For me, my only big crying jag came last year in one of the airports in Texas - either Dallas or Houston - on my way home to ATL. I had landed from my little commuter flight and was changing terminals for my flight home when I checked messages and found a slew of them on my cell phone. Turns out my Mom had a second stroke, and was in the hospital not able to speak. I walked into the terminal from the shuttle bus, looked around to get my bearings and spotted the airport chapel right there. Never been in an airport chapel before. Walked in and sat down and started bawling - here I am on yet another business trip when I should be home with my loved ones. There was someone else in the back of the chapel meditating, and I felt bad for disturbing her, but she left me alone. I collected myself, got on the plane home, and when I got to ATL, drove straight to the hospital in Alabama. It was touch and go for a couple days there, but my mom regained her speech and is in halfway decent shape now. I've never been so thankful to see an airport chapel in my life. Have walked past the one in ATL a thousand times and never set foot in it.

Thanks for that input! As I know many of the security people at SVG I will let them know how kind they were with you.
By the way, can you remember what she looked like?

Regards from a Melbournian that lives in Norway and wants to back to OZ:)

Never bawled before ~knock on wood~, but I have teared up a time or two.

My GF lives in western MI, me in PIT. I route virtually all my itineraries through GRR so we can spend some time together. Why, I don't know, but some times are harder than others when leaving her place for the airport. I've teared up as the plane heads west to ORD from GRR and I can see White Lake (where she lives) to the north in the distance.

I also teared up pretty good back in January going to LHR. I was heading over there for an interview and if it went well, would be living in the UK, far away from my GF. Leading up to the interview, it seemed like the job was in the bag and as I flew out of IAD to LHR, I cried a bit thinking to myself that I was about to start a new chapter of my life that wouldn't include my GF. Very sad for me. The good news? The CEO of the company in the UK and I met again in California two weeks ago and we decied that living in the UK probably wouldn't be the best thing for either of us. So... now looks like I'll be working for them in North America in a prestigious position (fingers crossed).

Yes, on the IAD-SFO (last leg home) of my honeymoon. Due to a very mean SAA flight crew member who made us gate check our bags, plus a medical emergency during the refueling stop, we missed our connection in IAD and ended up on a much later flight, in middle seats across from each other. All I wanted at that moment was to be sitting next to my new husband. I mentioned it in a post on FT. I would say that 50% of the responses were sympathetic and about 50% were comments like "well I'm not going to trade my window seat for a middle seat... EVER!!!!!!... even if you were crying."

Thank you, Violist, for these words. You are completely right! As someone who
unfortunately has the crying gene - travelling for funerals, seeing someone else crying, realising I've forgotten something vital I meant to bring, then sad films once aboard ... I long ago had to give up being over embarrassed about it or give up flying.

I hate to seem like an idiot, but what in the heck does that bolded part mean?

I have cried on a plane before, but only because I have extremely sensitive ears, and it was the worst airplane ear popping experience I have had in my life; it was not so much tears, but cries of pain.

I am not much of a sobber, but I am the dreaded "look out the window sniffler." Instead of having one big cry, I can sniffle for hours. I have never done it in an airport or on a plane, but with the way my life has been going lately, I could start crying randomly at any second. LOL.

Honestly, I'm surprised that you don't see more people crying in airports/on flights. I know a whole lot of people who never fly for any reason expect in family emergency-type situations.

I've cried a little on airplanes during those type of situations, but I did have a total meltdown on one flight from CDG-IAD. My mom and I were in Paris, and she fell and broke her leg in two places. The doctors told her that she needed to see an orthopedic surgeon, and her options were to find one in France, or get the next flight back to the US and find one there. She chose the latter, for insurance and logistical reasons.

I called UA, changed our tickets, and then called them again twice confirming that they had a wheelchair available for my mom, who can't even hobble along on crutches. We get to the airport -- no wheelchair. I park my mom with the bags and hunt down some UA reps, who promise me it's on the way. 45 minutes later, no wheelchair.

Meanwhile, I go to pay the change fee for our tickets, hand them a credit card, and am told I have to pay for both of our tickets in cash because their credit card reader is broken. So, I run around the airport and max out the ATM daily withdrawal limit on every credit and ATM card my mom and I had in our wallets trying to come up with the money. I finally manage to do it, pay for the ticket change, and go back to find my mom, who still has no wheelchair. The UA reps are now claiming it's not their problem because they outsource the wheelchair service.

We wait. Now it's 25 minutes before the flight, and we still haven't cleared security, so in desperation I put my mom on a baggage cart, and wheel her into the security line. Security has a fit, telling me I can't bring a baggage cart with my mom on it through the checkpoint, at which point I found that blocking up the security checkpoint for a few minutes is a great way to cause a wheelchair to miraculously appear. We race to the gate, and are literally the last ones on board before they shut the door.

At some point along the way I realize that on top of everything else, the cab driver drove away with my jacket in the car while I was trying to get my mom situated curbside. When I got into the seat, I burst into tears and sobbed for a long time. It was something between tears of frustration and tears of relief. I couldn't have cared less what the other pax thought.

Now, *there* is a story, Panicked. I hope it all worked out well for your mom in the end. I know exactly what you mean about the tears coming once you finally get a chance to collapse in a chair after having to be the strong, in-charge one. The image of you blocking a security line with a luggage cart gave me a chuckle, I have to admit. It's amazing what a well-timed meltdown/stand your ground can bring about. Post-stroke, my Mom now uses a wheelchair in airports, but we bring her own instead of having to rely on the airport folks. I've started flying with my parents wherever they go, and my dad nods off too quickly to be driving long distances anymore. So most of the time when I fly I'm a well-organized businesswoman, except when I'm the spinster traveling companion for my aging parents. It's interesting how different the experiences feel.

I watched the film Million Dollar Baby on a flight. I hadn't heard anything about the film except that it was about a female boxer. So I was expecting a female version of the Rocky story. I was sobbing by the end of the film and so upset that I'd put myself through that on a flight.

Susan

Ah, Melbourne! I'm a Noosa girl who has been in Denmark until recently (now in London) and still dreaming of the beach and a decent flat white :)

Unfortunately I cannot really recall what she look liked - medium height, medium build and curly, sandy-blonde hair is the best I can come up with (that narrows it down in Norway!). Whoever she was, she was incredibly kind and the other staff nearby were also very nice. Please do let them know how grateful I am for that.