane back to west coast, everything leaves on time... out of the gate. Ended up sitting on tarmac for 3 hours, going back to gate, going back to tarmac for another hour and a half and then finally taking off for a 5.5 hour flight. The worst part was the no food for that entire time and the flight attendant running out of drinks. Can't imagine how it must've been in coach.

Going from midwest through Chicago O'hare to west coast, flight is delayed 2 hours going out of my midwest city, meaning I'm going to miss my connection by 30 minutes. Fuck. So I end up going to Chicago anyways to see if I can catch something else. We end up landing next to my connecting flight's gate, and according to my phone the gate hasn't closed yet (they've delayed it). Me and about 20 other passengers are trying to catch this connection, too. So they have a vested interest in waiting for us. We're the first few off the plane and we run the 100 feet up the bridge, and get within 30 feet of our connecting gate when the airport dude decided he's going to shut the door. He literally shuts the door as 10 of us are clearly running up to him. I haven't been that pissed at a human being in a long time. Also, the plane didn't end up leaving that gate for another 30-45 minutes. So special. Fuck united. Had to spend the night at that Marriott in O'hare and luckily got a direct flight the next morning. Pro tip - call the airline instead of waiting in line at the desks.

Had three straight days of cancelled flights at midwest airport during this last arctic winter. So glad to be out of there. Flying on the west coast is so much easier.

It wasn't as bad for me as I was going home rather than going to the office for a leadership conference, but I had a flight can delayed 5 times over the course of ~4 hours and then the flight got cancelled. It was 24 hours before my next flight.

I think a guy might have also died on one of my international flights, we were up in the air for about an hour, and then the FA's starting asking for doctors then nurses/medics for help and ultimately some guy was wheeled out in a stretcher. The pilot had to unload most of the gas from the plane because apparently you cannot land with so much weight from the gas and we were grounded for quite a bit.

Flying from Manilla to Kalibo (1hr duration) 23rd December. Arrive at 18.30 for a 20.00 flight, perfect. Flights delayed an hour, one of our party has a pretty bad case of food poisoning. Pass through to gate, we're told there is no leaving once we're in there. Hours go by, flight is delayed again and again.

After 4 hours of delays (around midnight) we're told we can either wait for the plane to be fixed or go onto the next plane at 6.00am, if you switch to the next plane you can't switch back if the delayed flight gets fixed earlier (conditional probability - switch every time).

Anyway, we finally get on the morning flight (the switch was definitely the right decision). Unfortunately Typhoon Yolanda had been around in the previous few months and the high winds were ever present despite the worst having passed. Kalibo airport had, that month, several planes blow off the runway as they came into land. Something I didn't know until as we touched down and were probably 10m from the runway we veered right and the pilot had to pull back up as we narrowly crossed over some rice paddies... We landed on the second attempt after 10 hours of delays and one failed landing on the morning of Christmas Eve.

Arguably the most unpleasant experience of my life.

How about having your flight delayed two hours in the terminal, three hours on the tarmac, finally taking off and then turning around mid flight due to weather problems? Yup, that sucked.

Also had a flight make an unscheduled landing due to insufficient fuel at takeoff...they were then unable to restart the engines properly and we had to wait overnight for a new aircraft.

I've also been through a TOGA because of a plane on the runway but that's no biggie.

Hands down worst experience- there was a power outage in Mombasa airport while I was waiting for my flight to Nairobi. Couldn't see a thing and there was pure chaos for about 10 mins till they figured out how to turn the generators on.

In second place....4 hours at immigration at Riyadh airport coz Saudi airport immigration is terrible! 3 hours in Dammam airport on another trip.

Consolation prize: 3 hour delay while we are seated in the aircraft on the tarmac in Colombo because 8 passengers hadn't made it to the aircraft and Sri Lankan airlines had no clue where their luggage was in the hold.

I'm writing this post in a stinky airport lounge in Bali. I think I spend way too much time in sub standard airports.

I was visiting Chicago during that awful arctic blast back in January. My flight back to the east coast got cancelled 2 days in a row, and the fucking airline did not have the decency to give me a full refund. Just a voucher for the next flight that's worth half the ticket price I paid for. Ended up missing the first few days of class. Never flying JetBlue again.

Also back in college when I was coming home, AirTran lost my luggage, and it took a few days to find it and deliver it to my house.

A reverse horror story to lighten up the mood. A poster above mentioned being stuck on the tarmac for several hours. So my best friend's dad is pretty high up at a major oil&gas company and thus travels all over the world. He flies exclusively on United, so he and his family have insane miles and are treated like royalty and are able to upgrade to first class on every flight. During one trip, he's in Germany (I think Munich), and the plane is stuck on the tarmac. Ostensibly the policy is that no one can leave the plane during this time. Out of nowhere, a black car rolls down the tarmac, and a guy boards the plane and asks for "Mr. X", who is my friend's dad. He is initially scared that he did something wrong, but apparently United didn't want to piss off such a high-value customer, so they sent a chaffeur to escort him out of the plane. It's one of the most bizarre stories I ever heard since I didn't know airlines are even allowed to do that, but perhaps it's different abroad.

