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My experience wasn't on a major airline, but a seaplane up in Thunder Bay, Canada -- way up north. It was early September, and four of us decided to go camping in a cabin up north, and the only access in was by plane -- no boats, no bridges, no roads. It took two trips in -- two passengers each trip.
We got to the island the cabin was on okay. We had our sleeping bags with us, our canned goods, food, other items. It was really nice the first part of the week with moose coming to feed by the water and fishing on the lake.
When the pilot left us there, he told us there was no way to contact him -- he would just show up. No phone service, no cell phones, nothing.
Well, at the end of the week, it started to get cold. After waiting some time, the pilot finally rested on the water. He was rather excited and hurried us up. He told us to leave everything "heavy" behind -- no food, no metal, leave anything we didn't ever need again! Seriously. He said it had started to snow, and he could only make one trip back. We all had to tumble into that tiny plane.
As he started the engine and glided on up the water, he told us to brace ourselves -- he had to make a turn. THEN he told us, "If we can make this turn and not capsize, we can probably get into the air....." WHOA! Man, I was scared. The tiny plane tipped a bit but the pilot managed to upright it, and get it going straight. Then he took off into the air. As we looked down, and we were quite close to the trees, we saw snow had already settled there. After some nail biting, we finally landed!! Safely!
Now, that was strange. I'm just glad I didn't have to find out what would've happened had the plane toppled over or didn't make it over the trees!!
Wisteria, that has GOT to be one of the most interseting flying stories I've ever read...WOW! Glad you made it back to tell us!
In the early 50's (I'm old!) I went to work for National Airlines in NYC, their main route being NYC/MIA. A group of 25 of us, all very young, were trained in Miami for two weeks before flying north to NYC. It was early December, which was National's busiest time of year.
We boarded our Miami-Newark flight, a DC6, and took off. A 3 hour flight, we soon flew into a snow storm, and when we got to Newark we had to begin circling the airport for our turn to land. The visibility was zero... Couldn't see anything at all, and we were bouncing around pretty badly, everyone on board now being very scared.
I was looking out the window, there was suddenly a break in the clouds, and below us, circling in the opposite direction, was an Alitalia DC6. The clouds closed in again, and I really didn't think much about it. Suddemly there was a bright flash in the fog and in a minute or so the pilot announced that they were going to land us in Philadelphia and we could take a train to NYC.
We landed about an hour later, and found out the Alitalia flight had crashed in the Newark airport and all flights circling the airport with us had been diverted to other airports. Of the 25 young new National Reservations agents, 10 immediately quit their new jobs. I didn't, but eventually went to work for United Airlines, then eventually opened my own travel agency for many many many years. Had several other close calls flying, (but we'll save those for a later thread!!)
When I was 10 years old, on a flight from Boise, Idaho to Chicago they promised me a window seat but it turned out to be in the emergency exit so they made me switch and didn't give me another window seat
That was my only bad experience with airline personnel. I think flight attendants are usually awesome!
One other time....my plane in Cleveland had to get de-iced twice in a snowstorm when we were there on a stop between Las Vegas and Baltimore.
Also I hate it when the plane doesn't dock at a jetway and you have to either board a bus or walk to the terminal when its cold and/or raining outside...it happened to me in Tokyo twice.
Oh yeah and I realize I can be mature and still get the window seats which is why I still enjoy flying.....except now its "I'd prefer a window seat" vs. "I wanna be by the window" LOL!!! And when you fly Southwest just check-in early online and you're guaranteed the seat you want...I really like their boarding process.
PHX, I mistakenly went up to the check in counter thinking they were ready to deal with customers. I was so shocked that they weren't, I thought they were going to ground me.
I've taken lessons in a Cesna 172 18 years ago and I know about aviation, and I've been on a flight one time on Alaska Airlines from Portland, OR to Phoenix, AZ in January of 1997, just before I moved back to Phoenix. Anyhow we were over the Sierra Nevadas and turbulance was rocking the MD-83 back and forth and the aircraft dipped some 400 feet suddenly and people across from me had drinks in their hands, the liquid ended up on the ceiling from the zero gravity!
But, that was nothing compared to a recent experience with US Airworst in March of this year. We were in Burbank, CA waiting for our flight back to Phoenix and when we checked in, they told us the flight was running an hour late. About 30 minutes before we were supposed to board, the aircraft still had not arrived at the gate, and when we checked with the gal with US Airways on the status of the flight, she told us the flight was running 2 hours late! Shortly after that, they made an announcement that the flight was cancelled! We called SouthWest Airlines and booked 2 seats on the next outbound flight to Phoenix and we were LUCKY, because that flight was fully booked. We only had about 2 hours before the SW Airlines scheduled departure time, so we had to go back to the US Airways counter at the front of the Burbank terminal and pick up our baggage because they couldn't transfer them to the SouthWest flight! We waited in line for what seemed like an eternity, with a bunch of other very upset passengers from the cancelled flight, and picked up our luggage, then checked them in at the SouthWest counter. After that, we still had to walk through all of the airport security checkpoints.. AGAIN!
I was also supposed to receive the refund for the cancelled flight within 4 business days, I ended up getting the refund about a month later!
That's why I call them US Airworst now! I've flown with the airline they merged with last year, which was America West many times before and I've never had any problems with them, but since US Airwost and America West merged, many people said that their customer service has really gotten much worse.
I just had a horrible travel experience with US (sc)Air. I was supposed to fly from DFW to EWR. Part of my flight got canceled (a connecting one) and my vacation wound up being canceled altogether since they couldn't (wouldn't?) get me on another flight until 2 days later. I found out this was my only option after waiting in various lines for about 7 hrs. at DFW Airport. US Scair is the worst.
When I was starting the 1st grade, I went with my Family for 1-2 Months before school started on a trip to see my Uncle, Aunt and Cousins in Carmel, Indiana. I didn't have a problem but my other Uncle did. The airline lost all of his luggage. He didn't get it back until one day before we left.
Christmas 2004. Flying Delhi-Newark via Paris (this was pre-Continental non-stop). Delhi has notorious fog in December but we took off more or less on time. The flight leaves late at night so as soon as we took off I fell asleep. I woke up when we landed, looked out the window and thought "wow all airports really do look the same. Paris airport looks just like Delhi." Apparently, we took off flew towards Paris for a few hours then turned around and came back. We sat on the plane for another 4 hours before the fog lifted enough that we could take off again. We did eventually make it to Paris but it was another 12 hours before I could get on a flight to New York (and only JFK at that). My luggage was able to get aboard a Newark flight and Air France made me go to Newark and pick it up even though they were flying me into JFK.
The Newark-Delhi non-stop is a godsend. Although less for me now that I am in Atlanta.
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Man, I was scared. The tiny plane tipped a bit but the pilot managed to upright it, and get it going straight. Then he took off into the air. As we looked down, and we were quite close to the trees, we saw snow had already settled there. After some nail biting, we finally landed!! Safely! 
