44. No room to stretch out.

I was coming home from Thailand to Seattle... It's a 16-hour flight. and I had the worst case of food poisoning in history. I spent the majority of that flight stuck in the airline bathroom. When I wasn't in the bathroom I was in my seat curled up in a ball shaking and sweating. I was so sick I was at the point of hallucinating.

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When I was an infant, I was sitting on my father's lap when the flight attendant leaned over him to give coffee to the person sitting next to him. Her hand slipped and the boiling coffee spilled all over my bare chest (dad was changing my shirt) burning a large portion of my body. I had a massive scar for a year or two after, and apparently the poor flight attendant had a total breakdown for the remainder of the flight.

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On a three hour flight, I was seated between two very loud and frankly enormous women -- a mother and her grown daughter. They kept talking over me, so I asked if one of them wanted to switch with me. They just laughed and said, “Oh no! We are fine! Mom wants the window and I like the aisle.” So I had to just sit there between them with my arms awkwardly crossed (they both claimed the armrests) while they talked over me the entire time.

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Had a flight attendant throw up on my lap because she became inebriated before we took off. I'm pretty sure she got fired. I was 11.

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I was flying an early morning flight from Schiphol airport in Holland to Greece.

We take off and about 15-20 seconds in we get a bird strike on the left engine. I'm sat on the left side around the wing area and suddenly we've got what feels like turbulence and orange flashes flying from the engine. Instead of carnage on-board, everyone is very silent as I was.

After what feels like ages, this all stops and we are flying normally. As far as I remember it took the pilot and crew a lifetime to tell anyone what was going on, but we head out over the sea, dump fuel from the engine and head back to Schiphol.

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35. What he have here is a failure to communicate.

I flew to Scotland from Australia with Etihad. They left our luggage behind on the stopover because they were running late. We had no communication from the airline when we arrived, we were not reimbursed at all, they then delivered our luggage to another passenger, and then we finally got it delivered six days into a 15-day trip.

We flew home and discovered they did the exact same thing. It took three days to get it back the second time.

That debacle, plus delays, waiting on the tarmac for hours at a time, and the complete lack of customer service has led me to vow to never fly with them again.

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32. It only takes one.

One of my parents is from South America. The family there had government and military ties. When I was about 10 years old, we were trying to fly to the remote state where our family is from. Commercial flights were all booked but my aunt was able to pull some strings and we got on a military flight.

We got to the airport and boarded a small two-engine plane. Our family of five was there with 4 or 5 other military personnel and a small crew. The 90-minute flight was uneventful. That is, until about 15 min from our destination, the engine on the right wing burst into flames. The cabin filled with smoke and the mood deteriorated from cautious optimism to genuine fear. The plane dipped a bit but the pilot kept things in order.

It turns out, these planes can easily fly with a single engine. The smoke was a bit of a concern but the staff eventually explained that we were never truly in peril. Still, little kid me was terrified that day and certain I would pass away on a plane far away from all my friends.

Photo by Rafael Cosquiere from Pexels

30. Might as well drive.

I was flying from LAX to Oklahoma City with a layover in DFW. When we landed in Dallas a storm came in that delayed my connecting flight for seven hours. The thing that's fun about that is that Oklahoma City to Dallas is a three-hour drive so theoretically I could have had someone drive down from OKC, pick me up at DFW and drive me back to OKC just in the time I spent waiting for my connecting flight.

But I had checked luggage so that would have been impossible anyway except that when I finally arrived in OKC the airline lost my luggage. And despite arriving several hours after my flight was supposed to get in my brother still managed to be over an hour late picking me up because the same storm had caused a headlight to burn out on his car (there was a leak in his casing). He got pulled over three times for it and one of the cops told him he had to change the bulb immediately, which he did only to have it burn out five minutes down the road because there was still water in the casing.

29. You asked for it.

Was on a recruiting trip in late September. The night before, we went to a huge party and got extremely inebriated. Was gone from 10pm to around 3am--and my flight was at 6am. I made it to the airport fine, still probably wasted, but I made it. Made the first 2 hour leg of the flight fine. During the one hour layover is when the headache due to last nights actions hit me. My fellow teammates were not doing so well either. We board the next flight and my teammate is lucky enough to get to the bathroom in the cabin to be sick, but not me. We take off and it feels like the entire plane is spinning in circles. I had the vents on to the fullest which was probably what kept me from also being sick during the flight, but when we landed, they must have turned the A/C off because the vents were no longer blowing cool air. I knew at that point I wasn't going to make it, pulled out the bag and blew chunks as we were taxiing. Easily the worst experience of my life so far.

