Lots of comments on the travel threads about the plane boarding, bringing on and storing overhead bags, weird food people bring on planes, etc.
Here’s a place to share the good/bad/outrageous/funny/sad stories and maybe ask questions - “what would you do”.
And for the record, be aware of the proper overhead storage to be placing your bags VERTICAL if possible, not horizontal. I know someone will post a proper storage pic but I’ll say that off the bat. 
This week on a flight from LAX to Detroit I was boarding along with the other cheap seats people in zone 8. A man ahead of me was told (as was I) that they would need to check his carry on (not personal item) because there was no longer bin room. He would have none of this! “That’s not fair!” “No, my bag is coming with me” “Why do other people get to bring their bags and I can’t”. They offered to him to wait for the next flight - of course he didn’t want to do that but also what could they do for him?
They tagged his bag but when we were about to enter the actual plane and the crew was going to take his bag he AGAIN put up a ruckus “I want my bag with me!” Blah, blah, blah. Look, I get it - I want my bag with me too - we’ve all heard horror stories of losing bags. But at this point I’m like “what is IN that bag?!!” I’m not entirely sure what the outcome was.
On that same flight I was delighted by a little boy - my child development mind tells me not more than 3 or 4 years old, bopped on the plane and turns out he was sitting next to me in the middle seat, the rest of his family (2 parents and two more very little people) sitting a row behind us on the other side of the aisle. That little guy was so delightful and confident. He sat in that seat, grabbed his seatbelt and tighter it like a pro. He had an iPad and headphones and immediately plugged in his headphones and worked that Delta screen without hesitation cueing up Bluey. His parents never interacted with him throughout the entire flight. The aisle person and I helped him a couple of times (time to put your tray up!) but he was just adorable and happy and confident. This was a red eye flight and an hour into the flight, he curled up in the seat and fell asleep. I just was so impressed and delighted to see this happy little guy embrace the flying experience. - who knows, maybe they fly cross country all the time!
When our kid was just two, we flew to relatives for Thanksgiving weekend. You were supposed to pay for kids 2 and up. This was 38 years ago. We just decided to have him on our laps, which was allowed for kids under 2.
We ended up having a middle seat in our row empty so he got a seat anyway. During the flight, he stood up and looked over the back of his seat. A very nice couple (looked to be grandparents) asked him how old he was. Very loudly he yelled…”Two, two, two, two” while holding both hands above his head with two fingers outstretched. He was so excited to be TWO.
I was sure they were going to hand us a bill for his ticket as we exited the plane…but they didn’t!
When my daughter was two, we were going to Texas and had a layover in Chicago O’Hare. As we got on the plane (out of Boston), I noticed a very distinguished man wearing probably the nicest suit I’d ever seen. Then I realized it was Richard Gephardt, the House minority leader at the time. Later in the flight, I took D to the bathroom, and of course it took a little while. When we came out, Gephardt was right there, waiting for the bathroom. I said hi and he was very nice.
As we approached Chicago, the turbulence was severe. The captain came on and said we didn’t have clearance to land so we’d have to circle for awhile. After not much time had passed, he came on and said we would be the FIRST plane allowed to land. So I’m thinking, “Great, we’re going to crash in a plane with Richard Gephardt. I guess we’ll make the news!” Fortunately, we landed just fine. 
The best stories historically have been Southwest. The flight attendants crack bad jokes that you laugh at every time, they sing, they’ll let kids pass out snacks with them or on their birthday give them a crown and walk them down the aisle for everyone to say hi.
Historically, while others went bk and lost pensions, they were profitable and the workers happy.
That’s changed but to me that was the positive - people who loved what they did, who they worked for and it showed.
The worst ever and it’s likely happened on every airline - it has to me - they taxi, can’t leave after all, and you sit for hours on a tarmac. Being on a plane with potentially faulty landing gear and being told to crouch for impact (happened to me twice) is a distant second - in part because both times the landing gear held up.
Brings back a memory I forgot . I think I was DC to St Louis (twa) and he was my row mate. And very nice.
I was a flight attendant and have many stories.
Funniest two: packed flight out of DC to LHR. The guy was bumped to economy and was furious. Right after take off, his glasses fell on the floor and were stepped on. He had to use a bandaid to hold them together. We all know what that looks like. He complained about everything humanly possible for the first hour. Then he said he was moving to the toilet and stayed there for the entire flight, even ate his meal there. He came out of the toilet to get drinks, etc…and went right back in. The purser was fed up with him and when he refused to stay in his seat for landing, she just gave up. He landed in the toilet.
I worked the upper deck of a 747. A pilot went into the toilet, and soon, the lav smoke detector went off. We were about the open the door when a very sheepish pilot came out, saying he had”accidentally” used his lighter. 
Yes, it smelled, but not of smoke.
Love the lighter story.
I assume today the dude who ate (gross) and landed in the toilet would be arrested or flight crew disciplined for allowing this to happen ?
This was a long time ago. It definitely was against regs.
On my last flight with Hawaiian, we were booked in 1st class. They told me I couldn’t use my medical equipment for taxiing & landing in 1st class for unexplained reasons. Not wanting to be difficult, I consented.
