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Not nearly as surreal as that, but a few years ago I was flying from State College, PA to Philadelphia on January 2nd. When I got to the gate (1 of 3 at SCE) the agent was like “you’re it, let’s go!” I was thinking I was the last passenger, nope I was the only passenger.
They needed the plane in Philly so it was just me, the two pilots and a flight attendant on the 70+ seat Dash 8. The FA had me sit in a seat right by the wing (for weight reasons) and gave the most basic safety briefing I’ve ever had. After takeoff he asks if I want something to drink, grabs two cokes and plops down next to me and we just chat for the 40-minute flight to Philly.
I had a connection in Philly that was, of course, oversold. Win some, lose some.
Those state college flights are crazy. I flew in from Dulles once and everyone on my plane threw up except for me and my mom. She didn’t let me go to PSU for school because of that flight haha.
Had a ticket on a 16-seater in Tanzania once. There were no passenger seats left, so they put me in the co-pilots’ seat and gave me a 30 second tutorial on how to steer just in case…
Chief
Surely there is a bear management deck floating around at the Park Service we could leverage to form notional content.
Saw auroras outside the window on a flight from NYC to London. Most of the cabin was asleep so it was dark inside the plane. I just happened to open the shade to look outside. It was gorgeous.
Somewhere over the northern Atlantic
This was over 15 years ago when I was on a small ~20 seater turbo prop in the mountains in India.
As we sat down, a flight attendant came by serving water and juices. I was very impressed to see this service in the area and on such a small plane.
The next thing I saw, the attendant collected the empty cups, put the tray away, pulled out a captain’s cap and walked into the cockpit and prepared to fly. 😳
I just prayed hard for the next 40 mins, hoping it was the pilot that was doubling up as the attendant, not the other way around. 😂
Chief
A very drunk guy groped me on a flight once; I asked to be reseated, which I was denied. When the plane landed I legit lost my cool on the FA about how it was handled, the pilot caught wind of it, and chased Gropy McGoperson to baggage claim to have him arrested.
This is f so wrong with the country. A small oz of substance can get your years and someone who f with someone on a flight gets away. Good for you though to step up; sorry you had to go thru this ordeal
Chief
I once had 3 consecutive weeks of ontime departure on United Airlines.
Smh I should have bought lottery tickets during that period
Took a flight from SLC. Guy behind me was preaching lord's word till we landed in NYC. Jesus visited me couple of times in sleep the following week.
Today a guy asked me if I wanted to 1:1 trade his middle seat for my aisle seat… I thought that was pretty crazy
He probably pees a lot and wanted aisle seats so he wouldn’t have to climb over you every time 😂
Pro
Crazy lady stripped down buck naked except socks and ran up and down the aisle yelling we’re going to crash.
A “sick passenger” asked to get off the flight before we took off. Plane goes back to gate. EMTs meet us. She then has a change of heart I guess lol and decides she’s not sick and wants to stay on. FAs say this isn’t allowed and she must get off, meet EMTs and pilot has to fill out paperwork. She then uses a running start to try to force her way back on the plane. The pilot has to physically escort her to the gate by grabbing her shoulders and pushing her down the jetway. Y’all I cannot 😂
As soon as we touched the runway the pilot powered up and took off. Announced “Well I guess someone was using that runway.
Once got stuck at Heathrow for 3 days. I was flying from Scotland to NY with a layover in London. First leg was delayed due to weather. So I missed the connection, which was unfortunately the last flight that was able to get from London to the NYC area before a snowstorm hit. They kept trying to rebook me but each flight kept getting cancelled. In the end I had been booked on 12 different flights to NY. One flight actually took off, but 3 hours in and JFK diverted our flight to DC because they were still dealing with the snow. IAD redirected us back to LHR cause they were too backed up with flight diversions from JFK. So I flew for 6 hours and ended up back where we departed from. Fortunately, it's Europe, so thr airline booked me a hotel each night, and I had lounge access.