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After a week-long vacation in the Caribbean, I was flying back to the states on an early morning flight and I wasn't feeling well. I couldn't even drink water without throwing it up. ALL I wanted to do on my flight home was sleep.

The flight attendants got on the intercom literally every 20 minutes or so and woke me up trying to sign us up for credit cards and sell duty-free adult beverages and perfumes during the flight. I called a flight attendant over and said "Look, I'm really sick here and just trying to sleep. You've already announced the credit card and the duty-free stuff several times. Can you please not do that again?"

Well, they kept doing it, and after another two or three times, I yelled: "JUST BE QUIET ALREADY!" Apparently, I wasn't the only one not feeling well because several more people on the plane chimed in saying "YEAH, BE QUIET" and "WE'RE TRYING TO SLEEP" and "NOBODY WANTS THE CREDIT CARD!"

27. Handle with care.

I had spent a week on the outskirts of Toronto at this rundown hotel/convention center doing a trade show for my company. I hated it, and I was miserable all week. My company did not allow me to rent a car because the hotel was located at the convention center, and there was a restaurant across the street. So, I was stuck, for 6 days, at this hotel with one place to eat.

It is finally the day to leave, and I am up at the crack of dawn to catch the first shuttle to the airport. I'd rather sit in the terminal for 4 hours than stay in that hotel a minute longer.

After being at the airport for a while, they finally load us on the plane, and I am relieved. I've had a few drinks so I can sleep on the flight. We take off, and I put on my headphones and try to sleep. The plane starts to climb, then descends. A few minutes later the plane starts to climb again, then descends. This goes on for 45 minutes before the captain comes on the speaker and tells us that the cabin will not pressurize, and they have to turn around, 45 minutes into the flight, and return to Toronto.

We get back to the airport, I am steaming. We sit for another 2 hours while they say they are readying another plane for us. After 3 hours they finally tell us that there will not be another flight available until the following day, and they will assist us with hotels for the night. I am miserable at this point. Well, guess where they booked us to stay that night? Yep, that same hotel/conference center I had just escaped from.

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My family and I are English, living in the States. We were going to fly back one Christmas to visit England. Our flights were, Cincinnati to Atlanta (9-hour layover), Atlanta to Amsterdam (2-hour layover), and Amsterdam to Manchester.

Well, the first leg of the journey was fine. The layover in Atlanta, however, is when things went wrong. We were waiting at our gate, which was at the very end of the mile-long terminal. About seven hours into our layover, an announcement comes over the intercom telling us that our flight has been moved to the other end of the terminal.

No big deal. We get up and move all of our stuff to the other gate which took us about 15 minutes of walking to get to the other end. We settle in for our next two hours. Well, another announcement comes over the intercom, telling us that our plane is delayed by another hour. This stinks. Oh well. Anyway, the plane arrives, we all board, strap in and are ready to go. We wait to depart. And wait, and wait...

Until a flight attendant makes an announcement that there is an "electrical leak" in our plane, so we all need to get off. So we de-plane, and get some meal vouchers for the inconvenience, and are then told that our substitute plane will be arriving in an hour. At our original gate.

So it's another trek across the terminal for us. We stop at the food court for the third time during our stay, get some terrible food and sit down to eat. Five minutes later, another announcement comes over and tells us that our plane is now boarding! So we book it to the other end of the terminal and make it onto our plane just in time.

Thirteen hours later we arrive in Manchester and collect our luggage. It's soaking wet. There had been a storm in Atlanta during our layover, and the crew had just left everyone's bags on the tarmac. This stunk, not only because our clothes got wet, but so did all of our presents for our family.

