USVI-On-Line

Do you folks have any air travel horror stories you would like to share?

I heard this on the news this morning and now just read about it online. Can you even imagine being basically held captive in an airplane on the tarmac for over 9 hours? I've heard air travel horror stories....but IMHO this one takes the prize!

Besides being really pissed; I think I may have actually lost it...especially since I'm somewhat claustrophobic .....mia

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?secti ... id=5034846

I think I'd been going to jail because there would of been a new door in the plane.
Tom

I was trapped on an Air Canada flight on the tarmac from Toronto to DC for 2+ hours once and was completely postal by the time they let us off. There were apparently severe thunderstorms in DC preventing take-off.

Two coworkers and myself ended up renting a car and driving home from Toronto instead of waiting until the next day for a flight. Hey we were home by 6am! To this day I think this is why I ended up on the "watchlist" for security. Finally got off after a nastygram to my Senator.

I was stuck on a plane for 4 hours once sitting on the runway and they didn't give us anything to eat or drink and babies and kids were crying.
I bet we hear a lot worse stories from people stuck at airports and on planes this week!
I feel like I have been lucky, but then again I am not really a frequent flyer (wish I was, at least to the USVI).

I'd be in jail with Water Guy.

Actually a better question would be when was the last time you got on a plane and everything went smoothly. I can't stand that they (at least the flights out of Newark) are always overbooked.

When we flew down to STT in May we sat, and sat and sat. First they were trying to get everyone seated/rearranged. Every last seat was taken and most familys were split up. Then they pulled away from the gate and told us we were 22nd on line and that if anyone got up we would be moved to the back of the line. Ahh the reason for al of this was that Homeland Security was holding a drill. They could have mentioned that before we boarded so that we could get some water and would know that there would be no bathrooms for and hour or two.

One of my worst flights was from San Fran. to Newark. Unfortunately there was a meadowlands fire and they diverted the plane to Dulles. I know that's not terrible, but my brother-in-law had died and we were bringing his body back. Eventually they decided the air in NJ had cleared enough to head to Newark.

OMG that is horrible. So what if there were no free gates? They could have brought staircases up to the planes and let people disembark that way! I'm sure a walk through the snow is better than 9 hours on a plane--and they didn't even get to Cancun!

The worst plane experience I have ever had was sitting next to my brother on a flight back from Florida. He was really sick and kept hurling everywhere. His capacity for spontaneous projectile vomting was truly a sight to behold. I guess that's not the airline's fault though...

DELETED

I'm on an airplane at least 4 times a month (usually one round trip every other week, but sometimes its every week). I think I've been through just about everything but I've never sat on the plane for that long! I've sat for 5 hours at Dulles only to turn around and go back to the gate to sit for three more hours, and I spent a night at the Denver airport. I've also flown from Chicago to Cleveland, circled for two hours because of fog and then flown back to Chicago because the fog wasn't going to lift before we ran out of fuel.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles is one of my favorite movies!

I have a good one. While in Disney World, my then 10-month old daughter came down with the rotavirus. For those of you who have experienced the rotavirus, the nasty color/smell diarrhea is something you will never forget (sorry to be so graphic!) Anyway, it's also accompanied by vomiting as well. So we board the plane in Orlando to go home, it's about 90 degrees on the tarmac and in the plane, and we wait, and wait, and wait. Now I've been changing diapers about every 15 minutes for her and am getting nervous that we are not leaving the gate. Have what I think are enough diapers to get home, but if it's a long delay, I am in trouble.

I ask how much longer till we take off. No one knows. The flight attendants have now disappeared completely and I am really starting to worry. She's throwing up and blowing thru the diapers and it SMELLS badly. Oh goodness. While we were only on the tarmac a little over an hour and a half it seemed like 10 hours. We finally got moving and made it home with zero diapers to spare.

Been thru many delays, and the longest we ever had to wait in the plane is about 2 hours in Philly while nasty thunderstorms passed.

