posted by BR1986FB

First time on a plane I went down to Houston. Trip was uneventful. I was pretty freaked about getting in a plane to begin with. The way back was a different story. Coming out of Houston there was a nasty thunderstorm and the plane was rocking from side to side. I'm in the second to last row in the plane and I'm pretty nervous. There's a very elderly lady behind me who starts screaming in my ear "oh my god, we're all going to die !!!" I turned around, pretty much scared shitless, and told her "lady if you don't stfu you ARE going to die."

Been on one plane since. Not a fan.

Reading this made me smile like a dumbass....not sure why

posted by Commander of Awesome

No she stayed, didn’t want to travel solo. If I’m unable to fly tonight but I’ll be able to fly say Friday she’ll leave tonight I think. 

There also a Few arbitrary barriers. For example, the gate guy put us on same flight for today at no cost to us, leaves at 3 pm. However, the passport office doesn’t issue passports until 3, so fuck me. Like I could be done by 9 am and they can print it but I can’t take it until 3. Such bullshit. 

 

Bc of that, I had to buy us both new flights. The airlines we booked with doesn’t have another flight until Monday sadly thus why we couldn’t get it moved to Friday. 

Hope things finish out well. Sorry to hear all the irritating parts of your traveling experience that just are unwarranted

You guys are making me not want to hassle with flying.

posted by BR1986FB

First time on a plane I went down to Houston. Trip was uneventful. I was pretty freaked about getting in a plane to begin with. The way back was a different story. Coming out of Houston there was a nasty thunderstorm and the plane was rocking from side to side. I'm in the second to last row in the plane and I'm pretty nervous. There's a very elderly lady behind me who starts screaming in my ear "oh my god, we're all going to die !!!" I turned around, pretty much scared shitless, and told her "lady if you don't stfu you ARE going to die."

Been on one plane since. Not a fan.

I want to picture the guy in this Bill Burr bit as you.

posted by Commander of Awesome

Alright I’ll pony up and tell mine. Supposed to be on my honeymoon now 

Holy shit I think I blocked this out. On the first flight after my wife and I got married I was happy to book my wife's flight with her(my) new last name. Like a dumb ass I did not consider that her passport had her maiden name. That caused a huge problem when we tried to board... We are late to everything but somehow we were 3 hours early that day. We used every minute getting that fixed. The lady fixing it was "super helpful" and said she fixed our return flight too.  When we tried to fly home we discovered that she had just canceled our return flights. Fuck.

Not my travel, but other folks whose travel I impacted:

Thirty years ago at USPS, I went from the night shift to the day shift in the training office. I found out I was now the relief travel coordinator when the secretary went on vacation, so I had to get authorized to call our travel agency and get flights for folks going to training, and we were always flying people out to DC, Chicago, and Norman OK for training.  At the time I didn't know what flight numbers meant, I just thought I was supposed to get the cheapest flight to save money.

- Early on I was told to get tickets for an overnight trip for my boss's boss's boss - the imperious HR manager.  Let's call her Mrs. Jones.  I was very nervous about doing this, but I called, the travel rep said, "I've got flight 6498 available non-stop, that's the cheapest."  I said, "I'll take it".

The first day she returned to work I got a call from the Mrs. Jones' secretary, another stern lady.  All she said was, "Pay attention to what I'm about to say.  Never - repeat, NEVER - EVER - put Mrs. Jones on a plane with propellers again" ........... I stayed away from Mrs. Jones' office all week.

* * * * * *

- We used to send people to DC on a regular basis, had a big training center there.  I learned that we always used USAir 1492 flying to DC on Sunday afternoon, and USAir 1493 coming back to Columbus on Friday at 5 PM (then it would continue to LAX), and I scheduled a lot of people on those two flights when I was filling in.

Friday evening, February 1, 1991, big story on CNN and the networks:  USAir 1493 crashed on landing at LAX, actually landing on top of another plane taxiing there by mistake.  23 of the 89 SOB's the USAir plane died.  I checked later - I had booked two of our people on that plane, and they had gotten off safely in Columbus before it continued west.  I'm sure I would have felt responsible if they had died because I put them on a flight.

Holy shit!

posted by Ironman92

You guys are making me not want to hassle with flying.

Same. I've only flown a couple of times and they were uneventful but I'm probably the most impatient person on this site. We flew to Florida a few years ago and I hated every minute of it. Waiting to check in, to get through security, to take off, to get off the plane, etc. The absolute worst was waiting in line at Orbitz at the Orlando airport. Only a handful of people in front of us. Still took >45 minutes. 

Survived Spirit down and Frontier back from Florida, was only about 30 minutes in delays.  

Friday night at the budget gates of airports are entertaining.

Felt actually refreshing to have only a backpack for the trip.

posted by Verbal Kint

Survived Spirit down and Frontier back from Florida, was only about 30 minutes in delays.  

Friday night at the budget gates of airports are entertaining.

