Worst flight you've been on. [Archive] - JetPhotos.Net Forums

BA747-436

01-03-2007, 10:23 AM

BWIA (L1011-500) St Lucia - London 1994

[photoid=556397]

Apart from having an interior somewhat reminiscent of a 1970's cheap porn flick, the crew seemed to think it ok to make an appearance only at meal times. (I say meal times' in the loosest sense as we were dumped upon with one 'meal' and a 'snack' on the 9+ hour flight. Seemed to be two IFE screens for the entire plane. As you can imagine about half the aircraft were a good 60ft away from the screen which flickered intermittently and then just packed up altogether half way through a dodgy B movie no one was watching anyway. - Yeah not the best flight ever I have to say. ;-)

Air Pacific (B747-200B) Nadi, Fiji - Los Angeles 2001

[photoid=95415]

After arriving at the airport a good 3.5 hours early for checkin certain that I would secure a half decent seat for a flight that I knew would be anything but pleasant (One day ill learn not to take flights just to get on rare/hard to fly airlines/aircraft) I joined the lengthy checkin queue only to notice that there were just three desks open for the entire flight. Now you have to fly this airline to believe how many people they can cram onto a 747 in a 2 class config... The first desk was J only while the second and third were coach. It did not help that this poorly staffed and hugely inadequate airport also had an ANZ763 and another Air Pacific 763 departing around the same time. Also the fact that every b*stard seemed to be travelling with the entire contents of their house which lead to pretty much every person having an argument with the checkin staff over overweight baggage. (will people never learn?!) So a mere 3 hours later.....yes i did say 3 hours later, I get to the front of the queue only to be told that there are not only no window seats available but no aisle seats either. So im seated in row 58 middle seat for the 10 hour flight in between two lovely large tourists who felt the need to talk over me and move around for the entire fricking flight. Not to mention that at this point I was 500 miles off being AA Gold and therefore unlike all the other OneWorld Elite pax who got upgraded to Business I was stuck down the back. Not impressed lol. Im not even going to start about the in-flight service, food, or IFE (dont even think there was any!) as I feel the checkin process was enough of a nightmare to ruin any flight. lol

Ive had a few other 'not so great' flights but these two rank as my worst. :-)

B7772ADL

01-03-2007, 12:01 PM

I've had a few bad ones where i've missed connections or the aircraft has gone tech, but the worse for comfort had to be at Thomas Cook 757 flight flying Rhodes to Manchester a few years back.
28" seatpitch is really not my thing, especially when the flight is at 2am. Now when I get tired and don't get sleep I get really grumpy and agitated, so to be crammed in the back of a 757 I really wasn't happy. My legs were wedged against the seat in front, so the only thing to do was to put them up into the window. I was starving and since we were saving money at the time we didn't order any meals, so had to watch as the rest of the plane ate. The TV wasn't working so couldn't watch anything.
It was 4 hours of hell, and i'll try to avoid that one again.

RingwaySam

01-03-2007, 04:00 PM

My worst flight was out last leg from Florida on a MyTravel DC-10. We had a 7 hour delay due to the plane diverting to Canada with a technical problem on the way to Florida so we was stranded at Sanford for a long time. We finally departed and it was pretty uneventful until we started our decsent into Cardiff where we had some of the worst turbulance i've experienced, but that only last for 5 minutes or so. We finally landed at Cardiff and most pax disembarked the aircraft but we had to carry on to Manchester.

2 hours later we still hadn't departed because we had a 'technical' problem, we wasn't allowed to leave the plane or anything. We finally rocketed out of Cardiff with a light load and again the turbulance was awful! People were screaming, throwing up, gripping on to seats and moaning.

Hopefully i'll get to fly on a DC-10 again :p

Sam at MAN

01-03-2007, 04:18 PM

Havnt really had a really bad one...Scaryist was when the guy down our row had a heart attack and went a grey colour, that was quite scary. Britannia 767, G-BRIF i think. Kudos to the crew tho they looked after him and everything and he was ok...just went off in an ambulace at MAN...

And PMN about your Dash-8 flight..When i was coming back from Jersey this rarther 'large' man got on the plane...well wobbled on and had the front 2 seats, TO HIMSELF! So luckyly i escaped the fat man :p

Sam

G-DALE

01-03-2007, 06:00 PM

bapilot2b

01-03-2007, 06:25 PM

I'm sure my two partners in crime can vouch for me on this one :D
Never again!.... :p

Cheers,

Dale

Oh yes, that flight certainly tops my list at the moment. The only other time I felt the way I did that day was 3 hours out of LAX on a direct flight from LHR. It felt like a medical emergency was needed and a divert a certainty (in my head), until my next seat neighbour was having palpatations and they really were considering the divert! I remember talking to James and saying I felt like I was going to die just as the crew were setting up an Oxygen mask for the woman....how bad do I feel LOL!

It was only in August 2006 I figured out the following equations:

Lots Of Beer Night Before Flight + Lots Of Beer In-flight = Nasty Headache Midflight.

Lots Of Beer Before Flight + Lots Of Beer In-flight = Nasty Headache Midflight

Lots Of Beer Night Before Flight + Not So Much Beer In-Flight = No Headache!

I tested this theory out in November flying to LAX via ORD and it worked a treat, but when you cant take advantage of all that free alcohol there doesnt seem a point, so on my next trip this theory is going out the window!

G-VEIL

01-03-2007, 06:51 PM

MyTravel DC-10.

