Top Five Travel Horror Stories of 2009

Archived Comments:

• DRB Round the World - October 14, 2009

  We began our 18 day trip to Peru/Ecuador on a very bad note. On our connection from LaGuardia to Guayaquil, Ecuador our luggage was lost. Makes you wonder if LAN knew what they did because we were unexpectedly upgraded to First Class. After 2 days of being told many times by LAN that our luggage would arrive at any moment and we were leaving for a 5 day Galapagos cruise the next morning, we took matters into our own hands. We frantically hired a private driver and headed for the local mall at 7:30PM on a Sunday when the mall closed at 8PM. All the mall stores were closing their doors except one - Tommy Hilfiger. They of course obliged and remained open while we frantically shopped for 4 people. 15 items - $818 dollars later we had the bare minimum to get us through. My credit card was rejected so another in our party offered to put it on her card. Luckily when we returned to Guayaquil our luggage had finally arrived but everything was sopping wet! Turns our our luggage somehow was misdirected to Amsterdam!! Lessons learned - only take carry on luggage, waterproof your luggage and always purchase travel insurance. Luckily we had travel insurance.

• nadya troche - October 14, 2009

  A few years ago, my elderly motherwas traveling alone to visit her now departed sister. She was traveling on American Airlines. We were not allowed to go to the gate with her , The wheelchair attendent said all will be fine , we will take care of her. Mom did not have a cellphone ,so we relied on them to get her on the plane. We paid for first class to insure a comfy flight. We stayed in the airport untill the plane took off, and when it did , we left for home confident in the fact mom was on her way to california from New York.. When we arrived home about 2 hours later we recieve a call from a stranger . The woman was a kind soul who found an elderly woman crying at the gate . Apparently what happened was the attendant parked mom at the designated gate and left. Mom fell asleep after a long wait ti depart, and didnot hear the call for boarding I guess the sight of a woman in a wheelchair at the gate did not alarm the flight attendents! Well the plane took off without her. and there she sat alone at the gate . we managed to get her on a later coach flight after 15 exhousting hours 21 hours to california.

• arkansas traveler - October 14, 2009

  while traveling with a group of six in 2007 we landed in dallas to change planes. with 1 heart patient and 1 amputee in our group we started the long walk, up and down stairs. and miles of gates with nobody there. finally using the house phone to call for a cart which never showed up faster travelers made it to the gate to ask the plane to please wait. again no one was there. our heart patient could not go any further when a gate with wheel chairs was spotted. when asked could we use one we were told no! and if we took one security would be called. we gladly barrowed the wheel chair anyway, which we returned, got to our gate on time just to be told we didnt have a pilot. what happen to airport curtsy? Really jail for the breif use of a wheel chair? Flying has become such a hard ship that we have stopped doing it but as a last resort.

• mrtraveler - October 14, 2009

  I flew from Los Angeles to Chicago overnighted and checked in at 12 noon for my flight from Chicago to Rome to London. The flight was delayed 1 1/2 hours. When I arrived in Rome there were two airline agents to take me to the gate for the London Flight. Upon arrival my two suitcases did not arrive..I made a lost luggage report and was told that there would be a flight later in the day and my luggage would be on board. I left for Dover for one night and then was boarding my 14 day cruise of the Baltic's. Still no luggage. I boarded the ship and made another report and later in the day after the ship sailed I was told that one suitcase was still in Rome and the other one arrived in London but missed the ship. I did not have any luggage from the 14th of June until it arrived in Estonia on the 24th of June. Needless to say I had to buy clothes on board the ship. Went on the cruise. When we returned to Dover we stayed overnight and the next day I checked in and I flew from London to Rome to Chicago. Arrived in Chicago and no luggage. I was forced to stay a night in Chicago and fly home the next day....I arrived on a Monday and my luggage did not arrive until Thursday evening..... I did not get mad at anyone or yell at any of the agents because it was not their fault. I felt if was the baggage handlers fault. and I did get a new wardrobe at the tune of $980.00 and the airline paid for all of that and all expenses I had.

