Inspired by bavaria's cancelled flight thread...

[starrzone]

I just read through the whole thing, and garnered some very good advice! I read lots of stories of people being stranded in airports, seeing adults' meltdowns, and seeing people doing kind things for others.

So, in honor of the busy traveling season, with the holidays, delays and other wonderful occurrences, what's your airport story? I'm looking for anything from the "woman's full-scale meltdown because they wanted to charge her extra for her 50lbs-over- the-limit suitcase" to any RAOK (Random Act of Kindness) .

I do have a couple of my own:

1) In 1998, I was traveling from Bangor, ME to Orlando via La Guardia in NYC. There was this woman there selling markers who I will never forget. I'm sure you've all seen those people at the stands in the mall at Christmas time, hawking all kinds of cheap plastic trinkets. Well, this woman selling markers must have been really bored or something because she was literally YELLING at people passing by to "Come look at my MAGICAL markers". A kid in my group, who was about 10 at the time, did go over...we quickly got him out of there! (Reading what I typed, this sounds very lame...I guess you had to be there to get the full effect!)

2) This didn't take place in an airport, but it started in one...in May of 200, my friend and I took a package tour to China. We were supposed to fly a leg from Xi'an-Guilin non-stop. Well, our flight (which had more than one your group with people from a bunch of different countries) was diverted to another airport and we were basically left to fend for ourselves. There were no announcements made in English, and it was a very mob-like "fend for yourself" mentality. Anyhow, a panicked-looking woman came running up to our group and asked in English if there was anyone in our group who spoke Italian. This poor couple in her group, who spoke only Italian and nothing else, were totally clueless as to what was going on- no idea what was happening, or even where they were!!! Luckily, someone in our group spoke Italian (she lived in Australia but moved there from Italy when she was a child) and this poor couple was put back into the loop. I even chatted with them a bit in French, as they knew a bit and many words are similar in both languages.

3) Same day, same diversion...our tour group was bussed to a hotel to wait out the "delay". We went to a restaurant for something to eat, and some of us shared a table with members from another group. I got to chatting with one gentleman, and asked where he was from. He was living somewhere in South America, but was originally from Hungary. I chatted with him about my trip to Eastern Europe, and somehow the conversation turned to what took him to South America. He was a geologist, and when I mentioned that my great uncle was one too, this guy had heard of my great uncle!!! Imagine, meeting a transplanted Hungarian from South America in a Chinese restaurant in a small town who knew one of my relatives...it was a really neat moment that reminded me that no matter how far from home you go, you can make a connection with people!

Nothing big, but those are the ones that stand out the most in my mind...as I travel more I'm sure I'll accumulate more and more stories!

 

[dudspizza]

Most of my airport experiences have been very boring, just the way you like it.

#1 This one happened when I was flying alone at age 17. I was flying home from London, England on New Years Eve. My flight was supposed to be London GTW to Boston to Minneapolis. We land at Logan and find out the flight to MSP has been cancelled. We must all get our bags and head for the counter. I just went with the flow and was put on a flight to MSP thru Washington DC. We finally board our flight to Washington and get there.... this is the only time I have seen the monuments in Wash. While on the ground waiting to board passengers, we find out we are having mechanical difficulties and instead of boarding passengers, we had to get off. We were boarded onto a flight to MSP hours later and told to "find a seat". I grabbed a seat in the middle of some people and we got to MSP around midnight. Not a very exciting story as I can't remember any meltdowns, but I will say that the best you can do is follow the flow and stay calm.

#2 This is just a stupid thing, but my buddy was following a large African American woman in the MSP airport one day and the woman's child was being a bit wild. She turned to him and yelled, "Chill out, Willis!". This struck my buddy as hilarious and that exact saying stuck. We used it for years as we went through high school. I still say it 20 years later! People I know think it is a line from the show "Different Strokes" so I have to tell them the story.
Have a good night...

Duds

 

[bavaria]

hmmm.... have you been reading my mind, OP? I was going to start a thread on feel good travel stories since we get so many horror stories around here!

