Mr Keller was a class act for sure. Always a staple at club Smitz or however it was spelled. Shared a table with him dozen or so times when it was packed.

I would have been PO'd

A long time ago, Continental from Houston to I don't remember where. Plane was apparently carrying a load of frozen shrimp in the luggage compartment. On landing, pilot had to go into an emergency stop for some reason. The shrimp landed on the luggage, especially my garment bag. By the time I got my luggage, the shrimp had thawed and the stink was awful. That was my first and only experience with an emergency stop, airplane brakes are amazing.

If you ever wake up one morning and tell yourself you want to get on the worst flight in your life, then get on a plane with me. Seriously.

Run off the end of the runway, TWICE.
Caught in wind shear and close to face planting. TWICE
Tire blowout on runway, THREE times, once on fire.
Gravy maker will not ever get on a plane with me again. Not ever.
There's a lot more, it's got to be more than a 15 hour drive before I even think about getting on the silver tube of death.

I never flew for business.. But was fortunate enough to go on some good vacations..

And if you were ever in my party, I would always warn you of the Bendele Airport Curse.. Cause it was gonna happen a high percentage of the time..

Personal worst was a trip to Argentina.. Had a group going with me from San Antonio to ATL to Buenos Aires and onward.

The only time in the history of the San Antonio International airport ever having a bomb threat.. Guess who was past security. In a bar near the gate drinking Shiners. Till they evacuated the airport.. Us included of course..

Took off three hours late.. Missed the flight to BA by minutes.. Could not get on another flight to BA till the next afternoon.. Via Chicago.. Not exactly in the right direction..

Told them to get me on the next thing smokin back to SA..

Spent the night in ATL and flew back home the next AM. Baggage made it back about three days later via BA..

Working in Augusta Georgia in the mid 80's i would fly home to Houston about once a month out of Atlanta on a cargo flight for $59.00. With it being a cargo plane it only had about 20 seats on it. My very first flight home a mechanic gets on board carrying a tool box and sits down across the isle from me. As we are taxing out for takeoff i asked him if he was flying home from a job and he says no I work for the airline. Said that they had been having trouble with one of the rear hatches staying locked during the flights and he was there to fix it if it happened again. I never knew if he was F**king with me or not but I didn't unfasten my seatbelt until we landed in Houston.

What airline?

Delta

Bassturds in American Airlines changed my gate 15 minutes before boarding. I looked at the wife and said Uhoh. I hope the luggage switches.

It didn’t.

My dress uniform was in there. I was going home for my mom’s funeral. Not happy.

They actually had the gall to ask me several times if I was sure I didn’t want to go to the airport to pick it up. This was a couple days later. I said eff no. My mom’s funeral was earlier that day. Deliver my shizz to me.

It was on the porch the next morning an hour away from the airport.

Your story doesn’t check…

2009 and was headed to Anchorage for work. Flying out of ATL, storms came up and flight delayed for an hour. Storm slacked off & we boarded & it intensified 2 fold as we taxied out. Got held on tarmac for 2 hrs...that was back when they would do that. Missed my connection in Denver & airport was shut down. Slept in airport till they opened next morning...got a flight to Seattle & connected on Alaska Air as they had flights in & out of Seattle to Anchorage on the hour. Got to Anchorage & got picked up but had to wait 2 days for my luggage to get there.

I had been working the deep night shift at the Gulfstream Aircraft factory for 3 weeks. Six pm until six am, seven days a week. Finally, they said I could go home to DFW, and they scheduled me a flight out of Savannah for 8:00 am. Well, after my last 6am shift, I should have gotten to the airport. But mistakenly, I thought, "I've been here for three weeks and have yet to see any of the city. So I rescheduled a flight from Savannah to Atlanta, to DFW, to depart Savannah about 7:30 pm and arrive about 10:30 pm. Plenty of time to sleep and then go to work the next day. And out I went into Savannah, Tybee Island, and Ft. Polaski.

Caught the flight out of Savannah okay. Got to Atlanta and boarded the flight to DFW. Pushed back about 10 feet from the gate and stopped. Pilot finally comes on and says " We are in a hold because of a weather front over DFW. We are going to hold for a while until the weather clears. About two hours later he comes back on, "Well the storm front seems to be stalled over DFW, but we're going to go ahead and take off, in hopes that the front moves before we get to DFW." Off we go.

As we get over Texas, the pilot comes back on, "Well, the storm front is still over the DFW Airport and we're not getting in. Any Nobody else is getting in either. So we're going to orbit out here over East Texas for a while and see if the storm moves on." And we orbit for a good while.

Mind you, by this time it's in the middle of the night. Everyone's asleep on the plane, except this one guy who's been working the night shift for three weeks. I"M WIDE AWAKE.

After a good while the pilot comes back on, "Well it's still a mess over DFW, but we're going to make a run at it and see how bad it is. If we can't land, we'll go on to our secondary destination on Austin." So we head in .... I don't know how low we got to the airport ...or how close we got to the runway .... but I know that we got the ride of our lives, bumpier than all get out. Finally, the Pilot powers up pulls in the flaps and gains altitude. "We'll, we're not getting in, so we're heading to our secondary destination of SAN ANTONIO." And off we go.