Ah! That thing...I have memories of flying to Manchester to Barbados in it 3 years ago, it rattled, it shaked and the cabin crew were cretins. On top of that, the damn thing got stuck at Barbados for 3 days waiting for a spare part, and on the return journey, we were delayed at a stopover in Gatwick while First Officer was busy trying to hammer an emergency door back into place. Anyone got an pics of it being broken up, it would cheer me up haha.

DAL767-400ER

01-03-2007, 09:28 PM

Now when I get tired and don't get sleep I get really grumpy and agitated,
I know what you mean with that. Once had an unpleasant flight on a DL 777 to CDG, though that was due to a snorring passenger, not DL's fault, and his snorring kept me awake the entire redeye. Had I not plugged in the headphones and listened to Giuseppe Verdi operas for 6 hours straight, sometime during the flight I probably would have snapped.

Another unpleasant experience was an AF flight on a 777 ATL-CDG. Things started of well when upon check-in at JAX, we were told that AF (for whatever reason) had just cancelled our confirmed seat reservations and kicked us off the flight. Thankfully (in hindsight, probably not), the DL employee got us back on the flight. But now, I was stuck in a row with no recline right beside the lavs, and one of those nice IFE boxes under the seat in front of me, so I had nowhere to put my feet. Of course, the quality of service was just as bad as the seat was, and the way the FA's acted around, you'd think all the people in economy were Germans that the FA's blamed for invading France during the two WWs. And if all that wasn't bad enough, flight arrived with plenty of delay at CDG, and while we did make our flight huffin' and puffin', our luggage, as on most connections through CDG, didn't make it. This trip was what finally broke the last straw, and let to me and my parents deciding that we won't ever connect in CDG again, so as to avoid airport and airline, even if it meant flying on a intra-European flight without earning miles on it.

Cam

01-03-2007, 11:45 PM

http://www.jetphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=36901

:-P

flyingbosshog

01-04-2007, 04:37 AM

United A230 IAD-PWM

The flight was supposed to take off around 420... we arrived at the gate at 415 due to a late flight out of TYS... We watched our bags get loaded on and we were not allowed to board because boarding was complete....... Thus began our over night stay at IAD..... The next morning we boarded a flight to PWM that ended up turning into a flight to BOS and a 3 hour bus ride the rest of the way...... yeah...

a330340watcher

01-04-2007, 05:33 AM

PR 104 - 27 Apr 06

The route was MNL to SFO with flight time from takeoff to touchdown of 11 hours and 31 minutes on a boeing 747-400 registration number n754pr. It wasn't actually a bad flight but it sure could be much better.

My main complaint about it is the IFE isn't quite working. The crew had to do a live demo of the safety features instead of play a video. This aircraft was the only one in PAL's fleet to feature personal IFEs in economy class but the bad news... they were not working! The seat which my brother then later I sat on had no controls. No airshow was shown (I can actually live without PTVs featuring popular movies or programmes but the airshow, preferably with some music is the most important programme I need inflight).

To make matters worse, the flight was full so I can't sit anywhere else. Even the decent seats with white covers in the front right area which I thought were empty were actually occupied by the crew.

One of the very few things going for me was the friendly crew who sat directly infront of us. She even talked to me and we chatted about PAL's aircraft.

PAL should consider retiring this aircraft or giving it back to who gave it the lease at once.

arifpal

01-04-2007, 06:06 AM

Worst for me was around three years back from EWR - LAX on Continental 737.
Just the plane got boarded on time and started taxiing when it just stopped and parked on the corner of the runway. Then we were told that due to a major storm on our route we're gona delay departure. Minutes turned to hours and the worst part was when the captain announced that we can't go back and get into the lounge coz no gate was empty!!

Finally the storm came over us and shook the plane like crazy and out of no where admist the rain the plane took off after being grounded for FIVE AND A HALF HOUR and just begain a 5 hr 10 mins journey! Boy that was hectic :S, and the fact that we weren't allowed to get off the plane still pisses me off !!

BA747-436

01-04-2007, 07:20 AM

Oh I totaly forgot when i came back from SXM on American Airlines (757) Sat in 1A so the flight from SXM-JFK was nice..... until we got to JFK at which point most of the Eastern Seaboard blacks out. Leaving us and about 100 other aircraft stranded on the tarmac. 6 hours later (the flight was sched as 4.2 hours so add another 6 to it and your looking at 10.2 hours on a 752) we finally get assigned a gate. At which point i get jumped on by customs goons and interogated for 2 hours with no explanation. Retards. lol I finally get to the Waldorf in the city at 4am. 3 hours before I have to brave another day in blackout conditions trying to get a train to PHL. Yeah it wasnt fun haha.

seahawk

01-04-2007, 10:55 AM

Worst one for me was on a Eurowings A319 from Palma back töo Düsseldorf in 2000. It was a the time when they were trying to become a low fare business carrier with nice fake leather seats. It was early April so it was quite cool in Germany, but already lovely warm in Mallorca. When boarding we were surprised by the "leather" seats but also by the absolutely missing leg room. But who cares it is only a short hop, was what I was thinking. So I make myself comfortable in the seat and wonder why it is so warm in the aircraft, meanwhile the sun has come out. But we should depart any minute now. Well 5 minutes pass, then 10 then 15 and then 30. So first passengers ask the crew what is happening. It turns out that one of the busses taking tourists from the hotel to the flight had an accident and a replacement was sent and they are waiting for those 30+ people to show up. Unfortunately the ac was out of order and it became hot and hotter in the plane. So we waited another 45 minutes sweating like pgs in those fake leather seats. That was one of the worst.

