The World's Worst Business Travel Experiences

As you may have guessed - we see it every day. At WorldMate we get to experience all those flight delays and cancellation, lost luggage, mishandled hotel bookings and all sorts of travel mishaps - TWICE. First - because we monitor everyone's flight and itineraries - we send dozens of thousands of flight alerts every day. We track flight and airport delays, and we have users sending us thank-you notes about how we saved them from their trouble... Second - we're out there ourselves... just a few weeks ago I landed in RDU at midnight, rented a dingy Subaru to drive all the way to Pinehurst NC the next day to participate in a conference, then drove to CLT to catch a flight to Toronto... So we share your pain...

And because we do - we are now announcing the "World's Worst Business Traveler Experience" contest. What you have to do to win is very simple. Send us your worst travel horror story. It has to be up to 100 words, and all you have to do is post it as a comment right here (below). On June 1st we will bring all these stories before our esteemed panel of judges hand-picked from our team and our buddies... the best story will be featured in our next WorldMate newsletter, and the lucky winner wins an Amazon Kindle II reader, to keep him entertained on the next long wait at some airport...

So what are you waiting for? Tell it all, WorldMate Listens!

Comments

[Gilad]

I think I have a pretty good one: on my 1st trip to the US after my discharge from the Army I flew to CA on a charter airline. We landed at JFK and waited at the gate with boarding passes for the continuing flight to SFO. A burly security guard appeared out of nowhere, pulled shut the metal gate and secured it with a large padlock. It turned out that the airline went out of business while we were in the air flying from Tel Aviv to New York. The air line ground crew was afraid of a riot so they issued all of us our boarding passes, ran away and let airport security shut and lock the gate and deal with all the irate passengers. Needless to say that my JFK to SFO ticket was worthless, had to spend $500 for another ticket (1984 $$$).

G

[Ealz Ginott]

I think this one takes the cake, as I am still reeling after being forced on a flight back to Ben-Gurion airport this morning, by U.S. Borders Patrol. Following a flight to New York on a trip that was intended for meeting some of my business colleagues stateside at our company's NYC office, a Leonard Cphen concert for which I had purchased ace seats, and a shitload of shopping I thought the American economy would be stoked to take on, I was held up at Newark Airport after the immigration clerk said my name "showed up on their computer", placed into interrogation and then detention in their alien facility in what has now officially become the most humiliating episode of my life so far, and lastly, escorted to a Continental flight and deported by the border controls. Apparently, as they told me only hours later and after having me sign papers and having taken my things, is that the company I came to the States to work for briefly back in 2004 is actually not a legit operation, and that my name was given to them by a Mr. "Enter Name Here", who I do not even know. It all felt very "The Count of Monte Christo" meets a day in Kate Austen's life - but at least I have this man's name, I know through where this connection is, and I am going to whatever it takes to make him pay for this. I just got home now and I am still so exhausted, humiliated and confused that I have no idea how to even break this maddening news to anyone. I am going to rest for a few hours, shower and eat - since they did not provide me with any food and drink other than a breakfast pack containing bacon, proving just how worldly airport security folks are - and then call my lawyer to consult her on my legal options here. They would not allow me to make any calls, not even on my mobile phone. I was stuffed in a closed space with only non-English speakers, and not allowed a cigarette or food or anything. They searched me and I had to have a "pat-down" by two female officers and have my fingerprints taken like a criminal. I had an escort on the plane and my passport was only given back to me in Ben-Gurion, Israel in front of everyone there.
Best vacation ever, or what, right?

[Dario]

We arrived to CAL airport(Argentina). All AR flights were canceled. Our finally landed at AEP at 4:30AM instead of 23:00. At 13:00 I called to confirm our EZE-GRU-MXP-TLV with TAM, just to find out someone canceled our tickets. After hours on the phone we finally got our tickets back. At EZE we were made to rearrange all our suitcases cause the local airport porters won't carry more than 20Kg we were told also the luggage cannot be directly routed to TLV. Everything took hours and we were late to board. We ran to gate 12, just to find out the flight was in gate 2. The flight anyway took off in 0.5hour delay. At GRU the flight was delayed too. Most of the travelers already knew about it except of us, and got hotels arranged by TAM and MXP. We arrived to MXP just to find out we did'nt have to pick our luggage and b/c of that missed our flight to TLV (which was already a tight connection b/c of TAM's delay). It was Sunday and MXP was empty and no one attended us for hours at TAM's office. Finally we were told we 'probably' will have a place in the night flight to TLV. There was no shower, hotel of restaurant at MXP or offered by TAM. Thanks to Expedia who were with me on the phone for hours. Finally we arrived home one day later and lost a day at office.

[VickieA]

My worst experience was during a stay (horrible) at the Minzu Hotel in Beijing, China during the 2008 Summer Olympics. The hotel had one English speaking person on staff per shift. Your room card controlled the air conditioning if you removed the card, your room heated up with no mercy. I had stripped down to a tank top, no bra, and shorts and *thought* I had blocked the door so I could put the room service tray in the hall. Click and the door the was locked. I was then forced to go down 9 floors to the front desk to get someone who could speak English to let me back in my room. By the time we finally stood in front of my door, there were no less than a dozen hotel workers trailing behind us...and most wanted to come into my room while the manager checked my passport for identification. What a freaking nightmare!

[Ken Scoville]

Worst travel experience: Convention in Montrial. Cab ride from the airport to our hotel was a ride from hel-. My wife actually got sick as we pulled up to the hotel. I frankly thought we were going to die. Montrial turned out to be the most uninviting place we had ever been. Residents were rude and obnoxious and we always had the feeling that we were not welcome. Will NEVER go back there for ANY reason.

[Mary Heare]

My sister and I decided to take our children on a camping trip to South Dakota. Misery! First, we set up camp at this wonderful camp site but it began to rain, and it rained for 6 days and nights. We were stuck with no other options because we were both on a limited budget. But the real problem was we are both control freaks and weren't getting along at all. Because I felt so intimidated by her, I was afraid to tell her I wanted to take my kids home. So instead, I over-filled my radiator reservoir with water and the next day when we drove to Mt Rushmore, my car started steaming and leaking water. So I told my sister there was something wrong with my car and I had to go home. It was a nightmare trip and even though we love each other, we have learned not to spend too much time together because we are too much alike!

[Tari Lawson]

My best friend and I were returning home from a wonderful trip. We were up in the air maybe 30minutes or so when the captain came on and announced that we would be returning to the airport as some of the indicator buttons weren't working properly. They dumped fuel in the event of a crash landing. Thankfully that was not necessary. Once w landed, we had to transfer to another plane in a far away terminal. With limited time we had to gather our things and take a bus to the other terminal. The bus driver literally shut the door on me. I had to yell to get him to open them up and get me out. Our alternate flight was very turbulent. We had to land in a different airport and take another flight back home. It was just awful.

[pat ramey]

We went to Hawaii on a cruise 1 year ago. We had a non stop flight over and back. On the way back, about half the way I started getting pains in my abdomin.
I made it home. the next day I was rushed into surgery with a ruptured appendix. the flight was horrible with pains I am lucky it did not rupture.

[Jennifer Short]

I was teaching English in China one summer, and my students decided to show me some of the sights that tourists don't usually visit. I was shows the "red market" so called because there was so much blood everywhere from the slaughtering of animals in front of your eyes -- they were still alive when you pick out dinner for that evening. Then my students took me out to lunch and I had to eat a "wonderful" dish of duck's blood -- it was gray and jiggly! Yuck!

[JackL]

I was flying from Buffalo, NY to Salt Lake City on a Sunday evening. A passenger started to experience seizures so the plane made an emergeny landing in a small airport in Wyoming. By the time we filed a new flight plan, etc. we landed in Salt Lake at 3 AM! I checked in to my hotel, needed to go to the bathroom. Entered my room, went straight to the bathroom, as soon as I became "committed", I realized there was someone elses belongings in the bathroom. Next there was a woman screaming at the top of her lungs at me. Needless to say, as soon as I could, I left the room and returned to the front desk to explain my problem.

[Dave in Austin]

Ok, top this one. I had a flight from Coos Bay, Oregon to Austin, TX.

It took 3 stops... Coos Bay to Portland on Alaska, Portland to San Jose on Alaska, San Jose to Austin on American. I had a piece of luggage that I had to check.

Flight from Portland to San Jose was late and would not get me to my connection.

So they rebook me and give me a ticket on US Airways through Phoenix. I start walking to the US Airways gate and notice that the ticket isn't for me... it's for some other dude going to Austin.

I go back to the ticket counter. The nice Alaska agent tells me that they had booked me on a Northwest flight BUT FORGOT TO PAGE ME!!!!! We could see the plane backing out from the gate while we had this conversation.

(FORESHADOW FOR YOU... remember that I had a piece of luggage checked).

The nice Alaska rep tells me that there are no flights to Austin with seats on them.

I ask them to send me to San Antonio and pay for a rental car. Alaska agreed and reimbursed me for the rental car from San Antonio to Austin (roughly 70 miles).

But, what happened to my luggage??

My luggage - somehow - went to Austin via the Northwest flight I was originally rescheduled on.

I land in San Antonio, get my rental car, and I drive back to Austin. I stop at the airport to turn the car in and retrieve my luggage. The luggage was locked in the Northwest baggage office. I'd have to deal with this the next day.

I call NW the next day and they say "NFW... come get your stinking bags. We're not sending them out to you." So I drive out to the airport.

And guess what... my luggage has a wheel ripped completely off it.

I ask - nicely - to the NW gal that I'd like to make a baggage damage claim. She says, "uhh, well, uhhh, you weren't on our flght." Her supervisor says "It's US Airways fault because that is who he flew in on."

So... off to the US Airways office. The rep in the baggage office tries to help me. Her boss says that it is Northwest's problem... not US Airways. I march up to the NW office with the US Airways rep. NW's manager is out to lunch and won't resolve the issue. So we go see a different US Airways manager. US Airways manager's don't agree on things. The new manager says "It's Alaska Airline's fault, NOT Northwest's... go to their baggage office."

Well... Alaska doesn't fly into Austin and thus no baggage office.

Now remember... the wheel was broken off so I drug this suitcase all through the Austin airport. Quite fun.

Essentially, I was out of luck.

My last idea was to just ask the American Airlines baggage office for help since I was originally ticketed on them. The great guy there said that it was US Airways' fault and wanted to start World War III with them. I told him to "fugaboutit... I was worn out."

I asked if AA could do anything for me. He said "Sure, I'll give you a $250 travel voucher!"

And even though AA didn't get any revenue on this trip, they gave me $250 for a future trip.

Give AA credit for some great customer service. Give NW and US Airways a raspberry for being jerks.

[KeithC]

It was Superbowl Sunday and I was on a flight to Cleveland. There was a blizzard and the flight landed in Akron instead. I waited 2 hours for my turn to be shuttled to the Holiday Inn and they had just opened a wing that had been closed for winter. I went to my room and the toilet was frozen over and no water would come out of the sink. I turned on the heat, but it didn't work. In the morning, the water was still frozen so I couldn't clean up before catching the next flight to Cleveland for my sales meeting.

[Dean Fernandes]

Well I was going to Karachi, Pakistan for a meet. Due situation associated with that zone, the travel date was affixed for around January - after vacation. But due to some reason the date was pulled forward for the 21th of December!!! I had no ticket, just a booking for Jan, I could not get a direct flight, so I had to get a flight to Amsterdam, jump on a flight to UAE Dubai, then jump on a flight to Karachi, Pakistan. Well when I got to Amsterdam after 8 hrs, my onward flight to Dubai was delayed for 16 hrs!! well the airline did not put me up in a hotel.. I tried to get out into the city on my own but the visa desk was closed (it was 2 AM in the morning. So i lounged around for few hours, got tired and slept on the floor as this is a busy terminal. Finally bed raggled I got on my flight to Dubai - another 7.15 mins of aches of sitting, and squirming in my seat, stale clothes etc. When I got to Dubai, I found out due to the weather my flight was delayed for 7 hrs and since I did not have a visa for Dubai, I would have to off load my luggage, apply for a transit visa and rebook my luggage. Well I did all that, waited by the gate that was confirmed. At 10 minutes to boarding we all found out the change of gates which was all the way at the other end of the Dubai International Terminal (the new one) so I scramble like crazy, I was the last person aboard, sweating from all the running and lugging my carryon luggage. After 2 hrs got to Karachi, only to find out my luggage did not make it when we changed planes. So for the next few days had to make do with limited clothes, purchased some, made do - when i got my luggage it was ripped open, stuff was missing - got involved in baggage claims - got nothing for my troubles - also the cream of it all the meeting did not take place - due to the rest of the people in that meeting actually went home to their families for Christmas. So I missed Christmas with the family, came back with what dignity I had left, did the three flights back again (I made sure i had return flights pre booked!!!). Never again!! I used webex for the meeting which finally took place in January. It was good experience.