I was flying to Beijing for a study abroad with about 20 other students and had a layover in the Tokyo airport. We got off our plane and were waiting by the gate for our next plane to finish the trip. Turns out, there was a passenger on the plane that had symptoms of swine flu (this was at the time when swine flu was in full effect and they would go in with thermal cameras before you could leave the plane). I don't remember what happened to the non swine flu passengers but the swine flu guy got taken to quarantine and had a sample taken to a hospital to be tested. The delay we got didn't even say what we were delayed for, or even an estimate. The sign actually said "Flight 'whatever' to Beijing delayed indefinitely" Had they said how long the delay would have been, we could have maybe taken a train into Tokyo and had some fun there, but instead we had to sit and wait in an empty airport that was 90% closed. The only saving grace to this experience at the airport is that the Tokyo Airport was beautiful and it was Saki Fest or something like that so they were giving out Saki for free all through the airport and a duty free was doing tastings of liqour. So we were all doing shots of all the different Johnny Walkers and other liquors. By the time we got on to the flight, we were all pretty messed up.

Another bad turned good story... I was flying back to Michigan Tech wayyyyyyyyy up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (for those that don't know... It's college town of Houghton, surrounded by completely and absolutely nothing but trees in the middle of no where, but an awesome engineering school) after Thanksgiving break. We make it all the way to the airport, and then we start circling around the airport for about an hour before the pilot comes on and says the fog is too thick and we can't even see where the airport is below us and will likely run out of fuel if we try to wait it out flying in circles. So we go to another airport in Michigan to land and refuel and possible make another go at it. After landing, we get the choice, get off the plane and figure something out to finish the trip, or stay on the plane and go to the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport and eventually get on a flight that will take us to Houghton. To top it off, this was supposed to be a 2 hour flight, on a

This just shows why it should be all of our number one goals to obtain a private jet.

If the simple words "Newark Intl Airport" do not inspire horror, I don't know what does.

-Waiting 25 minutes for a broken Air Train. -Paying $12 for a bad-tasting quesadilla at "Java Moon cafe" -Waiting for a plane in a dingy waiting area that has not been remodeled since Nixon was in office. -Getting eyed suspiciously by PAPD officers toting M16s. -Waiting on the Tarmac for 3 hours after a 15 minute rain shower. No getting up to go to the bathroom.

If I have a choice, I fly out of LGA or Trenton.

I had a flight lose an alarming amount of elevation with the seatbelt sign off, sent some people out of their chairs, babies started crying, FAs looked spooked. Then we smelled smoke. Had to land early. Missed the runway the first pass. Finally landed alive, which at that point I was pretty pumped about. I was trying my best to block the whole situation out but it was scary, people in front of me were praying and shit. Renting a car and driving an hour never felt so good (...yes i am aware of the stats).

I was "refused entry" to the UK and they asked me to leave the country. No joke. I shouldn't say much else.

Flew from HK to Toronto (~16 hours). Landing at Toronto was delayed due to excessive snow, so we circled the airport for an additional hour, waiting for an opportunity to land. Then we were told the airport runways are closed due to excessive snow. We flew to Montreal airport to land, which took an additional hour. Stayed on the tarmac in Montreal for another hour, waiting for clearance from Toronto. Finally took off for Toronto (one more hour to fly back) and landed.

All in all, a 16 hour flight (bad enough as it is), turned into a 20 hour marathon on a plane.

Taking a picture of the airplane i was going to be flying in before it got shot down.

Oh wait, my horror story.

Flying private from Delhi to Dubai I ended up getting served some bad chicken sandwiches. Spent the next two days throughout the Middle East (stops in various countries) expelling fluids from every orifice; luckily there was a doctor in the group with an I.V. handy. Still quite miserable.

Reverse horror story: "stuck" in the Bahamas for two extra days in January because of the east coast getting pounded by blizzards.

Flew to Tokyo on March 11, 2011.. the day that a triple whammy of magnitude 9.0 mega earthquake, tsunami and nuclear reactor meltdown all happened on the same day. The earthquake happened about an hour before our plane was schedule to land. We were originally supposed to land at Narita airport but were instead diverted to Haneda airport. Once on the ground, all transportation including rail, bus, and car (highways were shut down) were out of commission. Virtually impossible to leave or enter the airport. Transportation would return the following day, but there was no other choice but to spend a night in the airport. If that wasn't bad enough, all restaurants and even convenience stores had closed down for the day. The only place that was open was a small confectionary shop that sold traditional Japanese-style cakes filled with red bean paste. Had no other choice but to eat those for dinner...

