Flights From Hell?
 

So my flight issue was pretty minimal considering the other issues people have experenced.

I was supposed to arrive home at 5pm the day before the issue on the fight. Unfortunately there were delays with the equipment, and ultimately they had to change out equipment, resulting in me getting in to my home airport, CLT, at 2am. Unfortunately I was only getting one night at home, and had to fly back to DCA at 6am.

I would have normally just slept at the airport by this point but i had to run home to get more clothes to for the next trip. So by the time i got home, changed out clothes, and got in bed, it was 3am. I slept till 4:30am and make a mad rush to the airport to catch my flight to JFK and then on to DCA.

I was seat 1C, I typically dont like the first row Bulk Head, but that's all that was left when I booked.

So the issue that made it bad... Normally a 6am flight is a pretty quiet flight. Usually the turn the lights down low, and everyone catches a nap or does some work.

This flight didn't happen like that. It wasn't the passengers, but the FA. They never gave out drinks or anything during the flight, no biggie, but the issue was they left the lights on, That may have been a rule, I dont know. But the issue i had was they talked LOUDLY the whole flight. She had the most annoying laugh ever. They were screaming when they laughed. I was trying to catch just a little but even with my Bose noise canceling headphones they were impossible to sleep through.

So my question, Do you ask the FA to stop talking?

Sorry if my "hell" was far from other truly bad stories you may have to top it, But honestly not much bothers me flying, i take the good with the bad, But the Chatty Kathys at 6am when I need a nap was just too much for me.


Have any Horrible flight stories to share?

I probably wouldn't
 

I'm Leary of getting into any sort of debate with flight crew. In this case since they were both doing it they would work together to make you the bad guy.

Under the OP's circumstances - yes, I probably would have politely said something. And if it continued, I would have written to the airline afterwards, identifying the FA(s) by appearance (since I assume they would not provide their names or other information) so as to make sure other FAs on the flight don't get held responsible.

As for my own flights from hell, I've been pretty lucky, and I usually get decent or even great FAs. But when a flight is unpleasant, it's often due the FA.

As for other circumstances: There was what came to be called a "Summer from Hell" on UA back around 1999 or 2000 when pilot conducted a work-to-rule job action that caused all sorts of delays, cancellations and lost luggage. I learned to always do carry-ons after that.

Coincidentally, around the same time, I was in South Africa on a domestic flight to Joburg when our 30-seat jet started getting buffeted by hail and wind when preparing to land. The pilot tried to macho through the landing twice before having to pull up rather late in the process. Finally, the third time we made it. That was my own flight from h*ll.

There are two inhabited areas on Earth named "Hell". Neither has an airport. Thus there are no flights from Hell!

When I read the title, I thought someone was inquiring about flights from Hell, Norway (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell,_Norway).

Yes, I would have gone up to the FA and said that due to equipment issues from previous flight that you are running a less than to hours of sleep. And that you would really like to catch some sleep and that their conversation is carrying throughout the cabin.

I didn't really think it was from there but I considered the possibility. Hell, Norway is one of the places I checked for an airport. The other is Hell, Indiana, USA. There used to be a Hell, California, USA but it's been bulldozed. Hell, Grand Cayman is a terrain feature, not an inhabitation.

Isn't the code for Helsinki airport HEL?

I wouldn't expect people to be quiet at 6 am.

To me the flight from hell is not arriving at the destination. Anything else is a bother but it is just part and parcel of flying and I'll put up with it to arrive safely.

You've never been to Detroit?

In the end everything worked out... but this was still a pain.

A few years ago I had booked awards travel for a weekend trip meeting some friends (and my then long distance girlfriend) in Vegas. The planned trip was BTR -> DFW -> LAS. On top of that, I got super lucky and they let me book a 1st class seat for DFW-LAS with the normal economy points! I was living large....but that's not what happened.

That was the weekend in early December (2013 maybe?) that DFW had completely shut down for an ice storm. All flights were cancelled and the only way for me to get to LAS on Friday night was to fly United and depart from MSY. First I tried making this change over the phone, but of course that was impossible, American had already rebooked me for the next day. Being a weekend trip this was a tad unacceptable if there was truly another way.