[Evelyn Behrend]

Had to take a business trip to Belgium and Amsterdam on short notice-and had to be in South Carolina on the Wednesday. Flew to Belgium with the flu and 103 - was in Brussells with the flu on my 30th birthday, flew the next day to Amsterdam (still with the flu) and flew that same afternoon to London to catch the last flight from Europe to the states, to connect to South Carolina, to teach for 3 days (still with the flu). My luggage ended up in Hungary. Fortunately, I'd thought ahead - and sent "emergency luggage" ahead by UPS to South Carolina - which saved the day.

[Gary Osburn]

Years ago (pre TSA if you can remember that long), my wife took me to DEN for a trip to London. We had dinner and since it was nearly boarding time, she left for home. The flight was delayed an hour, then a severe thunderstorm hit which delayed it again, this time for 3 hours. We finally boarded (now midnight). We sat for 10 minutes after everyone got on board, and one of the flight attendants walked off. This delayed us another 2 hours before they finally canceled the flight. I was able to get on the next flight, leaving 6 hours later, but I did not want to wake my wife to come and get me.

I may be the only person ever stranded overnight at their own airport!

The flight finally took off, and there was a screaming baby in the seat right behind me. He screamed for the entire flight. When we got to London, we pulled up to a gate and it was broken! It took another hour to find an empty gate (yes the kid was still screaming)

When we finally got off the plane, I found they has lost my luggage! Apparently it went to Hawaii. They would deliver it the next day. I had to buy new clothes for the client meeting I was scheduled for.

I got to the hotel, and because I hadn't showed up the night before, they canceled my reservation. Yes it was full and I had to find another hotel. When my bag was delivered to the first hotel, they said I was never there and sent it back to the airline, who sent it back to Denver.

When a trip starts to go south, there is just no stopping it.

[Darren Palmer]

On a round-the-world business trip I purchased a toy for my teenage son in Japan (ninja headband, foam nun chucks & a “fighting star” (not sharp)). Left the country fine, travelled to Korea. Left the gifts in carry-on leaving Seoul. Flew through Amerstam heading to Stuttgart. Going through security in Amsterdam they searched my carry-on, had some private conversations, then informed me the police where coming. Upon arrival they told me I was carrying a weapon and was being arrested. Taken to basement, read rights, waited for judge to render sentence. And this is only part of the story…

[Gary Osburn]

OK, really this one will surely win. I was traveling to Orlando from DEN on business, and my mother in law wanted to come along so she could visit family nearby.

She is referred to as Grandzilla in the family.

We got stranded overnight (1/2 hour at a time) in Atlanta. I spend 8 hours in a hot crowded airport with Grandzilla bitching the whole time.

I win. ;o)

[WimG]

Worst travel experience...flight to Tegucigalpa Honduras. Checked-in in Panama...boarding pass said Tegucigalpa, in the plane found out that the flight was going to San Pedro de Sula, there had been a crash in Tegucigalpa a few weeks earlier and the airport of the capital was closed. I had no clue where that was when I landed in San Pedro. No one from the airline there, I asked how do I get to Tegucigalpa, one taxi driver said...yes I can take you there; we were in a bus with 8 other people. We arrived in the capital 6 hours later after having experienced 3 near death experiences with trucks passing the bus at 2 cms. distance. I did not look forward to do this trip again and on the way back I asked if there was another way to get to San Pedro, they said yes, a local flight, I managed the last seat, at boarding they did not want me to board saying the morning flight was delayed and this was the first flight of the day & had to wait till the afternoon. I would miss my connection to San Jose Costa Rica, fought my way onto the plane asked if the luggage was loaded, they said yes, and the flight departed. Got to San Pedro, no luggage, I had a meeting at 6:00 that night in San Jose...so left just with my hand luggage and left a note for the airline people, who were having lunch. No clothes besides the ones I was wearing...arrived in San Jose at 4:00, had to buy new clothes, I never was refunded by either airline or insurance.The luggage was located after a month and I got it back after 3 months of course without all the valuables...nice trip.

[John H]

I flew from Vancouver to Santiago Chile via Lima Peru. The flight was very good and when I landed in Santiago nature was calling (long flight). Standing in front of the urinal I was suddendly surrounded by three fellows - one on each side and one behind me. In their broken english they proclaimed "we want your stuff"! Well they took my brief case and coat and left. I zipped up and was after them but they were quick and I lost them. I immediately went to the police and she was gorgeous and her only words in english were "welcome to Chile". All I had left was about $1, no passport, airline ticket etc but I did have my sense of humour! To make a long story short the Canadian Embassy was no help whatsoever - no monetary or moral support - look after yourself buddy for "loosing" your passport.I was told I had to find my own way to the embassy and with no money that was impossible. Well, after talking to AA and getting a new airline ticket, talking to the police and my business associates in Chile I managed to get on a plane to my final destination in Puerto Montt. After arriving the Canadian Embassy wanted me back in Santiago so they could re-issue me a passport. I tried doing it via Fedex but since the forms were in english and french (not Spanish) no one would notorize my signature. Off to Santiago I went with a letter from them stating who I was (no ID, no getting on the plane). Hired a taxi and off to the embassy, I had money now from my friends, 4 hours later had my passport and case closed. It cost me allot of money and time but the the best part is - I was later invited to the embassy for a wine and cheese reception. I told the consular general my story and he apologized for the way I was treated. I doubt if things have changed but who knows. The moral of the story - go through security before hitting the can! I do not blame Chile for this could happen anywhere in the world and if it does happen I hope the Canadian embassy looks after you better then they did me!

[Doug]

After a 12-hr delayed 4 hop transatlantic flight to Slovakia, my hotel reservation was cancelled, with no others to be had. After much calling through several friends, I found a small apartment of a semi-friend who was leaving for 2 weeks and let me stay. While there, a water pipe in the shower broke, flooding the downstairs neighbor, who thought I did it on purpose. After calling me many names I did not understand (thankfully), in retribution he broke off toothpicks in the door lock, locking me out. Try calling a locksmith and plumber in a language you don't know!

[Brian Keves]

I was flying back from Buenos Aires after a week long business trip and on the last day when I actually had a couple of hours to look around the city, I had a big problem with my equilibrium. I ended up being sick all of the time until my flight back and was still uneven on the plane, but at least not sick once on the plane. Of course the 11 hour flight back with no leg room in coach didn't help. (Don't even ask why I couldn't travel business class. :-)

I guess it doesn't sounds like much now, but at the time I was totally miserable and dreading the thought of getting on an airplane feeling the way I was, not to mention the crazy taxi ride to the airport. If you have been to BA you know what I mean. They have the highest traffic deaths in all of South America for a reason! Of course I was sick in the Taxi too.

[Kurt Chan]

I was coming back from Europe after a 2-week business trip that was brutal. Five cities in 10 days, and not all the customers were happy campers. When I got into Logan, the flight to San Francisco had been cancelled and angry customers were in the "Customer Service" line seeking alternate flights. I overheard the customer next to me frantically explaining to the customer service rep how he HAD to get onto some alternate flight, to no avail. Thankfully, I had my PDA with Worldmate and noticed an alternate carrier had an indirect flight that got me back that same evening, albeit a couple hours later. When I inquired, the service rep denied such an alternate flight existed, I suspect (but can't prove) because it was on another carrier. When I gave her the carrier and flight numbers, she acknowledged availability and got me on that flight. Worldmate saved me 12 hours in an overnight layover. The information it provides really can be priceless.

[Carlos]

My history wasn’t a “business” trip. It was Easter and the airport was overcrowded. At the airline counter they told us that our flight came delayed but they had to accommodate the previous day passengers cancelled flight. Arrived a less capacity airplane and we were in an emergency for our weddings night’s, so we practically fought the place. Finally, we arrived at the destiny and Surprise! Our suitcases did not arrive; by mistake they were removed to the next day flight. In ours first night together we couldn’t change the clothes that we brought and we didn’t have option either to buy another one. Was a long day for our honeymoon!

[Peg Brown]

After pulling an "allnighter" for work and going straight to the airport from work on Christmas Eve day, I was boarded onto a flight from Washington D.C. thru Minneapolis to Denver. Only problem was that when they boarded me on the DC-MN leg, the Denver airport was already closed due to a blizzard. Landing in MN about 6:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve, I had no flight to Denver, no place to stay, and the airline would not help. I found a hotel, got some sleep and called the airport to see when a flight to Denver might be going on Christmas Day. I was told to come to the airport before noon for a flight that ultimately didn't take off until after 10:00 p.m. Christmas Night. Getting to Denver after midnight, I had a three hour wait while my brother came to get me, I spent the day after Christmas in Boulder with him (we couldn't get to our home in the mountains of Colorado) and the following day I flew back to Washington DC to go to work.

[Rob]

hell_in_100_words: Business trip to INDIA. Caught dysentery. Trade show in a tent in 100F heat. Return trip home to L.A. took 38 hours: Three hours standing in New Delhi Airport on 8 queues, connecting flight in JFK – PLANE CRASH – the plane behind us hit us. A fender bender, but the planes were damaged. Took five hours for a new plane. In the air, had to make an emergency fuel stop in Albuquerque. Ready to go, but mechanical problems. Finally landed at LAX. Checked my BlackBerry to find my girlfriend broke up with me. Took a taxi to my office, my car battery was dead. Took a taxi home. Exhausted, I find my kitchen a mess – mice moved in while I was away. Wrote a letter to Continental about the plane crash, what did they do? A $75 voucher!

[Amelia Earhart]

Greetings from the Other Side,

Do I really have to go into detail? My worst business trip has been covered to death (pardon the pun).

And how the heck would you ship a Kindle to me here?

With fond regards,

[Jack Robertson]

Taking a business and pleasure trip to Maui, my wife and I waited seven hours for a delayed flight to land in Vancouver that we were to board. We were then told that the flight would arrive the next day, throwing our schedule out the window. We stayed in a nearby hotel overnight and when we arrived at the airport the next morning, we were informed that the flight had not arrived and we would have to wait another four hours for an alternate flight. We finally boarded and while enroute, the flight attendant spilled orange juice in my lap. Arriving in Maui, looking like I had had "an accident", we discovered that all our baggage had been lost. Our trip to paradise turned into the trip from hell!

[Peter]

My company cannot afford to send me anywhere. Please send me the Kindle so I can read to my co-workers travel experiences of those above and we can count ourselves lucky.

[Mario]

I was travelling through LAX a few years ago at the end of a very long round the world trip (21 cities in 28 days!), totally exhausted & on my last leg home. I ended up in a public toilet (air side) placed my travel wallet down on one of those shelves within the cubicle(with EVERYTHING in it, ie boarding pass, all my ID, passport, all my credit cards, all my cash etc) & walked out...forgetting to pick it up...walked back in 5 mins later & it was gone!!!! To cut a very long story short, I did get it back within 30 mins - but it was the longest 30 minutes of my life...needless to say, I dont "put down' my travel wallet anymore!

[Nitin Gaur]

In my several years of business travel now, I have made it a point to have fun on the road, and one I figured to accomplish this is to ensure that my business travel is not confined to trips between Hotels, meetings and airports, I try to squeeze in and make time for absorb some local flavors. This not only makes business travel enjoyable but boosts productivity, but eliminating the monotony of meetings-airports round trips.

This experience is of one such recent trip to New York City, one of my favorite business destinations, where I usually plan to catch one or two Broadway shows, and get in tune with the latest glimpse the city has to offer. I had a 4 days trip to NYC, and one of the days, my meeting the client was canceled due to internal scheduling conflicts, and the artist adventurer in me decided to make the best of the ‘lost’ opportunity, and explore MOMA, which I usually do not get to see due to the business hours, as I am usually working. MOMA was walking distance from my hotel – Hilton Garden Inn on Time Square. So I load my business back pack with some snacks and head to MOMA, and as I enter the 6th Floor for MOMA, to see their special feature on Salvador Dali, my blackberry buzzes with several incoming e-mails, and urgent notes. It appears that while my calendar was freed up due to canceled meeting and was open, I was being scheduled for several meetings. To make the long story short, I found a quite corner on 6th floor, (as it was open to only select visitors) I ended up working from MOMA all day, with back to back meetings, and could not enjoy the museum as intended, even being inside it. I thought I was rather ironic, or not meant to be. After a series of calls, I walk back to my hotel, with mixed feeling laced with disappointment and fatigue. On the way, during my short walk, I see the famous NY street food vendor (or I think it was) ‘King Schwarma’ that I had recent read about in American Way Magazine in flight, while in the past I did not dare to eat the street food, I decided to go for it, in the spirit of adventure and with a hope that the smell and spices would uplift my spirits. I ordered chicken with rice and salad, and extra hot sauce for my spicy palate (and, partly to stand up to the challenge mentioned in the American Way Magazine on the hot sauce). I must say, the food was fantastic, and a lot of it, and in contrasting comparison, while I could not see MOMA, I felt I had accomplished one of the goals of my frequent travel – to absorb the local flavor.

