ATTENTION: THIS IS A RE-POST OF WHAT I WROTE YESTERDAY. I’M RE-POSTING DUE TO THE OUTAGE THAT BOARDINGAREA.COM (MY BLOG’S WEB HOST) SUFFERED FOR MOST OF YESTERDAY. IF YOU SUBMITTED A COMMENT AS AN ENTRY, DON’T WORRY, IT WILL STILL COUNT AND YOU DO NOT NEED TO RESUBMIT ONE!
This is the second chance via LufthansaFlyer for you to enter VERY GOOD POINTS’ (VGP) fantastic contest celebrating her site’s FIRST anniversary. By sharing your experience and answering the following question, you’ll have a chance to advance to VGP’s Grand Prize round for a chance to win one of her great Grand Prize options.
The question:
What has been you MOST favorite flight experience EVER?
Too many times we read about all the negative experiences that people have when flying. Seldom do we hear about great flights which can include great cabin crew, a funny pilot, great food, a fantastic aircraft, etc.
It usually appears that it’s easier to complain than to pay a compliment. So this time I want to draw out compliments and positive experiences.
I’ll pick a winner based on the impact the answer makes on me (remember, it’s the JOURNEY not the DESTINATION!) and advance them over to VGP for a chance to win one of the Grand Prizes:
Grand Prize #1 –
300k Delta Sky Miles
200k Hilton Honors Points
Grand Prize #2 –
240k US Airways Dividend Miles
100k Marriott Rewards Points
50k Hyatt Gold Passport Points
Please note, only ONE ENTRY per person! I’ll accept entries through midnight (US Eastern Time) on October 26.
There is one more week left in her contest during which she has been awarding weekly winners as well. For this final week, she is awarding 20,000 Starwood Preferred Guest Starpoints. To enter this week’s give away on Very Good Points, please visit her Contest Entry Post.
Share your experiences and GOOD LUCK! 🙂
Was permitted to jump seat the departure from Bhutan’s Paro airport. Holy $#%&!
About 10 years ago when I wasn’t flying that much, I had to take a plane between Brussels & Helsinki. All was smooth up until the point the entire airport was put on lockdown because of a guy running through security.
My flight was canceled and I was rebooked. I was cool with the entire thing and boarded the plane a couple of hours later. I enjoyed this flight with Finnair and had a good meal and service. It took me a couple of years to realize that I was actually bumped to business class.
So all these years, I thought this kind of service was “normal”, but now I appreciate what happened to me and I’m grateful for the upgrade.
I am an X B727 Braniff pilot. On a flight out of DFW i heard a conversation between the Meacham tower and a Jordanian pilot trainee from one of the nearby flight schools
Tower- cessna , please identify yourself
Pilot- i am mohamed nawaf attiyat from Jordan(tower wanted the aircraft identification number)later he gave the AIN
Tower- cessna 241EA do you have HOTEL? -Tower meant if the pilot received the information coded HOTEL ,for landing instructions
Pilot- No, I am staying with friends
In mid March 2011, my husband and I got the call we had been waiting on for almost 6 months, we could come and bring our son home from St Petersburg, Russia! The call came late on a Wednesday afternoon, and we had to to be in St Petersburg on the next Monday. We were given “special” numbers to call to help arrange our flights. It was with Delta, and when I called I was “freaking” out. The wonderful agent told me to calm down and they would get us there in time. Our flight was from our small home town (Delta no longer services 🙁 ) to Moscow via Atlanta and New York. We were in coach, and it was a very long flight, but we did not care, we each took a sleeping pill and woke up in Moscow! Wonderful!