The other, was totally unreleated to the plane or airline, but still bad. On a flight back from Tenerige we had a dutch mother and her son named Marlon on board. Well he was screaming and running through the cabin the whole 4 hours and his mother thought that it was quite funny. Never have I been closer to kill a child then on that day.

As a Miles and More card user, I never had any problems on non charter flights though.

BA747-436

01-04-2007, 12:30 PM

They dont have ground power at Palma to run the A/C?

JordanD

01-04-2007, 01:31 PM

a78jumper

01-04-2007, 06:43 PM

Hands down the worst was a military charter from LHA (Lahr FRG) to YOW on a filthy 752 belonging to Nationair. I did not expect much it being a military charter but that does not excuse a filthy aircraft that obviously had not been cleaned for months, and a slovenly could not care less cabin crew in equally dirty uniforms. Sort of made you wonder what they thought about aircraft maintenance issues and the like.

Seat pitch was about 29" with 228 seats, which made for a very uncomfortable non stop 3900 mile flight, especially so given I was hurting bad from a neck injury suffered the month before.

This was my second lousy experience with Nationair, which strengthened my resolve never to fly with charters unless absolutely necessary.

PMN

01-04-2007, 07:52 PM

It's probably gotta be a couple of years back flying Manchester to Dublin hungover. The flight duration was only an hour, but it pretty turbulent all the way through (especially coming into DUB) and the air conditioning wasn't coming through very strong at all so it was very warm inside the cabin.
Dale

Actually that reminds me of a flight on a BA 757 from LHR to MAN. We'd just done a gig in Portugal somewhere and hadn't slept for over 30 hours. We were flying LIS-LHR-MAN, and rather unwisely a few of us decided to get ridiculously drunk on the four hour drive to LIS after the gig, and by the time we arrived at LHR we were extremely tired and still a pissed. The flight was a bumpy one which I usually love, but not on this occasion, and this particular 757 was sadly lacking air vents at the back of the cabin. That has to be in my top 3 most uncomfortable flights list!

Paul

BA747-436

01-04-2007, 11:56 PM

:lol: Was that the 2003 east coast blackout?

The very same.... In retrospect not a good time to be flying! lol As we all know the US internal domestic product sucks b*lls. So to have to sit on an AA752 (even in First Class) for over 10 hours with 1 meal service and then just a few soft drinks left (some fat f*ck ate all the pretzels!) was not fun. Still, I have to spare a thought for those poor b*stards down the back who, no doubt had to pay for any drinks that were left.

Foxtrot

01-05-2007, 12:43 AM

I've had a fair number of flights which weren't that great, but a particular series of flights from OKC to BOM stick out as the most unpleasant ones, mosty due to weather and fellow pax. Glad to say it wasn' the airline's fault.

Even before the day we were supposed to fly out, we got hit by an ice storm which dumped 3 inches of ice, effectively delaying us. So after spending eight hours on and off the phone trying to get rebooked and convincing our stupid travel agent to enter an airline code into his system to get us rebooked, we had ust about had enough, but, it was far from over. On the day of the trip, the stupid Eagle ATR broke down at DFW and American Eagle in its usual laid-back manner took an hr and 45 min. to send us a replacement. Saver #1: It was an ATR 72-500 (the 500th ATR) that they sent, took about 37 min to get to DFW. Unfortunately, after landing on the west side of the field, the bus driver was having a great time chatting away for a few minutes with the FA. We made it to our connecting LH flight to FRA just as they were about to close the door.

Stuck in the midde two seats. Once we were out over the Atlantic, we got some of the worst turbulence I've ever experienced. Landing at FRA was on time however and the dense early morning fog cleared out later. Saver #2: I was at FRA on my b'day.

Then, again without a window seat, we prepared for the last flight to BOM. Ahh, at least it'll be a good flight. Boy were we mistaken. Some ultra-spoiled rich brat 3-4 rows in front of us just couldn't stop screaming his lungs out and his shrill voice pushed me to my very upper edge of patience. I was already extremely tired and frustrated from all the stuff the past 3-4 days, now I had to deal with this crap. The brat continued the shrieking all the way till BOM. And pax complain about how "noisy" a 747 is! Most of all what angered me was the fact that his parents put a deaf ear to whatever he was screaming about, I felt like going over and slapping one on the guy, but oh well. Boy was I ever glad to get OUT of an airplane. Of course, it follows that our bags never made it on the plane at DFW and we got them two days later.

I hope that is the first and last time I have flights like that.

BA747-436

01-05-2007, 12:45 AM

Why people dont invest in Bose noise cancelling headsets is always a mystery to me. The amount of flights that have been saved from being total sh*te due to noisy kids/pax nearby with these headphones is amazing.

turbotraker

01-05-2007, 02:03 AM

Where shall I begin?

Last year I had to fly to Canton South China for business. Booked a flight from MAN-HELSINKI-CANTON by Finnair. Helsinki to Canton was on a MD 11, that I was looking forwad to. Great flight, on our return we boarded our MD 11, I was seated on a twin seat right at the back of the aircraft near the darn toilets. After 2 hours in our seats we were told by captain that we were waiting for 1 yep 1 passenger who had checked in his luggage but hadn't made his way to aircraft.
The seat next to me was the only empty seat on the plane....a relaxing 10 hours with a double seat...or so I thought!! 10minutes later the last passenger arrived. Why is it the largest most obnoxious passenger ALWAYS sits next to me? Anyway this guy delayed our flight by 2 hours and 15mins, I had to spend 10 hours squashed in my seat with his flab hanging over my arm rest. Of course this passenger also had to snore and to top it off....had a personal hygene problem. I wont go into this guys eating habbits...needless to say I didn't have the appetite to have anything.