[Jan Nieman]

On my trip Shanghai - JFK - Amsterdam - Shanghai with Air France/KLM I was handed a printed eticket confirmation upon checking in with a 18:20 departure time for my AMS- Shanghai flight a week later. This is the same as my original eticket. When I arrived at Amsterdam airport for check-in they told me that the plane will leave "as scheduled" at 17:30 and that I was too late for check-in... So I had no choice but to reroute through Paris. While doing so I received a message from Worldmate (in RED) that my plane had left 50 minutes early. I rerouted and used miles to upgrade to first class. The friendly person told me that it would be 40,000 miles which I agreed to (really tried to make up for my 6 hour delay these friendly Air France /KLM people giving me NO free upgrade). In the lounge wating for departure I noticed 120.000 miles were deducted from my account. When I asked they told me that the policy had changed since April and it was now 120.000 miles. I did not agree and again most friendly they offered to downgrade me back to business class. Of course my originally reserved window seat was given to another passenger already.

If this is how a 10 plus year Platinum customer is treated I wonder how they treat normal customers.

[Heather Lloyd-Martin]

Oh, this is an easy one. :)

I was one of the "lucky" travelers to visit LHR's British Airways Terminal 5 last year. On opening day. When 20,000 bags were lost. And it made international front-page news for days.

I should have been worried when I sat in the BA lounge in AMS waiting for my flight to be called. I believe we got out 2 hours late, blamed on "small glitches" at Terminal 5. But, hey, they had given me a glass of champagne by this point, so my normally-trusty traveler's instincts weren't working. I didn't see the doom ahead.

Once we finally made it to LHR, I zoomed to my YVR flight and took my seat. And waited. And waited some more. In fact, we sat on the tarmac for 2 hours. During this time, our wonderful but very frustrated-sounding pilot was warning us about "baggage issues" and "we were still waiting for our baggage." Finally, she got on the intercom and said she was so sorry- we had to leave without the majority of passenger luggage. You should have heard the collective groan go through the plane. It's never a happy feeling when you're greeted at the end of a 12 hour flight with no luggage.

*As we were departing the plane,* BA reps greeted us with baggage claim forms. We entered the terminal with claim forms in our hands, with instructions on how to fill them out.

Once home, sans luggage, I would faithfully call BA every day for five days. I would even look online (like they told me to) in the hopes that my luggage was found. Finally, a kind CSR told me that she had no idea where my bag was. In fact, no-one had any idea how to locate a specific bag and everything was being manually handled. I thanked her and hung up. And gave up calling at that point.

It took 2 weeks to get my bag. No apology. No frequent flyer miles. Not even an email from BA - even if their mistake impacted thousands of people and made national news.

Bright side: I wrote about my frustration, and it's one of my most popular blog posts ever :)
http://tinyurl.com/peopez

[Anna Maria]

After doing check-in at Catania airport at 5 am.we were told that the airport was closed due to some accident on the runway the evening before.No further comunication was given. At 8.15 by chance we discovered that the gates were open. We were last to board the plane and we flew to Rome. Next connecting flight for Madrid was at 10. Arrived when check-in was closed.Thinkiing that all was useless.we ran through police customs and ran to gate without any boarding pass. Nice guy at gate understod our story and made us board the plane. Our next flight for Tnerife was at 2pm. Arrived in time to gate..At last moment gate was changed and all the running started again. But we did it. At last we could relax.

[Ashlie Galyan]

While my family of 3 was helping a missionary in an African village,5 hours from any city, one of the villagers asked the 2 men to walk home with him. Unbeknownst to me, some of the women of the village also escorted my 12 year old daughter to her father, one of the men.
The other 3 didn't realize the man lived two villages away; I was left in Bugabula village, Uganda, where my daughter and husband had disappeared (with the keys to the car) and only one person there spoke any English; the town drunk and compulsive liar who kept trying to hold my hand.
Only after the sun had deeply set, and I was wondering which of these men were going to take the abandoned white woman for a wife, did the 3 three finally return. I have never felt so utterly stranded in my life. We all slept in the room of the hut where the chickens were and bats swooped across the ceiling, but just having 3 other sober people that could speak to me made it a good thing.

[David Campbell]

23 hours in Schipol. Flying Kazakhstan to UK via Amsterdam in 2005 I queued for boarding pass for KL1009 10-20. Flight was cancelled. Another 3 hour queue for KL1021 16-05, then cancelled. ANOTHER 2 hour queue for KL1027 19-15. An unexploded wartime bomb started the disruption which got worse. KL1027 delayed by 2 hours but boarded, taxied out, turned back and disembarked. All KLM staff had disappeared. Security staff said no flights until morning. Slept overnight in airport, then 1 hour queue to escape on KL1001 at 07-15. Luggage escaped 2 days later. Avoiding KLM now

[Seth Manning]

I was travelling to Hong Kong to close a multi million dollar manufacturing deal to have a product in stores for the 08 holiday season. I got to the airport, had everything I needed to travel, I was, thoroughly prepared as this deal could change my life ... I followed all procedures, had all proper identification walked up to the counter to check in, gave all proper I.D. And was asked to wait. The next thing you know I am being escorted to a holding room as (someone with my name) was on a no fly list. I was held for 2 days with no phone calls allowed, all my posessions were taken from me until they were able to clear me to fly. When I was finally cleared to fly they only allowed me to carry on my Identification (Wallet & Passport) when I finally arrive in Hong Kong to my ultimate dismay my luggage wasnt on my plane and with the language barrier it took me another half a day to find out it would take another day to get my luggage. I head to the hotel only to find out that they were booked my reservations were for 3 days previous ... I finally got a room at another hotel and thought i had left proper instructions for my luggage to get transfered to the new hotel but after the 24 hour delay and 24 hours of phone calls to track my luggage to find out it never left the states. All my business contact information for my meeting had been checked along with my cell phone and translator. All in all I ended up leaving Hong Kong with no contract signed, I had the same flying problems on the way back and had to go through the US Embassy to get home. By the time I got home over a week had passed, I had no contract and it took me another 5 days to track and recover my luggage. I also lost the production contract and my product didnt end up in the stores for the holidays and had to give up when a similar product showed up later that year.

[C.M]

I was working for an Austrian Eng. Company (well I am) and he had a project in Caracas. Once I was waiting in the line to the ticket counter when a lady came asking me if speak spanish (I was wearing a Mexico Trikot). I said yes, she asked if I could give a hand to her teen son that was flying to Hamburg, since he didn´t speak any english or german, and I though, well yes, I can tell show him the way in Frankfurt. In Caracas there is one last military control just in the entrance of the tunnel to the plane. They stopped the boy, who was petrified (13yrs old) when I realized he wasn´t behind me I came back, just when the soldier wanted him to take him down some creepy stairs, so I asked if there was any problem. A heated discussion and many screams from the soldier (to me) later, he told me something that I didn´t think about yet at the moment, 1. Why are you helping someone you Don´t know? 2. What if he has drugs and somehow you end up being involved just by being nice? He was right, but I could only answer: "because I know what it feels to and arrive alone in a country, where you don´t understand a word, evenmore in a huge airport like Frankfurt). Then he gave me 3 seconds to GET IN the plane or I would be arrested. I got it, to my surprise the let the boy fly, and there were at least 10 germans who offered to help him in Frankfurt.
And that is when the story begins, that soldier never forgot me, and the last 4 trips whenever I had to fly out of Caracas, he would just call me from behind the line (200 persons) to the front, controlled everything, opened everything, and did my life miserable while I was in the airport. The last trip he controlled my stuff 4 times in 4 different places within the airport in the same day, it took me 3 hours from the entrance to the waiting room, just before he popped out one last time for the very last militar control, and he controlled my stuff AGAIN!

[Mike DeVincent]

The worst trip I've had was a flight from KC to NYC and on to DC. The plane lost an engine scaring everyone and had to land in Cleveland. I missed my meeting in NYC and went to DC. On the return red-eye, I was awakened to the oxygen masks dropping when the cabin lost pressure at 35K feet. Not a good trip and I almost kissed the ground upon landing safely in KC.

[Kathleen C]

My worst travel story occurred last June while on a 3-day train trip from Oregon to NY. Day 1 was uneventful. Afternoon on day 2 we pulled into Chicago to change trains. Started feeling bad and ate no dinner. Got violently ill, both ends, in the Chicago station. During 5-hour layover I was sick as a dog. They called our train and I had to take the cart, I could not walk. I was sick again in middle of station. The next 20 hours were hell. Luckily I was across from a bathroom. I was miserable. We arrived in NY and immediately got a motel room so I could lie down and rest. This was at the beginning of the food poisoning scare last summer. I am convinced it was something I ate on the train. I reported to Amtrak and CDC but they could not confirm cause. On our return trip 2 weeks later, flooding destroyed tracks and we had to bus from Chicago to Minneapolis. I guess I am a glutton for punishment as I am taking same trip next month.

[Mike Benton]

I just got off Active Duty and went to Ireland with a friend. We only planned on staying a week and really only had money for a little more than a week. Well the US Eastern Seaboard got snowed in and flights were canceled. Every morning for a week we had to get up at 430am and take a bus to the airport (we couldn't afford a taxi), and wait for several hours to find out if a flight was available.

Needless to say our one week trip turned into two weeks and we were running on less $20 a day. We basically just walked the city the last few days like paupers with no money to spend. We got our exercise though!

[Karen]

I was ghost-writing an article for a client, and I followed him to a conference in the London area. The hotel where he was booked was full, so I booked a room in a place nearby using our firm's travel agent in Miami. I'm sure the agent thought I'd be happy with this medieval-era bed and breakfast, but there were no free electrical outlets in the room (I had to unplug the one lamp to get one at all, and then I could barely see my PC screen). My travel agent couldn't be reached, since it was the middle of the night in Miami, and this was well before anyone could book rooms on the Internet (or WorldMate!). It took me hours to make other arrangements locally (thankfully, we all spoke English, anyway -- other than my Miami travel agent), and I finally got situated in a high-rise with business amenities. Now that I do my research and bookings online exclusively, this story sounds almost quaint, even to me!

[Wojtek]

Ahhh... my favorite subject... I am actually thinking about writing a book on the subject :)

There were plenty of interesting cases, including:

- a search of my luggage in Kuwait which revealed, to the amazement of the customs officer and myself, some white powder all over the suitcase. You can imageine my heart stopping. It ended up being a candy for my children which got loose and somehow grinded down.
- As a start, our luggage did not make it on the Las Vegas - San Francisco - Frankfurt - Bahrain - Kuweit route.
The airport in Kuwait is an exmple of a logistics nightmare with bery nice staff (security, police, customs, …). First there is a horrendous queue to get a visa, then you learn by chance that there is a form to fill in, and teh form is well hidden.
After an hour we can pick our luggage, but they were unloaded long ago and are somewhere amon the ones which are scattered literally everywhere in the hall. Ours are not there. We file a claim. Since I have a meeting the next day I need to buy some stuff (I have jeans and a T-shirt which has a 28 hours trip on him) and the airline must reimburse me back.

We start our adventure called “looking for the Gulf Air offices”. We walk around the whole airport, we go out, we chech the floors - nothing. We finally get hold of someone who shows us where to go. When we enter the room a staff member jumps in and yells “we have our luggage!!”. We did not even had time to say good evening.

Strictly speaking, the luggage was almost recovered, they call someone to bring them, we wait, we wait, they call again, we wait, we wait and then two people pop up. They go with us for the lugagge, but we cannot access the arrival hall so they go alone.
We wait
We wait

He comes back because he has fogotten to take the claims form.. We wait. We wait.
He is back without teh lugagge and explains us in Arabic that we must come back to the office because something. We go back. We learn there that something is wrong with the luggage and it was put in custody by the customs. We cannot go back so we do a trip to the police station to get authorization. After some small pertractations we are clared to go.

I open my suitcase, it is searched and we can go. We landed before 21:00, we leave a bit before 1 am.

- Departure from Gatwick. Passport control. Picture taken. Boarding pass control. Big queue to security. I remove my belt, phone and take my laptop aside. After going through the detector the staff asks me if this is a computer. Since it is he must check for explosives. He swipes it with a cloth, puts the cloth in a detector. The detector wants more cloth. Re-swipe. Detector says fine.
We are not done yet. New queue, this time for shoes checking. I tak eoff my shoes, they go though a special detector for shoes.
And no fluids above 100 ml.

Don’t get me wrong: I happily ge though all this security stuff because I do not want to witness a plane explosion. There are a few things which make me wonder, though:
- since some kind of specialist had a vision under the shower that above 100 ml we have a bum! and below not - how do they deal with the 60 ml form one nasty passenger + 60 ml form another nasty one and 70 ml from a third nasty one = 190 ml, which means bum! ?
- what will happen if during one episod of the McGyver series it is discovered that with a pair of underpants and a laptop screen one can make a remote control for a plane? If they would not allow people to have that on board it would be interesting (for the underpants) and terrible (for the laptop)
- 75% of the fake bombs and rifles which the Chicago and Los Angeles airport was tested agains failed to be discovered

I am a living proof of continous business trips going wrong (for over 10 years now).

