What is the worst experience you have had with an airline?

Being detained by police in Malaysia while trying to check in. They said there was no record of my entering the country. The ticket and baggage labels from my flight did not convince them. I missed my flight, and to this day wish nothing but the absolute worst for that airline.

Cathay Pacific.

I will NEVER use that airline EVER again.

AirAsia

Avoid at any cost.

Went to Malaysia.

On way back thay have changed departure time,no notice received,no email,no sms nothing.We have arrived at airport in time but as schedule was changed thay have told us wait as we came 10mins before end of check in.than they did nothing,closed check in and let us buy extra one way ticket for 120.000jpy each.

Next time.Flight to Honolulu.They have asked some kind of visa i had not in passport since I have no jpn passport.i had electronic visa they "could not find" in their system.let us wait until check in closed.than "offered go by next flight but pay 100.000 extra for each os us.

no refund no sorry.

AVOID AT ANY COSTS.

Never had big problems, and I've flown a lot. In the 90s, I took a flight on Northwest (NWA) while it was amid a labor dispute, and the crew had an extremely antagonistic attitude toward the passengers, shouting at guys who tried to get down the aisles while service cart was serving, etc.

AirAsia…avoid at any cost.

AA has always sent me emails me advance when flight times change, which is often! It’s a drag but I like AA for its online check-in and its routes that would be impossible or crazy expensive on a major carrier. Morning departures/early arrivals are nice, too.

@Vreth - Airlines NOT Airports.

I've never had a real problem really other than delays by domestic US carriers. if you fly in Economy on any airlines or an LCC carrier like @Eastman above then you are bound to have had bad experiences.

I hardly ever fly. I view flying as if there is land under my feet I will drive, use a train, or even ferry which I have used to go to Hokkaido on more than one occasion. Unless there an Ocean or a country like Russia in the way I have no choice but to fly. I have not left Japan since 2010 and may be I might visit my home country of Deutschland (Germany) one day with my wife and children who have never been there. I will try to use either Lufthansa or any Japanese airline.

Some country airlines that I try to avoid at all costs are any Airlines from the United States, Russia, and England. If I have to go to America I will use Air Canada which I had used in the early 2000s when I had to go to America on business I also used ANA many times which I found very nice. American airports and customs are a major problem I do not like to deal with them at all.

Back in '85, I took TWA to New York but TWA took my luggage on a tour of the West Coast. For 3 days, I had none of my regular clothes but the worst part is having to drive an hour and a half back to the airport in NYC traffic, pay highway tolls,etc when they finally showed up.

Pretty much had bad luck with most American Airline carriers, and don’t get me started on Southwest Airlines. From having route flight attendants, to being late, to the plane, being unorganized and dirty, they are just horrible.

Hmm, it’s hard to decide between Emirates initially refusing to intervene when stroppy passengers were abusing me then swapping them with drunk men, or ANA, after hours of delay and no information informing us tight after take off that we flying yo a completely different destination and leaving us dumped in a closed airport in the middle of the night.

I can't say I've had a really bad experience, but two different occasions come to mind - an Air Canada flight from Vancouver to Narita had some pretty sick passengers onboard and they puked so much in the bathrooms that the bathrooms, except one, were all closed instead of being cleaned. Can't blame the flight crew though - they didn't have gas masks. And that same airline once lost one of my bags, but two days later they delivered it to my house, unlike @Mocheake's experience in NYC. I'm probably just lucky.

Northwest 747 flight from Minneapolis to Narita in the early 2000’s.

After going feet wet (over the northern Pacific), Captain announces that no beverages will be served for the rest of the flight. Not even water.

The ground crew had forgotten to empty the holding tanks for the toilets during the turnaround. Only one toilet would be available for the entire plane for the rest of the flight.

It eventually overflowed.

Worst flight ever and not even an apology. Just declarative statements.