We arrived at Helsinki 2 hours late, only to be told our connecting flight to Manchester had gone without us, great. We were then told in order for us to make it back to Manchester that day, we had to catch a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt, ok the flight leaves in 15minutes. After a mad dash to the other side of airport we catch the flight to Frankfurt, 3 hours later we arrive in Frankfurt. We were then booked on a flight to Manchester, 1.30hours later we arrive in Manchester.

We waited 90minutes for our luggage......only to be told our luggage never left Helsinki and was still showing at Vantaa airport. We were NOT amused. 3 days later our luggage turned up, thankfully un-molested by customs.

So Finnair delayed the flight for ONE passenger. All the misery was worth it for my first flight on a MD 11.

Thats one of my nightmare flights...my next one will be my not-so-enjoyable flight on PIA.

seahawk

01-05-2007, 11:29 AM

They dont have ground power at Palma to run the A/C?

They should have, but for one reason or the oher they did not attach or re-attach it. Perhaps they were expecting the missing paxs every minute and wanted to go as quickly as possible .. I do not know.

FredMAO

01-06-2007, 10:25 PM

The worst flight I´ve been was G3 1853 BVB-MAO in october 25th 2005, flown by 737-700 PR-GOW. Most time of flight we had turbulence, I was suffering severe headache and with me was an old girlfriend that now I consider a b**ch :)

steve@MAN

01-11-2007, 09:58 AM

My worst ever flight was in June 2005 flying from Gatwick to Margarita. The First Choice 763 was perfect, the flight was perfect, however I was with a an ex girlfriend. We split up a month before the holiday but decided that we would be ok just going as friends - what a mistake. It was the longest most uncomfortable feeling being sat next to her for 10 hours knowing what she did a month ago. But I felt a little better watching her as we had some moderate clear air turbulence over the Atlantic and then the hard landing in Porlamar. On the return I paid a little extra and moved seats.

Steve

JordanD

01-11-2007, 08:25 PM

Bok269

01-13-2007, 05:23 PM

I was on a Pan Am Clipper Connection charter Flight to STT a year ago. The way down we had to stop in ORF for fuel. The 600 Am flight got in to STT at 300 PM. My dad asked why we needed to stop and The pilot (dont know whehter it was the captain, F/O, or F/E) told my dad that they didnt have the range to make it to STT. Clearly this was not true because we stopped at SJU for fuel and headed straight to JFK. We left in the late morning and didnt get back till the evening (i dont remember the time) The planes werent orginally PA birds, but still hadnt been renovated in a while. I wouldnt reccomend them to anyone.

On CO 90 to TLV the F/As were just obnoxious. It really speaks poorly about an airline to have bad F/As because they really make or break your experience with an airline.

Bok269

01-13-2007, 05:25 PM

Dup

Bok269

01-13-2007, 05:28 PM

They should have, but for one reason or the oher they did not attach or re-attach it. Perhaps they were expecting the missing paxs every minute and wanted to go as quickly as possible .. I do not know.

This reminds me of the time I flew AA655 from JFK to STT. Aside from a lack of IFE and crappy food, when we landed at STT, the pilot requested that we close the window shades because the Air conditioning is broken. I felt sorry for the next people to have to fly on the aircraft next, or clean it. I presume it wouldnt have been hard to get a replacement considering AA's hub at SJU, which is a half hour away. Either that or fly the next passengers to SJU and put them on the next flight to JFK

HS-TGY

01-14-2007, 02:17 AM

I've enjoyed just about every flight I've ever taken. My worst flight was probably back in November 2006, flying Korean Air from London Heathrow to Seoul.

Before travelling, I read a bit about the airline on their website. I especially wanted to know what the inflight entertainment would be like. The website bragged about a new AVOD system, so I was very excited. Unfortunately, when I boarded the 747-400, it looked old and dirty. The great new crew uniform didn't work well with what appeared to be a 1980s interior.

I sat down and wasn't too surprised to see that there was no PTV, but I did expect to see more than just one film on what was a 10 hour 30 minute flight.

The crew served two main meals and snacks, but otherwise, there was no crew presence for just about the entire flight. And when they did come around, they were especially friendly to the Korean passengers. They had no time for the few passengers that weren't Korean. I wasn't asked what my choice of meal was, they instead assumed that I would want the non-Korean option.

Korean Air is one very expensive airline, so you expect a bit more in terms of service. I wouldn't use them nor recommend them for long-haul travel.

I have one flight this Friday with them, but since it's only a 35 minute 'hop', I'll survive!

DAL767-400ER

01-14-2007, 11:45 AM

I was on a Pan Am Clipper Connection charter Flight to STT a year ago. The way down we had to stop in ORF for fuel. The 600 Am flight got in to STT at 300 PM. My dad asked why we needed to stop and The pilot (dont know whehter it was the captain, F/O, or F/E) told my dad that they didnt have the range to make it to STT. Clearly this was not true because we stopped at SJU for fuel and headed straight to JFK. We left in the late morning and didnt get back till the evening (i dont remember the time) The planes werent orginally PA birds, but still hadnt been renovated in a while. I wouldnt reccomend them to anyone.
No doubt about that, Pan Am MkIV is only worth it for aviation geeks that "want to fly with Pan Am at least once". For regular pax, this joke of an airline isn't worth the stress.

