Longest individual plane ride was from Paris to Montreal. Longest experience total was from that same trip as well.
Had to fly from Toulon, France to Paris. Get my bags and get on a bus to travel 2 hours across the city to another airport. Fly from Paris to Montreal. Get my bags again, clear customs and then check them again, then Montreal to Halifax.
Flight to Roma. Layover and tarmac marathon at JFK. I don't know the hours. It feld like three fucking days and I was within an eyelash of being one of those guys that makes the plane go back to the gate and where I'd be met by the Marshals.
To add insult to injury, as tempting as it was to assuming the Italians lost our luggage for two days (you know what I mean if you've ever flown into or out of Italy), it was actually the same assholes at JFK who fucked that up. So despite that fact that we were hours late taking off, those idiots still couldn't find a way to get our bags on.
... and if we're counting layovers, I've had to spend the night in Minneapolis three times flying from back east to Seattle. Had to do it in Dallas and Chicago once each.
But fuck it. When you're staying at a hotel, planned or not, I guess it doesn't count. One of those Minneapolis shit shows I just slept in the airport. That is doing time. Fuck me.
Seattle to Rockhampton, Australia (because Marines). 1st leg SEA to LAX. Small layover and consolidation with SOCAL units. Next leg was LAX to NZ. About 2 hours before our expected arrival we diverted back to Tahiti because of fog in Christchurch. Spent half a day at the Tahiti airport before finally completing that leg into NZ. Because of our late arrival we overnighted in their airport. Early the next morning we completed the 3rd leg (NZ to Sydney) which was uneventful. The last two legs were a regional carrier from Sydney to Brisbane and some puddle jumper from Brisbane to Rockhampton. Start to finish was easily 40-48 hours. I’m not completely sure because of the Twilight Zone feel of the entire trip. On the plus side I was able to play Spades in Tahiti and NZ, and add them to the list of countries I’ve played the game in.
The actual longest feeling trip was San Diego to Seattle, sandwiched between two guys, each easily over 400 lbs. They both spilled into my seat area and I had to sit crooked for the entire 3 hours.
I was in Switzerland for work and was coming back to Texas for the weekend prior to heading back to Seattle
6 am or whatever flight out of Zurich ... so was up and leaving the hotel at about 4 am or thereabouts so operating on effectively no sleep after a late work related dinner the night before
Short flight from Zurich to Dusseldorf with a bit of a layover allowing time to hit up the Duty Free (always recommended when flying through Europe)
Dusseldorf to I believe JFK in New York scrunched between a bunch of big German dudes in coach (not a great idea) with a massive headwind
Because overhead vs checked baggage rules are messed up between US travel vs European travel, had to pick up my "carry on" baggage from baggage claim going through customs only to go back through security for the domestic flight
After that fiasco and grabbing lunch I'm largely punch drunk as I board the last leg of the flight to DFW ... as I'm boarding the plane the terrible customer service at American Airlines appears and tells me that I need to measure my carry on bag (sidenote: I travel a lot, I know exactly how much I can put in my bag while having it fit in the overhead bins ... I've never ONCE had a problem with my bag fitting) ... I don't exactly remember if it was due to some of the items that I was bringing back from Europe or how I packed my bag separating clean vs dirty clothes but there was a tad of overhand and they insisted that I check the bag at the gate. For anybody that has ever flown through DFW and AA with checked bags, you know that they aren't exactly known for prompt delivery so I'm livid pissed at this point. Eventually get to DFW, took about 45 minutes to get my bag, then go get my rental car, and get to the family compound. All in all I think it probably was close to about a 24 hour day on no sleep.
Honorable Mention Experience:
My first trip to Europe for work I was flying from DFW to Zurich with about a 5 hour layover in Philadelphia. I wasn't checking bags so I think I had like a 9:30 am flight from DFW so I showed up to print out my boarding pass at around 8 to 8:15 as I had no reason to worry about going through security. Go to print out my boarding pass and it's basically giving me an error message. Go up to an agent and explain that I'm trying to check in for my flight to Philadelphia and I'm getting all kind of strange error messages. She pulls up my itinerary and proceeds to chew me out for not being over 2 hours early for my "international" flight. I responded by saying that nowhere was that information provided to me given and given that this leg of my flight was from DFW to Philly with a long layover there's no real reason for me to have thought that this leg of the flight was "international." She spent about 5 minutes chewing me out and telling me that I can't get to Philadelphia, that it's too late to check my luggage, etc. I laughed and said all I was taking was carry on baggage and I don't really see where there is an issue with a boarding pass, going through security, and boarding a plane when I had nothing to check. She finally eyeballed what I had with me and realized that I was right, huffed, and printed out a boarding pass.