Ah - I also did 2 weeks of travelling once (1.5 rounds around the world) with my luggage follwing me with a 2 days delay (it always arrived 2 days late, when I was usually gone). That was a crazy story too.

If I do not get the kindle I will tell you about the Paris-Chicago flight which dropped a couple thousand feet when a luggage compartiment opened. :)

[Rene R.]

Travelling from the Netherlands to Paris with the Thalys high-speed train for a trade mission I was on. Working as an area manager for a ladder manufacturer back then.

Arrived at Gare du Nord without any problems, but there it started: waiting for almost one hour in line to get a Taxi. Then arrival in our hotel at La Defense after a drive I thought I would not survive and made me realize that it might have been one of the wisest decisions in my life not to use my car to go there.

After that we started the first round of business meetings. We were promised highly interesting contacts and leads. The trade mission had arranged for the meetings with the prospective buyers. Or so they said. First stop: a bleached hardware store somewhere in the XVI arondissement. I looked around in wonder if this could be some kind of bad prank but asked the cashier if she knew a Ms. Jane Doe. "That would be me." Uhm... she looked like the wife of some camel-herding guy (no disrespect intended) and I thought, ok, you are here so you might as well run the show by: explained the product range and advantages. How many ladders she would like to order. Answer: 3 pieces (we usually sell about 120.000 per year)

All the other "leads" proved to be just as fruitful. The last one being the worst. Had a cab called up that brought me to a suburb somewhere near Orly. Meeting was useless and I was back on the street after 5 minutes. With gallic politness (non-existent towards males) one told me that they were very sorry, but they could not call a cab for me. So I was stranded in an industrial area with no bus stops for miles, no cell coverage and no way to get back to the hotel. I had to walk for about an hour next to a busy speedway with no pavement to get back somewhere where I had coverage.

From there I called the mission leader, told him I had enough and he better pronto arrange for a speedy transport back to the hotel, else I'd get myself a piece of his ass.

To make up for it, he invited the participants (all of which have done equally bad) for dinner on a bateau mouche cruise on the Seine. The cruise was nice. The cuisine was barely edible. Worst trip for me until now.

[Jim Holst]

I was on Debbie Express Airlines. Debbie was our Admin Assistant and to save the company $100 she flew me from Grand Jct, CO, to Salt Lake City, to Houston, To Newark to Manachester, NH on a Saturday, because she could not make this trip work on the Friday because I did not get out of the client site till noon (you've got to love this rationale). After I made it to Houston my flight got cancelled and they flew me to Dallas, to Chicago, to Boston where I took a Bus to Manchester. I got home at 8 AM on Sunday, all to save the company $100. Oh yes I had to fly to LA that Sunday evening.

[Eric G.]

A couple years back I was flying from Cincinnati to Frankfurt and was seated next to a woman in maybe her early 30’s. As it was an overnight flight, she went to sleep straight away. After the meal was served, I took off my sneakers, closed my eyes and went to sleep as well. Sometime later during the flight, I was awoken by a crackling type of noise and opened my eyes enough to see that she was taking my water bottle from the seat back pocket in front of me and drinking from it. I went back to sleep, making a note not to drink from my water bottle again. When I woke, the plane was preparing for landing, so I started to put my sneakers back on. It was after I put my left one on that I noticed that the woman next to me was wearing my right sneaker – and it was tied! She woke up just as the plane was touching down so while we were taxiing I asked for my sneaker back. She untied it and gave it to me without a word.

[Tom Morgan]

I was traveling on business in Nigeria. I had to take a flight to Kaduna, Nigeria on a local airline. When we were returning to Lagos - at the Kaduna airport - we were made to walk out to the plane, walk AROUND the plane 2 times (while a guard w/machine gun blocked the steps) and then, on 'lap 3' everyone broke into a run and the guard stepped aside while everyone bounded up the steps. The reason: the flight is regularly oversold and only the first 100 or so passengers up the steps get to go. (There is some poor guy on crutches in Kaduna who is probably STILL there...)

[Armando Rodrigues]

I was a tech support specialist for United Airlines back in Brazil and had to go to Rio de Janeiro to clear some open tickets that were a couple days behind. Since UA partnered with a local company I decide to take an earlier flight to beat the clock, while I was waiting for my flight I started working on my laptop and found out my boss was on the his way to Rio for inventory and inspection visit, my flight was anounced and gone before I could realize it, I switch gates for the UA flight, fortunately on time, made it to a nice first class open seat, closed doors, taxi, take off and here we go, 45 minutes to Rio de Janeiro and if I was lucky I could beat the boss to those open tickets, 5 minutes later I was sound asleep, airplanes have this strange affect on me, suddenly I woke up with masks down and smoke through the whole cabin,captain announced we were on our way back to Sao Paulo, between the panic of the scene, my bad luck and the chance of losing my job, I decided to call in sick for that day. NEVER LEAVE FOR TOMORROW WHAT CAN BE DONE TODAY. By the way, since we rushed out of the plane when it landed, I forgot my Spanish El Corte Ingles jacket in the airplane, if you find it my card with my phone number is in the inside left pocket, a reward is being offered.

[mikep]

This is probably not PC but it usually shuts people up when they say *they* have the worst experience. Years ago, I used to try and always get the emergency exit row - the seats in front couldn't be reclined and you got a bit of extra legroom. On a very crowded flight from Denver to Toronto I scored a window seat in the emergency exit row - sitting in the seat as the plane filled up the two other seats beside me were left empty, it had been a good trip business wise and I thought my luck was going to continue as they closed the doors to the plane. Before the plane was pushed back, an enormous woman was brought onto the plane (in a wheelchair) and was then deposited into the two seats beside me. Things were okay until the plane was flying and the drink cart came around and she ordered four gin and tonics - an argument ensued because the flight attendant refused to serve somebody that many drinks. Giving up, the flight attendent agreed and then asked to be paid for the drinks - the woman refused because she was an employee of the airline. Things got worse when the meal came around because the woman demanded two dinners because she took up two seats - when I was asked I said I didn't want it and the woman demanded my dinner. After the meal, she started chatting me up and asked if I would like to go for a drink with her, I politely told her that I was going home to my wife and daughter. She persisted saying that many men were intrigued at the prospect of "being with" somebody of her size. Fed up, I told her that I wasn't one of them. This set off a tirade stating that I was prejudiced against large people like her and that I didn't understand how difficult it was being her size. The flight attendants came back and with a lot of effort, got the woman out of her seat so I could get out. I spent the rest of the flight in the rear of the plane in a jump seat telling Al Bundy jokes with the flight attendants ("A fat woman came into the shoe store today..."). At the end of the flight, because the jump seat was needed by a flight attendant, the woman was asked to move over to make a seat on the aisle for me to which she refused, saying that she didn't like having the window seat. She was eventually helped over and I had a very uncomfortable half hour landing and taxing in before I could get away with the woman glaring at me. The story has a somewhat happy ending as I was called by a vice president of the airline the next morning and he apologized profusely and I was given two first class tickets anywhere the airline flew in North America.

[chavi]

I'm a fashion stylist and I had a photoshoot in Mexico (pre Swine Flu) and along with 4 assistants we had over 200k worth of clothing, jewelry and accessories with us. Upon landing in Mexico we were detained by the Mexican customs for 8 hours because they believed we were carrying illegals skins (we had some furs, and exotic leather goods with us) for 8 hours we were interviewed - searched - and patted down by 4 female officers.. after being released we were taken directly to out hotel - to our dismay over 80k of the merchandise was stolen we immediately had to get the publication on the phone and have them deal with customs - being physically drained I ordered room service - the cart was brought into my room and the hotel attendant left the metal cart in the room - in some sort of freak accident the cart went on fire and I was nearly burned - the fire was put out my room was changed but there was no electricity in that part of the hotel (yes my new room was on that site) with 1/2 the pieces still in customs the shoot was delayed - for the next week we got sick, experienced some of the coldest days in mexican history and one assistant had to leave early because she had an issue with her visa (she was interning from Israeli)needless to say this was the worst business trip ever - also we didn't retrieve the missing items - luckily we had insurance and everyone was paid....

[Yankeedom]

Arriving to Caracas, Venezuela Airport, from Miami, Florida, and in front of an Immigration's Officer, that officer, took my Passport and gave it to two civil dressed individuals and they took my briefcase and took me as both arms asking me that I had to accompany them to answer a Security Questionnaire. After 2 hours of questions and answers, they apologized to me saying me that I did not have any problem with the Venezuelan authorities and said that I could leave. On having gone out of the airport, way to the area of the Taxis, I was assaulted by 3 'malandros' [bad boys] and they took my briefcase with all my trip documents, money, credit cards and my cell phone where it had my Contacts in Caracas. It was night and I had to remain to sleep in a airport chair, hungry and cold. To the following day, I called to my office in Miami, Florida, collect and this one communicated with my business Contacts in Caracas, these came to gather me to the airport. On having come to the hotel where I had a reservation, this one had fallen down and they already did not have another able room. I went away to another twice more expensive hotel. In this trip I lost more of US$9,700.00 and the signature of a Business Contract for more of US$200,000.00

[Anon (I have to go back yet!)]

US traveler flying domestic in Libya from Benghazi (BEN). Scheduled departure 9pm. No departure info, no uniformed staff, full-smoking airport, no name on boarding pass (!), no tarmac security?! Luggage screening = throwing bags on tarmac next to plane with captain standing at top of gantry, who waits for every piece of luggage to be claimed before he gets in cockpit or anyone is allowed up the gantry. Flight leaves 1.30am on airplane happily sitting on tarmac since 6pm?! Most nervous flight of my life. Never been so happy to get back to Tripoli, which says it all.

[Deniz]

I started out on a business trip to Atlanta on a beautiful Sunday and rushed to make my way to the airport. Got to the gate and after an hour looked up to see there was an hour delay. At this point there were no announcements, rather the whispers or noisier conversations of people around me. In another hour they finally made an announcement that the flight was delayed coming into Toronto, again no real reason. I was meeting a colleague at the Atlanta airport to share a rental car to the hotel. He would normally arrive later than me. It turned out that my flight was delayed in total for 2.5 hours and I had to go up to the counter to ask what the issue was (mechanical failure and not weather as most other flights were delayed around us also). When I got to Atlanta my colleague was no where in sight and it was past 11:30pm. He did not have a cell phone (these economic times call for careful measures!), therefore, even though I tried to reach the Hertz counter twice to leave a message for him, after waiting 20 mins in total I got hung up on. The fun did not end there. I disturbed my manager to get permission to take a taxi to the hotel and waited in a line up of about 50 people. Got to the hotel and again asked for a message to be left for my colleague so he waited for me in the morning. Of course, no message was left for him the next morning (the Front Desk person on duty was busy having a conversation with a friend :P )and the phone lines in the hotel (Hilton Garden Inn) were not working as well as most of the plumbing in my room. Traveling used to be so much fun, not sure what happened :)

[Michael Park]

Mine dates back to 2001. My flight on 9/12 from Washington DC (Regan Airport) to Vancouver BC was cancelled due to the episode on 9/11 and was forced to stay another week. A week after the original flight, I had to go through the airport with 4 hours of lineup being stared down by military personnel with machine guns, throughly searched by totally paranoid TSA agents, and missed my call for boarding in the chaos. Finally got on the next flight 2 hours later to Chicago but end up sitting next a guy who had spent much longer time at the airport than I who have not taken a shower for at least two days (he even confessed to the fact all on his own). Missed my original connecting flight in Chicago, had to wait another 2 hours for the next one to Vancouver. I thought the worst part was over by this time but of course the fate will have it that my experience to this point is nothing to complain about. I ended up sitting next to a slightly overweighted lady who brought on board a carry-on bag that wouldn't fit in over-head bin but insisting in stuffing it on the floor in front of her seat. leaving her legs to dangle over the bag on to my "leg room". As soon as the plan started moving the toddler behind my seat started kicking my chair and the teenager sitting in front of my seat started throwing up non-stop for the next 6 hours of flight.

All told, the door-to-door from the hotel in DC to my house in Vancouver took 25 hours.

[Steve]

Death of my Luggage: Trip from DTW-LAX-SYD-KUL-AMS-DTW (unplanned CLE). I flew to LAX & had a 6 hour layover, got on Qantas to SYD. When I landed my bag was lost. After an hour of waiting (and all my colleagues) it was found but destroyed. Cloths hanging out of 4 sides and covered in tape. They tried to fix - no good - beyond repair. Would only reimburse less then 25% of the value (their estimation). Flew on to KUL where my new bag was lost (Malaysian Air). After an hour it was found, intact. A few days later I went home via AMS to DTW. Land in DTW - no bag. It didn't make the plane transfer (Malaysian Air to NWA) in AMS. So I am in DTW leaving on vacation in less then an hour and no bags. NWA had to fly them to CLE and take them to a hotel the next day for the first part of my trip.