G-NIKO

01-14-2007, 02:40 PM

The worst flight i have been on was back in 1996 but i was only 4 years old so i don't remember most of it anyway here goes.

i was on a British Midland aircraft going to Gran Canaria. about half-a-hour in the flight i was bursting for a toilet. so i went to the toilet and it was broken so i had to hold it in for 4 hours, it was an nightmare.

Bok269

01-14-2007, 04:02 PM

No doubt about that, Pan Am MkIV is only worth it for aviation geeks that "want to fly with Pan Am at least once". For regular pax, this joke of an airline isn't worth the stress.

Its a shame too. THeyre a disgrace to the Pan Am name. I wanted to shout Go Back into Bankruptcy as I got off the plane in JFK.

screaming_emu

03-02-2007, 04:45 AM

Worst trip eh? I've been forced to fly Northwest a whole lot, so it took a while to figure out which one was decidedly the worst, but I think I have it. It wasn't a single flight per say, but a trip.

I was heading home to Maryland from North Dakota for Christmas break. I was supposed to get into BWI at about 1:30pm. This meant I had to leave GFK on the ridiculously early flight at either 5 or 6am, I don't exactly remember.

My route of flight was GFK-MSP-DTW-BWI. I've never had much luck when flying through Detroit. I have never once made it through that airport without some sort of delay or cancellation.

The first flight was your typical NW flight. I think it was on a DC-9. This was when I was still elite from flying back and forth to Japan multiple times a year, so I scored an upgrade for the whole trip. Still nothing special since none of these flights were very long and NWs service is still extremely weak. I think I got a granola bar and some coffee since it was early morning.

I got into MSP and I think I had a 2 hour or so wait. Not a big deal, went up to the (really crappy) observation deck and tried to stay awake till my next flight. I need mention that I had not slept in 24 hours. I was screwed into having to work until 2am the night before I was due to fly back.

Again, another upgrade from MSP-DTW. I forget what kind of plane I was on, but I was able to get a little bit of sleep. Landed in Detroit expecting a 45 min or so connection.

All was well, got another upgrade, was sitting on my 757 to BWI drinking my orange juice before push back thinkin "hah, I finally got out of here without a delay of any kind". Just after I thought that came a PA telling us that one of the seats in the cockpit was broken and our flight had been canceled. There were 4 flights heading to Baltimore later that day (it was currently something like 11am) and we were all randomly assigned to those four flights.

There was a 1pm, 4pm, 7pm, and a 9pm and I think you can guess which one I got. I had been up since 10am the previous day, had about $1 in my wallet, and I get to spend more or less the rest of the day in Detroit. I was really hungry, so I asked if I could score a meal voucher. The lady was very nice and had no problem giving me one....for five freakin dollars. I could barely afford to get McDonalds with that, but it'll do I guess. Airports are expensive.

Anyway, over 9 hours later, I've damn near fallen asleep in about 7 different places in the airport and my flight finally started boarding. I was happy to finally get on the airplane, even though this flight was on a DC-9 and I had a middle seat right next to the engines. At least I'd be home soon. Slightly delayed pushing back, but at this point in time I really didn't care anymore. We do a powerback, which normally I think is pretty cool, but I really just wanted to get in the air so I could recline my seat and try to sleep. We taxi for about 10 mins and then come to a stop, nowhere near the end of the runway. We sit for 15 mins before we're told via PA that we are 1 passenger overweight and need to taxi back to the terminal to find a volunteer to get off the plane.

Here's the part that really bothers me. I'm aware that its illegal to fly a plane when its overweight, the crew can't do anything about that. But here's the stupid part. According to the FAA, every passenger weighs 170lbs. That is the "average". So when you're estimating the weights anyway, does 170lbs really make a difference? Heck, we probably burnt 170lbs of gas off just taxiing out and back twice (with two power backs)

We get back to the gate, and the ground crew pops the baggage doors open and starts unloading our bags. Supposedly one of the pilots was hanging out the window yelling for them to stop. He later made a PA apologizing for the whole situation being "anything but professional".

We finally got off the ground, about 9 hours after I was supposed to ARRIVE at BWI. Then there is the whole waiting 45 mins to get your bags at BWI.

So yeah...that was fun.

Greg Wilson

03-02-2007, 12:13 PM

1969.... QF 177 BNE-DRW-QPG-SGN.......... NO ALCOHOL :roll:
QF 178...fixed the problem :grin:

BA747-436

03-03-2007, 01:12 AM

1969.... QF 177 BNE-DRW-QPG-SGN.......... NO ALCOHOL :roll:
QF 178...fixed the problem :grin:

Oh you should try Royal Brunei....
;-)

AA767Lover

03-08-2007, 10:52 PM

I was a child then, about 8 years old. I love flying. But this flight was ridiculous. It was the MOST turbulent DC-9 flight I've ever had on approach to St. John's, NFLD. Every other flight after that was superb. It wasn't even snowing or raining!!

Actually that reminds me of a flight on a BA 757 from LHR to MAN. We'd just done a gig in Portugal somewhere and hadn't slept for over 30 hours. We were flying LIS-LHR-MAN, and rather unwisely a few of us decided to get ridiculously drunk on the four hour drive to LIS after the gig, and by the time we arrived at LHR we were extremely tired and still a pissed. The flight was a bumpy one which I usually love, but not on this occasion, and this particular 757 was sadly lacking air vents at the back of the cabin. That has to be in my top 3 most uncomfortable flights list!

