Search Results for: blog the ultimate travel nightmare

Get Paid to Share Your Travel Nightmare

Remember the travel nightmare I experienced trying to get from Wisconsin to Hawaii for my beloved grandmother’s funeral? I’ll never forget it. Also, I was never compensated by American Airlines for it. Cough. Cough. Ahem! However, I could still win for losing, and so could you. Thanks to a contest being sponsored by MedjetAssist, you could win a major prize if you have what the company deems “the most engaging and harrowing travel tale.” The more horrific, the better your chances of claiming the grand prize: A free five-night vacation for two at Lost Iguana Resort and Spa in the … Continue reading →

Tis the Season Not to Travel

If you don’t like crowds, being patted down by strangers or paying bizarro travel fees, then you are better off staying home rather than going over the river and through the woods to grandma’s house for the holidays. But can you really celebrate Turkey Day without grandma’s stuffing? According to AAA, most of us can’t, which is why an estimated 600,000 Americans plan to hit the highway and nearly 33,000 plan to catch a flight to spend Turkey Day with loved ones this year. If that’s not enough to make you pack some extra Pepto, consider that travel experts predict … Continue reading →

Unwelcome Travel Experiences

Subtitle: My Flight From Hell I don’t travel long distances during the chaotic summer months. I’ve had such horrible experiences flying off-season that I don’t even chance boarding a flight during the months of June, July or August. To prove my point, let’s review my last flight to Hawaii. It was by no means a vacation. Rather, three months ago I was forced to fly 10,000 miles roundtrip to attend my beloved grandmother’s funeral. I decided to take my 6-year-old daughter along since she and my grandma shared such a sweet relationship. Unfortunately, American Airlines cancelled our direct flight to … Continue reading →

The Ultimate Travel Nightmare

Imagine witnessing a horrific traffic accident, pulling over, then learning that while you were rendering aid to an injured motorist someone else stole your car. It sounds unbelievable, but it’s exactly what happened to two guys in Minnesota recently. Longtime friends Chase Torgerson and Cody Charpentier were driving along a northwestern Minnesota highway when they saw a car fly through the air and crash into a median. According to police reports, the men jumped out to help, and as they were tending to one of the injured victims they saw one of the other passengers from the crashed car hop … Continue reading →

When Airlines Go To Far

I thought I experienced a horrific string of events on my May flight to Hawaii for my grandmother’s funeral. Turns out a California mom just catapulted herself to the head of the shafted-by-an-airline club. Melissa Bradley set off a media storm when she went head-to-head with United Airlines following the commercial carriers’ decision to give her and her infant daughter the boot from a recent flight. The California mother told news reporters that she bought a separate airline seat for her baby. However, when she boarded the Hawaii-bound flight from San Francisco she found the economy class seats were too … Continue reading →

Even More Ways to Save on Seasonal Airfare

It’s a Christmas miracle… or maybe a prodigy… either way, thanks to a select number of commercial airlines, you may be able to fly to your favorite holiday destination without going into debt. A few days ago Southwest Airlines announced a seasonal fare sale in an effort to fill seats in the days following Christmas week. JetBlue then jumped on the sale bandwagon by offering deals on expanded service between Southern California and Las Vegas. Southwest is selling some seats for as low as $59 on one-way for trips between January 4 and March 9, 2011. The sale runs through … Continue reading →

So Much for Early Birds

With all the hype surrounding holiday airfares, I followed the experts’ advice and started researching prices for Christmas flights back in September. Turns out I wasted a ton of time because now those same so-called experts have decided to change their tune. Last week, travel “insiders” went on the record saying that people looking to take flights later this month will likely be treated to the same fares as individuals who booked and paid for tickets in September, October and November. So, apparently, it doesn’t pay to be an early bird this season. While fares are higher than last year, … Continue reading →

Six Flags Minus the Scares

Bloody appendages, stabbed rats, decapitated creatures, knife-wielding, pig-faced butchers and intestine-covered caskets don’t make for sweet dreams, especially if you’re a six-year-old looking to meet Bugs Bunny for the first time. Thankfully, the folks at Six Flags Great America realize this. Hence the decision to keep certain portions of the theme park scare-free for its youngest guests during its annual Fright Fest extravaganza, which runs weekends throughout October. If the popular Gurnee, Illinois, attraction didn’t offer thrills without chills, then there would be no way that I could have spent last Saturday making magical memories with my daughter at Six … Continue reading →

Entire Family Gets Kicked Off Plane—What would you do?

Imagine spending thousands of dollars to fly yourself, your pregnant sister and your four young children from Detroit to Seattle, but instead of getting to your final destination without incident you end up at a police station in Phoenix and details of your horrific encounter are splashed in newspapers from coast to coast. Hard to fathom, right? Well, that’s exactly what happened to Wendy Slaughter just a few short weeks ago. Slaughter, her four young children, and her expectant sister were traveling on a Southwest Airlines flight from Detroit to Seattle and had gotten as far as the Phoenix Sky … Continue reading →

Fighting Back—Disgruntled Passenger Sues Airline for $1 Million

If I were a lawyer I might have done the same. Possibly. In a move that should come as no surprise to any passenger who has experienced a travel nightmare courtesy of a commercial airline, a New York lawyer just announced that he is suing Delta Air Lines for $1 million. According to court documents, Richard Roth claims that the carrier ruined his family’s vacation by leaving them stranded in an airport for days and treating them like second-class citizens. Roth, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of himself and his mother, said he planned a Christmas 2007 trip to … Continue reading →