[Steve]

24 hours direct to MCO from DTW: I had my wife and 4 year old son. The flight was delayed slightly, but not a big deal. It was the 1st day of the NWA mechanics strike. As they backed the plane out, they snapped the boom on the truck and damaged the front landing gear. Took us back in, more delays while they found a new plane. Slight mechanical issue with that, but 4 hours late we are off. We were in row 1, and before we even got drinks, we heard "Is there a Doctor on board?" They though a passenger in back was having a heart attack. They worked on him and diverted to ATL. By the time we landed we had found out he had gotten very drunk and was having a panic attck. He refused to leave the plane, security was called. He left, his family did not. Now the plane was short of oxygen. No spare bottles (after several hours of looking). We had to leave the plane and stay in a crappy hotel. Come back the next day and be searched because we now had one way tickets. Delta refused to upgrade us (I was platinum) - but they would sell upgrades. We finally landed in MCO 24 hours after we should have. Less then 12 hours later I got an emergency call from work, and had to leave my family while they tried to enjoy their vacation (I made it back for 2 days of vacation).

[Gino]

ok... I'm coming back from D.C. to Minneapolis on a late Friday flight...its the end of the month and we were dealing with a pilot shortage on Northwest because there was no deal in place for overtime..

So I get to the airport in DC and I am told the NWA flight is canceled due to "weather..." Yeah right...

I get booked on a flight to Phil to Detroit to Mpls. Ok, I get to Philly about 8PM and find out that the flight to Detroit on NWA is cancelled due to "weather" again... Ok, its friday night in philly, there are no hotel rooms, no cars available at any of the rentals... and I am told that I might be able to get on a flight on Saturday to Houston...and then from Houston to Mpls...here is the kicker, my family is leaving on a cruise sunday morning! so I need to get home, pack, get ready and catch the flight or I'm screwed....

Ok, so I meet this preacher and this other guy...the other guy has a car parked outside the city and he took the bus into the airport...we all three decide to "make a break for it" if we can find rentals somewhere in Pennsylvania...at least we can go pick them up... So we find a place in Reading that has cars available!

The other guy goes to get his car and brings it back to the airport...we drive off to Reading...after we arrive in Reading about 2am we stay at the worst hotel ever...I practically puke in the morning on the danish...

So, now its saturday morning...we get to the car rental place about 8am... we get the cars and start on our way home...I drive 16 hours straight, through rain, fog, etc. in order to make it home in time to pack and catch my flight...I get home about 2am sunday morning...needless to say I'm beat! I take a nap, pack my luggage for the vacation and we are off to the airport at 8am! now if that isnt trains planes and automobiles...I don't know what is!

[Rafael Bullrich]

Well, I have seen some scary ones, but I got one I don´t wish to anyone...

It was on a Air Madrid Flight from Buenos Aires to Madrid back in 2006 for a 2 day business trip. As we arrived to Ezeiza Airport and asked about the status of the flight the security guard told us to look at the monitor and "left". He looked scared just to be ask bout it.
As we looked it up, the 8:00 pm flight was already with a 4 hour delay. At the appointed time + 6 they told us to leave for home (No Hotel offers, off course) and to come back for necxt morning 7:00 am flight.
As we were arriving after the 1 hour car ride, back to the airport (Make the 3 hour sleep night calculation, please) they eold us that the flight was already full and thay have no place for us. That we will take off at 9:00 am on a new plane.
At 1:00 pm they told us that we should begin boarding the plane. Finally!!! And... the plane refused to star, so 4 (four) hours later we debarked!. On a 97 degrees day, no air-conditioned on the tincan!!!
Finally, we boarded another plane at 7:30 pm. Almost 24 hours late!. And... This plane they borrowed from hell!. It was an Airbus 330 COMMUTER configured plane (On an transcontinental flight scheduled to take 13 hours).
The plane had 3 of the 5 baths OUT of Order, NO Business or first class off course, and they could only serve cold meals because there was no galley on it. And to top it off, it needed to make a stop at Fortaleza, Brazil and Dakar because it could not make the across-the ocean trip on one hop.
Make the math: 2 day business trip, arriving 1 day and a half late!.
And when I ask them to change my return ticket they say that they can´t. That I need to pay a surplus because I had not purchased time-of-travel insurance with it. And off course no way to get them to pay for my 2 extras Madrid hotel nights!.
They went out of business two months after this flight when they got a Riot at Barajas on a similar incident!.

[Saurabh]

I lost my connecting boarding pass in Germany. The ticket desk line was too long, and the gate agents couldn’t issue a boarding pass there. The only people who could help were the lounge agents, but the lounge “greeter” wouldn’t let me in without a confirmation number or boarding pass (she didn’t see the irony.) She also didn’t have a computer to look up my confirmation number, so unless I could find my confirmation number, I was out of luck. I managed to get it eventually by making some international calls, but I wish I’d just had Mobivox back then!

[Carmen]

I was on a business trip in Northern California and had about 12 hours leave my luggage at the Oakland airport, return a rental car to the San Francisco airport and return to Oakland to pick up my luggage and fly home. After dropping off the car I got on the train(BART). I still had plenty of time or so I thought. I ended up stepping off the train because I thought I was going to be sick. The doors close and another train did not come for about 40 minutes! I finally got to the stop in Oakland where I had to catch a shuttle. It was $2 but along the way I had lost my money. I wanted to buy metro card with my check card but the machine only issued cards $20 and higher and someone told me the shuttle driver wouldn't take that but there was a bank machine across the street, the very busy highway like street. I made it over. The bank machine was broken. I only had about an hour left to get to the airport to pick up my luggage. A guy who worked in the station gave me a $2 metro card. The shuttle was taking way too long and I finally jumped in a taxi. The lines to the airport were so long on a Friday night. I told the taxi driver I didn't have much time to get my luggage back. He actually stopped for gas! I couldn't believe it! I kept calling the place that had my luggage begging her to wait for me. She kept hanging up on me! I offered double, triple if she would just wait. She kept hanging up. I also had to tell the cab driver that I had no cash on me. He was not happy. We finally got to the airport. I ran to the bank machine, got cash and ran to get my luggage. The woman practically threw it at me and stormed off. I ran out and paid the cab driver. The only seat available for the 5 1/2 red eye flight was in the last row in front of the toilet, the one that does not recline.

[Charlie Barkowski]

In 2000, I was flying from Rochester via Cleveland to Orlando. My flight to Cleveland was cancelled and they put me on a flight to Newark. There, I went to a payphone to make a call and I left my wallet on the phone bench. In it were my tickets, money, phone card, id, and credit cards. A flight attendant found it and put it on her flight – to Puerto Rico! They called the plane back to get me my wallet and then the airline sent me to Houston and Denver before getting me in Orlando 13 hours after I was supposed to!

[Ton]

Ok, here i go. Imagine a perfectly planned honeymoon to Las Vegas. Campagne in the plane, limousine planned at arrival taking us to the hotel, etc. I live in Holland, so Amsterdam-Washington-Vegas should be a piece of cake. Yeah sure, read on.
We were flying over Washington. Well, not really. That was the initial plan, but in Amsterdam they told us the flight to Vegas was cancelled and we needed to either wait for the same flight next day or to fly over Heathrow and from there direct. So we waited 4 hours and took the flight to Heathrow.
Nobody told us that Heathrow-Vegas was an 8 hour hop. Still in love, but slightly annoyed we waited for the Vegas flight.
Actually, more people waited. So many people that there was a seat for me but not for my wife. Now, that didn't sound like a great idea. We decided to take a flight back to A'dam and hop on the flight to Washington of the next day. There we were in A'dam again, but one day later.
On arrival in Washington we needed to check in our luggage again. Seems to happen when you fly Europe and then take a domestic flight. Guess what? No luggage for us... Nobody knew where it was. We checked it in in A'dam on the first flight and everybody told us not to worry, the luggage went where we were going. Something we were not quite sure of anymore.

[Ton]

So there we were in Washington without luggage. Two days of travelling, no change of clothes, no showers, still in love but a LITTLE BIT more annoyed now. Good thing is that the airliners keep giving you these drink and lunch tickets. ;-)
Flight from Washington to Vegas was on time. Only problem was that we were not registered for that flight. We were registered for the flight the day before. So we had to buy new tickets. I'm still waiting to get my money back for those, we are talking about 10 years ago. Guess i will never get that money. Anyway, new tickets, check-in and guess what the desk operator tells us? "Doesn't happen too often that a European couple doesn't have any luggage to check in"...
So we went to Vegas, no limo obviously (payed for in advance), suite in the hotel was taken due to late arrival so we had to take a normal (read: crappy) room.
Calling for the luggage, the luggage was still in A'dam. They sent it back from Heathrow to A'dam because nobody picked it up in London. Lucky we had address tags on the bags, otherwise i guess all was lost.
Luggage arrived 4 days later with a voucher for 300 US$ compensation we spent for clothes, etc.

[Retta Cole]

Last year, I had to make two business trips in two days. The first was in Las Vegas (had no problems getting there); then from Las Vegas to New Jersey – that is when my worst nightmare began. First of all, anyone who travels to Las Vegas for business knows that it’s not all business…ever. So, naturally, we stayed up too late and drank too much and I was late leaving the hotel for my red-eye at 12:40 a.m. flight to NJ. As I rushed through the airport, checked my bag, and finally got in line at the security gate, I realized I mistakenly packed a bottle of VERY expensive cologne I purchased for my husband in my carry-on. OMG – what do I do??? I could NOT make myself throw it away…so, I hoped (and prayed) I could get through somehow and still make my flight (which was boarding in 30 minutes). Well, of course not. They pulled me to the side and asked me to follow them into the security room, where a not-so-gentle woman frisked me. They went through my bag very thoroughly and asked me a million questions. It probably did not help the situation that I had been drinking and surely smelled of alcohol. ☺

Amazingly, I was able to make my flight, but I was fuming (and didn’t really care about making it) because security had confiscated my husband’s cologne. I can’t even make myself tell you how much it was…it makes me sick to my stomach to think about it. Then, my connecting flight was delayed. When I finally get to NJ, I find out that my luggage went somewhere else. I only have one hour before my BUSINESS meeting begins…and guess what? Yep, I’m wearing a tank top, shorts and flip-flops. So, what do I do? I go to the meeting dressed exactly as I am – I didn’t have time to shop for anything!

Naturally, I apologized profusely and explained my horrific experience to my business colleagues…thank God they understood and had a good laugh at my expense.

So, you think my nightmare ends here? Nope. I get back home later that night and (of course) my luggage is still lost. I’ve had other “interesting” travel experiences, but this is my most memorable. ☺ Happy Travels!

[Ed Timm]

In a two day period, I had flown from St. Louis to Paris, worked a meeting for a few hours, and then hustled off on the TGV to Rotterdam where I worked another meeting. At the end of this second day, I took a train to Brussels where I would be meeting and working with a distributor. I exited the Brussels North station, laden with luggage and samples required for my three week journey. Unfortuantely, as my hotel was only a few blocks away, none of the taxis would give up their spot in the queue for such a meager fare -- I would be forced to walk. About half way to the hotel, I heard a voice behind me speaking in French. I turned, said "Pardon me", and the now embodied voice brandished an automatic pistol in my face and demanded "Give me your money or I will kill you now."

I gave him my money -- US Dollars, French Francs, and Dutch Guilders -- and the thief inquired "What is this?" "Money", I replied. "They'll change it for you in the station."

He took my passport and then began to reach for my wedding band when I protested. "Please do not take that; it is my wedding ring." "You are married?", he inquired. "So am I! Do you have children? I have two boys." If not for the gun in my face, I would have thought he was going to begin showing me family photos.

He was extremely polite, even apologizing for his actions. "It's my family -- I need to feed them." The US Embassy (where I went to replace my passport) was amused by the polite gentleman bandit. Somehow, though, the bloom was off the rose for me.

[Tobias Michael Frey]

Drama in 6 ACTS:

ACT 1/6th of January 2009
Arriving in Punta Arenas/Chile, Alamo.cl didn't receive our online reservation from Alamo.com: No car!

Insisting this can't be our problem, they organize us to switch to AVIS.

What a BIG BIG MISTAKE!

Receiving the car - a NISSAN/2008/70'000km - already the 1st sight doesn't look confident.

Leaving the Airport we realize, that the drivers window can't be closed when opened once, the front hood hops up and down and the motor produces an infernal noise inside the drivers cabine. A week with this car? No way!

Back to the airport we just catch HB, who rent us this ramshackle car, leaving in his big luxurious 4WD with his family.

He 'promises' us through the door to deliver a better car to our hotel in the town within the next hour ...

... 2 hours later calling him, he tells us to come by by ourself to pick up a new car the next day by passing the Airport when we are leaving Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales at 10am.

At 10am calling him preventively he tells us not to be ready before 12am.

Around lunch time we succeed at least to pick up another car of the same type but less kilometers and in better conditions.

