Shitty Travel Stories

A good friend of mine travels to India a lot for his job. He's ready to not travel to India anymore, and is working on getting switched over to covering South America instead. I love Indian food, but I have no interest of ever visiting India.

posted by justincredible

A good friend of mine travels to India a lot for his job. He's ready to not travel to India anymore, and is working on getting switched over to covering South America instead. I love Indian food, but I have no interest of ever visiting India.

I have been all over Europe, Central America, Brazil, Argentina, China, Japan, etc. 

India is still the asshole of the world. You couldn’t pay me enough to go back. 

I have a good friend from India and I would travel there with her to see her family, but that's probably the only way I'd go. 

posted by Fab4Runner

I have a good friend from India and I would travel there with her to see her family, but that's probably the only way I'd go. 

I can honestly say I have never met an Indian that is not nice (I am sure there are plenty) and I got a long with all of them from college and work colleagues. However, their country, for the most part, is a real crap hole. You put over a billion people in a country that is 3 times smaller than the US but has 4 times the population...so 12 times the people/area...

Oh, and people want to believe our wage inequality in the US (rich vs poor) is too high? Visit India, by comparison it looks like our rich and poor make the same amount of $$. Over there you are either filthy rich or homeless and there isn't really anything in between.

Returning home from the beach tomorrow morning....hope not to have anything to post on this.

posted by justincredible

A good friend of mine travels to India a lot for his job.... I love Indian food, but I have no interest of ever visiting India.

posted by jmog

 

 

India is still the asshole of the world. You couldn’t pay me enough to go back. 

these...my FIL was there for two weeks while he was the QC manager for Chrysler/Jeep, and he said it was absolutely the worst place he had ever been--and as QC manager, he was in Cairo for two years, China, Australia (which he said was as close to perfect as there could be), Toronto, and Mexico...among others.
 

flew a few months ago and my flight was delayed 40 minutes

I can attest to India being a shit hole, but we actually had a decent time. Only ate at the hotel, and besides going to the Taj Mahal we only worked the whole time. 

My worst travel story was driving from Charleston to Ohio sometime around 2007 or so and there was a blizzard so they shut the tunnels down in Virginia. We sat in bumper to bumper traffic for 4 hours before making it on the exit in Wytheville virginia. We couldn't even drive our car up the hill to the hotel so had to sit in a Bob Evans parking lot and walk up. Got the last room in the town per the desk person at a Motel 8, holy shit worst hotel I've been in. The next morning we tried driving home, sat another hour right in front of the tunnel until they opened it, and then made our way home. There were cars deserted on the highway all over so the plows were zigzagging all over the lanes. On one exit there was an entire national guard encampent set up. It could have been worse, but was a pretty stressful 36 hours. 

Probably not up to the "shitty" level, but I did have a bit of negative travel experience this week.

Mrs. Zunardo and I took a family vacation to California this past week with our two sons and Mrs. Z's sister, flew Southwest.   This Monday we were to leave LAX at 4:50 PM, stop and switch at Phoeniz AZ, then leave there 7:20 Pacific and arrive in Columbus at 2 AM early Tuesday.  Had early check-in, TSA pre-screen, and on-line schedule said "on-time" when we left for the airport.  So far, so good.

When we got to the gate, screen said "delayed due to weather" - thunderstorms in Phoenix.  They kept assuring us we'd make the Phoenix flight okay.  We finally lifted off at 6:30.  Flight was 1 hr 15m, but was 2 hours because a route change to avoid the storms.  I knew we wouldn't make a 7:20 connection.  Got off the plane at 8:28, the screen showed the Phoenix flight was taking off at 8:30 - at the gate beside the one we just came in.  The agent said, "Don't worry, we're not boarding yet, waiting for the pilot" ..... waiting for the pilot?? .... five miniutes later, they had us board.

After getting us on the plane, we sat there 45 minutes, with all of the other planes taking off right and left.  Finally a rep comes on board said, "Darn these funny FAA regs - turns out your two pilots are past their allowed hours for today, so we have to find a couple more" ......... past their allowed hours ???

Eventually they found two pilots that looked like they'd just been ordered in on their day off and pulled away from a hot dinner date.  We finally took off 10 PM Pacific - landed safely in Columbus at 5:30 AM.  No, I didn't sleep much for some reason.  Normally I would have slept well.

The five of us stagger to the luggage carousel - and the intercom blares "Mrs. Zunardo, please report to the Southwest luggage office" ....... yep, one bag didn't get on the plane.   

But, they knew where the bag was, and it arrived at Port Columbus 5 PM yesterday.  We were out and about when they called us, and we said we'd stop by and pick it up.  And because we did that instead making them drive to our house, we got a $50 voucher for a future flight.