Sadly I travel so much that I often forget stories. This year the India tale was a standout - my original telling in the other thread failed to include the fact that when I finally landed in Paris almost two days later, my luggage decided to keep on travelling. Two days later it showed up, drenched in some kind of foul smelling liquid. Thankfully kathleena kindly ignored my travel worn clothes - I toured Disneyland Paris for two days in the same skirt and shirt and sandals I had worn from India!

My other really big travel tale is 9/11 and finding myself working quite by accident in one of the international reception centres which sprung up in the world as flights were diverted from the US. I will never forget the compassion and courtesy people showed to each other; most had been on flights for 8-10 hours, then on the tarmac for another 4-6 hours while the planes and their carry ons were searched, then bussed to reception centres and hotels, all the while not knowing what had happened. I found myself working with a Chinese and a Japanese flight attendant who had been deadheading on flights, helped by a slightly drunk but so polite southern gentleman, complete with rumpled white suit. I often wonder what happened to all those people I met, as they had one of the more surreal experiences that day.

I'm sure that I will have a few more to share though!!

 

[bavaria]

One more comes to mind...

New Orleans, a few months post Katrina. It was very surreal at the airport, having lunch and waiting for my flight. The terminal was almost deserted, few shops or restaurants were open, and I think that I was almost the only person not directly associated with the miliatary or some type of government organization or media. Every one of us was there in some capacity with the rebuilding of the gulf region.

Over the next year I flew in/out of MSY a few more times, and each time I would see a few more tourists in the airport. Not many, but a few mixed in with the military, contractors, and business people. Finally about 16 months after Katrina, it was heartening that the ratio of tourists to military/contractors etc was changing, although far below what it needs to be for the city to recover.

 

[Evi]

I got stranded for a 6 hr delay in ct once in this super small airport dont remember the name but it was attached to a hotel and we were walking around when we found hotel we wanted to get a bite to eat but restaurant was open and conceirge offered us access to the poola and gym. It was great since we had our carry on we were able to kill a few hours relaxing in the hotel spa and pool even had enough time to shower and get a bite to eat before next flight yay to the guy who gave us a key we gave him a good tip.

 

[safetymom]

One of my many travel stories,

We were in Boston for a work event. I was the only one at the event that had a connection to the internet. They were talking about the storm of the century hitting the area. All the other vendors there were saying it was going to bypass the area and no worries about getting out of town. I said I don't think it is going to miss the area.

I called the airline on Saturday when it looked like it was going to happen to reschedule my Sunday flight. I rescheduled for Monday morning. I also didn't book the first flights out since they typically are cancelled.

Of course Sunday came and it was a heavy snowfall with a lot of wind. Since I was there on business we got to stay an extra day in a very very nice hotel. We all went to dinner that night at a restaurant we never would have gotten into otherwise. It was a wonderful day.

Monday morning I went to the airport and flew home. No sleeping in the airport, no cancelled flights. So it pays to keep an eye on things.

One of my friends didn't listen and she flew out on the last plane out of Boston. She made it to Chicago where they cancelled her flight. She ending up sleeping on the floor in the airport until Monday. She knows better now.

 

[Detailor]

We were on our way home to Vermont after a week in Myrtle Beach, with a short scheduled layover at LaGuardia in October 2004. The early Sunday evening flight into LaGuardia was a little delayed in taking off, but it looked like we'd have plenty of time to make our next flight. That is until we had to circle for a while before landing and then getting stuck in traffic on the way to the gate. So we missed our flight to Vermont by about 10 minutes and the next one north was six hours away. Well this was not a big deal other than that my family is made up of a rabid Red Sox fans and we'd miss game two of the Sox' surprise visit to the World Series.
We got to witness most everything close down in our gate area but we did find a little bar and grill that was running the game, complete with dozens of close-ups of Curt Schilling's ankle. The 6-2 win pretty much made up for the long delay.

Dick Taylor

 

[starrzone]

I love hearing about others' travel encounters; it's nice to know that we can all find the humor in an adverse situation. It just goes to show that if you relax and go with the flow (BUT also keep your head on straight and mindful of what is going on around you), you will come out on top.

I don't think I mentioned this in my original post, but we also had 2 ladies in our tour group to China, both of whom were traveling with spouses, who spoke Mandarin. Thank GOODNESS we had them, because without them we would probably still be stuck in the Changsha airport (what, never heard of it? Neither had I until we landed there! Oh, well, another airport to add to my list!). That ordeal is much too long to type out here, but suffice it to say that it was one of the greatest travel learning experiences I've ever had. People from different cultures and who spoke different languages came together to help each other, friendships were made, and lessons were learned.