ACT 2/8+9th January 2008
After spending a day in Puerto Natales we leave to Torres del Paine. A few kilometers on the really bad roads leading to and in the National Park we have a flat tire, completely destroyed by the stones and rocks.

Calling HB what to do to receive a new spare tire, he 'promises' us to send a new one to a place in the National Park were they 're able to fix it.

After spending a day in the Park we call HB again to know the status of the expected tire: No tire sent in the time between, as they have 1st to buy one ... but he 'promises' us to call the next morning!

ACT 3/10th January 2009
After waiting all the morning for a call from HB before checking out of the hotel, we call him: a tire will be sent from Puerto Natales around noon, arriving not before 5pm!

Afraid of the bad roads without a spare tire we decide to change our plans by leaving the Park to cross the frontier to Argentina to go to El Calafate. So we please him not to send the tire.

Arriving to the frontier they don't let pass us because of missing papers concerning the car.

So we decide to get back to AVIS/Puerto Natales to get a car with permission and/or to replace the spare tire.

Arriving there at 4pm we have to wait until 6pm to get a car - the same type - with permission, but ... as a screw thread is damaged the left front tire can only be fixed with 3 screws.

Out of security reasons because of the bad roads we refuse to leave with a car like that as proposed by the Agency in Puerto Natales.

We tell them to look for another solution. Unfortunately all the other Car Rentals have no cars left.

Returning at 7.30pm to AVIS they fixed at least this problem. But because of the late hour arriving after midnight in El Calafate we decide to stay in a hotel until next morning in this town.

ACT 4/11th January 2009
Crossing successful the frontier to Argentina we leave the road to take pictures of flamingos staying in a small lake.

After 15 minutes the car doesn't start because of empty batteries! We try to fix by pushing and clutching into the second gear: Nothing!

Sunday, empty roads in the middle of the nowhere and no cell phone connection! Fortunately a passing 4WD with a bridge cable can help us out of this situation an with a delay of about 2 hours we arrive in El Calafate.

ACT 5/12th January 2009
In the evening we decide to go to have dinner into the village of El Calafate at around 10pm.

Leaving the restaurant after 12pm we can't start the car because of empty batteries!

As well pushing/clutching into the second gear, as well bridging by cable: Nothing ... the battery has defintively gone!

Without car and staying in a hotel out of the village we need different Taxi Services.

ACT 6 (BIG FINAL!)/13th January 2009
After spending a very short and bad last night - how to get our flight this day at 11.20pm in Punta Arenas? - we are asking from 8am for the superior of HB of whom and his 'promises' we are sick in the meantime: SM.

He promises to connect with AVIS/El Calafate/E8C. At 10am a young argentine mechanic arrives to pick us up.

He drives us to a garage to get out of another not working Chilean car a battery.

Bridging: No result! Changing the battery: No result! Loading the other battery: No result! Car dead!

As we know that we need rather or more 7 hours to get to Punta Arenas by car, flight departure gets closer and closer.

And we HAVE to be at Santiago next day, as the children will arrive from Europe!

Next idea: Take a Bus!?! The mechanic drives us to the Station: Early buses already gone, the next at 5pm (+ 7 hours = to late)!

11.00am back in the Agency, Calling with SM, SM calling the Agency, SM calling with us ... they will buy a new battery!

The Agency Manager disapears without a word, lets us wait, arrives without a word, lets us wait, and wait, and wait ...

Next idea: Change the LAN reservations for flights over Buenos Aires. By feet to an Agency: All flights from LAN booked out for the next 2 days!

... after 12.00am the young mechanic arrives in another car to go to buy a battery with us, but ... the shops are closed from 12.00am to 4.00pm! And the best: They wanted us to buy it with our own money!!!!!

1.00pm back in the Agency, Calling with SM, SM calling the Agency, SM calling with us ... he will send us a 'friend' to check the car again! That's it, enough is enough!!!!!

Next idea: Take a Taxi! By feet to the Taxi Station to hear that a Taxi is not allowed to cross the frontier ... but - AT LAST! - they have a friend with a 4WD/permission that might help us.

They drive me to RT standing in the garden dousing his plants. He will do it, arriving - after preparing all the needed papers - within the next 50 minutes in our hotel to pick us up.

Back to the AVIS by Taxi picking up my wife, leaving the Agency without a further word, back to the hotel, doing the bagage in a hurry, asking for 2 lunch boxes.

Around 2.00pm we leave the hotel, arriving at 9.20pm at the Airport of Punta Arenas to get back to Santiago.

Very happy about our really nice 'Guardian Angel' RT (the only reliable and trustful person within this incredible story), we pay the US$ 500 and an extra tipp.

On the road to Punta Arenas we call SM as we want to meet him personally around 9.00pm at the Agency in the Airport to discuss what happened and concerning the financial part: He will not be there - he has to do 'important' things -, but 'promising' HB.

We call HB who tells us not to be there.

Calling SM again he is very surprised that HB won't be there!

We ask for the superior of SM to call us back: MI. NI doesn't want to talk with us. So we tell SM that we are not willing to pay any Peso for a lousy service as happened in the past week and that we want at least to get back the US$ 500 for the Taxi Service.

He means the Car Rental has to be payed but he will talk with MI for the US$ 500.

In the meantime i let block my Credit Card that they can't demand for money with the presigned guarantee voucher.

SM calls back that we have to pay the Car Rental - lamenting that MI told him, otherwise he has to pay it himself - and that they offer us 50% of the US$ 500.

As we not accept and tell him, otherwise we will demand for the whole costs, SM cuts the phone!

Also from AVIS international - leaving twice a claim on their support site - we never got any reply.

AVIS: We try harder? ... they make harder!

[Susan Powell]

My worst trip experience was to India last December. We were enroute to India for a business trade mission and while on the flight we found out that our hotel was taken over by terrorists. When we landed in Munich, to get our connecting flight, we were advised to either go back to Canada or be sent to another hotel, we decided to continue on with our journey and to stay at another hotel in Mumbai for one night. We made it to the hotel and back to the airport without incident but then found out in a newspaper that shots were also fired on the hotel we were moved to. Our journey continued on to New Delhi, where everything went well until our departure back to Canada. While going through security, an incident happened outside of the airport and the guards started screaming run, run, get down on the ground now!!! No one knew what was going on and it took a long time to sort out what was happening. It turned out that shots were fired outside of the airport. Because of the scrambling to hide, people ended up through security without being properly cleared so after the situation was sorted out everyone was ordered to one end of the terminal to be rechecked and then allowed to go back to their departing gate. What disturbed me most about this situation was seeing airport staff safely behind glass walls while all of us were left to hide behind one wall. It is definitely an experience I hope I never have to repeat.

[Carl Krzystofczyk]

My last night of work before Christmas in Germany ended 8 hours late, at 1 AM. I overslept and missed my taxi and flight. The German airlines office didn’t answer, so I called my fiancé (at midnight). Using the 24-hour number, she booked me home via Berlin. I used my last Euro for the taxi, checked my bags, and made the first leg. In Berlin, they lost my luggage, and ordered me to wait. The plane loaded, the doors closed; then armed guards came to ask me why my bags were booked to Nashville! What a Christmas!

[John Wiese]

I was heading from Milwaukee to Seattle via Minneapolis on a Sunday night for a 6am meeting on Monday. When I got to the airport they told me the flight was delayed because our plane coming from Minneapolis to Milwaukee left late due to some unscheduled maintenance. They proceeded to rebook everyone on the plan as there was no way anyone was making their connectors west. For me I was told they couldn’t rebook me as it was the last flight out and there was no way they’d guarantee I’d make the flight asking “do you want to get on and risk being stuck in MSP all night?” I got on and of course missed the connection; they did however rebook me…on a flight to Phoenix where I sat for an hour, then from there to Las Vegas where I sat for 2 hours and then finally arriving in Seattle at 4am. Needless to say I was a little sleepy during my meetings.

100 words is not a lot, needed 163 :)

[Dean Hipp]

I had a meeting in Houston at 10:00 AM with a return flight the next morning. Here is the saga:Day starts out with a 6:00 AM flight which was delayed, had to change the front landing gear tire. Hour later, plane is going down the runway and the tower sees debris sucked into engine. Pilot aborts take off and returns to gate. Maintenance check done and flight takes off two hours later. Two hour flight to Houston in the air for 2.5 hours – heavy rain, running out of fuel, divert to New Orleans and wait out the storm. Three hours later, crew is out of flying time but is determined to get us there. Another hour and we are airborne. Twenty minutes after taking off, diverted back to New Orleans. Two more hours in New Orleans and we take off again. Finally arrive in Houston I make it to the hotel at 1:00 AM. Flight home was five hours later at 6:00 AM, never met with anyone.

[Dave Goodman]

I was in Tokyo with my boss visiting a vendor, who'd provided us a guide. The trains had maps showing our location in English, so we foolishly dismissed our guide. This worked once, but the next train didn't have electronic maps. Oops.

I asked in broken Japanese where our stop was, and we exited. Standing on the sidewalk, I heard a jingling behind me; then a crash. A young Japanese girl had bicycled up and when I didn't move, she'd fallen over. My boss still teases that I knocked a Japanese girl off her bike.

[Don]

We had a client meeting in of all places Great Bend, Kansas. Some came from Ohio and Alanta, myself from Boise, Idaho. We arrived in Denver, changed planes to the commuter hop to Great Bend. Then the Gods took over! The plane had a backup radio problem and we returned to the gate. We sat about an hour then told it couldn't be repaired and we needed to deplane. Once off the plane we kept checking for the status only to be told that the flight was cancelled due to high winds. Of course this was the last flight into the metropolis of Great Bend, Ks! We then tried every airline to see if we could get out of Great Bend after the meting the next day. No luck! Hays, Ks was the only possible connection back to Denver. We decided to drive from Denver to Great Bend through the night so we could make the meeting the next morning. The 3 hour drive would be in the only rental car company accepted at Hays...Budget. So, with each of us texting and calling on our phones, we learned that Budget would not allow the car return to Hays from Denver. We had to rent from Hays to return to Hays. So, after about 4 hours of this nonsense, we cancelled the meeting and flew back to our respective offices.
And now the best part! United refused to refund our ticket because the flight was cancelled due to nature (the high winds) not the mechanical malfunction (radio)!! Now, how do you charge the project? Tour of Denver AP?

[Cat Hoffman]

My flight from Japan (KIX) to Detroit, MI got delayed significantly a few years ago. We sat in the lobby for an hour, then got put on the plane for 2 hours while they tried to fix the radio, then sat in the lobby AGAIN for 2 more hours and had to wait for a different plane to use, and they only gave us waters, crackers, and a 5 dollar airport food coupon. When we finally got back to DET we had missed our connecting flight and had to fly to an entirely different airport and take a bus home.

[Scott]

Was at CDG trying to board a KLM flight to AMS. Northwest did a bang up job by booking my flight with a codeshare that Air France's ticketing systems did not recognize. After trying to get a bording pass I was told to go to Ticketing, which appeared to have a 2-3 hour line! I called NWA ($20 phone call) to find out my ticket was still OK, and finally the 2nd time around the 'normal' line the same agent decided to run down to ticketing and fix it himself! Made the flight just minutes before the door closed.

[Matthew Castelli]

The following is a true story. The names have not been changed to protect anybody. I couldnt make this up. There’s no way I could.
I needed to be at the site by 8:00 this morning to begin acceptance testing of some prototype computers.
So at 6:45 in the morning I called down to the hotel valet parking to get my car.
At 7:15 still no car and no, they were not busy at all. I asked the valet “Whats up?” They looked at me with this “uh oh” look on their face and by 9:00a they realized they gave my car to another guest and confirmed such on their video cameras.
I asked “Uhm.when a guest picks up their car dont they have to show you the claim check?”
The response: “or the valet verifies at least the last name”.
There are not that many with my last name in North America and I verified, no other hotel guest shared my last name.
Ok, so let’s assume the other guest is color-blind and can’t tell a Dark Blue Jeep Grand Cherokee from a Silver Jeep Laredo. Why didn’t the valet do his job correctly? Good question. Especially when every manager here tells me it’s a basic thing the most basic thing. Verify the name. I asked the valet manager “Don’t you guys verify the claim check?” He responded “that or the last name.” I said to him “Gee..you guys blew it on two counts then didn’t you?”
The hotel finally got a hold of the “other guest” who informed all that “He's in a meeting until 5p and can't get out. He feels bad and will bring the car back around 5:15p”. The other guest was 15minutes away and was just informed they are in possession of someone else's vehicle and they did nothing for 2 hours. (I was furious at the arrogance that they thought time is more important than mine.)
And if you still dont believe this story is true you can call the Sheratons valet parking contractor, Parking Management Services, Inc. District Manager, C.J. Carr @ 504.782.0773 or email him at cjc.city@gmail.com.

[Mike McLean]

In August 2007, I was flying from Buffalo, NY to Bucharest, Romania to run a bartending competition. I left my home in Hamilton, Ontario with plenty of time to catch my flight, but got stuck crossing the border into NY with a massive delay that was beyond explanation. Finally made it to the airport after my flight had left and then rebooked for the following day.