When I was flying BA First for work back in 2008 from JFK to LHR. Those were the days when my company would purchase a fully flexible business fare which got me an upgrade to first. Great departure lounge at T5, fully flat beds, arrival lounge at LHR so I could shower before going to the office, great in flight experience. Those were indeed the days…
My Favorite flight, is also kind of a sad one. It was when i was 11 (circa ’92) on it my the flight back from my 1st trip ever to disneyland. It was a late night flight and it was on delta, My mom had been feeling sick, so sick it made me upset, the day we were to leave. It lasted all day and night. When we got on the flight we realized there were about 1/10 full on the airplane. I don’t recall what type of aircraft it was but it was a wide body and 4 seats in the middle. Everyone at delta was so compassionate, the flight attendants came over an allowed my mom to lay down across an empty row. I was crying for some reason before the door was shut and the captain came out to check on my mother and tried to cheer me up by showing me the cockpit. It worked as i was so excited to sit in the captains seat and he gave me his preflight checklist as a souvenir. During the flight the flight attendants brought my mom cold washcloths, ginger ale and crackers to help make her better. She finally smiled for the 1st time that day on the descent into pdx. She thanked the flight attendants and captain numerous times and felt so bad to consume their time. This flight was my favorite because it was the last flight i ever took with my mom…She was sick because she had undiagnosed stage 4 breast cancer. Im still greatful to the flight crew for their compassion
I’ve had many adventures and mishaps flying, IRROPs and rebooks, upgrades and delays, but my favorite was a seemingly routine coach flight, no upgrades, nothing special. Except I was flying with my 2-yr old son, the two of us by ourselves for the first time on our own, trans-Atlantic. We had a nice bulkhead seat in the middle section. I was a little nervous flying that far and long with a toddler, but he was great. He ran all up and down the concourse E in ATL before departure, had fun looking at the stores and people and playing with other kids at the gate. He had his little backpack which he had packed with toys for the flight. Once we boarded, we got settled in and he was very curious about other passengers and the boarding process. I explained to him how the flight will go, and he was perfectly content and excited to sit while we climbed to 10K feet. Once the seatbelt sign went out, he got up and started exploring. I followed him around and made sure he wasn’t bothering others. The flight attendants found his galley visits cute. After the meal service he sat on the floor in front of our seats and played with his toys, then he watched a movie and then it was time to sleep. Breakfast service went just as great, and soon we landed at CDG. All in all, he made me very proud and we have traveled together many times since, short- and long-haul and he always amazes me how well he does and how the wonderment of travel continues. Even when something goes against plans (such as the emergency landing for a medical problem on our last trans-Atlantic flight), he handles it so well (at his mature travel age of 5) that it should put to shame all the frequent travelers who fly off the handle when a flight is delayed. I look forward to so many more trips with him.
My hubby and myself flew Lufthansa first class from HKG to SEA via Munich and Frankfurt. The Munich to Frankfurt was in business class. Luckily for us the Hong Kong Munich first class flight had only two of us in the cabin so it was more like a chartered flight experience. The service of course was outstanding and so were the meals on flight. The bed they made for us was in the middle two seats and looked more like a hotel bed. It was an extremely comfortable journey and we will always remember it to be one of our best travel experiences!
My best flight memory was what could have otherwise been an absolute pain: having to be diverted to another country on the way to your dream vacation.
I was flying EY on an award ticket from AUH to JNB en route to a few weeks of safari in Kruger National Park, Victoria Falls, and exploring Southern Africa and there was a huge thunderstorm enveloped JNB (South Africa) at that time forcing us to be diverted to GBE in Botswana. EY themselves had almost no information on when we’d be allowed to take off for JNB and as EY doesn’t fly to GBE, we couldn’t get to a gate and sat on the tarmac with no information.
An extremely kind South African EY steward came by to check on my family every 10 – 15 minutes, brought us snacks, and chatted us up giving us tips for all the places we were going to visit. Despite being completely out of food and drinks, the crew was extremely positive, kind, and helpful and the pilots gave us regular updates even when the update was “we don’t know when we’ll take off but we’re hoping to do so in the next hour.”
Overall, despite the hiccup of getting into JNB extremely late, it was a very pleasant flight with the best Y seats I’ve had in years, the best Y food I’ve ever had, and some of the friendliest staff ever. The next few weeks were amazing too.
My most favorite flight was the week after 9/11. I was returning from Las Vegas on a Continental flight and pilot was giving his announcements and asked everyone on board to give the military members on board a round of applause. It made for goosebumps.
Had an IRROP and was rerouted with a smile, given exit row seats with lots of room, my checked luggage made it, and I returned home within minutes of my previously schedule flight.