• Dawn - October 14, 2009

  I planned a trip with my children to visit my husband who was working in Israel for the summer. An Egyptian tour company provided our arrangements, which included travel to Israel through Cairo for a week on our own and then back to Egypt for a guided tour. I got nervous when two weeks before the departure our seats on Egypt Air from JFK were not confirmed. The travel agent assured me that the flights would be confirmed by departure. The day before departure he called apologizing profusely that he could not get the flights confirmed. If we delayed the trip we would lose out on precious time that my husband had taken off, including the weekend. I asked the agent if he thought we had a chance to get on that flight if we went anyway. He said we had a very good chance and told me to ask for his friend at Egypt Air to ensure it. We took the risk and flew from Cincinnati to New York the next day, Tuesday. To make a long story short, the fellow I was told to ask for never came to the desk. We did not get on the flight and I was then told (for the first time) that there was no departure the following day so we had to wait until Thursday night to fly to Cairo. Sigh. We made the best of if, got a hotel close to the airport, took a tour and the kids swam in the hotel pool. Two days later we got on the plane to Cairo and were met Friday morning at the airport by a representative from the tour company who apologetically told us that there were no seats to Tel Aviv that day so we would have to go out the following day. He put us up in a hotel and I was afraid to leave it being alone with my kids. Later he called and explained that there were no available flights the next day either but he could get us on a bus at 5 AM in the morning. Exasperated, I agreed, just wanting to get there! He came back to me later, again profusely apologizing that the following day was the Sabbath in Israel and the border was closed. He took us on a tour of Cairo instead. Sunday, six days after we left Ohio we finally arrived by plane in Tel Aviv to a very relieved husband and father!

• CA Traveler - October 14, 2009

  In July, I flew with my mother-in-law, wife, and 6-month-old daughter from Paris where we vacationed. Our flights, in two segments, were from CDG connecting through Chicago and arriving in San Francisco. The first leg was smooth and easy. Somewhere over Colorado, however, the flight attendant nearest our row smelled something funny, "like burnt Fritos." We were sitting in the rear of the aircraft next to the galley. After a frantic search by several flight attendants and a co-pilot, the source of the smell could not be found. The co-pilot mentioned that new Wi-Fi service has just been installed but, since it hadn't yet been enabled, the router located in the overhead bin one row up couldn't be the source. In fact, as I mentioned to the crew, I had actually been surfing the internet not 10 minutes before the mysterious burning Fritos appeared. Shortly after the search the smell seemed to dissipate. Nonetheless, when a flight attendant stated, "I don't feel safe in this plane," the pilot made an immediate emergency landing in Grand Junction, Colorado. We dropped from 30,000 feet to ground in under 12 minutes. Our plane was met by several fire engines hosing us down and, then, boarded by a fully decked out fire fighting team to find the Fritos. No such luck. We all disembarked and spent the next 4 hours waiting in the terminal for a replacement plane flown in from nearby Denver. Once it arrived, we were ushered onto the new plane to a new smell: Pizza. The local airport had sprung for pizza for all the passengers. This was good because if the burning Fritos did recur it would be masked by pepperoni and sausage. Grand Junction has severe winds and a shortened runaway. As such, the plane could not be loaded with enough fuel to complete the trip to San Francisco. Instead, we had to make one more stop in Salt Lake City. We finally arrived at SFO about 6 hours late, tired, and ready to get on the ground; all except my infant daughter who managed to sleep from Paris and from Chicago, play in Grand Junction, and sleep again to San Francisco. She was ready for the next trip!

• lov - October 14, 2009

  travelled fr. ny lga worst nightmare only 1 security line had to ck lugg then take to security stand on line iss flgt stranded for 8 hours in apt other flgt over bk could nod keep app for job lost job 2 mths cannot find anothr. job soon will be homeless cannot pay rent or buy food.