Felt actually refreshing to have only a backpack for the trip.

I've flown Spirit a few times and never had an issue. Flew Frontier to Denver and back and they managed to lose my luggage on the non-stop flight home. Other than that, it was fine.

Update: we made it. 

Good news. Enjoy!!

posted by Spock

i was just looking at flights on Allegient.  Anyone ever fly them?  

My girlfriend flew with them once. 

posted by Fab4Runner

Nothing too bad has happened to me, but a creepy guy sat next to my friend on a plane from Akron to Orlando (she was sitting in the middle seat and I was in the window seat) and sexually harassed her the entire time and also sexually assaulted her at one point. So that was fun.

Yes, she asked him to stop. No, he didn't stop. 

Did she contact the flight attendant? I might have throat punched the guy, or punched him in the balls.

About 6 years ago had to go to India for work. 

Flight out had a cancellation from Atlanta to Dubai (Delta). I was rerouted the next day through Germany instead. No big deal...yet

I arrive in Kalkutta India at 1 am Local time just to find out they lost my bag. I have to fill out the forms and literally buy a change of clothes in the only shop in the airport open at 2 am. 

Kalkutta is the asshole of the world if you don’t know this...for the rest of the story. 

I go to the taxi window and it has a sign that there is a taxi strike you must find your own transportation. So, at 2 am I go outside and find a taxi (apparently not part of the Union) and tell them the name of the hotel (Taj Bengal...same chain as Taj Mahal...absolutely beautiful). They tell me price that was about $40 which seemed reasonable for a 45 min taxi ride. 

Due to the late plane (another colleague meeting me there from Europe was delayed as well) we had to take a rental car with a paid driver to the city we were working in as the train we had booked was gone. 

The car ride was about 6 hours of mind wrecking insanity (the sheer number of near miss accidents was crazy). At one point the driver pulls over he needs a coffee and tells us to wait in the car, do not get out. We find out from him later that it was because we had white faces and may have been robbed there. 

Fast forward 10 days and one food poisoning later, I am watching the news and they are describing a local terrorist group that bombed some tracks causing a train derailment. The officials believed it was the same group that had sabotaged the brakes on a train a month ago causing two trains to collide at a station killing a lot of people. 

The next morning I am eating breakfast with our two colleagues from our Mumbai, India office. I ask them “hey, that train bombing I saw on the news, isn’t that the same train system we are riding back to Kalkutta in 2 days?”

In their Indian accent their reply, and I kid you not, was “Oh no worries, they bomb the trains at night, we are riding in the day!” 

Lets just say that wasn’t my favorite train ride ever...

I finally get back to the airport to fly home...and I find out that I have no ticket home. Emirates is saying they cancelled my flight home because I never got on the plane from Dubai to Kalkutta 2 weeks ago. Delta is saying they made changes and it shouldn’t have affected my return flight. To make this more fun, Kalkutta airport does not have a ticket counter like in the US. If you don’t have a ticket you are not allowed past the security at the doors (2 guys with AK47s). I was using a pay phone outside to talk to Emirates and Delta offices in New Delhi to sort the problem out. 

Once I realize I am not getting on the plane I have to find a place to sleep. The taxi strike was apparently over so I go to the window and try to get a taxi to the hotel I had stayed one night at 2 weeks ago. The taxi ride cost $4 (yes, 2 weeks ago during strike it was $40). So, I have an hour drive to a hotel that I have no reservation at so I am just praying they have an opening. On the way there, it’s during afternoon so it’s 8000 degrees outside and the taxi doesn’t have A/C. I have the window down and at one cross walk a woman tries to had me her baby through the window to take home...because a white face meant Europe or US to her and her baby would have a better life (not kidding). 

I get to the hotel, get a room, and get on the hotel phone to Delta and Emirates. I get tired of them blaming each other and just say I don’t give a shit just get me home. They could either get me out the next night on the same flight time  I was originally on or the following night, but either way the only time I could get out of Dubai was in 2 nights as the one tomorrow night was full. So if I left Kalkutta tomorrow or in 2 days it didn’t matter, I got back to the US at the same time/flight. 

I said put me on the flight tomorrow. They said “you don’t have a visa for Dubai/UAE so you would have to stay in the airport for the 24 hour layover. I said “yup, Dubai airport is 100 times better than Kalkutta, get me out of this city”. 

So I did spent 24 hours in Dubai airport, was like Tom Hanks in Terminal but it was better than India. 

tl;dr version-India sucks balls. 

^^^not bragging, as that sucked, but I think that might have “won” worst travel story so far. :(

A good friend of mine travels to India a lot for his job. He's ready to not travel to India anymore, and is working on getting switched over to covering South America instead. I love Indian food, but I have no interest of ever visiting India.

posted by justincredible

A good friend of mine travels to India a lot for his job. He's ready to not travel to India anymore, and is working on getting switched over to covering South America instead. I love Indian food, but I have no interest of ever visiting India.

