Up, Up and Away !

My first air flight was not until I was 15, but I've been a frequent and happy flyer since.  My most memorable flight was in 1968.  I was in the Navy, in uniform, flying from NYC to Denver.  Often in those days, I would be moved from Coach to First Class because of my military service.  I always appreciated it, but certainly didn't expect it.  On that particular flight, I was upgraded to a seat across the aisle from the journalist Lowell Thomas.  I recognized him immediately, and we began a conversation that lasted for much of the flight.  I remember his kindness to the young me.

Do you have stories to tell of your flying experiences?

Updated On: 10/13/23 at 01:47 PM

Updated On: 10/13/23 at 02:05 PM

When I was seven years old, my favorite movie was Mary Poppins. It brought me such joy and excitement, I watched it every day. Mary was my idol, my inspiration. One day I grabbed the family umbrella and headed to the roof of our building. I walked to the very edge, opened up the umbrella, said to myself "up, up and away"...

I ended up in a coma for six weeks.

My most memorable air travel experience was easily my November 2008 trip to Hong Kong and Bangkok. Had a lovely 5 days in Hong Kong and got on a Thai Airways flight to Bangkok for the second part of my trip. Arrived in the late evening to an airport in utter chaos with military everywhere. Never having been in Thailand before, I assumed maybe that's just normal but long story short, I found out when I finally reached my hotel (and that wasn't easy) that anti-government protesters had just seized control of the airport earlier that evening and mine was one of the last flights allowed in or out.

Went about my normal tourist activities for the next 4 days but on the 5th day, when I was supposed to leave, both major Bangkok airports were still closed by the protesters with no idea when they would reopen. Ended up getting a Singapore Airways flight the following Tuesday out of U-Tapao airport (described in the attached article) to Singapore which again wasn't easy and got to U-Tapao in a memorable 120 mile cab ride by a lovely Thai cabbie which saved me the trouble of guessing which of Bangkok's 3 bus terminals had the buses to U-Tapao which no one at my hotel seemed to be able to tell me.

From Singapore, I was able to grab a United flight to Tokyo the next morning and then on to SFO getting me home Wednesday, only 3 days late. On the bright side, the Thai government with proof that you were supposed to fly out and couldn't because of the protest put you up at a hotel for free with free meals until you were able to get out so I had two extra days in Bangkok free of charge though the first of those days was consumed with figuring out which hotel to go to, getting there and dealing with all the intake matters and trying to confirm a seat on that flight out of U-Tapao, but the hotel itself was a business class hotel so no complaints there.

I never felt threatened as it was clear the protesters had no issue with me so my sightseeing was not impacted in the least and some of the locals had a good time joking with me that I would never be able to leave which I got a kick out of despite the uncertainty I was feeling..

All in all, a unique experience that I'm glad I had but have no desire to repeat. Can't believe< I just passed the 15 year anniversary of this experience.

Attached NBC News article if you are interested in reading a bit about it.

https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna27970162

Updated On: 12/24/23 at 04:58 AM

I would say 90% of my flying experiences have been just fine and a few have been wonderful and fun. The scariest one was time I was on a flight, and they were not positive if the landing gear would work. A runway was foamed but luckily the gear worked. I believe this practice was stopped years ago.

Many years ago, I was flying on a business trip to LA from JFK and was in 1rst class. Sitting next to me was NY Islander star Bryan Trottier. He actually started up a conversation with me and we talked for a while before I mentioned his hockey career. He was very humble and just a really nice guy. When we got off the plane, he told me that it was very nice meeting me and to have a good time in LA.

Another fun time on a flight was when I was flying from Denver, Colorado to LGA. One of the flight attendants (stewardess at that time) was a woman who was in my HS class. She was voted "best looking female" of our graduating class and still looked wonderful. I was not the most popular guy in HS so I did not know if she would remember me. I remember asking her if she went to the same HS just to get her reaction. She said yes and mentioned the class year and then I introduced myself. She did remember me because she said that she recalled me dating one of her friends and mentioned the friend by name. She was very sweet, and I did see her again years later at a class reunion.  We had a laugh about meeting on the plane years earlier.

Updated On: 1/10/24 at 07:16 PM

My step-sister was a flight attendant with United Airlines beginning in the early 1950s.  That's where she met her husband, a United pilot.  Eventually they moved to the "desk" side of the airline.  I remember when I was young listening to their stories about flying.  My love for airplanes and flying began there (but not enough to entice me to join the Air Force.....I was definitely a Navy guy).

This documentary detailing achievements of flight attendants premieres on PBS February 20.