• csmetz - October 15, 2009

  On a recent trip to Vegas with US Air leaving Baltimore and connecting in Charlotte we had one incident happen after another. Our small carry ons did not fit on the plan to Charlotte because the attendents loaded the whole plane at once instead of using zones. So even though we were in row 4 our luggage went on the bottom of the plane. When we got the boarding gate at Charlotte at boarding time we were all in line to board to find that the flight had been cancelled. There was no explanation. We then found out we could not get out of Charlotte that evening...after waiting 1 hour and 40 minutes. We also found out our luggage went to LA and then to Vegas without us...even though we were not originally not going to LA and we were stranded for the night. We did receive a hotel voucher, but when we got to the hotel their computers were down and we could not check into the room for 2 hours and 30 minutes so we were accomodated there with 1 free drink at the bar...whoo hoo! We set up a 5am wake up call the next morning, which we never received. Furthermore, we had to take a connecting flight to Vegas even though we originally had a direct flight from Charlotte. We had a friend already in Vegas the day before so we missed spending time with her and we missed a trip to the Grand Canyon that was supposed to be the next day, but by the time we found out the flight was cancelled it was too late to cancel so there was no refund! Flying is fun...can't wait to do it again!!

• Brenda - October 15, 2009

  Nothing is as bad as going through security to have them check your bags and steal your jewelry. I never left my carry on bag. It was always by my side. My Jewelry was in a small envelope type pouch with a Ruby & Diamond ring, which was very precious to me, among other pieces. This happened at the San Juan airport, so beware. I reported it and the answer I got back was they were having a problem with the security and police dept. being in on it with security that it was hard to catch them. TSA is supposed to be protecting us, not stealing from us. Of course this will not stop me from traveling, but the next time they open my bags I will be watching like a hawk.

• Liz - October 15, 2009

  My husband and I were booked for an early flight to Hawaii on United Airlines about 2 years ago. We arrived at the airport in plenty of time, had our luggage checked in and loaded. We were to go via San Francisco but were assured there would be no problem getting the luggage on the right flight. About 10 minutes before boarding was to begin an announcement was made that the plane could not go because the mechanic had not signed off on it. No other mechanic was available to do this but one was driving from Tucson to Phoenix and would be there in approximately 2 hours. Those of us who were trying to make the connection in San Francisco knew we could never make it. Then we were told that a direct flight to Hawaii was leaving in 30 minutes from a different terminal and if we hurried we could catch it. We ran all the way from terminal 2 to terminal 4 since no trams were available. Our luggage was still on the other plane. It was a hot day and the run was all outside. Then we had to go through security again, be reticketed, and make a mad dash for the plane that was already loaded and ready to leave. We finally got on and there were only 2 middle seats very far apart from each other. Needless to say, our luggage never arrived in Hawaii. We were going on a cruise and my clothes did not catch up with me for 3 days. I was told I could buy clothes but at this late time of arrival, there was no place to buy and no time. It was a frightful trip!

• JAS - October 21, 2009

  Ever get the feeling that you're not supposed to leave a place? That there's a magic circle drawn around you that no amount of force will break? That was my firm belief on a recent trip home from Colorado on US Airways. The prop plane that was supposed to take 31 passengers from Grand Junction to Phoenix lost an engine en route and was diverted to Durango where we were met on the tarmac by fire engines and local paparazzi. Five hours later, after the frustrating exercise of dealing with airline staff who preferred to kid around with one another rather than provide support, and making our own reservations on next-flights-out, we were all housed in hotels for the night. On returning to the airport the next day, we learned that nearly all seats confirmed the previous evening were on overbooked flights and most people would not be flying for another day. I did get a seat on another prop plane to Phoenix and arrived there minutes before my connecting flight to the Bay Ar ea left. Once on that plane, we sat on the tarmac for an hour before we were told that, due to a computer malfunction, we had to deplane and wait for another flight. I finally arrived in Oakland only to find that my luggage had been lost. 24 hours after leaving Grand Junction, I was home. Bagless, but home.