I have been all over Europe, Central America, Brazil, Argentina, China, Japan, etc. 

India is still the asshole of the world. You couldn’t pay me enough to go back. 

I have a good friend from India and I would travel there with her to see her family, but that's probably the only way I'd go. 

posted by Fab4Runner

I have a good friend from India and I would travel there with her to see her family, but that's probably the only way I'd go. 

I can honestly say I have never met an Indian that is not nice (I am sure there are plenty) and I got a long with all of them from college and work colleagues. However, their country, for the most part, is a real crap hole. You put over a billion people in a country that is 3 times smaller than the US but has 4 times the population...so 12 times the people/area...

Oh, and people want to believe our wage inequality in the US (rich vs poor) is too high? Visit India, by comparison it looks like our rich and poor make the same amount of $$. Over there you are either filthy rich or homeless and there isn't really anything in between.

Returning home from the beach tomorrow morning....hope not to have anything to post on this.

posted by justincredible

A good friend of mine travels to India a lot for his job.... I love Indian food, but I have no interest of ever visiting India.

posted by jmog

 

 

India is still the asshole of the world. You couldn’t pay me enough to go back. 

these...my FIL was there for two weeks while he was the QC manager for Chrysler/Jeep, and he said it was absolutely the worst place he had ever been--and as QC manager, he was in Cairo for two years, China, Australia (which he said was as close to perfect as there could be), Toronto, and Mexico...among others.
 

flew a few months ago and my flight was delayed 40 minutes

I can attest to India being a shit hole, but we actually had a decent time. Only ate at the hotel, and besides going to the Taj Mahal we only worked the whole time. 

My worst travel story was driving from Charleston to Ohio sometime around 2007 or so and there was a blizzard so they shut the tunnels down in Virginia. We sat in bumper to bumper traffic for 4 hours before making it on the exit in Wytheville virginia. We couldn't even drive our car up the hill to the hotel so had to sit in a Bob Evans parking lot and walk up. Got the last room in the town per the desk person at a Motel 8, holy shit worst hotel I've been in. The next morning we tried driving home, sat another hour right in front of the tunnel until they opened it, and then made our way home. There were cars deserted on the highway all over so the plows were zigzagging all over the lanes. On one exit there was an entire national guard encampent set up. It could have been worse, but was a pretty stressful 36 hours. 

Probably not up to the "shitty" level, but I did have a bit of negative travel experience this week.

Mrs. Zunardo and I took a family vacation to California this past week with our two sons and Mrs. Z's sister, flew Southwest.   This Monday we were to leave LAX at 4:50 PM, stop and switch at Phoeniz AZ, then leave there 7:20 Pacific and arrive in Columbus at 2 AM early Tuesday.  Had early check-in, TSA pre-screen, and on-line schedule said "on-time" when we left for the airport.  So far, so good.

When we got to the gate, screen said "delayed due to weather" - thunderstorms in Phoenix.  They kept assuring us we'd make the Phoenix flight okay.  We finally lifted off at 6:30.  Flight was 1 hr 15m, but was 2 hours because a route change to avoid the storms.  I knew we wouldn't make a 7:20 connection.  Got off the plane at 8:28, the screen showed the Phoenix flight was taking off at 8:30 - at the gate beside the one we just came in.  The agent said, "Don't worry, we're not boarding yet, waiting for the pilot" ..... waiting for the pilot?? .... five miniutes later, they had us board.

After getting us on the plane, we sat there 45 minutes, with all of the other planes taking off right and left.  Finally a rep comes on board said, "Darn these funny FAA regs - turns out your two pilots are past their allowed hours for today, so we have to find a couple more" ......... past their allowed hours ???

Eventually they found two pilots that looked like they'd just been ordered in on their day off and pulled away from a hot dinner date.  We finally took off 10 PM Pacific - landed safely in Columbus at 5:30 AM.  No, I didn't sleep much for some reason.  Normally I would have slept well.

The five of us stagger to the luggage carousel - and the intercom blares "Mrs. Zunardo, please report to the Southwest luggage office" ....... yep, one bag didn't get on the plane.   

But, they knew where the bag was, and it arrived at Port Columbus 5 PM yesterday.  We were out and about when they called us, and we said we'd stop by and pick it up.  And because we did that instead making them drive to our house, we got a $50 voucher for a future flight.

All told, the wife and I weren't terribly upset, just bone tired.  The weather affected a lot more flights than just ours.  But we did think it was strange that Southwest knew all along our original pilots were past their allowed hours, and waited almost an hour to tell us that and then pull them off the plane while leaving us on.  Would have been better if they'd been up-front about it, and just kept us in the waiting area where we could have stretched out or hit the bar.

 * * * * * * *

I did have another delta for Southwest.  While we were waiting at the LAX gate, one of their reps kept getting on the mic and singing stupid rhymes to the "Barney" theme song in a childish voice.  Fairly irritating.