My longest flight, now that I think about it, was Bellingham to San Diego. Was supposed to be about 2 1/2 hours, but instead the runway at San Diego was fogged in, so we circled until nearly out of fuel and then were diverted to Palm Springs. I didn't know this, but I do now: You can't just land a plane at an airport and unload. These transactions are negotiated in advance, so a surprise landing is kind of a big deal. We sat on the runway for two hours waiting for an agent from the airline to meet with the an agent for the airport to negotiate for fuel. Then, once fueled, there were more negotiations to figure out if we could get off the plane. After hour three--with a six year old and an eight year old to entertain in an aluminum tube--they let us get out and explore the now closed airport. No food available, no booze available. Couldn't rent a car and just drive the couple hours to San Diego, as the rental car desks were closed and the airline hadn't negotiated for baggage handlers to unload the plane.
After about an hour, it was back on the plane. The gate attendants told us they were packing it in and flying us to Vegas for the night. The pilot told us he was going to take one more shot at San Diego, which he did. Successfully.
Took off from Bellingham at some time around noon, landed in San Diego after 11:00. /csb
Sounds like there were some logistics involved in the whole episode
Poor planning by the dispatcher to not have filed the flight plan with a viable alternate. Put enough fuel on the airplane that the plane can divert from San Diego to Las Vegas, where the airport is always open.
Comments
Had to fly from Toulon, France to Paris. Get my bags and get on a bus to travel 2 hours across the city to another airport. Fly from Paris to Montreal. Get my bags again, clear customs and then check them again, then Montreal to Halifax.
It was about a 22 hour experience total
To add insult to injury, as tempting as it was to assuming the Italians lost our luggage for two days (you know what I mean if you've ever flown into or out of Italy), it was actually the same assholes at JFK who fucked that up. So despite that fact that we were hours late taking off, those idiots still couldn't find a way to get our bags on.
But fuck it. When you're staying at a hotel, planned or not, I guess it doesn't count. One of those Minneapolis shit shows I just slept in the airport. That is doing time. Fuck me.
Both times, I was a kid, so I didn't give a shit. All the grown ups seemed upset though.
The actual longest feeling trip was San Diego to Seattle, sandwiched between two guys, each easily over 400 lbs. They both spilled into my seat area and I had to sit crooked for the entire 3 hours.
I was in Switzerland for work and was coming back to Texas for the weekend prior to heading back to Seattle
6 am or whatever flight out of Zurich ... so was up and leaving the hotel at about 4 am or thereabouts so operating on effectively no sleep after a late work related dinner the night before
Short flight from Zurich to Dusseldorf with a bit of a layover allowing time to hit up the Duty Free (always recommended when flying through Europe)
Dusseldorf to I believe JFK in New York scrunched between a bunch of big German dudes in coach (not a great idea) with a massive headwind
Because overhead vs checked baggage rules are messed up between US travel vs European travel, had to pick up my "carry on" baggage from baggage claim going through customs only to go back through security for the domestic flight
After that fiasco and grabbing lunch I'm largely punch drunk as I board the last leg of the flight to DFW ... as I'm boarding the plane the terrible customer service at American Airlines appears and tells me that I need to measure my carry on bag (sidenote: I travel a lot, I know exactly how much I can put in my bag while having it fit in the overhead bins ... I've never ONCE had a problem with my bag fitting) ... I don't exactly remember if it was due to some of the items that I was bringing back from Europe or how I packed my bag separating clean vs dirty clothes but there was a tad of overhand and they insisted that I check the bag at the gate. For anybody that has ever flown through DFW and AA with checked bags, you know that they aren't exactly known for prompt delivery so I'm livid pissed at this point. Eventually get to DFW, took about 45 minutes to get my bag, then go get my rental car, and get to the family compound. All in all I think it probably was close to about a 24 hour day on no sleep.
Honorable Mention Experience:
My first trip to Europe for work I was flying from DFW to Zurich with about a 5 hour layover in Philadelphia. I wasn't checking bags so I think I had like a 9:30 am flight from DFW so I showed up to print out my boarding pass at around 8 to 8:15 as I had no reason to worry about going through security. Go to print out my boarding pass and it's basically giving me an error message. Go up to an agent and explain that I'm trying to check in for my flight to Philadelphia and I'm getting all kind of strange error messages. She pulls up my itinerary and proceeds to chew me out for not being over 2 hours early for my "international" flight. I responded by saying that nowhere was that information provided to me given and given that this leg of my flight was from DFW to Philly with a long layover there's no real reason for me to have thought that this leg of the flight was "international." She spent about 5 minutes chewing me out and telling me that I can't get to Philadelphia, that it's too late to check my luggage, etc. I laughed and said all I was taking was carry on baggage and I don't really see where there is an issue with a boarding pass, going through security, and boarding a plane when I had nothing to check. She finally eyeballed what I had with me and realized that I was right, huffed, and printed out a boarding pass.
You sound poor.
That's logistics.