Came back on the Sunday, but now had to go from Buffalo, with a 15 minute touch down in Rochester, to Hartford, then on to Philadelphia and finally London Gatwick. Everything went well till I got to Philly. We boarded the plane only to be told that the back up navigation computer needed to be replaced. It took 3 tries, but they finally got it fixed. In the meantime, a thunderstorm rolled in and shut down the airport. When we finally pushed back from the gate, it was 4 hours later and we were at the back of a line of 23 planes waiting to take off.

I had planned for 5 hours between landing at Gatwick and then leaving again from Heathrow, connecting in Amsterdam and finally making it to Bucharest. While on the transfer bus from Gatwick to Heathrow, I was in contact with KLM to try and reschedule. There was another flight out that would allow me to catch my original connection from Amsterdam to Bucharest, but it would cost me another $275.00. Finally made it to the airport, paid the fee for changing my flight and took off.

No problems in Amsterdam, other than boarding the plane with the Romanian National Basketball team. Let's just say they didn't leave a lot of room for anyone in the plane.

Upon arriving in Bucharest at 12:30am, we found out that not all of the luggage had made the trip. I waited in line with 50 people to file my claim, but had to leave the secure area to get the hotel information from my ride, then sneak back in. I was the last person to file a claim and left the airport just after 4am.

The ride from Bucharest to the resort town of Mangalia on the coast of the Black Sea was uneventful, other than the fact that my driver had to be careful to keep the truck running and we drove through one of the biggest thunderstorms I've ever seen.

I made it to the coast and my hotel finally at 8am and tried to get some sleep, only to get hit by the same thunderstorm that had followed us on the drive from Bucharest. This same storm knocked out the power and flooded the club that we were to have hosted the competition in.

After some sleep, I went down to the club and found them cleaning up after getting flooded with water from the storm. We managed to get the first round completed and called it a day.

The next day, I had my local hosts call the airport in Bucharest to find my luggage. It had arrived, but was somewhere between the airport and the coast, a distance of approximately 350km. It showed up at 9pm, about 12 hours before I was scheduled to leave.

The next morning, I received a ride back to Bucharest to fly home only to get caught in traffic coming into the city. My driver was standoffish for a while and showed no concern till finally I told him I had only 15 minutes to get to the airport or I would be coming home with him.

At this point I genuinely feared for my life as my driver pulled out of the line of stopped traffic and started driving on the wrong side of the road at speed. After dodging some oncoming traffic and a couple of gypsy carts, the driver cut off a big truck and we made it onto the highway. I ended up making it to the ticket counter with about 2 minutes to spare.

I was the last person to check in and it took them 40 minutes to assign me a seat, all with their assurances that I was actually going to get on this flight with my luggage.

The flight to Amsterdam was uneventful, but we were delayed again and I ended up getting a hotel in London for the night so that I could rebook my flight home. At least I had my luggage and a change of clothes!

[John Germain]

Flying from Melbourne to Sydney - 7am flight - arrival time due 8.20am. Have the usual nap in flight and so miss the cabin service.
Wake up some time later thinking we must soon in approach for landing.
The passenger next seat says he hopes I will like Queensland? The time is 9.45am and we are bound for Coolangatta Airport Queensland due to fog at Sydney airport, our circling weaiting for clearance to land and then running low on fuel - so offr the Queensland we go. We arrive at Coolangatta for a report "quick fuel stop" and then back to Sydney.
We are not permiitted to leave the plane and are parked well off the terminal. It is now 1.30pm and the plane does not even look like taking off.
There is no food or drink on board, all run out and because we where to be a "short stop" none was delivered.
Passengers where permitted to walk off the plane by steps to stretch their legs but had to stay close to the parked plane.
We then take off back to Sydney on the 7am Melbourne flight and arrive in Sydney at 4.30pm, just enought ime for me to walk to the next gate, check in and catch the 5.30pm flight back to Melbourne. We got home as scheduled at 6.50pm - shame about the appointments and work day lost.

[bbording06]

This was a business trip in October from Los Angeles to Shanghai, China, with a layover in Tokyo, Japan. The five of us were going to meet our colleagues who already arrived in China days before. October being the hurricane/typhoon season in East Asia made the landing in Tokyo very traumatic. The pilot insisted to land in the worst hurricane conditions ever and after six approaches he managed to land. Everybody was scared stiff and almost the entire plane was throwing up. The airport was closed for 12 hours so we slept in the terminal before we continued to Shanghai.

[Sam Weaver]

Spent weeks getting tickets to Mobile on Delta. Arrived in Chicago, but my outbound ticket was canceled even though I paid (added $400 expense to get new ticket). Missed connection due to weather (overnight stay in ATL), but luggage went on to Mobile. Rebooked to closest airport (in Florida). Rented car to drive 3 hours to Mobile. Due to lost luggage, spent several days without clean clothes. Stuck in downpour without an umbrella, drove back to Florida in wet clothes to my hotel under construction. Stressed, miserable, wasted time, lost money, no sleep. What didn't go wrong?

[Karri]

I travel six days week around the USA and Canada providing education seminars for teachers on various topics. About a month ago, I was in Chicago, Il at an awful hotel near Schiller Park. When my co-worker and I pulled into the hotels parking lot we had a bad feeling. There were about 500 black birds surrounding only this hotel. Then as we were checking in, the front desk lady started belching as if we didn't notice. I tried so hard to not laugh. There was also a sign informing guests to keep their pets out of the kitchen area to respect fellow partons. I asked if there were rooms that animals were not allowed in and she said they could go in all the rooms. So now we have bed bugs and fleas to worry about. We checked the rooms out and they were okay. The restaurant in the hotel was a biker club/bar. I walked into a club full of leather chaps and puffs of smoke. Not to pleasant to eat dinner. The next morning we woke up and setup the audio equipment for the seminar. Half of the participants tables were broken, the room smelled weird (pee, smoke and a wet dog smell). We told the hotel staff it smelled, so they sprayed this nasty stuff all over the floors. Then they moved the garbage cans. Well, they moved the garbage cans to cover up the puke in the room. I was ferious and made them bring out the carpet cleaner. I didn't think this day would ever end.

[Stuart Rapee]

My wife and I have traveled together and separately to such places as Greenland, India, Kenya and Prudhoe Bay.

So this was going to be easy. Fly for business from Fort Lauderdale to Pensacola to teach an 8:00 AM lawyers' seminar and return. A transfer in Atlanta would be necessary, but it was at lunchtime. No problem!

The usual summer storms had disrupted Atlanta, so here I was 12 hours later and still in Hotlanta. By then I had two airport meals and my backside was sore. The only plane going in that general direction was bound for Mobile, AL and was to arrive there at 1:00 AM the next morning. I had no choice since I was to teach at 8:00 AM.

Expecting to rent a car in Mobile and then drive to Pensacola, my plans were dashed again when I couldn't get a rental agent until I called his home! After getting the car, I drove to Pensacola, arrived at 3:30 AM and by the time I got to sleep, it was time to wake up three hours later. Of course there was a time change to Mobile and another one when I was finished that afternoon.

It was a miracle I got to my class on time and even gave a decent lecture, at least I think I did! It took me two days to recover because I had other appointments over the next two days in different cities.

It was easier to get to Cambodia or Kenya!

[Andrew]

I saw a scout...

[GALEM]

i was walking down the street,
and it happened...............
a chill was running down my bones when i turned around and saw monopoly...without his pants.
He turkey slapped me into his chamber and then...
HE RAPED ME!!!

[Andrew]

and a whale...EEEEEEWWWWWWIIIIIIIEEEEEE

...he tried to eat me....

i used my awesome superpower skills and defeated the whale and his guts went everywhere with a giant SPLAT!!!!

being part of the DAS (Destroy all Scouts) the cookie monster started going brute lee on the scout and in one cookie throw blew the scout into billions of pieces...

Yehhh =] dats the worst trip ive ever been on how bout you ppl?

btw im the CEO of W.I.A.C....

BUY YOUR CUPS AT WIAC NOWW...ITS BUY THE CUPS OR BE MONOPLIFIED

YEHHHHHHHHHHHHHH XD

[FB]

On my company's first business trip to India, I decided to go a day early to get a head start with the client.

Arrived in Mumbai at 12 midnight, and took over 2 hours to get to my "guest house". Now exhausted, dirty, and desperate to sleep, I arrived in a smelly lobby where people were sprawled around, sleeping on the chairs! Lucky for me I had a prior arrangement. Rang the reception bell for a good 10 minutes before my host eventually woke up. They had a booking - they took me to my room.

Arriving at the room, my host started knocking on the door. "WHY ARE YOU KNOCKING" I asked in horror. He just smiled as a half naked Indian man opened the door (it was very very very hot). Ha ha very funny. No ways. But YES ways. Turns out I was sharing with a stranger! (not by choice)

I figured I could handle it.Put my stuff down, and marched on over to a much needed shower. Except, my shower was a TAP, and my bath was a BUCKET.

Still determined to be the pioneer that i thought i was, I marched to the toilet, only to find it broken, used, and filthy.

No toilet, no shower, and roommates! no ways. Packed my bags and made a different plan. At 4am! (work started at 8)

[Radha]

Was once booked on an agonizing 15+ hours flight from Narita to Chennai – with stops at Bangkok & Delhi 2 hours each; get off at Mumbai, wait 2 hours and change a flight to Chennai. The clerk at Narita checks my ticket and asks in halting English "Are you getting down in Mumbai?" I say yes. She prints out my baggage tag to Mumbai instead of Chennai and I saw my baggage rolling down the conveyer belt. I tell her that my final destination is Chennai and it's the same airline. She looks at me and says I should have told her that before! After delay at each stop-over, I reach Mumbai to hear my name being announced in the last and final call for the Chennai flight. Obviously missed it because I had to physically collect my baggage and clear immigration. I waited at a mosquito infested airport overnight to board a Mumbai Singapore flight going via Chennai.

[K.G.]

I had a disastrous two week spell in April 2006...On a business trip to the Middle East that included stops in Saudi, Lebanon and Bahrain. The trip started in Saudi Arabia at a trade fair where the Mutawwa (religious police) threatened to send me to jail as I was talking with potential clients during prayer time. After an hour of apologies and intervention from an official of the event, I was let go with a warning. I then hopped on a plane to Beirut. While on route to a meeting with my Consulate two men appeared into the street and sprayed gun fire randomly into the traffic (it was apparently in protest to two children who were abducted and murdered the previous night). Needless to say I was lying on the back seat of the car with the taxi driver hiding behind the steering wheel. The next two days were spent under curfew in the hotel. Finally I reached Bahrain where everything settled nicely and our party was invited to a Desert dinner. However, our bus driver decided to leave the venue 30 minutes early and we were stranded for two hours while our hotel had to send a car to the venue.

[Jim Anderson]

The worst... it has nothing to do with gunfire, bad hotels, rude travel companions, incompetent airline employees or anything else.

I've been doing this for nine years. Every week I get on an airplane (most times too small for my size) and go somewhere I've been before and have the same meetings but the faces are different as are the company names.

What's the horror? Kissing my wife and daughter good bye and missing out on all those things that do. Birthdays, anniversaries, school events, family emergencies... the list goes on.

Sure, I could find something else to do, but at this point, I've taken the path of least resistance, I say hi to the gate agent and security official I now know on a first name basis (sometimes even flight crews) and go do my thing for a week.

Does it compare with the horrific items posted above? Some may say not. I say it's the worst travel experience and it happens every week..............

[Ed Dunn]

I was running late for my flight home after a very long week of work. The airline was a first come first serve on seat selections and I was the last person on the full plane, that's right, last row, middle seat, between two oversized fellow passengers. When I got on I noticed a larger then normal number of female passengers, but didn’t think much about it. All of the overheads were closed and as I soon as I sat down we pushed off the gate. As soon as we were wheels up, the entire plane began singing. It took only three songs for me to realize that the vast majority of the passengers had just left a motivational sales meeting for a plastic food containment device company. Let me tell you, they were motivated. They sang the entire flight. This trip was long before the days of MP3 players and sound absorbing headphones, so there was no escape from the motivating songs of food containing plastic ware.
When we landed and I could see the light at the end of the tunnel to my trip, I realized it was a train. It seems that all of these food containment sales people had carried on their own samples from the meeting. Every overhead was full of large clear plastic bags of plastic ware, none of which were identified. After a ½ hour of “Edna, did you order the Multi-Color Fruit and Veggie Holder with pouring spout or did I?” and various other sorting questions, the ladies figured out whose bag was whose and disembarked. I, in the last row, was the last man on the plane. Fortunately, they did stop the singing while sorting out these bags.
The up side, I still have some of the food containing plastic ware that I purchased during that flight.