Back in 2012, I was on a China Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Los Angeles. Being a long-haul flight and the fact that it is a major connector in the trans-Pacific route, the plane stopped at Taipei, Taiwan for a layover. The flight was almost empty from Malaysia to Taiwan but when we re-boarded the plane, we were greeted by a stampede of Chinese citizens. Chaos ensued during the part where everyone is awkwardly trying to both walk through the narrow aisles AND load their bags in the overhead cabins. This is an event that is usually a horrible experience on all flights.

And that's not even the worst part yet. I went to sleep and was greeted with a dropped-down tray with half my food missing. Okay, so the flight attendant laid out my food while I was sleeping. As it turns out, the man next to me had helped himself to generous servings of my meal of chicken curry and rice. He even took the dinner roll with him. Keep in mind, the food was likely only served a few minutes earlier because the cart was only a few rows down my seat!

The flight attendant gave me a complimentary upgrade to Business class, profusely apologizing and gave me more food that wasn't served in tin foil containers. I got seated next to a sleeping old man. Alrighty then, back to sleep I went.

OOOHHHFFFF! I woke up with a sharp pain in my stomach. The old man next to me had apparently woken up and took the liberty to jab me in the stomach with his walking stick. He started to angrily scold me as if I did something wrong and lecture me in a rapid torrent of Mandarin Chinese. I could understand some of what he was saying so I mustered up what little mastery I had of the Chinese language to say "I'm not your son! I'm not your son!" He thought I was his son and was scolding me on why I didn't wake him up or something like that.

Needless to say, I had a sour experience flying on that particular flight.

I was flying back from Vegas with a friend from a Bachelorette party. We got to the airport around 9:30 AM, and our plane was due to leave at 10:45 AM or so. We board and its the middle of June so it's 115 degrees outside, but on the tarmac easily 120 degrees or more. They scoot back from the gate and just as we get to the runway, the engine dies. So we pull back up to the gate and wait with absolutely no AIR CONDITIONING. We do not have water, ice, or anything to help with the heat.

We wait in the plane for over an hour. We are sweating and some people are freaking out demanding to be let off which they refused to do. A lady faints, some people start getting nosebleeds. It was on the verge of becoming a riot. Towards the middle of the plane, some college students started playing "I Believe I Can Fly", by R. Kelly. We all started to sing along, our spirits lifted and after 2 hours of being stuck in there, they let us off the plane.

Now they offer water and snacks. Some people with kids refuse to get back on another plane and they leave. So we wait for another hour or two in the airport waiting for another plane to fly us home. We get on, about 3/4 of the people return. We board, and they start moving us back from the gate, and BAM it STOPS AGAIN!!!!!!! This time we wait another 1.5 hours until they let us off the plane. We wait, we make phone calls, we yell. A 3rd plane comes rolling up and it's air-conditioned and glorious. We pull back from the gate with less than half the previous occupants. We get in the air and land. The airline offered $100 vouchers, that expired in a year. NEVER AGAIN!!!

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18. Surprise, you're grounded.

I went on a surprise weekend trip to visit my significant other from Indianapolis, Indiana to Rochester, New York. I was leaving Friday morning and returning Monday morning. My first flight from Indiana was canceled, so I was re-booked on to a flight later in the afternoon. Okay, no problem.

But then the afternoon flight was delayed due to mechanical problems and we arrived in Detroit too late for my connecting flight. Well, fine. I went to the help desk and they again re-booked me for a yet later flight which was scheduled to leave in 3 hours or so. I'd be getting into ROC substantially later than I had originally intended, but that's okay.

While I was eating dinner in the DTW terminal, the system automatically changed my reservation to a different, earlier flight to ROC, which then left without me since I didn't know I had been re-booked again. So then I get to the gate of the flight I thought I was going to be on and I am told that my reservation had been canceled since I was supposed to have left on an earlier flight already.

Umm, nobody told me that. So I went to the help desk again and was given two options: Go on standby for the later flight to ROC (the one I had been re-booked to earlier, then had had my reservation cancelled), or go on standby on a flight back to IND, but on the opposite side of the DTW terminal (which is essentially a single mile-long hallway), that left at the same time.

If I didn't make either flight, there were no other flights leaving DTW for either ROC or IND until Sunday, so I would just be stuck in the airport until the end of the weekend, and I could only try standby for one or the other flight since they were departing at the same time and, of course, the gates were nowhere near each other.