Edited to add: I'm going to post this on the Community board too...hopefully I'll get even more stories! I'd like to compile them all (minus names/screen names/anyidentifying information), print them out and put them all together to take with me traveling.

 

[bavaria]

Here is a not so pleasant story…

In India only ticketed passengers may enter the airport terminal; all others must wait outside. This results in hordes of thousands milling around the exit and entrance of each terminal. A member of the Indian military carefully checks documents before allowing admittance. One then needs to have luggage screened and sealed before approaching the airline check in counters.

International flights tend to leave Delhi International late at night. I arrived early for my check in and decided to sit near the entrance way to catch a breeze while I repacked my suitcase. (It was still over 40 degrees Celsius even late at night) The soldier on duty was extremely polite (I have had many encounters with the military in India and they were always extraordinarily polite and kind). A woman about my age suddenly pushed her way past the line of waiting passengers and he stopped her to request her documents. She was apparently unfamiliar with the process, and began to speak very loudly to him. All the while he remained very polite, checked her ticket and identification, and directed her to the line to have luggage scanned.

The woman failed to listen, and demanded the American Airlines check in counter. The soldier tried to explain that she needed to have her luggage screened, and one of the porters tried to explain as well. The woman looked over at the line for baggage screening, and suddenly appeared to lose complete control of herself.

She started to shriek at the soldier about how ‘stupid, filthy, smelly’ the country and its inhabitants were. The poor solider remained calm and polite while she berated him for a few minutes and continued to voice numerous insults about India. Finally the porter took her suitcase and led her to the line; the waiting passengers all stepped back a few steps as if to distance themselves from her.

I often wonder about this woman – she was a North American traveller, wearing somewhat business clothes on her top half, and torn and dusty pants on the bottom. Like everyone else in Delhi wearing open shoes, her feet were filthy. Her hair was severely dishevelled. She may have been on a business trip in India for the first time, and the differences may have caused her to snap.

Sadly that night many of us experienced the truly ugly side of travelling.

 

[Applemomma]

I've got one!

A few years ago I travelled with a group from Nova Scotia to Grand Rapids, Michigan for a conference. On the return leg a storm blew into Halifax so we would not have been able to land after catching our connecting flight in Detroit. So we ended up stranded in Detroit for a night waiting for our flight out the next day.

Part of our group was to leave out of Grand Rapids about an hour and a half after we had left but their flight was cancelled there, rather then them flying into Detroit as we were. Imagine our surprise when we came down the escalator the next day to see the other half of our group who were now on the same flight as us!

One of the ladies in that second group was very chatty and easily made friends so of course she struck up a conversation with the gentleman traveling alone beside her (we were all becoming friendly after 24 hours of delays and then another 4 hours of NorthWestern's rotating unofficial strike). Turns out he was from Mexico and was travelling to Halifax to see his son, who was living with an exchange family, aproximatly 2 hours away from the airport. His plan was to rent a car and drive there once we landed. We were all extremly concerned about this because we were due to get in about midnight and we knew from experience that our roads at home would still be a mess for several hours after a storm is officially "over". Unfortunatly his final destination was in the opposite direction from where we were headng so we could do little but encourage him to stay at the airport hotel for the night and wait until the next day....he didn't seem convinced....he had been to Canada before but didn't really get our winter...he'd seen snow but had never driven himself in it.

So finally after the copilot FINALLY showed up, the maintenance guys FINALLY came back out to turn on a mysterious fuel line or something, we took off for home. As we're in the air our dear chatty friend starts to get aquainted with her seat mate. "Where are you from?" ....turns out he was from the same town our Mexican friend was going to. She took it upon herself to introduce them at 30,000 feet. Turns out that the seat mate not only was from the same town the son was staying in but he was in fact staying with this fellow's cousin! In the end he was going to drive Juan right to his son's doorstep that night and even offered to get him to a car rental agency in town the next day. We were so releived to know he was going to be getting to his son safe and sound.

That incident left a big impression on me!