Travel Mishaps and Horror Stories

Sorry you had such a terrible journey back! Don't forget to get some dosh out of the airlines for delaying your baggage, you can get about US$100, at least that's what I got from Lufthansa when it happened to me.

I just transferred through O'Hara a couple of weeks ago and I thought it was a great airport.  My flight arriving from Heathrow was on time, early actually but because it was so cold (wind chill -20F) the hydraulics for the ramps that hook up to the plane froze so they were having difficulty getting it so the planes could move away from the gates so no open gate for us.  By the time I got off the plane I had less than an hour to catch my connecting flight.  I was worried about my suitcase getting on the flight as well but they assured me it would and it did.

I haven't had anything as bad as some of the stories posted...I did have a sort of comedy of errors though when flying from Manchester to North Carolina almost 2 years ago.  I had to get from Sheffield to Manchester for my 9:30am flight- I took the bus to the station at stupid o'clock in the morning (my mistake, I should have taken a taxi) and missed my train by literally about 10 seconds.  The train was still on the platform when I got there, but they had already locked the doors since it was less than 30 seconds before departure. 

Then I panic for a moment since there was no way I was going to make my flight having missed my train.  I ended up rebooking the transatlantic flight, but for my connecting flight to Raleigh I now had just over an hour of connection time instead of the original 3 hours. 

I eventually got into Manchester and on the plane and flew into Newark, which was...just the worst airport ever, or at least it felt like it that day.  I got through immigration and customs okay, only to get lost for about 10 minutes and then finally face a huge 40 minute-long line at security.  By the time I got through security, my plane to Raleigh had just pulled away from the gate.  Happily, though, Continental rebooked me on a later flight for free. 

And while I didn't make it onto the flight, my luggage did- so when I finally got into NC, it was in the lost baggage office waiting for me (although I didn't know that so I panicked again because I thought my luggage had never left Newark!)

That's the worst that's happened to me, so I count my lucky stars!  I also have the distinction of having 2 near misses of hurricanes- when my family moved to the States in '92, we flew through Miami literally hours before hurricane Andrew hit, and I drove through much of I-10 between TX and NC days before hurricane Katrina lay waste to the Gulf Coast (and made much of my route impassable!)

Sorry you had such a terrible journey back! Don't forget to get some dosh out of the airlines for delaying your baggage, you can get about US$100, at least that's what I got from Lufthansa when it happened to me.

Very lucky! Last time American lost my bags they gave me a lousy $25! I had to find the cheapest store possible to find underwear and a cheap outfit. And it just so happened to be my brothers 40th birthday so we were all going out. Everyone looked nice and I reeked Walmart! 

I could always tell my honeymoon travel story again, but I reckon people have already read/heard it...

Britwife~ They won't give me money since they were lost on the trip home, the assumption being that you have other stuff there. Virgin did call to see if my bags had arrived, and I was pretty vocal about the damage to both zippers where they ripped my TSA locks off. They are going to send someone round to look at them and repair or replace them.

I wouldn't mind some new luggage. 

I hope you get new luggage out of them! That would be cool!

My worst was in Oct 2000.
I was travelling to NY JFK from Heathrow, taking a flight down from Leeds/Bradford. I had checked my baggage through from Leeds to JFK so that seemed much easier. When I got to Heathrow and went to the connections desk for my United flight the guy calmly said "Oh, that flight has been cancelled, I'll try to get you on another"! No explanation...so I asked "errr why is it cancelled?"
The reason - "Oh, there's going to be a strike in Brussels so we need it there to get people out!"....you'd have thought he was talking about an evacuation of a war zone the way he said it! Oh...being stranded in Brussels would be such a hardship wouldn't it?!
Anyway, after much phoning around he informs me he's got me on a BA flight at 5pm (6 hours later than I was due to fly), that my luggage would be forwarded to BA, and he gave me a voucher for something to eat but said to use it in that terminal as it wouldn't be recognised in the BA terminal! Which meant I had to use it much sooner than I would have preferred (i.e. I might like to have used it at 3pm rather than midday)
When I finally got to the BA terminal at around 3pm they checked their system and couldn't find my details, fortunately they came through whilst they were checking! I asked about my luggage and they said they didn't have any record of it but to check at the gate when I was getting on the plane.
So at the gate I asked as I was boarding and they said....not yet, theres still 10 mins or so though for it to get to them, if they didn't get it in time then they'd send it on the next flight.
The flight was full and I had one of those seats right at the back that didn't recline, but I was just grateful to be on a flight.
Sure enough, when i was at JFK I was waiting for ages and ages at the luggage carousel before the plastic box came out to signify no more luggage. Myself and about another dozen people all went to the lost luggage counter.....they informed me that my case was on the next flight, they took my hotel details and said they would have it delivered. I got to the hotel at about 10:30pm (sharing the hotel shuttle bus with a couple that had been on same flight having originally been booked on the United flight, no luggage, and also had flown on the connecting flight from Leeds!)
When I woke early the next morning, there was a message to say my luggage was at reception - that was a relief. Top marks for BA for doing all they could to get me and my luggage there.....No marks for United for the complete farce!