We land in SA and start taxiing to the terminal. "We'll folks, we're going t pull up to the gate and have them refuel us, and then we're off to DFW. Everybody just stay onboard and as soon as we get gassed up we'll be on our way." By this time, it's close to 2:00 am, we've all been sitting, strapped in our seats for quite some time. And we sit ...... "Finally the pilot comes on and says, "We realize that you've been in this plane for awhile. We're going to open the terminal and allow you to get out and walk around for a bit. Most everything in the airport is closed, but you can stretch your legs while we gas up the plane. So we all get off, and as soon as we exit the plane I turn to my left and there's a big glass window pane where I can look out at the 757 we just flew in on. I'm watching the storm front start to move into SA Airport, and see a guy in a yellow rain slicker walk out under the wing and open an engine cowling. Uh Oh .... they don't put the gas in there! So I found a pay phone and call the wife. Hey, I'm in San Antonio. Don't know when I'll be back. After a while we all stumble back on the plane and take our seats. And we wait. After awhile the pilot comes on, "Well folks, seems like we have an issue with the thrust reverser, but we have a mechanic working on it, and as soon as he's finished the repair we'll get the log books signed and be on our way back to DFW." Heard that part about the log books three more times, every half hour or so.

Finally they let us off the plane again. People are by now looking for alternative ways out of SA. I thought about renting a car. But in the gate next to us, some activity started building as gate attendants were showing up for a 6:00am flight of an MD-80 to DFW. Everyone from our plane lined up, hoping to catch that flight. Finally, the gate attendant got on the microphone, "People, I know where you are from and what has happened, but there are more of you, than this little plane even holds." So most of us just stand in ine, in a kind of stupor. Then I notice that the line is getting shorter ... From The Back. People are getting back on the original 757, and I follow along. Take my old seat. later the Pilot comes on "Well, we had a mechanic stow the thrust reverser. As soon as he signs the log book we're off to DFW. I thoght 'Stow The Thrust Reverser, means DISABLE the thrust reverser.' I'm glad we're headed to an airport with 10,000 ft. runways.

We landed at 8:00 am. I went directly to the office and told my boss, "You've already had me for eight hours. I'm headed home."

What type of aircraft was that? I flew Delta a lot during the 80's and I don't recall that configuration.

Not sure about worse. At 1 time I did a lot of flying. Out on Monday morning normally home Friday evening for months at a time. DFW to Birmingham or Huntsville. If there was a line the rental car company would call me the front and Guntersville Holiday Inn left me fruit baskets in my room.

Worst flight was probably to O'Hare connecting South Bend in a snowstorm. Circled O'Hare for 2-1/2 hours until we ran low on fuel and diverted to Detroit. Back then airlines stocked liquor on morning flights. They sold out. Got into O'Hare around 3:00. All connecting flights into South Bend were canceled along with busses. Went to the rental car counter. Got behind a drunk renting a car to South Bend. Lady at counter asked me where I was going. I told her I had a car reserved in South Bend. She said that is good. Why don't you ride with this guy and you can drive. I said sure I am not riding with him driving with 10" of snow on the ground. Got to South Bend about 10 and to my hotel room in Goshen about midnight.

Worse overall traveling experience was flying into Portland in a snowstorm. Only about 2" in Portland but about a foot out towards I5 were I was headed. Snow would not have been a big deal but it started heavy and wet with temps falling into the teens. We were suppose to meet a VP at plant and he got diverted to Eugene and never made it. We spent day at plant waiting for him. Drove back to Portland and booked a room at an airport hotel. Had a flight booked in the morning to DFW. Got to the airport and American told us that the Eugene airport runways were a solid sheet of ice and all their planes except 1 were stuck there. The VP we were suppose to meet was on that plane but it was booked to DFW. He said they took off from Eugene and the plane was sideways going down runway. I got on the phone and called American they said the only thing available was a Delta flight but we would never make it. I was looking at the Delta plane across the tarmac. I was looking out a window towards the north and watched Mt St Helen's blow. Minor eruption but ash shutdown the airport. Booked a morning flight and went back to hotel. We get to the airport the next morning and they almost canceled our flight because the water was frozen. We finally take off and were told halfway to DFW that it might shutdown due to ice. Fortunately did not happen. This was just days before Christmas. My boss had called the corporate office and they has authorized us to charter a flight or rent a car. Glad we did not have to do the latter because I would have been driving.

I've spent the night on the floor in the terminals @ Hartsfield, Sea-Tac, and Hobby..... not a lot of fun.... hehe. Had a couple of long waits in international customs, but, obviously no fault of the airlines. One of the worst was sitting in a snowstorm on the tarmac, then a taxiway, then back at the gate....off the plane for an hour.... than back on the tarmac.... for 7 hours..... at Dulles in DC. Severe turbulence on a few occasions (learned to keep my seatbelt fastened at all times). A few lost bags, but, honestly no biggie as they got em to me within 24 hours or less.

The worst experience I've had was a plane pull out of the gate 20 minutes early on me (filmed it on my video camera with proof of the time). I got there in plenty of time for a 6:45am flight, but, no gate agents (small airport) so I couldn't check in. I was red hot about this one, at least initially. I showed them that I'd called AA from the terminal ("where are the gate agents?") well in advance and had multiple witnesses, etc. So, i did win the "counter battle" for what that was worth. It all worked out in the end as AA gave me a nice voucher, etc.

Overall, I gotta say, they've done a great job of getting me there and back over all these decades....

Now, I have witnessed the degradation of both the service provided by our domestic airlines and also the quality of individuals who are flying.... it's like a Greyhound bus ride nowadays compared to when I first started flying. BTW, Korean Airlines has been the best to date.... by far the best. Southwest the easiest domestic to deal with in my experience.