So I picked the standby flight to ROC, hoping to salvage this weekend with my significant other, and luckily I got a seat. Hooray! I arrived at the airport and then spent about an hour waiting at baggage claim while she waited outside in the car. Generally, I don't check bags, but this time I was transporting something I couldn't carry on (a collapsible snow shovel for her car).

Well, my bag never showed up, so we went back to her place and waited it out with only the clothes on my back. Saturday came and went, and it wasn't until Sunday afternoon that my checked luggage showed up, just in time for me to leave the next morning. Oh yeah, and the bag's exterior was now cracked.

17. It's too complicated.

I don't remember the date, but it was maybe June 2006, the day a chain of thunderstorms hit all of the Ohio Valley, East Coast and parts of the Mid West. It was also the 'first day' of the new passenger scheduling program implemented by about 3/4 of the airlines, and IT DID NOT WORK!

I was first in line at the ticket counter to make sure I got my ticket changed to a later flight, as my scheduled flight was grounded due to bad weather (it could not leave ATL to fly to Dulles). I picked a flight sufficiently later for the storm to have passed, and they gave me some lip service, using the STORM, as an excuse, that they couldn't rebook my ticket, which I knew wasn’t true. I also figured out, it was a problem with their software (been in the computer industry & read about the switch date), so I asked for a supervisor, to get a bigger lie told to me, same story, SO, I became that guy everybody hates, and told them I refused to move aside for the next customer, cause if the software came back online, and the storm passed, I wanted the first available seat, which, I knew I would lose the second I moved from that spot. This brought groans from the people in the line behind me, so I asked the supervisor to guarantee me a seat, even a jets 'pilot jump sheet', or I would tell everyone in line what the real problems was. He fretted around for a few minutes, and finally gave me a boarding pass of some sort, and I went down to the leaving gate for about 2 hours. Only people with pre printed boarding passes, and e tickets were able to make that flight, which was the first one out of Dulles. With fewer people on board, and that jump seat pass, I moved to first class... I have always thought the supervisor might have given me a bogus boarding pass, but it was legit.

I only made such a big stink because I was going to my older brothers wedding in Minnesota, and I never take time off from work, so it was a double header in terms of unfairness to get bumped off a plane that day.

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16. If it's not one thing, it's another.

I was flying from Glasgow to London on EasyJet. A 50-minute flight.

So we leave the gate half an hour late, ok, no biggie. The plane taxis to the waiting point just off the runway, by which point we still haven't had the safety instructions and the cabin crew look concerned. We sit there for 10 minutes while they are doing something up front when finally an announcement comes on:

"There has been a problem with the cabin control system, please bear with us while we contact head office for help."

Another 10 minutes pass, and there's another announcement.

"We have resolved the issue, however, we no longer have enough fuel and will have to taxi back to the gate".

It takes about 15 minutes to finally get back to the gate, before another announcement.

"We have been informed that there will be a half hour delay getting fuel due to higher than expected demand."

An hour and a half later the plane finally takes off - we fly to Gatwick without incident, but upon landing the plane simply pulls over and parks on the apron, with another announcement:

"Our assigned gate has been taken, we have to wait for another to open up."

An hour later, we finally make it to the gate, only to be put on buses, which then sit by the plane for about 15 minutes longer than they needed to.

So that's how a 50-minute journey turned into a 5 hour one.

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I'm a bigger guy, so airline travel is hard. I usually buy two tickets so I don't put anybody out. On the last plane trip I've ever been on, this woman asked me to move seats so she could sit with her sister. I politely told her I didn't want to. I bought two seats together so I wouldn't put anybody else there. I even used that machine when I came into the airport and worked with the teller to ensure I had two seats together. I'm much bigger than average and I don't expect businesses to accommodate my choice of lifestyle.

She threw a fit and sat down in her aisle seat and proceeded to have a loud conversation with her sister on the other end of the plane about how rude people were and how ridiculous it was that I was being stingy with my seats. I even showed her my tickets to prove these were my seats. Luckily the most beautiful hostess I've ever seen named Cheyenne came up and asked her to please refrain from disturbing passengers and moved her to another seat in the back and moved her sister back there too so they could be hateful together. Cheyenne then sat next to me when she was able to and we talked the whole trip to New Jersey. She even brought me a Coke (flat but the thought was nice). This was a trip from Oklahoma to New Jersey so I'm not sure if most people from New Jersey are nuts, but I'll never go back there again.