I spent 4 days in NY before going to California to visit my then LDR. She had just moved homes earlier in the week (whilst I was in NY) so before I left home had emailed me her new address and phone number. I tried phoning from the hotel in NY and the voice mail I got was someone else! So I had the wrong number!
Oh well....never mind, I have the address and the plan was for me to get a cab anyway to the house.So the cab eventually finds the street in Cerritos (about a $50 cab ride from LAX), however we don't see the number (1751), in fact the street just seems to have garages on it! After a while I ask him to leave me there and I'll find it.
Much wandering around the complex I was getting to know it well....I found a 1751 (although pretty sure it wasn't the same street) and ring the bell....an Asian woman looks out of the window and refuses to open the door, I only wanted to ask if she could help. She's shaking her head and screaming at me to go away!
I walk past 1 house 3 or 4 times and an older guy comes out and asks if he can help. He's really friendly and helpful saying he's lived there since the complex was built so we head back to the street I came on and he says "well this is it"....its just a  few houses and no 1751....The front of the houses is actually a different street name! So I'm still confused, and dusk is starting to fall (about 2 hours after I got to the complex!) I ask a guy who appears to run a house cleaning business and he can't help, but informs me there's a motel just down the road. So I set off to go to the motel and thought I'd check in and then come back the next morning to try to find the house, walking in front of these houses on the road, almost at the same time I notice 1571 (the middle numbers swapped around) and a lamp on at the back of the room....a distinctive lamp like one she had when I visited her when she lived in Chicago! I then see a silhouette of her stood in a doorway! She also give me a miswritten number for the house!
I ring the doorbell and she opens the door...so I just show her the email I have printed with the details she gave me! She had called the airport about a hour before and knew the flight landed on time so even allowing for traffic she thought I should have got there already and was worried.

I don't know what I'd have done for the next week had I not found the house!

Hmmm... I have a few but nothing like yours Courtney.  I'm glad you're okay. 

One was when I was doing a study abroad on Crete, we had to book a plane to leave Crete and fly into Athens, and then on to JFK, to Cincinnati and then on to Des Moines.  There were no planes that left on the morning we would be leaving Greece that would allow us to make our connection, so we had to fly to Athens airport the night before and sleep in the airport.  It's definitely something I would never recommend doing. 

When I lived in SC, I went to my see my family for Thanksgiving.  On the way back, I had to go through O'Hare.  And as it was November, of course my flight was weather delayed, and so was the one after.  And then it was cancelled.  So, I went to the desk, asked to get rescheduled for the next day.  The incredibly snotty guy told me to call a 1800 number, which I couldn't do from my cell phone.  He and I had several run-ins that night, one of which I ended up yelling at him, yes, I understood, but did he understand that I could get fired for not turning up to work?  I had to work on the Monday, and I couldn't get a hold of my colleague to cover for me.  So, I called my parents, in tears, and they sorted me out another flight.  By then though, they'd reinstated my flight about 6 hours after I was due to leave, and I got in to Columbia,SC around 2am.  Luckily my roommates picked me up.   

Then, there was the Detroit incident where my mom and I were trying to get back home, and we missed our connection from Detroit.  The woman at the desk when we finally got up to it, was incredibly rude and told us she wanted to go home, since she was supposed to be off.  Me being all of 12 said, I'd like to go home too, unfortunately I'm stuck here, and that she won't help us.  With many sighs of agitation, she got us on a flight to Minneapolis, we stayed with my grandparents one night, and flew home the next day.

