Let's talk "Airport Horror Stories"! I am living mine! :(

[Pa Pa]

I am currently in my 15th hour in an airport. The wife and I went on our first cruise and got back into country at 5:00AM. Now we just need a two hour flight back to Atlanta (would be a 14 hour drive...so we would be home in bed now). As it stands right now our flight might depart between 1:00 to 2:00AM. Now the worry is rental car facility will be closed and our son who was to pick us up has early classes in the morning...sooooooooooo for kicks and giggles; what is your horror story? :)

[Guest]

Ugh! That sounds awful! 

 

My husband and I were stuck in the Seattle airport for several hours once. The entire flight was less than an hour, but weather grounded us. We didn't mind so much. We were newlyweds and just happy to be together.

 

Being stuck for hours in an overcrowded Chicago airport with 3 small kids, and no idea when we'd get out, was another thing altogether. Thankfully people were very nice and understanding. It was still a long night, and even after we finally got on the plane we still had a 5 hour flight ahead of us. 

 

Flying isn't my favorite. 

[Pa Pa]

We once got stuck in Chicago with three of ours...United employees were talking strike. We got to Atlanta at 11:30PM and the strike began at 12:00...never felt so lucky.

[PolarVortex]

I was in the Air Force flying home (a commercial flight) from California to Chicago on a one-week leave.  It was a red-eye that left San Francisco around midnight.  I woke up just as the plane landed and I figured we were at O'Hare in Chicago.  No-o-o-o-o.  O'Hare had closed during the night because of snow and wind, and I was in Detroit.

 

The Detroit airport was wall-to-wall chaos.  This was long before people had mobile phones.  I couldn't call home because every pay phone had about a hundred people in line to use it.  Every seat in every waiting area was taken, every rest room had long lines, and the restaurants had run out of food.  The airline employees were running around like the Keystone Kops, and my mom and cousin had driven a long distance to O'Hare to pick me up and were there wondering where I was.  Finally I passed a jetway and heard an airline employee say that this flight was leaving for Chicago in ten minutes.  The people were pressed together and could barely move, but I slipped through and tiptoed down the jetway into the plane and found an empty seat.  Yes, that's right, I stowed away.  An hour later I was finally at O'Hare.  Miraculously, I found my mom and cousin at the airline desk waiting to get information about my whereabouts, and we high-tailed it out of there.  Of course, all my checked luggage was still in Detroit, so I called the airline and they were kind enough to find it the next day and send it by bus to my mom's house.

 

All this was in the days when airline tickets were often written out by hand and there weren't many computers.  I don't think I'd be able to stow away on a flight in 2015.

 

So sorry, Pa Pa, about your travel woes.  But sounds like you'll be home soon.  Many rental car facilities in big airports are open 24 hours a day, can you call and confirm they'd be open?  Safe travels...

[Mahone]

Around christmas 2010, I was at the Birmingham airport in the UK. My destination was Florida, USA, but it wasn't a direct flight and needed to change at Frankfurt, Germany.

It only snows in Birmingham once or twice a year, and that it just so happened that it started snowing as I was waiting for my flight. My flight to Frankfurt therefore departed 5 hours late, and I ended up just missing my connecting flight by maybe 20 minutes.

It was also snowing heavily in Frankfurt, so many flights were also delayed there (my connecting flight was one of the few allowed to take off on time) and the airport was a scene of chaos and disorganization. Every service desk had lengthy queues, most were a couple of hours long. They had set up temporary service desks to help mitigate the crowds but each desk had a different role, had nothing to do with the individual airlines and were only labeled in German. I've never taken German classes so I don't speak the language, many of the airport staff didn't speak English and the ones that did had no idea where I needed to go.

My phone battery was long dead, I had no local currency, my charger and everything else was in my luggage, and I had no idea where that was as it should have been autonatically transferred onto the flight I had missed.

Eventually after about 3 or 4 hours of waiting in queues at the wrong service desks, I found the one I needed and was put in a taxi to a nearby hotel, thankfully paid for by the airline without any argument. But I still didn't have my luggage, there were no nearby shops, I had no local currency and the hotel had very few toiletries, so when I finally made it to Florida the next day, I met my fiancee wearing the same clothes I'd worn the day before after a 9 hour flight, no deodorant, no use of toothpaste for 36 hours etc. Anyone who has flown on long flights knows that you can look pretry rough at your destination without any of those additional issues.

I did make use of the sample aftershave in the duty free section of the Frankfurt airport though. It must have done the trick, she still married me.

Edited January 19, 2015 by Mahone

[classylady]

I'm a retired airline employee.  I have flight benefits, but it's always "space available".  I've spent the night in the following airports:  Houston, Newark, San Francisco, Frankfurt, and Seattle.  Some people have a hard time with the stress of traveling stand by. I've learned to live with it and have learned not to overly stress.  I've also been stuck in St. Louis area for 3 days trying to get to Houston because of hurricane Ike.  I try to avoid traveling during peak travel times.