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I travel a lot for work, mostly intercontinental, so lost luggage, theft, seriously delayed flights, a plane struck by lightning, missed connections, I've had them all and always make certain I have a decent survival kit (personal and work) in my hand luggage these days.

My worst experiences have involved other passengers, to be honest. The worst was a couple of years ago when I was at the end of a very, very long haul from Argentina to Holland and I was doing a final leg from Amsterdam back to London.

I boarded the aircraft, and there was a small American child bouncing up and down excitedly in the middle seat, and his morbidly obese mother in my window seat, overflowing the armrests.

I was jetlagged and also slightly ill, having caught a dose of mild food poisoning in Mendoza before I left, so I was not very receptive. Anyway, I said to her, politely; "Excuse me, you're in my seat."

"Oh, it's my little boy, he so loves to look at the airplanes."

"Yes, but you are in my seat, not him."

"That's so I can hold him up. Will you trade seats?"

"I have been traveling for nearly 24 hours. I am not feeling well. I like to look out of the window at aircraft as well. If you don't get out of my seat now, I'll ask one of the cabin crew to make you get out."

"Well, there's no need to be rude!"

"You started it."

Thank God it was only a 45-minute flight. She humphed and squirmed and harrumphed the whole way to London.

Pixabay

I was flying from MSP to Denver. There was a winter storm so I would be late. Fine. I called the shuttle ahead of time and they said they could pick me up and bring me to my hotel in Breck even though it was going to be really late at night. Great!

Well, since I really wasn't in a hurry, I let everyone go in line before me at the airline desk so they could correct their connecting flights.

I mean, I was at my destination. It stinks pretty badly when you miss your connection, so I was being totally empathetic to their urgency. It was more important than mine because I already had my travel connection in place. Right?

Well, by the time I got to the front of the line, the airline baggage handlers shift ended.

My skis were locked in holding and there was NO ONE, NO WAY, NO HOW, I could get my skis.

By the time I complained and did everything I could to get my skis, I still couldn't get my skis and I missed the shuttle anyway plus HWY 70 was closed.

So I had to spend the night in the airport.

What I learned: It doesn't pay to be nice. Airports specifically put arm rests on chairs to prevent people from sleeping or laying across the chairs, and Denver airport does a heck of a lot of floor cleaning over night.

Pixabay

12. Better early than never.

At the airport: I have TSA Precheck, so I get to go through the fast line, leave electronics in bag, etc. I was on a business trip coming back from Detroit to Toronto. TSA flags my bag to go through the x-ray again. And again. And again. The third time a guy comes, picks up my bag, asks if there is anything sharp he may hurt himself on (no) before he pulls out my phone charger, kindle charger, and laptop charger. He puts the chargers back in the bag, sends the bag through.

Flagged again.

The guy told the woman at the machine to get up and leave after she couldn't even identify a phone charger on the machine without claiming it was dangerous.

On the actual flight: again, flying home to Toronto, this time from Tampa. Apparently there was a storm rolling in to the GTA and the pilots were trying to outrun it. Usually when a plane reaches the start of a runway, they line up, stop, ask for clearance, then take off. We did not stop. They opened the throttle before we had fully completed the turn, which was how I knew this was going to be serious.

We were screaming through the sky. Climbed steeper than I ever have, stayed at high throttle the whole way. We land 40 minutes early and practically skid into the jet bridge. We were the last flight allowed to land that day.

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11. Seizure in the air.

I was coming into land at Dulles (Washington DC), and the guy in the opposite aisle starts groaning really loudly. Immediately I turn to look, and he's not just groaning - he's wailing, his body is convulsing, and he's smashing his head into the chair directly in front of him. The passenger next to him is terrified.

Now, I'm a medical journalist, pharmacy grad, and I've done a load of first aid courses, so I know what's going on here. Someone starts yelling for someone to stick something in his mouth - and that's the worst thing you can do if someone is having a seizure. Instead, as horrible as it sounds, the best thing to do is let the seizure go.

So, I yell "NO!" at that, to make it clear, then calmly get someone to signal for the flight attendant, and ask if there's something soft to use to cushion him.

Now, this is a bit of a strange situation because the guy having the seizure is already restrained by the seatbelt - it's scary. So the best thing to do was use this oversized teddy bear someone had (it was Valentine's Day) to cushion the guy's head, and get that in place. The stewardess is trying to help, dropping off a medkit, and puts a call out for a nurse or doctor. So there's me, the stewardess, and a nurse, unbuckled, coming in on a priority emergency landing at Dulles, the plane is at a crazy landing angle, and I'm straddling the aisle trying to stop this guy from hurting his head with a giant teddy bear.

As soon as the nurse arrived I stopped, because her expertise trumped my very basic skills. The guy was OK - bewildered and covered in fluids, but the EMTs got him off.

Anyway, all of that meant I was late for my flight to the UK. So I ended up having to sprint the entire length of Dulles' terminal (and it's a LOOOOONG terminal) to make the flight. I did it with five minutes to go, covered in sweat and exhausted.

I couldn't sleep on the flight home after that. It was about midnight EST when it was all done, and I was sweaty from the run, and a little shocked by what the heck I'd just been involved in.

Pixabay

1o. This is what headphones are for.

I had a lady sitting behind and across the aisle from me and my girlfriend on a ten-hour flight. We'd spent the whole weekend together already and were flying to the States for leave. Both of us were enjoying our time being alone, but together. I'm reading a book on my phone, she's listening to music.

This lady leans forward and taps my shoulder and asks me to open her soda for her. I oblige. A minute later. Tap tap. I politely turn around, she starts with, "I think something is lost." Then just goes into this long-winded spiel about how in her day she'd have been so excited to be with her boyfriend. Cuddling, kissing, talking. I point out that we've been together every second of the last 48 hours, we're just fine. She disagrees wholeheartedly.

I disengage, turn back, get a page or two into my book. Tap tap.

I turn around again, she starts bending my ear again about "Today's youth" and how we're just too busy to talk to each other. Segues into the life stories of her children. Every time I turn away, I get that tap tap again.

This goes on for almost an hour. I can't get a word in at all. We move from the topic of her family to the problems with our country. Finally, it's escalating. You know when someone starts trying to ease you into something, build you up with a few statements that everyone would agree with, then tie it into some crazy thing to try to get you to agree?

Yeah, that's where we were going. And it finally ended on a derogatory comment about people of colour.

I finally told her I'd had enough, I wasn't going to support that kind of talk, and I'd appreciate if she kept that to herself. I was finally able to enjoy my flight in peace.

Pixabay

9. 9/11 was as bad in the air as it was on the ground.

It's 9/11/2001. I'm flying from Cedar Rapids, Iowa to Cleveland, Ohio. Just as we are about to board the plane someone in line says something like "a Cessna just crashed into the world trade center." Though a bit troubling most people were just focused on getting on the plane and didn't pay it much mind.

We taxi to the runway and take off like normal. I have my head buried in a book so I'm not really paying much attention to what is going on, though I did notice we didn't get to altitude which I thought was weird. I think we stayed at maybe 10,000 feet rather than going up to 30,000. My flight was direct into Cleveland. We cruised along at 10,000 feet for 20-30 minutes. The pilot came over the intercom and said: "The FAA has closed all U.S. airspace, we're landing at Chicago O'Hare."

Well now everyone on the plane is getting nervous. I really had no idea what the heck was going on. Maybe there was a big accident or maybe a plane was in the air and got hijacked? We land at O'Hare and while looking out the window all I could see was chaos. Planes were everywhere. Stacked up at the gates, on the access runways leading to the takeoff runway. I'd never seen so many planes on the ground before.

People started getting on their phones and slowly information started spreading through the plane that we were under some sort of attack. We thought this meant that someone had launched a military attack of some sort, like jet fighters, missiles etc. I'm totally confused as to what is going on. Of course, my cell phone was dead, but it probably wouldn't have mattered if it was charged because people were having a difficult time getting through on their phones.

After about an hour waiting we were able to get off the plane at the gate. The scene inside was just total panic. I remember seeing national guard soldiers there with their rifles, dogs etc. Over the intercom, they were repeating "please leave Chicago O'Hare airport as soon as possible." I overheard people saying that the attack was coming to Chicago.

