People From Around the World Share Their Worst Airline Travel Stories

Traveling is one of the most stressful things that we as humans can experience. The people below sharing their travel story terrors experienced way beyond a child kicking their seat or having a delayed flight.

Grab your pretzels and buckle up as you learn why these travelers may consider taking the bus next time!

Praying For A Safe Flight

This was when I was 15. I was sitting in the middle seat, in between a tour group that must have contained a lot of first time flyers.

Cue to the flight attendants announcing to the passengers to fasten our seat belts. The two people on either side of me started freaking out because they couldn’t find their seat belts.

I tried telling them they were probably sitting on them, but they just panicked instead.

They were screaming and other people in the tour group started freaking out too. The flight attendants came, but had a hard time understanding them through the shouts.

I was also trying to explain to everyone what was happening. One of the people next to me finally calmed down enough and asked me for help to find the seatbelt.

I had no choice but to reach under her, free the seatbelt, reach over, and fasten it for her.

She yelled something to the rest of the tour group and I guess they figured it out since there were whoops and cheers. I had to help the other person next to me and reach under him too. They were both sweaty. I got some of the sweat on me.

Then they decide to host a prayer session before the plane took off. The two people next to me were genuinely sweet and tried to make me feel included in the prayer group by holding my hand, but enforced prayer sessions just make me want to scream.

I mean, they were sweet people initially. They were worried why a young girl was all alone on such a long flight, and I had to explain that my family checked in really late, so we ended up separated.

They were chatty and asked me a lot of questions about flying. I needed to sleep though, so it was painful.

Finally, I decided to just order a drink so I could pass out. (This was a more innocent time when most non-American airlines would not check for IDs.

)

As soon as my Bailey’s came, one of the people next to me shot me the most disgusted look and snapped, “You drink?” I told them yes, and after that I was left alone.

Story credit: Reddit / (eraser_dust)

Death On A Plane

I was flying back to the states from Japan. The flight in itself was already a really long one. My family and I were seated at the very back of the plane — couldn’t get any closer to the back row than that as far as seats went.

Anyways, halfway through the 9-10 hour flight, a couple rows ahead of us, we just hear this poor woman frantically screaming in another language — I believe it was Mandarin or something along those lines.

I think she was screaming a name or a cry for help.

I believe it was her husband, since he was unconscious and wasn’t responding. The flight attendants came by, and they managed to find a doctor who was on the plane.

They dragged his body toward the back of the plane and found he didn’t even have a pulse.

They were applying CPR to him literally right next to my sister who was sitting on the other side of the aisle from me. They kept trying but nothing worked.

He passed away from heart failure; according to the people with the gentleman, he had many health issues.

After they stopped, the flight attendants asked my family and I if we could move seats. They had move him somewhere until we landed.

They planned on putting him in one of the bathrooms and sealing it off for the remainder of the flight, but their regulations didn’t seem to allow that.

So instead, we moved and took the seats of the family of the deceased. They ended up buckling him into my seat, and I ended up sitting where he had been.

So for the remainder of the flight, there I was, sitting in the seat of a man who had just passed away. While he was buckled into the seat I was previously in.

It was a really strange feeling, not comforting at all. Because of our positioning, turning the plane around wouldn’t have mattered. We were hours from anywhere we could get medical help.

It’s frightening to be in a situation where you know no aid is coming. I hope the family found some peace.

Story credit: Reddit / (wthman32)

The Suspicious Speakers

A US Airways agent at check-in put me in tears. I was checking in a box of personal items that happened to originally be for an air compressor or something like that.

The outside of the box advertised this, and I could tell she didn’t like the look of it.

She asked what was in it and I told her it was personal stuff, including a couple of blankets and speakers. I’ve never had an agent ask what was in my bag or box before.

They ask if you packed the luggage yourself and if you packed anything you’re not allowed to have, like flammable stuff, etc., but never what specifically is in it. She told me that the speakers weren’t allowed on board.

They were small speakers (like 4 inches high) with a small subwoofer, and I’d flown with them before, which I told her. She wasn’t having it and made me open the box.

She took a look at them and said I couldn’t check them in or take them on board, with no further explanation.

I am not good with confrontation. I was annoyed, and the other agents at the counter weren’t saying anything! I was the only passenger there at the time, and they just watched our interaction, and I knew I wasn’t in the wrong.

The problem is, when I get mad with stuff like that I just become rude, so instead of staying calm and saying something like “can I talk to your manager?” or even finding out her name so I could report her, I just swore under my breath, trying not to cry.

It was really embarrassing, and I’ve flown my whole life so I just felt stupid that I was so helpless. She made me leave the speakers on some podium at the beginning of the check in line, and then I went through security.

I was pretty much in tears at this point, and then TSA pulled me out because I had a tube of oversized sunscreen in my carry-on.

I remembered I had it, so I told the TSA agent where it was, and then I asked him if it was true I couldn’t fly with my speakers. He said no, speakers are fine, and I told him my story.

He said it was TSA who makes the decisions, so I asked if I could take them on board and he said that it was fine. So the only good part of the story is I went back and got my speakers that were still on the podium.

I wanted to confront the lady but there was a line by that point, and I didn’t want to miss my flight. I wrote a complaint to US Airways but unfortunately, I didn’t have the agent’s name. I’m sure nothing happened anyway.

Story credit: Reddit / (plyingby)

A Terrible Red Surprise

I was flying from Bangkok to New Zealand. My dad was a little pale before we boarded the flight but we figured he was just tired. I was 14 at the time and I fell asleep half an hour in and woke up a few hours later to absolute panic.

I had no idea what was going on but the smell that I woke up to was the worst I’ve ever smelt. Even ten years later, it is still the worst smell I have ever encountered. I just remember looking over to my dad and there was blood everywhere.

That’s what the smell was. Blood.

We got moved to first class (not as exciting under these conditions) and some rich dude wearing snakeskin was more than happy to leave to give up the room. I thought that was pretty nice of him.

I sat on one side and my father and mother were kind of towards the back away from me on the other side.

A doctor came in too (luckily) and was assisting. Flight attendants were consoling me and telling me everything was going to be OK, but I looked over their shoulders out of curiosity and saw my dad sitting on the window seat, not looking great at all.

We left the plane as soon as we touched down and since we didn’t go through any security we had our bags quickly checked in some sort of holding room. I fainted because there were so many people in the room. Also THAT SMELL!!

Then we all went to the hospital.

My brother was getting married the next day so we all went and visited my dad after – even the bride – it was pretty cool. He turned out to have a ulcer in his stomach. My dad recovered.

Story credit: Reddit / (Hiveraz)