Most notable flight(s) you have been on [different/good/bad?]

[Dyslexic traveler]

My Best. The Qantas A 380 to London in first, I always travel first but the crew where just great on both legs.

Worst flight from SYD to Byron bay on jet star it was my first and last trip with them and if I had to fly with them again I would rather walk,


The Dyslexic Traveler.

 

[Duffa]

Worst - KLM to AMS in Y. Seats all designed for 6'4"" Dutch people. Lumbar support somewhere below my neck even though I am 5'11". Most uncomfortable!
Best - EK First to London. Shower on A380 (with glass of Dom) is the height of indulgence!!

 

[medhead]

The new thread title doesn't work. Notable does not only mean best and worst. Are we after best and worst or notable?

Best - any flight that lands safely. Any flight with my family
Worst - all my flights have landed safely so far.
Notable - hard to say by most candidates are from years ago and involve seeing a girl at the other end. There were a few different girls, hard to choose the most notable.


Sent from the Throne

 

[Blinky]

Worst was a Virgin flight from Adelaide to Melbourne about 3 years ago. The flaps (sorry if incorrect term) were not working properly, and the captain made that clear. So we circled around Port Phillip Bay for about 90 minutes, no doubt to reduce the fuel load, although the announcement was that it was to try to get the gear to work properly. The captain was very frank throughout, saying that because the Tulla runway was very long we "shouldn't have too many problems". Anyway we landed more gently than any flight I've been on, with fire engines lining the runway, and it took its entire length for the plane to stop. The crew, understandably, got wild applause. Nothing made the press in following days (even though I rang the story to 3AW's Rumor File ).

Best was our only flight (so far) to Europe on Virgin Premium Economy. This will be trumped next March when we go there in Etihad Business Class (I hope).

 

[serfty]

The new thread title doesn't work. Notable does not only mean best and worst. Are we after best and worst or notable?...

Notable - any flight experience a post deems worthy of documenting.

 

[GladstoneTim]

Worst and best...a Garuda flight 4th Jan 1988 which aborted take off twice at MEL due to mechanical. They put us up at the Travelodge for 12 hours. Best because it was our honeymoon and we didn't care where we were.

Real worst...QF Dash 8 landing into GLT which was obviously too high due to hydraulics leak and we weren't told anything while we flew around with no information provided.

 

[codash1099]

Best: I agree with the OP. F to LHR on a QF A380.

Worst: On an AA BOS to SFO flight in 1970 that had 2 takeoffs and was eventually pulled out of service when it had to return yet again to refuel. Not sure whether it was because the crew was out of hours (I didn't know about such things then) or they were getting sick of the pilot's incompetence.

 

[Blinky]

Do flights where people were shooting at you count?

 

[Fantic125]

Feb 2009, a TG flight ICN to BKK.

5 hours of hell in Y due to vomiting and diarrhea.

 

[Blinky]

Ah, I just remembered a four seater light plane to Swan Hill in the 70s. Believe it or not, it took off from Tullamarine. The plane had a tyre blowout, and shuddered to a stop in the middle of the runway, blocking off one of the runways.


Anyway, several hours later we took off in windy weather. I had a book on my lap I never took my eyes off, but never read a page. Coming in to land we were hit by a strong gust (just when I started to relax) and nearly missed the Swan Hill runway. I never flew in a light plane again.

 

[Austman]

Most notable (good): SQ long haul 1st class when I was the only passenger.

Most notable (bad): Threatened with extreme physical violence (by another pax) because I used the priority boarding lane (that I was entitled to use).

 

[elbarto]

Best: BA1 the A318 LCY-JFK service, not Concorde.

Worst: Probably any longhaul overnight flight in Y, mainly because I can't sleep.

 

[parsonstrish]

Best arriving in Oz. from States '62 as a young bride and started my new chapter in life and love affair with Oz.

Worse, attending Conference in Hobart wkend Ansett went bust. 5 seater (pilot, 3 passengers) Hobart-Melb. When I was told it was a 3 hr. trip and I knew there was no toilet (of course not) I started hyperventaliting. Passed on any coffee from the flask that was offered. My boss and I sat in the back 2 seats. I was reading newspaper and my overhead vent was drip, drip, drip with condensation. My boss chose not to tell me it was snow outside and not rain, as I thought, until we landed. I hope I never have to do a small plane ever again. We were on a packed qf flt. from mel-bne and as we arrived my boss tried to get us onto an earlier flt. that evening to tsv. I prayed it wouldn't happen. We were booked into lennons for the night and all I wanted was terra firma for a few hrs.

 

[tuapekastar]

Among the notably good:

QF F A380 SIN-LHR. Despite the midnight departure after a full day of travelling from NRT (and lounging), I kept myself awake long enough to eat, watch a movie, and put a significant dent in a bottle of Penfolds Bin 707 before the FA made the bed for me.

AA F LHR-LAX. A wholly daylight flight, watched the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy and enjoyed a lovely Chilean red until I finally had to put the shutters up and say "no more". The FA folded her arms and looked at me and said in mock disapproval "So, you've thrown in the towel, have you?" I had.

Not much fun:

An AA flight back in the 1970s, on a DC-9 or similar. Somewhere on a routing BWI-BNA-MEM-DFW we flew threw such a storm I thought the plane was going to fall apart. It was creaking, groaning and lurching like nobody's business.

 

[Blinky]

Best arriving in Oz. from States '62 as a young bride and started my new chapter in life and love affair with Oz.

