Back when I was in college going to Las Vegas for the weekend, our plane had a possible problem with the landing gear, so we were greeted at LAS by a full cavalcade of fire trucks and ambulances lining the runway, which was more than a little unsettling. We had no problems with the landing, but they wanted to do a full inspection of the plane before we went to the gate. However, while we were sitting on the ground, the cabin started to fill with an acrid smoke; there was a problem with the hydraulic fluid. Passengers started to panic, and they ended up evacuating the plane via the emergency slides -- very scary. (And very annoying when we realized we had to wait at the airport for several hours to get our carry-on bags from off the aircraft.)

When we got to the airport for our trip home, we found out we'd been upgraded to first class. The ticket agent asked us, "I don't mean to be rude... but who are you?" Apparently our reservation had us flagged as super-duper VIPs, which seemed a little strange for two college kids...