On one of our first trips to the caribbean, we did an all-inclusive that used the charter flights. We ended up stuck in San Juan for 10 hours waiting for another plane to come get us. Thankfully, we met a couple people that had a duffel bag full of booze (allowed back then), and it was quite the party!!

All of your stories happened in the US... This happened to me over the summer in India. We were flying the day after the bombings in Mumbai, and we literally waited on the tarmac for 6hrs. they gave us water and we could get up and all, but it was so hot, people were fainting.

we finally made it though...

Reason for waiting: Not everyone was on the plane! unreal. here, you're late and you miss the flight. over there, you're late and important, everyone waits...
g

Due to snow in Chicago we were stuck in San Juan airport for 6 hours one time. Don't know if it has changed much since then, but at the time there were VERY few places to buy food and drinks and they actually all ran out of both. Our boys bought the last 6 beers and we actually had people offering us money to buy them from us!

After all that waiting (oh, did I mention the limited seating at the airport? we sat on the floor), we got diverted to St. Louis, had to stay over night there before returning to Chicago the next day.

UGH.

All of these fun adventures make you wonder how the airline industry has even survived. When will they realize we are the customers, and not cows to be herded?
I heard that private jets are becoming much more popular now. at $10000 or more per flight, it's huge, but split with enough people, it can actually be cheaper.
You (we) all should start a thread for setting up private jets together.
g

ps. I think it's $10K per round trip, but not sure. and the planes seat over 20 people.

Oh, definitely the airport in Maui. We were scheduled to fly out at around 10:00 pm. On the way to the airport it was pouring sheets of rain. Hard, hard rain. I've only seen it like that one other time in Florida. Anyway, I was already messed up about the weather and after sitting there stewing over it for 2 hours we finally boarded the plane which was not even half full. Sat there for like an hour then the captain announced we had to deplane due to a problem with the fuel pump. So it's like 11:30ish and I'm exhausted and stressed (not the greatest flyer anyway) and they have no idea how long it will be. Everyone crashed on the floor at the gate and when I fell asleep I had nightmares the whole time. Next thing I know, my daughter is shaking me awake as we need to reboard the plane and not just any plane. The plane with the fuel pump problem. So now I'm really messed up and I had no Zanax with me. I maintained the best I could and because the plane was pretty empty, we all had our own middle row to lay down across. I put my little man right behind me and we took off. It was by far the most horrid flight I have ever been on. It was raining buckets, I was freaked about the engine problem and I had no Zanax! The plane pitched and dropped and cracked and the turbulence was out of control. There was a lady a couple rows in front of me and everytime the plane lurched to the side or dropped drastically she would scream. Nobody was allowed out of there seats at all and I was afraid for my son who was asleep behind me. My daughter was crying and saying "we're going to die mom" and I couldn't comfort her either. The was a direct flight from Maui to San Francisco so 5 hours and it was like this the entire flight. No inflight service, no bathroom runs, no comfort. Myself and the lady beside me would just lock eyes every few minutes after a particular disturbing pitch or roll and we could see each other's fear reflected in each other. Everytime I looked back at the flight attendants, they had the fear of God in their eyes so that frightened me even more to know they were terrified too! Of course Honey slept through most of it but the happy news is of course we lived to tell the tale. I wasn't too happy about having to get on another plane in Frisco to fly home though. But that thankfully turned out uneventful. If we can survive that flight, we can survive anything. Every flight since has been a walk in the park but I never want to experience anything like that again!

Back in 2003 a coworker and I were flying back and forth between Toronto and London Heathrow every two weeks. We had many problems and stories, but my favourite was when we were stuck on the runway for 3 hours before takeoff. Another coworker was also on the plane and came over to our seats to tell us about the person sitting next to him. Well this person had to go to the washroom. The seatbelt sign was on and this must have intimidated him. So, he did not just get up and go to the washroom, he did not call the flight attendant and ask if he could get up and go to the washroom, so he just went ....... in his seat! And that was before the 8 hour flight even began.

Karen