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Awfulness!!!
Rising Star
An old lady looked up and sneezed directly into my mouth. I got my whole project team sick that week because of it.
Ew.
Flying from Miami to Orlando and it starts to storm. Visibility is poor below so no one is being allowed to land. Pilot tells us to look outside to "see something cool." I look out the window and there's at least a dozen planes flying in a circle waiting for their turn to land. A lot of people on the plane start freaking out, did not go the way pilot intended.
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I would for sure freak out. Yikes!
Flew international and the lady behind my seat had a heart attack or went to heaven and came back, she pissed herself and was irresponsive for a whole 15 mins. Her husband was shaking her and screaming at her and she was just not moving and eyes were open with a blank stare. Started calling for a doctor freaking the hell out and then after a while she came back from wherever she was. Got diverted to Manchester so she could be taken to a hospital. Was flying to Düsseldorf. Never flying Lufthansa again.
That’s terrible
A baby Almoast threw up on me on a flight from NY to Munich. It cried the entire night so no sleep for me.
And I once forgot my visa papers. Homeland security is no fun then.
I feel more sorry for that baby!
Rising Star
Never actually got on the flight, but the luggage cart ran into the wing and the flight was delayed to the next day until a new plane could come. Flying out of a regional airport by a client site.
Rising Star
Had another one where one of the flight attendants passed out. Her husband was also a flight attendant on the same flight, and he was distraught with worry. We had to divert for the medical emergency. Always wondered if she was okay, she did regain consciousness before we landed.
Rising Star
How did they get that close to the plane after boarding door closed??
Flight attendants were wondering the same thing. "I don't get paid enough for this," said one
The guy next to me on the emergency exit seat started screaming like a baby and hyperventilating as soon as the flight took off. Apparently he was scared of flying. Mind you the flight attendant asked him if he can manage the emergency exit in case of emergencies, he said yes. They switched him to another seat immediately
This is only surreal because of how asinine it was…Hopped on a very last minute flight to Minneapolis from Chicago to visit my girlfriend for the night (bought the ticket that morning). I made the mistake of flying Spirit because of the optimal flight times. Never ever again…
Keep in mind I’d been traveling to my client weekly so I was plenty familiar with business travel. I got to my seat on the plane (I’d payed the $20 extra for an aisle seat in the front row bc I’m a nervous flier and the aisle makes me feel less claustrophobic) to find some guy in my seat. He was sitting there talking to his female coworker in the middle seat. I quickly told him he was in my seat and he looked at me very seriously and said he had to sit there because he and his colleague had work to do in the flight. Keep in mind this is a 45 minute flight where you can’t have your laptop out for 30 of the 45 minutes…I kindly repeated that I paid for the seat because i genuinely thought he misunderstood and could feel panic attack symptoms setting in. Also, what type of janky company are you flying spirit for business on? That’s what I really wanted to know. Anyways my flight anxiety is real, and I can usually keep it at bay, but not this day. The guy said I have his MIDDLE SEAT 12 rows back. I looked at him like he was insane and tried calling over a FA. She just ignored me and gave me a look indicating “settle this amongst yourselves.” At that point there was no stopping my panic attack. The plane door had just closed and I said I needed to get off the plane. I felt like I was going to die. Then the flight attended called the pilot to come intervene and the guy in my seat didn’t even apologize just said he had a lot of work to get done. The pilot asked to see his ticket and he proudly told the pilot he had to sit up front to work on a presentation with his colleague in the middle seat. In the end, he ended up going to his rightful seat but not before I ended up sobbing in front of 150 strangers.
Never again, spirit airlines. Never again.
Rising Star
That guy is an ass. I also have flight anxiety and seat selection is very important to me so I completely understand how you were feeling. I am so sorry. And even if not, what kind of an a-hole just sits in someone else’s (much better) seat? I never have, not ever will, fly Spirit for this and other reasons.