Not airport related but horrible travel story. Took a weekend ski trip to vail this past February. Left Vail at 11am on Sunday for a 3pm flight (it's an 1.5-2hr drive). Ended up getting stuck in a snowstorm in the shuttle van for 9 hours and getting into Denver at like 8pm, no flights to NYC until noon the next day. Stayed in a shitty hotel. Woke up monday to 85 work emails, horrible.

My sister was returning home from a fall spent studying abroad in Europe and was connecting through Chicago, where her connecting flight was delayed for five hours waiting on the aircraft which was stuck in a snowstorm in Cleveland. She was supposed to land at 10:20pm, ended up getting in at 3:30am. All for a ~55 min flight. My mother had a nice long conversation with a UA customer service agent the next day...

have had a couple of flights make unexpected maneuvers near landing...ie had to pull up rapidly because of something unforeseen. A 747 jamming in the throttle and pulling up 200 feet above the runway is not my idea of fun. Both times it happened the captain said it had been an issue of "unforseen traffic"...so basically he almost plowed into a plane that was sitting on the runway.

I had a pilot just drop a plane on a runway.....zero grace at all everyone who was sleeping woke up immediately.. they were very alarmed.

Travel about 2x a month, so a lot of horror stories, but none beats this:

Was studying abroad in a suburb of Paris in college and decided to take a weekend trip to London. Rather than taking the train into Paris and chunneling it into London we thought we could save time and fly. What a stupid decision. Flight delayed 4 hours - got there past midnight so the tube was closed. A cab quoted us $400 to go downtown, which we thought was not worth it to salvage our $40/night hostel. So we stayed at the airport until 5am when the tube opened again.

Coming back, was notified that the our flight was again delayed, for 5 hours. Decided to forfeit the return leg and bought new train tickets into Paris. Train gets delayed, not a lot but enough for us to miss our 7pm train from Paris to the suburbs of where our school is. "Luckily" there's another train that night at 11pm. Board the 11pm train, sat there for 30min before the being kicked out because there's a strike, but "stay close" because the train could run anytime, and if it leaves then you forfeit your ticket.

On a positive note, after calling and sending multiple complaint emails to British Airways, we did receive a $25 gift certificate that expires in 6 months.

Every time I fly for business is a horror story because I have to sit in the layovers with my egotistical boss explaining to me as slyly as he can that he's better than me because he's a triple platinum Delta douche something or another due to his devotion to travel as much as possible for work. The moment I dread the most is when I board the plane for my coach seat next to a crying baby by the toilet and I have to make some kind of awkward eye contact with him while he listens to his over the ear Bose in first class and creates an life-altering miserable experience for the sad sap sitting next to him... I enjoy the baby's screams and remember how much better the cries in my ear were a few hours later in the rental car for hours of bliss as his passenger.

Not my story, but my old boss got stuck with his family in the Chicago or Detroit (can't remember which) fiasco 5 or 10 years ago where a snowstorm shut down the airport and they had to all spend the night there. It was around Christmas, I think. The next day, most of the employees at the airport called in sick out of protest for having to come in during the circumstances. He said that the few people there literally rolled out carts of food to them the next morning, put it in front of the crowd and ran away. I would've loved to see that.

A guy I worked with at the time was in SF for 9/11 (we were in Boston) so he ended up getting stuck there for something like a week extra which wasn't bad in itself. When planes started flying again and he could finally get on a flight, he had a layover in Chicago. He got on and there was a Muslim-American conference going on in Chicago so he said there were something like 75 guys on the plane in full on traditional dishdasha robes. At the time no one really knew what had happened yet so he turned around, got off the plane and waited 4 or 5 days for another flight.

The former CCO of my company shared a name (he's Irish) with somebody that is high up with the IRA. He used to tell us some serious stories about getting pulled out of security and being interrogated in the UK. The IRA guy is on the no-fly list and he would constantly deal with a confused TSA that mistook him for the other guy. The biggest issue is that he was C-level, so he was always in the air...

US flights and US airports are a disgrace for the country, how can the number 1 economy in the world has such terrible airlines and networks...I would rather fly anywhere in the world than in US, I have pretty much never taken any flight on time in USA...

I had a lot of fun during one my return flight to London City Airport, it felt like the pilot was kind of missing the airport and decided to descend really late so we were totally flat and then full gas towards the ground fully inclined, it was like in a video game, straight ridiculous...some people were freaking out...worst airport approach ever experience

I also experienced landing in Shangri-La at ~3000m altitude, you basically land on a very small field, it's like there is no airport and you land in the middle of a field with cows around you...straight ridiculous...even better they have a super small baggage conveyor belt and they really insist on using it so you have a few guys coming to your plane, picking up your luggage and dropping these on a 5 meter belt...and during all this time you are walking alongside these guys because you actually disembark directly on the ground, there is no terminal or airport...just some kind of small station. Hilarious.

I was on this flight:

http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/22/us/southwest-laguardia/