The most recent one was when we missed the first train we could catch to Mancs to get our plane to Vienna.  So, we caught the next train that came only a half an hour later.  We would still have an hour and a half to check in.  Someone stole wire from the train tracks near Leeds, so we had to sit and wait, and then be diverted, and finally we pulled into Manc Picadilly where our train ended up terminating, and we had to run to the next platform to catch the next train to the airport.  All this time, calling Luftansa and trying to sort out if we could make our plane.  We arrived at 8:55 for our 9:30 flight.  We ran the Mancs airport, and were booked in, and just as she finished our check-in the flight closed.  We did get to go through the oober fast security line though. 

By far, my worst travel experience is this:

I had a 3pm flight to chicago o'hare from Indianapolis. I flight that takes about 23 minutes! For some unknown reason the flight was delayed by 45 minutes. By the time we took off, and were supposed to land I still had an hour and a half to connect. Well, we got to where we are due to land at ORD, and what do you know? There's a back log of air traffic so we had to circle the airport for about 50 minutes! We finally land, and I've got 30 minutes to make my connection. Except the jetway was broke. So after sitting for 15 minutes, the plane has to re park at another gate. So, now I'm off, with 3 minutes to catch my flight. I make it to my gate after the connecting flight closed the gates, by 1 minute! So I tell the woman, I just missed my flight, I need to get to LAX! So she said,, there's a seat on a flight to LAX that is boarding now, but its about a 5 minute run, if you can run fast. It closes in 8 minutes, and if you don't make it, weather is coming so you won't make it out tonight after that flight. So, I run my fastest, make it just as the last people were boarding. I tell the man there what the woman told me. He got me a seat, and I noticed on the ticket it said we were stopping in dallas. So I asked when it arrives in LAX, and he said "930"...so I then break down and start crying and saying "I've got a connecting flight to new zealand that leaves lax at 930!" so, sensing my panic, he looked up and said there was an 1130pm flight to new zealand, so he put me on that. So, I board the plane, land in dallas and sit on the plane for about an hour, then we take off for lax. We land at lax at around 945, which I thought was okay for making my flight. I get off, figure out I need to get a shuttle bus to terminal 2. Run down there, wait and wait. Finally at 1030 a bus comes. I get to the air new zealand stop off at 1045. I have to check in witb them, as I didn't get a boarding pass from O'hare. Well of course, I get a trainee. Who's slowly booking me in, and showing her supervisor how she's booking me in and asking if its correct. I asked the woman "are you sure I can make my flight? I still have to clear security again right?" and she said oooh no problem, you'll make it. So I finally am booked, it seemed like forever but it was only about 10 minutes. So, I run back out of the airport, re-enter where you go through security(I hate lax! Worst design I've ever seen for an airport) and find there are marked lines for certain airlines, and an unmarked line. So I asked a worker for one of the airlines that was marked, and she said "I don't know where you need to be" in a really snotty way, so I just chose the unmarked line, and later found out was the correct line. But I'm standing there for ages, listening to the dreaded TSA scream "no liquids! Take your laptops out of your bags!"...and of course as I was in the international section, hardly any of the people in line spoke english and either didn't understand what they needed to do to go through security, or didn't care. But, they'd get up there, water bottles in hand, laptops packed away(apparently the photos of these objects posted all along the line  with a red line drawn through it didn't make the rules clear either)

Anyway, I'm about 6 people behind from getting through the line, and I hear the announcement calling my name saying that its final boarding. I hold out my ticket and showed the TSA that it was my name they had just called, hoping she would let me go through first, as I see them do at a lot of airports. But instead she glared at me and said "wait your turn"...so, the airline calls my name 3 more times. By now I've been travelling forever, and am thinking I've missed my flight, and am just too defeated to even cry. So I just walk through metal detector, grab my shoes, and as I do, they give me one last call over the loud speaker! So without thinking I just grabbed my shoes, ran as fast as I could and the man was so close to shutting the door, but saw me running with my shoes in my hands and he asked if I was ashley g, and I said yes, so he let me through

I was sitting in a window seat. A man sitting by me, and his wife sitting in the aisle. Whenever I needed to use the bathroom(which was twice) he wouldn't get up! He made me climb over him :/ when I came back from the bathroom he grabbed my butt, claiming turbulence..there wasn't any :/  the second time I finally said "the seat in front of you is reclined, I really do not feel comfortable climbing over your lap to get to the bathroom" so he got up, begrudgingly
.
I then landed, 12 hours later in New Zealand, to find my bags never made it on my flight. But I made it to the airport, my fiance was waiting for me and I just was so happy, I didn't care! I went and reported my bags missing, and the man was so cute and sweet, it just put me in a further good mood. So, left the airport and we got to Hamilton where we were staying. The next day, my bags made it and were flown to hamilton airport where we picked them up.