 

One of my most awkward experiences happened in SLC.  Three of us were traveling from SLC to Reno on a Delta flight operated by Sky West.  After leaving the waiting area, and going through the doors, you walk down a long corridor with quite a number of different doors for the gates.  Our gate was at the end of the corridor.  We went out our gate and walked out onto the tarmac to our aircraft.  The engine was going, so hearing anything was difficult.  One of the employees, said something to us, I assume he said "Reno", we nodded our heads and got on the flight.  We took our seats and then waited for the flight to take off.  The stewardess was taking a count of the passengers before take off, and walked up and down the aisle several times taking count.  Then over the sound system, came the captain saying:  This is Captain --, we are scheduled to depart for Kansas City in just a few minutes.  Well, you can imagine our near heart attacks!  We flagged the stewardess, said "we're supposed to be going to Reno!"  We were quickly ushered off the plane, and over to the Reno aircraft which was sitting just to the side and a little behind the aircraft we were originally on.  We did not see our Reno aircraft at all when we came out of the gate, we only saw the Kansas City aircraft.  I'm thinking the Reno flight must have been waiting for us, because they had taken our tickets back in the waiting area, but then we never got on the plane.  The flight was about 15 minutes late taking off.  This was after 9/11, and I was surprised we were able to get on to the wrong plane.

Edited January 19, 2015 by classylady

[Pa Pa]

I just arrived in Atlanta...:) at 3:42AM Tired going home catch up tomorrow.

[Palerider]

Have not had a horror story yet.

[pam]

Several years ago I and 4 other ladies were traveling from San Diego to Hong Kong.  We were meeting our spouses who were on a six month cruise with the Navy and would have 8 days in Hong Kong.  We had arranged our flight so that we would arrive several hours before the ship would arrive so we would have time to clean up and look presentable.  We had to make a connecting flight in Seattle.  When we got to Seattle we found out the plane we were to be taking had come from Washington DC and was experiencing some technical difficulties so they had to ground it.  There were no other planes available.

 

They would not be able to put us on a flight until the next morning which would then mean we would get there after the ship had arrived. They put us all up in a Marriot next to the airport.  Unfortunately we couldn't have our luggage.  We each bought t-shirts to have something to sleep in.  Luckily I had packed a toiletry bag in my carry on.  

 

The problem was, the guys wouldn't know that we had not gotten there yet and why.  Since I was the Ombudsman for the ship I had access to some contacts back in San Diego. I called an admiral that I knew and he immediately had his staff send a message to the ship explaining what was going on.  So the guys met us at the airport instead of us meeting the ship as it came into the Hong Kong harbor.   Of course we were all in sweats and such that we had worn for comfort for the 13 hour flight and had had on for 2 days at that point.  But at least we had washed our hair, brushed our teeth and that sort of thing.   :)

[sxfritz]

I just finished one. Flights to the US, out of Peru, leave at 01:00.  They shut the runway down at night for maintenance, so you don't want more than an hour delay. We were delayed. First the hour, then three, then six.  Yet, they wouldn't formally cancel the flight and allow you to book somewhere else. It took off at 9:30 in the morning.  We got to Los Angeles and didn't find a problem with connecting flights to Denver, but when we got to the gate we were hit with another three hour delay.

 

I joked about how in LA we might see some celebrities.  We had Tommy Chong on our flight.  I thought, of all celebrities, I end up meeting Tommy Chong!  There was a young lady on the plane who told him he "was the most awesome person ever!"  He was very gracious and I do think successful people deserve respect, but Tommy Chong? Really, that's my celebrity? No Valerie Bertinelli? Or Shania Twain? 

 

We ended up being awake almost 48 hours.

[Guest]

I don't have one but my sister-in-law has one...

 

Her flight is from Philippines, to Hawaii, then to San Francisco, then to Dallas, then to Ohio where my brother was waiting... She was pregnant with her 2nd child while carrying her 7-month old first-born child in the flight.  She lost her 2nd child in the plane's restroom between Philippines and Hawaii... she decided to continue with her flight all to the way to Ohio so she can be with her husband and got ambulanced straight to the hospital in Ohio, and stayed there for a  week.  I was left to care for a 7-month old without anybody to show me what I'm supposed to do... I've never changed a diaper in my life... I was going bonkers because the baby wouldn't quit crying.

[kapikui]

I won't be likely to be having an airport horror story because until MASSIVE changes are made to how the government and the airlines handle things, I won't be willingly flying anywhere. 

[Guest]

I won't be likely to be having an airport horror story because until MASSIVE changes are made to how the government and the airlines handle things, I won't be willingly flying anywhere.

I can't imagine myself being limited by land... It's a long swim to Hawaii....