Hit the ground like a brick at Kansai. Thought the wheels were going to give. We were all lifted off our seats and slammed into our seatbelts. Happy to get off the plane alive. Stood up next day and my leg wouldn't take my weight. I later learned I had a compacted fracture of the neck of my femur. When it is fresh, that's really painful to walk on. Limped back to the hotel in Kyoto, and then back to the station, shinkansen to Tokyo, Yamanote line during the rush hour, with luggage. Taxi to my apartment, crawled up the steps as I could no longer use the leg at all. No idea what was wrong but walked on it when the pain allowed until I got back to the UK. X-rays. Went home. Ambulance despatched by panicked surgeon ordering me not to walk on it any more. Couldn't understand why, as I had been for three weeks and was now on proper painkillers. Prepped for surgery. It had set whilst I hobbled around Tokyo taking photos. No point in surgery. Sent home without going under the knife. Now I have one leg longer than the other. I've flown since.

On another flight, two-thirds of the way to Japan, almost everyone asleep, air starts to feel really thin. No crew around. Walk to the back of the plane to find them. Query it. 'Everything's OK'. Return to seat. Couple of minutes later air con revs into life and air improves.

It is a tie but one was short lived

I arrived at my seat to find a woman in the next seat already seated she had the armrest up and her body was well into my seat, by that I mean her butt and back were overflowing considerably that I would have had to push her butt in order to even get my seatbelt out from under her.

This was for a 14 hours flight.

Her husband was in the seat in front and when the crew asked him if he would sit next to her he refused.

Long Story long argument, but finally I was given another seat in an upgrade as not one person on the plane wanted only 2/3 of a seat.

The most frightening on a commercial flight was United.

We boarded myself and 2 very young children.

I Reserved the from roe center bulkhead months in advance.

Got bumped to the rear in 3 different seats several roes apart because the section we were supposed to have was now occupied by USA military personnel.

Yes folks they wanted to put me alone in the front, my then 3 year old daughter in a middle aisle seat several roes back an my the 2 years old son even further back on a 14 hours flight.

After massive arguments including involving other passengers pointing out the stupidity of seating the children alone next to unknown people we got moved to the last row together.

Flight takes off once in the air we noticed that the lights didn't work, the audio wasn't working, not even the call button was working.

We pointed out to the crew, they came back and said

" There must be a short someplace all 10 roes are out"

This was not long after the Swissair Flight 111 crash caused by a short.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swissair_Flight_111

We asked are we turning back to Tokyo?

Nope we flew on to Chicago for our connecting flight in the dark with 2 upset children, unable to hear the sound of the shows on the screen (no individual screens at that time) in front, unable to use the crayons & colouring books or even read the children's books I brought with us.

All the time Swissair Flight 111 is going through my mind.

Arriving in Chicago the passengers in these 10 roes were told to wait as " compensation" was going to be given to us.

We each got an envelope with a $25 discount coupon good for our next United domestic full fare flight within the continental USA.

Right we came off an international flight from Japan and this coupon could only be used in the USA and on direct airline full fare ticket.

I never again used United.

Oh the connecting flight to Canada was switched to a small commuter plane with a door that didn't seal properly ( they insisted it was safe) winter we were freezing (I am from Canada I don't get cold easily).

The children were crying because it was so cold, everyone on the plane was upset.

This was the worst commercial air flight ever.

We returned to Japan via air Canada and the now gone Canadian airline.

It cost me a lot extra but I was not taking the risk on United again

None. All the airline experience was wonderful with excitement.

Mainly I've been lucky to have anything from average to excellent experiences. The worst, which wasn't too bad by most measures, was in Maui. There was a long line to check in for the flight back to Honolulu for a connecting flight back to Japan. The check-in staff were operating in slow motion and competing in the World Surliness Championships that day, leaving precious little time to board. Ended up having to pay a porter to get us through in time. I just dumped a whole lot of coins and a couple of notes into his hand as a tip, hope it was enough to justify his help.

As soon as you buy an air fare I expect worst. Hate airports hate flying. When in Japan I use rail ferry and bus never fly within Japan. I don't travel in Australia because they have the worst air, train and bus service I have ever experiance. Car is the only way I would travel in Australia and I live here.