Paul

FinrodFelagund

03-15-2007, 01:51 AM

brianw999

03-15-2007, 09:21 PM

Worst flight...or rather the flight I didn't get, was TravelCityDirect Gatwick - Orlando/Sanford. I say didn't get because it was delayed for 23 hrs.

Supposed to depart at 0930 'ish, flying Sunshine First Class which was a major part of the holiday that we were looking forward to. We were first told that there was a 2 hour delay....then after 2 hrs it became a further 5 hrs.....then we would get more info at 1930 hrs. Then it was too late to travel even with a replacement 747-200/300 from Air Atlanta ( who sub-charter to TravelCityDirect ) because such an old aircraft can't leave Gatwick at night due to noise restrictions. Flight was officially cancelled 10 minutes after the time the last Orlando flight (Virgin) left Gatwick. Interesting that we had the right to demand alternative travel on official cancellation of the flight, even if it meant travelling on another carrier...the last of which had just left!

It later transpired that our aircraft had gone technical with a thrust reverser problem and had been sitting in Luxembourg at the Cargolux maintenance base where Air Atlanta / TravelCityDirect aircraft are maintained...and had been there, with no hope of repair in time for us to go out, since well before our original departure time.
TravelCityDirect knew damn well that we would not be flying that day but just stalled us to avoid their alternative travel responsibilities. We were put up in the airport hotel, finally getting to bed at about 2300hrs..only to have to get up at 0430 to wash, dress, take breakfast and check in the following morning.

We finally left 23 hours late in a replacement Air Atlanta aircraft that only had economy seating so we were relegated to upper deck economy seats. We were refunded our outbound upgrade costs but, apart from the hotel, we had no other recompense.

What really pissed me off was the return journey that left on time, with us in our rightful first class seats for a most enjoyable, comfortable flight. Nothing like rubbing your nose in what you missed outbound.

Most Frightening Flight.

Saudia Arabian Airlines internal B737 - 200 Yanbu - Riyadh.

A long weekend away to visit the Saudi capital turned into a nail biter when a humunguous storm developed over Riyadh airport. You have to have seen a desert storm to appreciate what I mean but, believe me, it was spectacular to see on approach to Riyadh.
We shot a couple of trial approaches, going around very early from long finals due to the massive crosswinds and windshear. The pilot very wisely decided to divert to Dhahran. We sat on the tarmac for a couple of hours until the storm at Riyadh had eased and we were able to go back there.

Did I say that the storm had eased ?

It was still thunder and lightning and blowing a whacking crosswind although the windshear was no longer present. That was the one and only time I have ever sat in row 2 window seat and clearly seen the full length and width of the runway for the entire final approach. I swear that the down wind wingtip was only a couple of feet off the ground when we touched down and that we landed left gear....pause.....right gear....pause.....nose gear, now try and stay on the runway.
The exhalation of breath from all aboard, including the cabin crew, was very loud when we finally slowed and pulled off the runway. Not quite as loud, however, than the round of applause for the skills of the captain.

Meridian777

06-15-2007, 12:14 AM

April 18, 2002
American Airlines Flight 810
Reno - Chicago
Boeing 737-800

After a four hour ground delay due to maintenance , we took off in a snow storm. Less than ten minutes into the flight the stabilizer made an un commanded left hand turn. The plane vibrated severely for about 10 secs. Some people later said it felt as though the real of the plane had fallen off. We ended up making an emergency landing in Sacramento.

Longreach747

06-16-2007, 04:24 AM

QF16
FCO-SIN
8th June 2004

crewed by the staff from New Zealand..well most of them were, absolutely the rudest and most abrupt bunch that I've ever had the misfortune of flying with.

LH679
CAI-MUC
18 Nov 2000

absolute disaster of a flight...I've never thrown up due to consumption of food onboard but I certainly did on this flight.

SQ215
SIN-PER
10 Dec 2000

staffed by "training" crew...this flight put me off SQ for 7 years until I recently flew with them this year to Johannesburg.

JordanD

06-21-2007, 08:26 PM

Lemme guess Monty, you had the fish? :razz:

AASuper80Fan

06-21-2007, 11:02 PM

Here's the new Kid on the Block's answer. I haven't been on a real bad flight but there is one that made me kind of P*ssed. When American Airlines took a number of bags (Including mine) off the flight to Regan to haul discounted Government Cargo, god was I fit to be tied. Luggage came on the next flight, but took 7 Hours to get to the Hotel. But my Father who flies A LOT (At least once or twice every month) could write a book on some of his horror flights.

AA 1818

06-25-2007, 05:25 PM

JetBlue A320 (reg.# unknown), Dec. 11th 2006, PBI-JFK.

Got the the check-in counters 2 1/2 hours prior to departure and was able to check in for my flight via the staff at the check in counters. There were two agents, one quite pleasant that began helping me and the other (that took over for he first) was the most rediculuously rude person ever. The latter refused to look at me, instead addressing all of her comments/questions through the first who then spoke to me. She tapped her fingers as she waited for me to load my bag onto the scale and then said "umm - the bag is overweight - that is an overage charge," to which I replied - "umm - your shoe is still on it...". She quickly tagged the bag, placed the "fragile" sticked on it and then threw it onto the conveyer belt.

I was soo pissed, but as I was about to walk away I looked at my seat assignement and was like 21 E. I walked right back to the first lady and was like "I chose my seats at home, and I specifically chose 5A. Why did she change my seat? Can you please change it back?" After 10 minutes of tapping away at the keeyboard she was like "I am soo sorry sir, it looks like she made a mistake. And I have to appologize because seat 5A is no longer available." I demanded an Emerbgency Exit row seat and was finally given 11A.