Had a great trip, he proposed and everything

Then the flight back!

We took off, and the pilot came on saying there was a problem with the luggage door, and it wasn't shutting. So we flew for 30 minutes with him trying to shut it, warning us of loud noises/shuddering to come. After 30 mintues of trying he comes back on and says we have to dump fuel, and then will re-land at auckland. So we wasted an hour and a half, then relanded. And had to wait 3 more hours to get another 747 they could use. That trip I sat again at the window, with a very obese man in the middle(and, over in my seat) who I'm assuming ate something like chinese food with lots of onions, cos that's what he smelled like :/ he slept the entire trip, I poked and proded to try and wake him so I could use the bathroom, didn't work! Needless to say when he woke up for breakfast I was very antsy!

that was it, I'm sure I'm leaving tons out, but, that was a nightmare of a trip!

Oh dear Ashy......at least you had some good news about the trip though!

Did remind me though that on mine above - on the flight from NY to LA I was sat in my window seat and saw a large man with a filthy t-shirt and both hands bandaged up (in filthy bandages) walking down the aisle.....sure enough he was sat next to me. He smelt of BO as well....he then said he'd asked at check in if any upgrades were available and they said the flight was full, but that he'd just walked through the first class area and there was plenty of room and they'd closed the doors just after him. He asked an attendant if he could move into first class and the attendant just replied that if the check in couldn't accomodate him there was nothing she could do! He then spent ages complaining to me about it.....maybe I should have asked to be upgraded!
He asked where I was from, I said England - he asked if I was near London and I said no and then insisted all the flight I was from London, when we were landing at LAX and the smog was there he said "Oh you've brought the weather with you from London".....err...NO! I think you'll find this is common for LA!

Oh dear! Everyone should invest on some body spray or something if you're not going to bathe properly, and then sit in a small enclosed area, like an airplane! So unpleasant! My heart goes out to them, I realize in most cases obesity is a form of eating disorder, but its so uncomfortable to be squished next to someone who has to use part of my seat as well. :/

I'm very aware of what I do, especially on an airplane. If I bring a snack, I always be sure its one without a smell. I can't tell you how many times people around me have brought disgusting smelling subway subs, or been eating doritos, or worst yet, corn nuts! The smell is fierce!

I always have bad look with who sits by me. I'm a very friendly person, but I tend to be quiet on airplanes. I read, and listen to my ipod. On one flight to London I was being talked to a lot. So after about an hour, she quit talking and went to the bathroom. So, I started reading. She came back..and kept asking about my book! So, I put my ipod on, hoping I could just relax. Only to feel a tap on my arm: "what are you listening to? Is that an ipod? Those are such a good idea!"

She was a lovely woman, but too chatty for me. I'm a quiet traveller. All my friends know if we drive anywhere of any length, I put music on and expect no talking apart from little things here and there!

You're english, you must be a Londoner!! Haha. I get that when I'm in england. I say I'm from indianapolis, and nobody knows where I am talking about. They start asking if its near NYC, L.A., or Florida. I've now given up and just say "I'm from Indianapolis, indiana. Its about 4 hours southeast of chicago"

Apart from my fiance, I've only met two people who knew where it was. An IO at manchester airport, and an italian guy living with my fiance during their training. They loved racing, so knew where it was. I was so excited!

I love travel horror stories - both my own & others!  Because those are always the trips you remember & can laugh about, tell stories about, etc later -- often when everything goes off without a hitch, you find you don't remember it as well.

Virgin did call to see if my bags had arrived, and I was pretty vocal about the damage to both zippers where they ripped my TSA locks off. They are going to send someone round to look at them and repair or replace them.

I wouldn't mind some new luggage. 

Virgin were really good to me re: luggage. I had a hard-shell suitcase they cracked on a flight. So I go to the damaged luggage desk to file a report, and the agent asks me "How much was your bag worth?" I had just gotten it before the trip for I think 20 quid at Woolworth. So I told him "20 pounds." He looked at me and laughed.

Next morning, around 8am, a courier delievered a brand new hard-shell Samsonite!

Fabulous! Fingers crossed! 

Great stories btw. It feels so good to vent!