I have two small kids at home and a wife. I'm stuck at O'Hare with what I thought at the time was an imminent attack. I left my luggage behind and got out to the front of the airport. I managed to stop a guy driving a rental car shuttle bus and asked if he knew if there were any cars available. He said, "buddy nothing is available, but hop on I'll take you with me so you're not stuck here."

On the ride to the rental car facility, I'm racking my brain to try to figure out how to get out of Chicago. There are no rental cars available, flights are shut down, I was sure trains wouldn't be an option either. Then it hit me... I knew what to do. I asked the rental car driver for some directions on where I needed to go and started walking.

I walked for about 20-30 minutes or so and found what I was looking for. U-Haul. I rented a U-Haul truck and drove all the way back to Ohio.

And that's my worst airline travel story.

I was on a flight from New York City to Los Angeles with my father. We are seated on opposite sides of the aisle toward the back of the plane (I'm on the aisle seat on the right side and he is on the aisle seat on the left side). Everyone starts to take their seats. Interestingly, I am left with an empty one next to me. Not for long. I see a woman, who I assumed was paralyzed, being wheeled in my direction. I politely stood up because I knew she was going to take the seat next to mine. After the airline staff had transferred her from the wheelchair to the seat next to me, they went back to tending other passengers.

About 10 minutes later we lifted off for our eight-hour flight. Fast forward a few hours, and we are beginning to fly over Colorado when the lady next to me starts having a coughing fit. Now, this isn't your normal "cough a few times a minute" thing, this is the hard cough of someone who is in pain. As I sit there uncomfortable, she begins to moan about how much pain she is in. It's then when I notice all of the color has drained from her face and her eyes are barely open.

THEN SHE GETS UP AND WALKS TO THE BATHROOM.

So is she paralyzed? I thought to myself. I got up and let her in after she returned. That's when the loud pain filled groans began. She started screaming "I need to lay down! I need to lay down right now!" So the flight attendants took this woman to the back of the plane (only a few rows behind our seats) and help her over the counter. This was the best they could provide her, yet I could still hear her groans from my seat.

My dad told me that I should expect to have an emergency landing in Denver so this woman could be given medical attention. That landing never came. When we finally reached LAX the plane was taken to the side and stopped for a good 20 minutes before anything happened. That's when the men in gas masks and suits that had the logo for the Department of Health walked toward her. I was very off-put at this point but it gets worse.

Two men with briefcases walk behind them (also in masks) and I began vigorously shaking my dad's arm. "Did you see what it said on the briefcase?! Did you see?!" He said no. It said "CDC Emergency response team." Five minutes later they carried her out and the captain said that we were free to go. My dad was not okay leaving without an explanation so he asked the captain when we got to the front of the plane what happened. The captain said that she had just flown in from Africa and the CDC had to make sure she didn't have a fever. That was it. I knew then I was done for. Miraculously nothing happened, but it was so scary. I never knew what became of that woman.

4. A smell you'll never forget.

I was flying from Bangkok to New Zealand. My dad was a little pale before we boarded the flight but we figured he was just tired. I was 14 at the time and I fell asleep half an hour in and woke up a few hours later to absolute panic. I had no idea what was going on but the smell that I woke up to was the worst I've ever smelt. Even ten years later, it is still the worst smell I have ever encountered. I just remember looking over to my dad and there was blood everywhere. That's what the smell was. Blood.

We got moved to first class (not as exciting under these conditions) and some rich dude wearing snakeskin was more than happy to leave to give up the room. I thought that was pretty nice of him. I sat on one side and my father and mother were kind of towards the back away from me on the other side. A doctor came in too (luckily) and was assisting.

Flight attendants were consoling me and telling me everything was going to be OK, but I looked over their shoulders out of curiosity and saw my dad sitting on the window seat, not looking great at all. We left the plane as soon as we touched down and since we didn't go through any security we had our bags quickly checked in some sort of holding room. I fainted because there were so many people in the room. Also THAT SMELL!! Then we all went to the hospital. My brother was getting married the next day so we all went and visited my dad after - even the bride - it was pretty cool. He turned out to have a ulcer in his stomach. My dad recovered.

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