Triphap - Funny Travel Stories and Travel Horror Stories

It was early Summer, 2009. We had been talking about going to New York City since our senior year of high school in 2007. We fell out of touch during our first years of college but came back together with the promise of this wonderful trip. Amanda had been to NYC twice already but it was to be my first time. We had to drive the two hours to Cleveland to catch our flight (tickets were cheaper). The ride was fairly uneventful but for our excitement. We were there early and had fun milling about the airport. Finally our gate opened. We boarded and all was well. We landed happily in Philadelphia for our connecting flight to NYC. That’s when we saw it. The Wright Brothers plane. The thing was small and looked like it had seen many long winters. Once inside the tin can we began to really get scared. I could literally see through the back wall. The seats were crappy and it was extremely loud. Amanda grabbed my arm with a look of terror I have only seen twice (the other time on a state fair swinging boat ride). And we were off into the sky.... read more >>

I couldn't help but feel a twinge of disappointment when I saw the itinerary for our journey home to New Zealand after three years of missionary service in South America. This time, we were not doing the long haul flight from Buenos Aires to Auckland –all fifteen hours of it, broken only by a brief halt in Patagonia. Instead of heading to Argentina after leaving Bolivia, we would spend the night in Santiago, Chile, then fly via Easter Island to Tahiti, where we would spend a few hours before catching the connecting flight to Auckland. If we'd timed our flight for another day, we would have spent an extra day in Tahiti. Oh well. At least stopping to refuel Easter Island would be interesting.

The flights from La Paz to Arica to Santiago were pretty uneventful, with no dramas over passports or visas... unless you count the aftershave my father had stowed in my cabin baggage (his was full) leaking and a small child in a seat near mine throwing up and getting some on the pink straw hat I had put on the floor temporarily. So we boarded the Lan Chile flight out of... read more >>

Because I am one to always attempt to conquer my fears, I began learning about airplanes. I wanted to be able to identify the sounds the plane was making, of course under the theory that if I could understand what the plane and the pilot were doing, the noises and G force wouldn't terrify me anymore. In theory, this idea was perfect. My fear only lay with take-off. Once the pilot reached cruising altitude, or during the descent, I was not afraid at all. So I scoured all the resources I could find to learn about airplane take-offs.

There was another time I was fortunate enough to sit next to an off-duty airline pilot. We started talking about the different sounds of the plane and what they meant so that I was really doing a lot better. I wasn't that nervous at all. The pilot went into great detail to explain to me that the aircraft we were flying on was a wonderful aircraft - particularly during landing. He told me that whenever I got to fly on that aircraft I should - the plane practically lands itself. I was grateful for his insight and settled down for the 2 hour... read more >>

I had to travel a lot for my job and I was never nervous about flying. It wasn't until I got married and had my first child that I begin to feel nervous onboard a plane. My fear eventually developed into sheer terror. I got to the point where I would dig my nails into poor unsuspecting travelers sitting next to me with tears streaming down my face or break out into a prayer chant every time we approached the runway, ready for take-off. The panic attacks got really bad and I'm really fortunate that the people sitting next to me were very compassionate and always, always offered words of encouragement or support instead of outright punching me in my nose for nearly drawing blood from them.

On a flight to Nashville, I went through my normal ritual of sobbing uncontrollably during take-off. As luck would have it, the man sitting next to me told me not worry and then revealed that he was an off-duty pilot for a very large airline. I was thrilled! After all, I was sitting next to a pilot of the airline I was flying, the largest airline in the country! What did I have to... read more >>