Triphap - Funny Travel Stories and Travel Horror Stories

The summer after my 16th birthday my sister was due to deliver her first baby, and I was so excited that I just couldn’t take it. The only problem was that my Mom had flown up a few weeks before school let out to be with her, and my Dad couldn’t leave the business during the busy season. Translation: if I wanted to see the baby, then I was flying up on my own. All the way from Knoxville, TN to Anchorage, AK!

And I wasn’t bothered by it. After all, it’s not like this was my first trip. So my Dad took me to the airport and signed me up as an unaccompanied minor. He knew that I could handle it, but wanted to just make sure than someone would be checking on me.

Everything went great until I hit Chicago, wind, rain, hail, all of the makings of one crazy storm in the exact location that I needed to fly out of. So at roughly 2:00am Delta canceled the flight. I quickly made my way to the ticket counter to schedule my flight for the next day only... 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 >>

When you travel, especially by air, you are putting a great deal of faith in your air carrier. For example, you are trusting them with your possessions. You are trusting them deliver you safely to your destination. And you are trusting that the flight will land in the city that is printed on your ticket.

After one of my trips I am beginning to wonder if this trust is misplaced. I mean, they lose my baggage all the time, but I never expected them to lose ME!

It all went down during one of my trips out of the Seattle airport. I was scheduled to fly into Anchorage that day, and so far the trip had gone off without a hitch. Famous last words right? They called my flight, I boarded the plane, settled down in my seat, and just before I plugged myself into my headphones I heard, “Ladies and Gentlemen, this is flight 1432 non-stop to San Francisco.”

San Francisco!?!?! That’s in completely the wrong direction!

I jumped up, grabbed my bag, and ran to the front of the plane. They were about to shut the door, but I begged to get off and... 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 >>

Growing up my summers were always spent flying to Alaska to spend time with my family. With a flight that long it is natural that some trips would be better than others, but there is one (my first trip post 9/11) that will forever stand out in my mind as being the worst trip ever taken.

It all started when my sister called to see if I could fly up earlier than we had planned. She had just found out that she was going to have to have knee surgery in a few days, and I had just finished my finals for the semester. No problem! She changed the dates and I got packed.

My flight left early on Friday and I was excited about the trip. Jess’s surgery wasn’t until Monday, which gave me a few days to hang out with family before I started playing nursemaid. But even as excited as I was, things went down hill right off the bat. In fact, I think that the only way to make sense of the chaos that ensued is to break it down by day.

Friday: Day 1

Ticket pulled by... read more >>

I met my husband on one of those online dating sites back in 1999 just when they were beginning to be en vogue. I was working for my hometown newspaper at the time and they were kind enough to let me off early on December 31, 1999, so that I could fly to Detroit to see my future husband.

Everyone thought that I was nuts flying on a plane that could suddenly go haywire at midnight when the clocks were to turn to the new year 2000. The airport was eerily quiet that night that I left. I got on the plane expecting it to be packed as usual since this was such a short flight from Indianapolis. We were four passengers and a whole contingent of plane personnel.

Before the plane took off, the flight attendant came up to us and asked us one question: "Would we like to be bumped up to First Class free of charge?" We looked at each other and couldn't believe our luck.

I grabbed my carry-on and didn't hesitate to find my wide, comfy seat in first class. We were each offered a complimentary bottle of champagne to ring in the New Year and we... 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 >>