Right at this moment I’m most likely sitting on a plane next to some stinky guy who is totally squishing over the armrest into my seat. That’s right, I’m on my way to Vancouver right this very second! Not that Vancouver is filled with stinky men, but it’s just my luck to have one all up in my business while flying.
Don’t believe me? Well, let’s revisit this little tidbit that I previously talked about in December 2011…
On this particular flight we were flying home from Miami. I was around 5 months pregnant and we had just been on a 7 day Carnival cruise to the Western Caribbean. We had hoped to upgrade to first class for the flight home, but the plane was totally full so we resigned ourselves to a slightly cramped ride back.
My husband is 6’4” and flying is typically pretty uncomfortable for him, so I usually take the middle seat to give him a little more room to stretch out in the window or aisle seat. I’m so nice, right? Well, this would have been totally fine, if the person who sat down on the other side of me wasn’t a 350ish pound man.
He literally overflowed from his seat, over my arm rest, and into my area. Once he sat down, my left arm was pinned and I couldn’t move it to lift a drink to my mouth or turn the page of my Sky Mall magazine. He was so large that he couldn’t put down the little tray in front of him, so he balanced his family-sized boxes of Pizza Hut wings and cheese breadsticks on his stomach and then proceeded to eat every one of them within about 6 inches of my face. I had been pretty lucky with my lack of morning sickness, but I truly thought I was going to yack all over him and his stupid hot wings.
Sadly, this is not my ONLY bad flying experience… my bestie and I also were stuck on a runway for so many hours that we missed our connecting flight to St. Martin and were forced to re-plan our entire trip!
So here’s to hoping that I don’t have another horrible flying story to tell you once I land. But, just in case I do, please share with me your terrible flying stories in the comments!
I had a horrible experience when flying from London to Prague about eleven years ago…something went wrong with the decompression chamber and the plane had to rapidly descend and the oxygen masks popped down amidst a smell of burning. Panic was an understatement, particularly as it was a low budget airline (which no longer exists), and it was not too long after 9/11 so everyone was in a heightened state of anxiety…We had to turn back to London and fire engines followed us as we touched down on the tarmac…just in case apparently! They sorted out another flight for us a couple of hours later and I still believe that had I not got on that second plane that day I would never have flown again. Which is just as well as I went on a gap year to Oz/NZ four years later and it would have taken an absolute age to drive/sail/swim there 😉
Hmmm – I have to say my worst experience was from Atlanta to Newark Airport. The turbulence was insane. I was trying to read..but I just couldn’t do it anymore. On the plane seated near me was a Baptist group that had taken a vacation together…wellll…after them hollering for Jesus and Mother Mary take us home..they had me laughing. An older gentleman in particular was sitting next to me..as we plummeted and straightened out again, I had grabbed the seat so tight my knuckles were red. He put his hand on mine and said “Little girl, if the plane crashes you won’t be found in your seat” . I looked at him horrified and said, “Jesus !!!!!” …and they all laughed and said, “Praise the Lord !!!!” From then on I totally relaxed and had fun. But I was never so happy to get on the ground in my life LOL.
OMG the first time I was ever on a plane I ended up stuck in a window seat with 2 old ladies next to me that drugged themselves to sleep for the whole 9 hour flight which meant I was basically trapped against the window the entire time because they had started snoring before we even got to taxi the runway. That and there was a storm which ended up extending our flight because we had to go farther north than expected to avoid it. At one point I looked out the window and was wondering why the heck I was seeing mountains when I should still be seeing ocean.
Yikes. That sounds horrible. Did he at least acknowledge your discomfort in any way?
My worst experience was when I was seated between two old ladies who turned out to be close friends. They were talking all throughout my four-hour flight. I had my headphones on and was trying to watch a movie, but I couldn’t concentrate for all their loud yammering. I even offered to let them sit next to each other, but they said they were comfortable this way. It wasn’t until I was home and about to chuck out my boarding pass when I noticed I was supposed to have the window seat. I was furious!