When I got to the gate, the weather was HORRIBLE!!! Next to my gate there were a couple of U.S. Airways flights that were simply ground halted due to the weather. Suddenly the announcement came that the U.S. Airways flight (which was scheduled PBI-Washington D.C.-Hartford) was cancelling the middle leg and that the aircraft would only be heading to Hartford. People were soooooooo pissed. Anyway, a one hour delay had most of us worried, but then we began boarding. After boarding, after pushback, we were advised that we were delayed again. Another hour later and we were still waiting, not even allowed to return to the gate. The F/A's were trying to calm the passengers except for the F/A assigned to my section (a.k.a. ICE QUEEN!!!). She was just intolerably rude! She cam over and asked us "Do you need anyhting to drink right now?". I replied, "Can I get a glass of rain water?". The other passengers started laughing, and she left - obvioulsy not amused. We made our way to the runway and the captian came over the intercom to say "Ladies and Gentlemen, we are delayed once more, but we are going to be leaving soon." About 15 minutes later, the flight attendants got their call to prepare for takeoff and we rocketed out towards the atlantic. It was perhaps some of the worst turbulence that I have ever encoutnered. The A320 rocketed and rocked as if it were a toy at the will of a child. It lasted 12 minutes. The lady next to me could not grip her poor husband's hand any tighter. She even screamed twice. It was horrible. Once we got to the cruising altutiude, it was soo bright. Dark, thick clouds below us and the full sun above us. The inflight service was great, expect for Ice Queen who refused to get me a bottle of water. To get my drink, I had to walk to the galley and ask a flight attendant myself. Oh, BTW, my IFE screen was not working. So all that I could do was listen to the radio. Ice Queen passed out the snacks and then was like "What would you like?" I didn't reply b/c I was fixing my bag at my feet. She waited no more than 1.5 seconds and left. She never even gave the passengers next to me their snacks.

Our approach into JFK was beautiful. Got off of the aircraft to see that half of the connecting passengers were screwed. Back in PBI, the passengers were told by fligh crew that they delay would not seriously affect their flight plans and that they would be confirmed on other flights for the same day. The couple sitting next to me were scheduled to continue onto the West-Coast but could not be confirmed seats, or even on the same flight.

I went downstairs and noticed my bag. Opened it and there was the my diploma, in it's case - completely smashed. I took the glass out of it and as I closed the bag laughed at the "Fragile" sticker. What a freakign waste of time!

Thebuzu

06-25-2007, 06:06 PM

I was once flying between Malta and Palermo on the lovely but old B 732s Air Malta had. Visited the cockpit and talked to the pilots and he explained to me the flap and reversing systems on this immaculate old lady and my favourite type of aircraft the 737-200Adv. This was in 1997.

I got seated back enar my mum since she was in the PTA and this was a flight for School children. I got a window seat to see those bucket reversers in action, next to me there was mum and next to mum there was another guy.

We climbed for this short 25 minutes flight. Upon climbing we encountered servere turbulence, and some really bad air pockets. The turbulence lasted for about 6 minutes and afterwards the crew came and gave us 3 pieces of squarish frozen sandwiches and an orange juice each. Me and my mum don't like orange juice but we took it.

The guy next to man was rocked by the turbulence and ate his sandwiches and drank his juice like a pig, really, he ate and drank while I was still eating my first piece of sandwich. Afterwards he requested to take our juices, that means he drank 3 juices at 4:50 am in the morning!

As soon as he finished sipping the last drops of his juice, the captian announced that there was turbulence in descent to Palermo and the plane started rocking. The guy near mum started turning green and after some 'sound effects' he vommited on me and my mum.

The smell was horrible and I had to make a day with my return flight with my shorts full of vomit stains and the crew didn't even bother to hand us some napkins to try and eliminate as much as possible the stains.

Atleast I got to see those reversers in action!

Ruben

Vince

08-01-2007, 10:50 PM

My worst flight ever....
Lotus Air, in 2002 (don't remember the exact day, it was in April).
We took an A320 for CAI-LXR...we landed at LXR during an heavy sand storm!
Visibility was 0, winds were , OMG, i've never seen stronger winds...We had some heavy turbulences...And finaly we landed. Horrible landing!

brianw999

08-06-2007, 07:12 PM

Another bad pair of flights...

United 777 LHR - LAX. We'd booked a holiday to Laughlin, Nevada and paid for it some 9 months previously. At this time me and the missus had different surnames. Flight tickets arrived some 5 weeks before departure and off we go to Heathrow. At check in we're confronted with the rudest American woman I've ever met who informed us when we asked for a pair of seats together, one by the window that we couldn't have that. "OK then, we'll have a pair of seats in the middle." "no, seats have been allocated, your're in row 19 and your good lady is in row 32" ( I forget the actual seats but you get my drift ? )

"How come, we booked together and the tickets were sent to same address ?"

"All passengers with different surnames will have to take what's left, and some of you won't get on because we're overbooked"

"OK then, bump the last ones to book" says I.

"No, I'll decide who gets bumped off". Says check-in tart.

This is where the penny dropped that all of the passengers on the organised tour were being bumped off to make space for late booking full fare paying Americans.

Cue riot !!

A tip for our American friends in the airline industry....NEVER piss off a group of Brits who you think don't know each other. We all quickly got together and produced a united ( if you'll pardon the bad pun ! ) front and proceeded to inform check-in tart that we'd all booked and paid for this flight a long time before the ones they were trying to favour and if we didn't get on this flight, sitting with our families and loved ones there was going to be some serious shit flying....and it 'aint made by Mr Boeing !!