As always with air travel, everything is possible (and free) if you do it at the airport check-in counter. So I drove BTR (20 miles Northwest of my house), negotiated the flight out of MSY, drove the 80 miles back the other way to New Orleans (and right past my house again) to get catch my new flight. I make it to Vegas ok that night, except that instead of a "free" 1st class ticket I sat middle-seat last row from IAH-LAS.

One thing left to fix was the return flight, it was still booked back into BTR, where I no longer had my vehicle. After a little pleading, American actually did rebook me (without the fee!!) to go LAS->DFW->MSY. Unfortunately, that Sunday the DFW still wasn't back up to speed, so American pushed my flight back to Monday. No big deal, I'll spend the extra day in Vegas.

Monday comes around and DFW still isn't up to speed, so I get auto re-booked on United. I was re-booked LAS->IAH->BTR (Same problem, vehicle was at MSY) Tried to fix it over the phone, but they "couldn't do it". So, back to the airport I go to plead my case to the check-in counter.

My hellish flight was from AMS to JFK.

It was a KLM flight, in a 747 that was half passenger and half cargo - they did make those back in the day.

On our flight, the cargo was racehorses. Half way across the Atlantic, their sedation wore off and they started thrashing around and kicking. You could hear them clearly and their banging around rocked the plane quite severely.

Airline staff kept rushing to the back of the plane and through a door, presumably to try to help, or to instruct the handlers to get things under better control.

The banging and rocking continued for the rest of the flight - it was worse than some turbulence I've encountered.

It was a great relief to land safely at JFK.

I understand that nowadays racehorses are only carried on flights that are purely freight, not passenger flights.

But there's a highway.

I remember this one flight where I was seated between and overweight person with a noisy lap child and a guy who put his bare feet on the bulkhead on the wall while he talked to me incessantly about his religion. There was no PDB, the bowl of nuts wasn't heated correctly, and the FAs unexpectedly did FOBE instead of FEBO.

That's the Flyertalker flight from hell... ;)

But there is always HEL (as noticed earlier in this thread). There are a lot of jokes and advertisements mixing up HEL and hell in various ways, e.g. "Hellsinki", a heavy metal music thing.

Before a recent AY flight renumbering, you could take flight 666 to HEL on Friday the 13th and book a seat in row 13...

I would not be surprised that the flight was numbered that way as a joke: The flight was from CPH, a major hub of the competitor SK, 666 to HEL...

On a flight from YHZ to NAS, the sound broke on the in-flight entertainment so someone made the brilliant decision to play the audio for the children's movie "Happy Feet" over the PA system. :mad:

Sounds like the horses shared your experience! :)

The Hell in SE Michigan is actually a cute little crossroads with an ice cream parlor that's located amid a state recreation area about 15 miles northwest of Ann Arbor. (I'm guessing about 45 minutes from DTW)

And yeah, there's an obligatory weather station there so that local weathermen can report when Hell has frozen over for the winter.

https://www.wunderground.com/q/zmw:48169.5.99999

I really need to find a photo we took by the Hell, MI sign when travelling with a bunch of accordion players.

KLM still use the combis. I've flown on the quite regularly between AMS and PEK, I think they still use them to PVG as well.

I flew on one from Entebbe to Amsterdam eight years back.

Just goes to show ya...

Ann Arbor is about as close to Hell as you can get.

But everyone in East Lansing knows that already.

Hell is literally right next to Trondheim airport.

https://goo.gl/maps/dBCHAaTJ2nC2

Does Meatloaf's Bat Out of Hell count? :p

No...
 

The circumstances around your flight made for a very bad time. But the flight itself, not even close to "The Flight From Hell"

It'd be a pretty bad flight if the sirens were screaming and the fires were howling, to be fair.

It's across the river from Hell. I would not call that a flight out of hell.

It's 500m from buildings in the town to the airport terminal - do you want them to land down the main road through the town? :D

I want the airport to be in the city or else the city is the closest city to the airport if the airport isn't in a city.