It was january of this year orlando to frankfurt-then marseille on return marseille-munich-washington
my daughter wanted to go visit woman winemakers in france so we went first class on lufthansa…. We were both totally impressed by the impeccable service/quality of staff and attention to details… the food was the best i have ever eaten on a plane as was the sparkling. The bed they made for use was so comfy i even slept for 3 hours –a first on a plane for me…. Overall it was agreat experience esp the mercedes pick-up.. the bummer was getting to wash-dulles(united) what an armpit of an aiport as our trip came to a bad ending wash to orlando… but it was great on the first legs of the trip… i hope someday we can do it again…
You didn’t say it had to be in an airplane!
The first time I flew in a Chinook helicopter was pretty amazing. I was there to visit a National Guard training day in Michigan. Once I had my ear protection on, I was amazed by how comfortable and smooth it was gliding over the green landscape with the soldier dangling his feet out the back. On the way back, I fell asleep. A very cool experience.
I love flying, even with all the hassles. I remember dressing up as a kid when it was something special. My most recent memorable trip was this summer. On our way home from Thailand we booked EgyptAir because it was cheap. We booked economy and I looked at reviews and was a little nervous but my wife insisted that we save the 400 dollar per person difference. I told my friends, including an Egyptian about it and they all said ask for a refund. I figured that there may be some delays and it wouldn’t be a luxury flight. However, all that bad news made flying on a newer aircraft with the most legroom I had ever seen and an empty 3rd seat extremely wonderful. We enjoyed our trip and enjoyed flying Egypt air on the way back and relaxed on board the new plane with plenty of legroom and a good VOD system.
Oh and we saved 800 dollars!
A few years ago, I took a guided tour in Belize. My tour guide was something of a mentor, a wise shaman if you will, who saw it as among his goals to ensure that each tour participant achieve some personal growth while on the tour. Knowing that, mid-trip, we had to travel from the mainland to an island by small propeller plane, I had expressed to my tour guide my fear of flying in a plane with only one pilot. When the feared day arrived, the guide told me to enter the plane after all of the other tour members. I did, but, by then, there were no seats left. I then exited and, on the tarmac, the guide told me that my seat was in the cockpit, next to the pilot. He had arranged for me to meet my fear in the most direct way! So, I learned “the hard way” that the only thing scarier than traveling in a plane with only one pilot is traveling in a plane with yourself as one of the two pilots!
My perfect flight was on Qantas from LAX-SYD in 1999 flying in first class. Checking in, the gate agent not only greeted me with a smile but came around to carry my carry-on bags to security and post security into the first class lounge. Then she escorted me to the gate and directly onto the plane where the flight attendant took my bags and placed them in the overhead compartment, handed me pajamas and my amenity kit while pointing out the lavotory where I could change. Then when I came back I had champagne, macadamia nuts and olives waiting for me. When I ate the macadamia nuts quickly the flight attendant saw this and suggested he fill them throughout the flight when my bowl was close to empty. Everything about that flight, from service to comfort was perfect and spoiled me to this day. I always smile when I think about that flight.
When I was 17 and on a puddle jumper for maybe my third or fourth flight ever, the pilot let me ride in the co-pilot’s seat for the entire flight. The best parts were take-off and landing!
That’s a tough one. We’ve been quite lucky and have had some pretty amazing flight experiences (and I ALWAYS make a point of writing a compliments letter/email when the service has been exceptional.) I think the most memorable for me was a flight a number of years ago from Melbourne to Singapore on Singapore Airways in First Class when there were no other passengers in first. The flight attendants were incredibly friendly (par for the course with SQ) but they did so much more to make the flight all that much more special. They had made up a bed for me on one side of the cabin and had set up another seat for me to have meals. They made it very clear at the beginning of the flight that they would make themselves scarce if I wanted or they could check in with me every now and then to see if I needed anything. I had told them that they were welcome to wander through if they were bored and wanted to chat, and they thought that was quite funny. The pilot even stuck his head in part way through the flight to say how much the flight attendants enjoyed my good nature. It was like having my own private plane! We are living in Canada now and don’t have much opportunity to fly Singapore right now but from that moment on, they have always been my airline of choice when we have been travelling on one of their routes.