On the plane, the flight attendant came but 30 minutes prior to landing and told me I had to stop using my medical equipment. I said but we aren’t landing for 30 minutes and I will have medical issues if I can’t use it for that long.
She said she’d check with the pilot and let me know. She returned and said I could continue using my equipment except for the last 5-10 minutes, which wasn’t yet.
To this day, I can’t figure out why medical equipment needs to be shut off for takeoff and landing on 1st class and on this airline. No other airlines nor class of seating requires it. It has no internet connection, is wholly battery operated and fits completely under seat in front of me. I’m at a window seat, not blocking anyone. I accidentally forgot to turn off my equipment and no issues—no one could even tell.
I just wrote a letter to customer service and the presidents of Alaska and Hawaiian asking for clarification as to why I was instructed to turn off my medical equipment 30 minutes prior to landing and why this rule is in place. Also urging that if it’s not needed, please remove the rule and re-instruct the flight crew.
Nor cell phones because I’m guessing few put on airplane mode.
The medical equipment is a matter of health and safety for the passenger. Insisting they arbitrarily stop using it is a health risk!
My DD, DS and I were flying to see my family. Kids were about 5 and 8. Plane had barely any passengers on it. I mean really very few, like under 25. There were no passengers at all in first class, so the first class flight attendant invited my kids to sit in first class with her. Say what? Why not me!
But this was my favorite.
I was going to Florida from Boston with a friend in the winter. It was HOT in Florida, and most passengers had ditched their winter clothes etc before they got on the plane.
My friend was in the middle seat and I was in the window seat. The woman in the aisle seat was wearing knee high boots, a scarf, a turtleneck sweater, and a full length fur coat. I almost said something (and probably should have…) but I didn’t. I wondered what she knew that the rest of us didn’t know!
You know how the pilots sometimes get on and tell you where you are flying (ours was a non-stop to FL). The pilot got on and explained that we had just flown over the greater metro NYC area and were flying over Newark airport.
The fur coat lady started screaming…”you have to land this plane. I’m getting off in Newark and my family is there.” And she kept carrying on. Flight attendant tried to get contact info so they would call her family at Newark, but the passenger wasn’t listening. Flight attendant escorted her to first class.
We got to FL, and it had to be 90 degrees. The woman came up to my friend and me and apologized. She was boiling hot in the clothes she was wearing!
She had a boarding pass with the correct seat number, but her plane was boarding at an adjacent gate. She got on the wrong plane. And no one was assigned to the same seat number on our plane. (This wouldn’t happen now…).
They got her (first class) on the next flight back to Newark, and they did contact her family.
Back then, when we all flew with paper boarding passes, my husband managed to get on the wrong plane and almost flew to Spokane instead of San Jose! He was busy working on his laptop and did not see that the gate was changed! Thank goodness the pilot made an announcement and mentioned the destination!
This was not funny, but kind of bizarre. I was on a flight to Europe 2 years ago and needed to use a bathroom. I went back and there was one person ( a young woman) ahead of me. Okay, won’t be long. So we waited, and waited, and waited….the line behind us kept growing. My mind was thinking - parent with a young child, a mom nursing or pumping, someone being sick, a person changing clothes and freshening up, etc.
It was at least 20 minutes.
The door finally opened and out walked a young man. He didn’t look sick ( he had a big smile on his face), didn’t have extra clothes, a dopp kit or bag and it was just him.
What the he** was he doing in there for so long???
That happened to me on a bus once. The person next to me went to the bathroom…he left, and she came back…
Carry on.
The ugly was probably when we had a technical issue coming out of Heathrow and by the time they’d fixed it, the crew would have been past their allowed hours (approx 11 1/2 hour flight). It was around midnight and I was traveling with my then 4 year old D19, who had fallen asleep and could not be woken up. I was struggling with the dead weight of the child and bags, had zero help from BA staff,but a kind Finnish couple helped by taking some of my bags and also watching D19 while we had to queue up and give our cc’s to the airport hotel even though BA was paying. The next morning, not only did we nearly miss the shuttle back to the airport because we didn’t get the alert call we’d been promised, but I only found out it was time to go because BA staff were frantically going door to door and all over the hotel because they’d managed to lose an old lady from the flight… All in all left a very bad taste in our mouths (I wrote BA a scathing letter and got some air miles and upgrades as an apology). We were pretty limited in flying options so yeah I kept flying them.
I’m watching March Madness and thought I’d share this: Two weeks ago on our flight from Chicago to Phoenix, Frank Kaminsky was seated near us. For those who don’t know him he played at Wisconsin and is 7 feet tall!! Yeah, you couldn’t miss him on the flight.
I had to Google his height and saw this happy news too.
The ugly was in 1979 when I was flying back from a short business trip to Toledo. The local office dragged me to a restaurant near the airport called Loma Linda and kept buying me frozen strawberry Margaritas. Then they poured me onto my small commuter flight back to Chicago. We started circling over Lake Michigan - and circling - and circling. No announcements; no estimated landing time (also no restrooms on the small plane!). Thanks to the drinks, I was quite confused and my head was spinning a bit. Finally we landed - it was the day of the fatal AA 191 crash at O’Hare. In retrospect, I’m surprised we were allowed to land at all.
It took me years before I was able to drink another Margarita.