[Gali Bar-Ziv]

Air Canada flight from Tel-Aviv to Toronto scheduled for midnight. We traveled with two young children (4 and 6). During boarding (and only in Israel) a woman was gracious enough to tell us that her son was sick...We were an hour delayed for a panicking passenger. About 4.5 hours into the flight I was woken up to a public announcement stating that in 30 minutes we are landing in....Tel-Aviv...a passenger was sick and no gate in Europe was open....we landed around 6am and were told that everything will be taken care of...30 minutes in the airplane 2 in luggage claim and the airline offered no solutions. We stayed with relatives and the kids slept the WHOLE day and had to endure a de ja vou the next night. We landed in Canada and 3 days later the kids got sick...the airline never refunded our meals from that day..thank you Air Canada

[Eddie]

Attending a Board meeting, took me three connections to get in because the flights were overbooked. A 5-hr trip ended up been a 10-hrs trip. At the hotel my reservation was canceled. Finally got a handicap room after 2-hrs. Next day I delivered my presentation after which I head out the room, failed to notice that the glass doors were closed, hit the glass with my face at full speed , bounced against the floor and broke my glasses. Embarrassing! Next day got to the airport at 6-AM but my trip was canceled and had to wait 9-hrs for next connection!

[Dave]

So my business partner and I are in a Days Inn in Parsippany, NJ for 5 days and nights while our company vehicle was in the repair shop getting the engine rebuilt. During our five days at the Days Inn, we never once received any HouseKeeping Service.
I made repeated phone calls and visits to the office to inform the staff of the issue.
Each time, they said they would handle it and offered me clean towels.
Well, on the last day, when I was in the process of checking out, I asked to speak with a manager before handing them the keys to the room.
The two people behind the counter got up, went into the back office, and I heard whispering. I looked at my colleague. He looked back at me. We both shrugged our shoulders.
Out of the back office the owner walked with his two lackys following.
He looked at me with a scowl and said, "What do you want?" I held out my hand and said, "Yes, my name is Mr. So&So, and I have been staying in room 215 for the last five nights. I just wanted to inform management that the housekeeping staff have not been to the room in the last five mornings."
The owner said, "So?"
I replied, "Well, sir, I stay about 300 nights a year in hotels across the country. And this would be the first time I have never received any housekeeping."
He answered, "I do not understand."
I then told him, "I believe that when people pay $80 to $100 per night for a room that they expect to get what they pay for. A clean room and linens, towels and such. Now I don't mind a day or two without those things, but I have had to come into this office every single day for towels and have mentioned this to your staff who assured me it would be taken care of. I really am disappointed in the lack of service."

The man immediately exploded, yelling, "Leave now. I will call the police and have them make you leave. You not happy with my business, you think you all hoity toity rich and want gold on your toilet, you can leave and get the fxxk off my property.", ran to his phone and called the police telling them that my colleague and I had tried to rob him.

The police showed up, spoke with the manager and put me in cuffs, telling my colleague to get lost if he knew what was good for him.

The next day, after spending the entire day and night in this little cell, smelling the urine that I think they build into the walls of jails, and refusing to eat what they tried to tell me was food, my colleague finally got me bailed out.

Later that day, I called the city commissioner and filed a formal complaint, and they now claim that the whole incident never happened, that their police would not have made such a mistake like putting a Military Officer in jail just because someone said he had tried to rob them.

Their embarrassment at having messed up, coupled with the lack of an apology from ANYBODY aside from my colleague who now laughs at the whole deal still does not stem the flow of anger I feel at the whole situation.

I have since spoken with Days Inn Corporate and they refunded me one nights' stay to try to slave my hurt feelings.
Didn't work.

I am still trying to scrub the stench of that place off my skin and out of my nose!

[Hannah]

My fault. Overstayed visa in Germany by a month. Held up while boarding the plane to home. Marched to security by guard with my passport held high over his head. Arrested. Searched. Humiliated. All money confiscated but $40. Released. Sent to England. Last flight already gone for the day. Thoughtlessly checked luggage. Overnight stay at a cottage nearby. Damp, cold room. One dirty bath shared by all. Slept with feet in the hood of my coat and the thin blanket provided. At last, 4am arrived along with my cabbie. Happy to go home. Lesson learned. Painfully.

[Janet Wendy Spiegel]

I had to do a 3-city/5-day business trip (one of many) in the year after 9/11. Started off Monday AM at Burbank, CA to Phoenix, AZ. Bomb scare (truck at end of runway suspected of being full of explosives) and airport shut down for 2 hours. Got to Phoenix. Random ice storm.

Tues. PM: Flight to Dallas...delayed. Waiting in line to get to flight and another scare. Airport evacuated. Got to Dallas at 1 am with an 8am meeting time. Random snow/ice storm. Was supposed to head to Chicago. Flight delayed to next morning.

Arrived Thursday Chicago 6 pm, in time to meet staff for dinner. Had Friday AM meeting, lunch, then had to catch last flight, through Phoenix, back to LAX.

Security alert in Phoenix, flight initially delayed for Burbank to next morning. Found last flight to LAX (car parked at Burbank), got in at 11 pm, took cab home from LAX for $70, took cab Sat. AM for $40 to Burbank to pick up car.

Add insult to injury, mid-week, the Ziploc bag policy was implemented for carry on liquids. But no bags at hotel and none at airport. Had to toss about $150 of cosmetics, etc.

The only GOOD thing was that I had a DVD of Jerry McGuire and my laptop. I plugged it in and sat down on the floor with about 4 other random passengers to watch the flick during one of the endless delays.

Worst trip ever. EVER.

[Liz Drew]

BUSINESS TRAVELLER: Me. BUSINESS ROLE: Assistant. TASK: to deliver all spread sheets and pie charts to the meeting in mint condition.

I never slept on the plane as I had nightmares my bag would be lost, or left in my country, or on the wrong flight, but alas, the plane flight was not what I should have been worried about.

I had a few days before the big meeting, I kept both eyes on the important equipment, I do not even remember leaving the hotel room.

Then when checking out, the unthinkable happened in that busy lobby. My eyes left the bag as i returned my room key. There it was. In that one single moment my bag was stolen. snatched from behind me in the blink of an eye. Without a trace. My money. My passport. The spreadsheets. The pie charts. Gone. Gone. Gone with the wind. I have not found that bag nor have I been in contact with that company since that very day.

and frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.

[MT Boy]

Our second largest customer demanded someone come visit them to "discuss recent developments" that they were not happy with. So I scheduled a trip for the first possible flight out -- the first week in February. Since I was going all the way to Europe, I contacted distributors in other cities to see if they wanted a meeting too. Three of them accepted. Since I had a short time to complete the trip, it meant four cities (three countries) in four days and then back home. So before leaving, I knew it would be a tough trip.

The first meeting was like a battle royal. Everytime I calmed one person down, another person would enter the meeting, and we would start all over. The net result is that they were just upset about the economy and wanted someone to blame. So there really wasn't anything I could do.

The second meeting was fine.

The third meeting was in the middle of nowhere Denmark. This was a new distributor who had been stepping on the toes of other distributors, and I needed to bring up unpleasant issues.

I arrived in Paris around midnight. My cab driver was not happy that I was not going further from the airport. He took me to a gate outside a hotel and said "push the button, and the gate will open. That will be 40 Euros." As he sped away, I realized that he had charged me double.

I pushed the button on the gate and nothing happened. After powering my phone on and off about 10 times, I was finally able to get signal. I called the hotel, and they told me I was at the back gate. It was about a mile back to the road (around another hotel) and to the front gate.

As I checked in, I realized that I was only about 20 yards from the back gate.

The meeting with the French made my first meeting in Germany seem like a birthday party. His situation, while not ideal, was something out of my control. So all I could do was listen.

[MT Boy]

Flying out of Panama to Sao Paulo, I left the hotel at 7:00 am. A little early, but not too early.

After everyone was boarded, we received an announcement that there was a problem and our flight would be delayed about 90 minutes. Since this was not a direct flight to Sao Paulo, and I only had an hour layover, I realized I was going to miss my connection. So I asked if I could be re-routed. The gate agents were kind enough to re-route me on the flight leaving at 7:00 pm gong directly to Sao Paulo.

What about my luggage, it had to come off the plane. Up to this point, everyone on the flight had been very calm and understanding. But when they saw the luggage coming off the plane, there was nearly a riot; which was funny at first. The humor turned to momentary pannick as another passenger, who overheard me talking to the agent, pointed to me and explained to everyone that it was my fault.

Leaving Sao Paulo, I found out that the kind gate agents in Panama had not re-routed me, they had canceled my ticket. A cute little trick that I got to deal with in Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires and Santiago, before returning home. I had purchased my ticket on line. So I had to deal with multiple airlines, who all said that it was someone else's problem.

Fortunately, none of my flights left on time. So I had the extra time I needed to deal with the problem in each airport.

[EranD]

I was flying from London to Saint Petersburg, Russia through Munich. The flight left an hour late. Connection was only an hour, so I waved to the Saint Petersburg flight as it was taking. The next flight was not until the day after. Since it was World Cup time in Germany and no hotels I was rerouted to Moscow 8 hours later. In Moscow Russian immigration decided they don't like my passport and sent me back on a flight 6 hours later. Meanwhile I get the “Sit! And! Wait!” treatment reminiscent of KGB movies. From Munich, next flight to Tel Aviv is 11 hours later. Total time “shower-to-shower” is 47 hours.

[Michael Hamlin]

My business trip from Tucson, AZ to Lisbon, Portugal started out so well, me feeling fortunate enough to fly first class on the domestic leg to Newark. This being my first trip out of the US in many years, I wasn't famliar with all processes for travelling abroad. With my passport and American Express card in my pocket and a single carryon bag, I boarded my flight.
Having been seated in the bulkhead row of a very full airplane to Newark, my carryon bag wasn't fitting in the overhead compartment. The flight attendant was kind enough to offer that she gate check it for me.. or so I thought. When I deplaned in Newark, my bag did not meet me outside the plane, but had been checked all the way to my final destination.. again, so I thought.
After standing by the luggage carousel at the Lisbon airport for at least thirty minutes, the realization that my bag wasn't there left me with a sinking feeling. I was in a country whose language I didn't speak, with nothing but a passport, American Express card, and cell phone that was working off its last bit of battery life.
If only I'd known that my bags needed to be claimed and re-checked at the Newark airport if I expected them to meet me in Portugal.

[Larry D.]

During the late 1970’s I was working for a company that required me to fly once a month for a sales meeting on Saturday morning’s from Pgh, PA to New York City (LaGuardia) & return late that afternoon. This meant having to get up about 400AM to make it to the airport for a 700AM flight & after attending the meeting all day it then required a return flight to Pgh around 700PM. Sitting on the return flight tired & disgusted after a lousy meeting I noticed a women passenger arguing with a man about the seating & that he was in her seat. Finally the women sat in what was apparently his seat & as she sat down he handed her what appeared to be business card. The plane door was now closed for takeoff, backing away from the terminal & the women summoned the flight attendant. She handed to attendant the card, as the attendant read the card she turned & begin racing for the cabin. As I watched this I thought this can’t be good. The plane jerked to a halt & after a few seconds the pilot announced we had a small issue and would take off shortly. From my seat I could see the door to the outside. The door was opened by a big burly Airport cop who appeared to be on an extension ladder and he was glaring down the aisle. By now it was pouring down rain. The pilot announced that we had to exit thru the rear of the aircraft and re-enter the terminal. Well every one was taking their good old time; the one attendant went spastic and announced that everyone had to get off now! People were trying to crawl over others but finally we got into the terminal. The police grabbed the wrong guy (who was right in front of me) and beat the crap out of him. The guy with the note was still on the plane. The police told us to get out of that side of the terminal as if the plane blew it would take out the whole terminal so every one started running. Found out later the guy was making a statement about events in Lithuania or some similar place and threatened to blow up the plane. After a two or three hour delay we were allowed to re-board but only about half the passengers did. Airline gave us free drinks on flight. Honestly at the time it occurred on the plane I was so tired and disgusted I actually had the thought he would be doing me a favor!

[Nuno]

San Francisco to Maputo, Mozambique. Connections: London, Lisbon. BA crew had collective food poisoning in SF; replacement crew sent in, four hours late. Made last Lisbon-London connection, only because Lisbon flight late too. Would miss Maputo flight, but traffic controller strike in Lisbon meant late flights moved to early next day. Waited at airport for hours, got on Maputo flight. Landed 1/2 hour before talk at local university. Traveling coach, totally in shatters while giving lecture. Worse was to come. Flying out same afternoon, lost my hotel booking - nowhere to rest. Went to airport, surrounded by hustlers and beggars. Suddenly lights out, an entire airport pitch dark, hundreds running around. I sat. Finally boarded plane. Instead of flying directly to Lisbon, lands in Beira (north Mozambique) without explanation. After over an hour, captain says "due to intense traffic, departing in 15". No traffic within sight. After pause, adds "for those of you who like football [soccer], 10 minutes to go and still a tie between Sporting Lisbon and Real Madrid". As match ended flew out to Lisbon, then London, then SF...