[Backroads]

I was stuck in Phoenix for about 18 hours with the two teenage girls under my care. That was fun.

[Palerider]

They made a movie about all of this....Planes Trains and Automobiles

[dahlia]

Supposed to leave DC on a Friday, plane left late. Company lied thru its teeth and swore everything would be OK from that point on. If I'd know what was going to happen, I would have stayed in DC. 

 

Got to Chicago late. More lies that a plane was coming. Then around 10 pm or so, they finally told the truth that nothing was coming. Not only was nothing coming, but I was going to have to wait until Sunday to leave Chicago. So it's night time - many stranded passengers - no rental cars, no hotel rooms nearby, nothing. 

 

Sitting around a crowded lounge, I heard a guy make contact with a hotel. I got the info from him and we ended up going to some town that was $50 away by cab. I contacted Amtrak and was able to get the last ticket from Chicago to Mt Pleasant, an hour away from me. What a nightmare. 

[Palerider]

My wife was flying back from Jackson Hole Wyoming a few years ago. She landed in Denver and the plane she was suppose to catch arrived late and left late. Because of that when she flew to Cincinatti she missed her connecting flight to St Louis. They put her up in a hotel for the night and she had to catch a flight the next morning.

[Still_Small_Voice]

I agree Kapikui.  I feel like a criminal flying commercially with all the intrusive security they subject people to.  The Transportation Security Administration policies are just awful.  I hear Israeli airport security policies they have in place are much less intrusive.  We should look to how Israel handles airport security.

 

My only bad story of airplane travel is my three year old son doing the crocodile death roll on the airport floor screaming.  He had enough of flying and was tired and cranky.  We were doing a flight from New York to California.  I will avoid doing long travel with young kids at all costs now.

 

I won't be likely to be having an airport horror story because until MASSIVE changes are made to how the government and the airlines handle things, I won't be willingly flying anywhere. 

[Bini]

I can't think of a nightmare experience right off the bat. Losing luggage is never fun, or having it show up damaged, but that's always a risk with traveling. I'll be doing a lot of local flying inside the U.S. this year, and later in the year I'll be flying international to London. I'm not looking forward to the crazy checkpoints but I'll survive. At least I'm not pregnant this time! Last time I was almost 6 months preggers and everything was such a hassle! I won't go through a scanner when pregnant, so I had to wait until they were good and ready to frisk me down behind a lame curtain.

[NightSG]

Spent a night at OHare due to weather.  Don't remember much about it other than having been unable to sleep on the flight that got diverted there, so I pretty much found an unoccupied row of seats and flopped.  Next thing I knew, it was full daylight and one of the others was waking me up to catch the new flight to DFW.

 

ISTR Atlanta being a much more uncomfortable mess...but maybe that was in large part because it was in Atlanta.

[Palerider]

Spent a night at OHare due to weather.  Don't remember much about it other than having been unable to sleep on the flight that got diverted there, so I pretty much found an unoccupied row of seats and flopped.  Next thing I knew, it was full daylight and one of the others was waking me up to catch the new flight to DFW.

 

ISTR Atlanta being a much more uncomfortable mess...but maybe that was in large part because it was in Atlanta.

As busy as it normally is in Ohare.....surprised you could sleep .....Lol

[Guest]

My only bad story of airplane travel is my three year old son doing the crocodile death roll on the airport floor screaming.  He had enough of flying and was tired and cranky.  We were doing a flight from New York to California.  I will avoid doing long travel with young kids at all costs now.

 

My son was less than a year old when we flew across the Pacific ocean on Cathay Pacific.  It was one of the best flights ever.  They put me on a chair at the very front and had the baby crib fold down from the wall infront.  I had so much leg room I spread a blanket by my feet for the baby to play on.  The flight attendants were so enamored by my baby they would take turns taking him to the attendant's station on the other side of the wall while I sleep... and so then I would put my bag infront to prop my feet on, recline my chair, and sleep.  I would wake up and hear the baby giggling on the other side of the wall...

 

But then there was that trans-atlantic flight where they had this toddler crying.  The. Entire. Flight.  She had some kind of ear infection or something because everytime the plane dips, she screams.  I've never been so happy to see Frankfurt...

[JimmiGerman]

My horror story: Sorry, I've deleted it. People might think I'm a coward, afraid of flying. and that would be, of course, a total misunderstanding of the facts.

 

PS... Thanks, Vort, for the "like" - and sorry I had to delete my story. Please don't tell anyone about my airport disaster in that small Aircross turboprop plane before the take off, and what the stewardess said, and what she called to the pilot, and how the airport bus brought me back to the terminal. You alone certainly know that I'm not afraid of flying, and there was a very important phone call I had forgotten (as I mentioned, it was the time before the mobile phone), and that I had to leave the plane and to return to the terminal immediately.  ...

Edited January 23, 2015 by JimmiGerman