Worse, attending Conference in Hobart wkend Ansett went bust. 5 seater (pilot, 3 passengers) Hobart-Melb. When I was told it was a 3 hr. trip and I knew there was no toilet (of course not) I started hyperventaliting. Passed on any coffee from the flask that was offered. My boss and I sat in the back 2 seats. I was reading newspaper and my overhead vent was drip, drip, drip with condensation. My boss chose not to tell me it was snow outside and not rain, as I thought, until we landed. I hope I never have to do a small plane ever again. We were on a packed qf flt. from mel-bne and as we arrived my boss tried to get us onto an earlier flt. that evening to tsv. I prayed it wouldn't happen. We were booked into lennons for the night and all I wanted was terra firma for a few hrs.

Two great stories. My first ever flight was from Sydney to Melbourne in a Fokker Friendship in 1970 to meet the girl I met on a P&O cruise. We've been married for 40 years next month and have seven kids (no grand kids so far )

 

[Dyslexic traveler]

The new thread title doesn't work. Notable does not only mean best and worst. Are we after best and worst or notable?

Best - any flight that lands safely. Any flight with my family
Worst - all my flights have landed safely so far.
Notable - hard to say by most candidates are from years ago and involve seeing a girl at the other end. There were a few different girls, hard to choose the most notable.


Sent from the Throne

Just so you know medhead the title was changed by mod, I had best worst but I'm happy that people have added to the thread
and if the mod felt the title change worked, I'm glad for The help.

The Dyslexic Traveler

 

[Dyslexic traveler]

Most notable (good): SQ long haul 1st class when I was the only passenger.

Most notable (bad): Threatened with extreme physical violence (by another pax) because I used the priority boarding lane (that I was entitled to use).

I know where your coming from Austman, I have had grief a number of times re priority boarding, people feel if they are first in line then you should not get on before them even if your in the pointy end.

The Dyslexic Traveler

 

[Hvr]

Best CW F HKG-YVR-JFK, suite/bed better than the QF A380 F suite. Flew March 2012.

Service was awesome and even the Shanghai Tag pyjamas are better than the QF F pyjamas which I obtained on the LAX-SYD leg in April 2012.

Worst MNL-MEL Philippine Airways Y, as we were taxiing down the runway the crew were pushing down the door handle ensuring the plane door was properly closed. Never again. Late 1992.

 

[Poisson]

Notable flight for somebody else - Karratha - Per a few years ago. We were booked on the 18:00 flight but one of our party flashed his WP card and got onto the earlier flight We watched it taxi out and taxi back and offload all the pax - technical problem. He couldn't get on the 18:00 flight with us and spent the night sleeping at the Karratha airport.

A couple of bad flights and a good one in 2004:

Bad flight - American Airlines - LAX - DFW . Loaded all on board, then the capt come on and said due to bad weather at the destination we couldn't take off for an hour. Taxied out to a holding area and sat there for nearly two hours before eventually taking off. Why couldn't they have decided before we all got on board?

Interesting flight - American Airlines Cancun - JFK. Due to bad weather we orbited JFK for over an hour before they decided to divert to Newark (loud groans). Then they decided to go to JFK after all. Eventually touched down smoothly to loud applause.

Bad flight - AA JFK - LHR 2004. Half way across the Atlantic the capt announced a technical problem and we were going back. Not to JFK (or Boston, Toronto or anywhere else on the east coast) - to Chicago! Now Chicago is one city that looks absolutely brilliant from the air at night, but there was utter confusion once we got there, staff trying to book us into hotels at 2:30 am etc - then back to O'Hare at 06:00 for the onward flight to London.

Needless to say these experiences put me off AA for long time. Every one of their flights was late, the service was terrible, no food on most legs, FAs rude and surly.

Good flight - British Airways LHR - SIN a couple of days after the AA schemozzle. I had a really bad migraine so the British crew got me a row of four seats to myself (in Y) with blankets and pillows, plus lots of drugs and alcohol so I slept the whole way. Great flight for the wrong reason, but they really did look after me.

 

[harvyk]

The most notible good one is easy, it was a SYD-SFO in Y+. I was meant to be in Y, however when I got to the airport I heard those lovely words which every traveller loves to hear. “Mr Harvyk, you’ve been upgraded”. On boarding (although I strongly suspected it already given the seat number), Y+ was been placed in the lower deck J cabin. So in the space of a few hours, I had been transformed from back of Y, to sitting in a skybed for 14 hours.
Once on board, we had the most attentive FA ever. After I’d sat down and gotten comfy, he came around and gave a personal greeting (far beyond I'd even get in J), and we had a bit of a talk, and at the end he said what ever I needed throughout the flight at any time, he’d be more than happy to help. I noticed he did the same for all Y+ pax, and better still he was good to his word. No ones glass went beyond half empty before he was there to refill it, he kept the supply for snacks going the entire flight, and was more than happy to have a bit of a yarn with the pax throughout the flight. But he also knew when not to disturb because the pax was mid way through a movie. On landing, after I gave him thanks, I sent an email to QF basically stating, if you find a way to clone this FA, do it...


There are a few other flights that I remember quite well, for no reason other than they are both A. an International flight on a B747, and B. a song which I’d never heard before, but decided I quite liked came over the radio, often whilst sitting at the gate waiting.

As for worst, well 5 hours of a not overly attractive middle aged man “sharing” my seat (and thus my personal space) springs to mind. No matter how many times I told him to move back over to his seat he’d be back sleeping on my shoulder within 10 minutes. :evil: