Disclaimer: I never flew for business purposes but always "pleasure". I flew my first time when I was 16 (1970) and have flown almost yearly since. It used to be a treat and enjoyable instead of a dread and the beating it is now. I have 2 stories . . . not life threatening but both have affected my view on air travel negatively.

Both involve Delta Airlines (in the news right now for not being able to clear the computer glitch from last week). Both also involve LaGuardia (LGA) Airport, NYC. I avoid both now.

--- First issue was in 2018 on a return trip from Can. and we were connecting through NY (LGA) to go to Houston (IAH). Late July, hot day. Our flight was scheduled for departure around 1330 hrs. Well they oversold the flight and had a hard time coaxing someone to take their offers and we were later boarding. Finally left the gate around 1400 and sat in line for a while, we were probably 10-12 back. Well were getting close to being next and the captain pulls out onto a siding and we sat there for around 3 hours. It was hot and stuffy on the plane. Finally pulled back and unboarded the whole plane as they cancelled the flight. We were put up in a 2 suites (one for us and one for our 3 pretty well grown kids) finally getting to our rooms about 2100 and ordered delivery pizza. We caught an early morning flight so were up at 0300 and at LGA at 0400 departing at around 0600. What a PIA but it was an isolated incident as far as I was concerned even though we had a flight cancelled there a few years earlier and caught a flight later that evening but it was Delta and LGA again. The whole issue was the weight of the plane, hot temps, not enough runway. Apparently not enough lift when it's hot.

--- Then after Canada's Chyna Flu shutdown of their country in 2020 they finally reopened again in the fall of 2022 we booked flights from IAH into Bangor, Maine (BGR) to drive into Canada to visit Mrs RayBob's family. Delta had the most favorable schedule and, of course, through LGA. We took it. Left IAH arrived LGA on time, 2 hour layover but at the boarding time(1330) nobody was at the desk so obviously not boarding on time. Well they came to the desk and announced "we're waiting on the crew". In fact they did that until 1700 2 more times. Then they stated the weather caused the crew to be late. Finally cancelled the flight around 1900 hours. No room provisions this time as they were blaming weather not themselves or airport. No immediate refund. Unable to get us on a flight the next day. We picked up our luggage, slept in the baggage room. Made reservations out of Newark for a 0600 flight to BGR caught an UBER to Newark at 0330, and boarded and reached Bangor with no more issues. Highlight of the night in the airport at LGA was an old drunk wino walking out of the bathroom with his pants down to his knees and his junk hanging out. The other repercussion was paying 2.5 times the cost of a ticket for the Newark flight.

Needless to say both Delta and LGA are on my no-fly list.

Any aggravating stories from y'all?

None. All my flights are great...

Sarcasm there. Have taken 8 flights this year. Six of those were delayed and not by 20 mins. All by more than 2 hours, one of them was 6 hours. Just cancel the damn thing at that point.

BTW San Diego has the worst airport for a major city in the US. I am sure of it.

It involved way too much Absinthe during 3hr layover in Leipzig,Germany while on a DoD charter flight home to a cheating ex wife after 9 months in Iraq. Great times.

Agree with cancelling. Airlines don't care about the customer anymore. Connecting is the worst.

And for sure I have had late flights but in both the above cases I felt mistreated. I did have Delta hold a flight about 20 minutes at the gate for me in Detroit when the first leg of my flight was late getting in. That was 20 years ago though.

My hats off to you Dan. I despise all the airlines. Currently trusting United the most. I've never flown through or into SD. Driving into IAH is really messy right now due to construction. Atlanta Hartsfield sucks too.

I’ve flown quite a bit in my lifetime. Honestly, every time has been good. Even the cheap “spirit” airline was ok…kinda like riding in a dart bus. Haha.
“I’ll have the 3oz Diet Coke and the 1-1/2” x 1-1/2 square bag of Chex mix!”