All told, the wife and I weren't terribly upset, just bone tired.  The weather affected a lot more flights than just ours.  But we did think it was strange that Southwest knew all along our original pilots were past their allowed hours, and waited almost an hour to tell us that and then pull them off the plane while leaving us on.  Would have been better if they'd been up-front about it, and just kept us in the waiting area where we could have stretched out or hit the bar.

 * * * * * * *

I did have another delta for Southwest.  While we were waiting at the LAX gate, one of their reps kept getting on the mic and singing stupid rhymes to the "Barney" theme song in a childish voice.  Fairly irritating.  

We're not traveling anywhere this year because my wife is spending the summer 7-8 months, vomiting nearly every day, and the c-section is going to cost $3500. Also, I'm not convinced she isn't going to deliver sooner than later. 

But, I've been thinking/saving for next year, and some of these waiting on the runway extended periods of time stories scare me. Especially since we'd be traveling with a 5 and 1 year old. 

I loathe Southwest and their shitty boarding process. Will only them if I have to.

This reminds me, I will only only take a conneting flight if absolutely necessary. If needed, no way I transfer through Chicago or SF. Worst airports ever.

posted by friendfromlowry

 

But, I've been thinking/saving for next year, and some of these waiting on the runway extended periods of time stories scare me. Especially since we'd be traveling with a 5 and 1 year old. 

I hear you.  There are horror stories for every consumer experience there is.  I'd say for most of the reputable airlines, they're tolerable.  Your five year-old will probably be fascinated, as long as you can keep him/her occupied.   

My worst "runway time" experience:  had just changed planes in Dallas on way to Hawaii.  After we were boarded and cross-checked, a major thunderstorm system rolled through Dallas, and they held us in position on the runway for 3 hours.  That was pretty bad - no AC, no snacks, no drinks, unless you were better-prepared and stocked up on some (I wasn't).  My only saving grace was reading the Dallas newspaper I bought 5 or 6 times, and watching some Entertainment Tonight-style video montage featuring Alan King doing a stand-up routine while commenting on President Reagan's hair.  I can't imagine doing that with a 5- and a 1- year-old.  :D 

posted by Zunardo

I hear you.  There are horror stories for every consumer experience there is.  I'd say for most of the reputable airlines, they're tolerable.  Your five year-old will probably be fascinated, as long as you can keep him/her occupied.   

You're right. If I let it hold us back then we'd just never travel since we're going to have a toddler-aged kid for another several years. The five year old flew before at least and did fine. 

posted by friendfromlowry

We're not traveling anywhere this year because my wife is spending the summer 7-8 months, vomiting nearly every day, and the c-section is going to cost $3500. Also, I'm not convinced she isn't going to deliver sooner than later. 

But, I've been thinking/saving for next year, and some of these waiting on the runway extended periods of time stories scare me. Especially since we'd be traveling with a 5 and 1 year old. 

I've never had to wait on the runway, and I've never even had a delay longer than 30ish minutes. Maybe I'm just lucky, but I really don't think it happens all that often. 

I'm up to 85 segments on Delta so far this year, and have yet to have a delay much longer than 30 minutes as well, knock on wood. Probably the worst thing this year was being #17 in line for takeoff at ATL about 6 weeks ago.

posted by fish82

I'm up to 85 segments on Delta so far this year, and have yet to have a delay much longer than 30 minutes as well, knock on wood. Probably the worst thing this year was being #17 in line for takeoff at ATL about 6 weeks ago.

 

I'm Delta platinum and I like them very much.  All told, my experiences are always good and efficient.

Whoever on here said they hate Southwest, I'm right there with you.  Their boarding process is horrible and the stupid jokes by the flight attendants are nails on a chalkboard.  I will pay a reasonable premium to avoid SW.

Thankfully I don't have a shitty travel story. I've only flown 5 times and every time has been with Delta and they were great. Worst thing was I thought my luggage was lost when I flew to Las Vegas but it was found like 20 minutes after everyone elses. The worst parts about flying for me are just he high costs out of Huntsville and 99% of the flights always have a connection in Atlanta. 

posted by Dr Winston O'Boogie

I'm Delta platinum and I like them very much.  All told, my experiences are always good and efficient.

 

Whoever on here said they hate Southwest, I'm right there with you.  Their boarding process is horrible and the stupid jokes by the flight attendants are nails on a chalkboard.  I will pay a reasonable premium to avoid SW.

Still trying to decide if I want to go for Diamond this year, just to see how the other half lives lol. 

Agreed on SWA. Hard pass. 

posted by fish82

Still trying to decide if I want to go for Diamond this year, just to see how the other half lives lol. 

Agreed on SWA. Hard pass. 

It’s fantastic. I had it for 2 years...platinum this year. It’s a significant step down, despite still being amazing for travel. 

Im already nearly platinum for next year with a full football season, so I’ll hit Diamond again.