Eventually we got our way and boarded but I'm pretty sure that check-in tart had a word with the crew because the service was the worst I have ever experienced.

Holiday over, time to go home.

Check in at LAX, I'm 5 kilos of baggage over but my missus is 3 kilos under and I figure they 'aint about to argue over 2 kilos total.
They try to charge me 1 % of the first class passenger fare for each of the 5 kilos which was quite a sum to me at the time.
Tried explaining that we could put some in missus's case and was it really worth arguing over ? No, that couldn't happen, it would delay the queue.

Now I'm REALLY pissed off.....until I have a bright idea !

"OK then, bill me please for the excess, here's my address" says I.

"We take dollars, pounds, travellers cheques or a credit card" they say.

I say "No dollars or pounds on me, I spent all my money BUYING AMERICAN GOODS !! to take home, and I haven't got any travellers cheques."

"we take cred....." "I don't have a credit card and my debit card is all spent out BUYING AMERICAN GOODS !! to take home with me. Bill me please to my home address."

It finally sinks in with them that I haven't got any money that I'm going to give them ( I really didn't but I wasn't about to tell them about my debit card actually having funds left because by now I am WELL AND TRULY PISSED OFF WITH UNITED PIGGIN' AIRLINES !! )

Check in person scurries off to speak to supervisor. She didn't see me follow and didn't know that I heard her told by supervisor to "stop being so stupid over 5 kilos, give him a boarding pass, the flight's 1/4 empty anyway".

Leg it back to check-in before she gets there.

"My supervisor says that this time we'll let it go....( pause )....Sir, but it won't be allowed again."
"Too right it won't" thinks I, "'Cos I won't be flying United EVER again".

And that, my friends is why you will NEVER see me on a United Airlines aircraft EVER again.

NWA 757 351

10-16-2007, 06:40 PM

The worst flight for me has to been a WN flight I took MSY-MCO in 2002. This was back pre-TSA.

Well, I got into MSY, and being given the infamous "Checkerboard" on my boarding pass (I was flying one-way so I expected it) , I was given three searches, one at the ticket counter for my checked baggage (the thing I could never understand with that is why you had to remain right there while they did the extended screening on the checked baggage, rather than being able to go right to the pax screening checkpoint), and next I went through the secondary screening at the central checkpoint with no difficulty. At the gate I was waiting in the line to be screened again when the bi*ch screener working for some company called Huntleigh snapped at me with no provocation "Do You Have a Problem With Being Searched?" Of course, I simply said "no", although I was tempted to call her on the unprovoked nasty tone and insist on talking to her supervisor. I had no problem at all with going through the secondary screenings, but the lady's tone was uncalled for as I did nothing to provoke it, and to this day I still wonder what set her off.

Needless to say, by the time the secondary screening got done, pretty much everyone else was already on the plane, and I got stuck in a center seat between a freakin' fat guy and a screaming kid!

That was a hour and forty five minutes of absolute torture!

ATrude777

10-16-2007, 09:57 PM

Which had NOTHING to do with the airline or the flight? :p :p

Alex

Jerrycobra Boeing

10-18-2007, 03:51 AM

haven't flown in a while, but i remember once, still in 2nd grade on a fight with my mom and aunt on a united shuttle, sfo-lax, it was a rainy day, we arrived at the airport, at the check in table, we found out our flight got canceled, it was like noon to 2pm i think, so, we had to wait, the planes paeed and go, no room, till like 8 pm, finally they got seats, the flight wasn't all that bad, just 6hrs staring at space, lol

and another time, even younger, united hkg(kai tak)-sfo, or vice versa, don't remember, but in the middle of the flight, we hit turbulence, for like 30mins straight, the plane was diving and climbing, switching like every 5 seconds, like the small hills on a roller coaster, those g forces were pretty unpleasant

Propman

10-18-2007, 10:11 AM

BA from Manchester to Brussels three years ago, on a 146 or RJ-not sure which. We paid top dollar for our "scum class" seats (more fool us) and it was the first time I had flown on this aircraft type. I'm a reasonably large bloke (6 foot 1") and it seemed obvious to me that three/three seating was squeezing in a row too many-and I was in a window seat, which made matters worse. A most uncomfortable and expensive flight.

By the way, is there any way I can get link to my photos below to appear automatically on all my postings? I've just figured out how to get it to appear, but I'm having to copy and paste it into each posting. Hope someone can help.

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Bok269

10-18-2007, 07:57 PM

Go into User CP on the upper left hand corner. On the left hand side you'll see edit signature. Copy and paste the HTML into that box and hit save.

Propman

10-19-2007, 01:07 PM

Thanks very much for that-done it and I also now see how to add an avatar to my postings, so I'm going to make a 150 x 150 photo file this weekend to become that.

BA747-436

10-19-2007, 02:52 PM

BA from Manchester to Brussels three years ago, on a 146 or RJ-not sure which. We paid top dollar for our "scum class" seats (more fool us) and it was the first time I had flown on this aircraft type. I'm a reasonably large bloke (6 foot 1") and it seemed obvious to me that three/three seating was squeezing in a row too many-and I was in a window seat, which made matters worse. A most uncomfortable and expensive flight.

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a) You choose to pay top dollar, can't really blame BA for that
b) A think you'll find most 6''1 men will find it pretty uncomfortable to fly on any RJ for a few hours. lol

Be greatfull you got food and drinks on the flight. ;)