In 2014 I was flying out of Houston Hobby, The TSC pulled me aside and Manually pat me down. Then that agent took some pads and rubbed my clothes. It turned blue. He told me that that was positive for Nitro Cellos (Gun Powder) I explained that I had spent the morning at a indoor gun range. Anyway a hour later and a cavity search I was allowed to board the plane back to Midland. I hate airports.

Flying home from Colorado Springs. They had flagged one of our bags for some reason and had to open it and literally pull everything out by hand, my drawers my wife's drawers and I was pissed. They had a spot out in the middle of everything where everyone that wanted to look, could look. It wasn't long and security had me surrounded. I decided it was best for me to walk away.

Only one, and it barely counts as worst. More like entertaining.

Flying from Michigan to California for work, layover in Denver, Colorado. I was on a red eye coming home. Sitting in the middle between a drunk and a woman. Well the flight started to hit some pretty rough turbulence and the plane was practically falling out of the sky then getting lifted back up. Basically an airline version of a carnival ride that takes you up several stories and drops you.

The drunk, he freaking slept through most of it. Not sure how, but he did. The woman, she began to weep, grabbed her purse, and rifled through it looking for her blackberry. Realizing she was on a plane and powering it on could result in more airline issues she put it away. I was trying my best to keep her calm. I was cracking jokes and asking her to tell me about her family. About that time the pilot comes on and says, "folks you can tell that we're in a pretty good patch of turbulence. We're being diverted to another airport. Unfortunately, it's smaller and may not be able to support some of your transfers."

Long story short, she freaked, the drunk woke up and bitched to the stewardess, and I sat back and was happy we were alive.

worst i had was a fly to boston with a layover in baltimore when we landed a storm blew in and they canceled our flight put us up in hotel and we left next morning. worst was a frontier flight from denver to dfw supposed to leave at like 6:30pm but the toleit seat was broken in a restroom and it took 4 hours to fix.

Seeing your chonies is not something I would care to see either. Funniest thing I've heard of being found by TSA, was a double sided fist toy. Yep, they stopped the folks because it created a "red flag" and TSA had the people pulled aside asking WTF???

flew into Buenos airies last year on our annual dove hunting trip......landed early morning at international airport,transferred across the city to the domestic airport to catch two hour flight to Tucuman in northwest argentina....big storm hit,delayed all flights finally about 8pm they cancelled our flight....fortunately we called our outfitter 700 miles away and he arranged for van to carry us back across town to a charter flight that got us to the lodge about 2:00a.m. (it cost us cost us about $400.00 after refund from our cancelled flight)
if you fly into foreign countries on a hunting trip,it is comforting to know you have an outfitter like Inti Malal that will come to your aid in the middle of the night...

https://olsenfamily.com.ar/inti-malal/

Wife and I spent the night at DFW after a missed flight to Corpus, which caused me to miss the sign in for the Sharkathon tournament on the island. Sat on the tarmac for three hours in Chicago, then the pilot missed the runway in Dallas, which cost us another hour. First class were comped rooms, the rest of us slept at the various gates. We were comped some meal tickets, but most things were closed at 2 a.m. I threw mine in the trash and bought a beer. A custodian brought my wife and I a couple of blankets. We arrived in Corpus the next morning at 10:30 a.m. I called the Sharkathon people and they let me sign in at their home on the island. So I did get to fish one night of the tournament. While in the service, i spent 48 hours at an AFB in California because of late flights. I went into standby, and it took two days to get to Hawaii. But that was military. It was always hurry up and wait.

I have many stories concerning some sketchy international airlines, but I did have a Southwest incident. Flying from Albuquerque to Love Field our plane was struck by lightening. They had us land in El Paso and we changed planes. From the terminal, you could see where it hit. Left a mark about 2 feet below the copilot window. It was kind of a non event, but it was my only lightening strike in hundreds of flights.

I’ve had a few overnights in ohare, I got stuck in San Diego for two days because of a snowstorm in DFW.

On SW flight and pilot announced one engine was not working and he was going to run the plane down the runway to restart it. The lady next to me brought out her rosary and was very loudly prying. I felt like I was in a disaster movie but everything went well.