Someone recently asked me: what´s the craziest flight schedule you have made so far?

My answer was the PXM (Puerto Escondido)-MEX-OAX (Oaxaca)-MEX route I made several years ago instead of flying PXM-OAX (3 hour connection)-MEX as originally intended.

As my Aerocaribe Jetstream 32 PXM-OAX flight was cancelled, Traffic employees at PXM intented to book me on an Aerocaribe DC-9-31 nonstop flight to MEX (my intended final destination that day) I argued that I had a meeting scheduled at OAX airport while waiting for my OAX-MEX Mexicana 727-200 flight.

Not very happy about it, they agreed to have me fly PXM-MEX on their D93 and they MEX-OAX-MEX on Mexicana´s metal after a 2 hour waiting and metting time in OAX, this way I managed to enjoy a free longer PXM-MEX-OAX-MEX flight than the one I had booked.

In another unsual schedule I flew on board Regionalcargo 737-200F uninterrupted on the following route: QET-MEX-MTY-MID-CUN-MID-MTY-MEX-MTY-MEX-QET

Not a schedule that I made, but when I worked up north, our routing was JHL-YKA-YLW and sometimes JHL-YVR-YCD-YKA-YLW. Miss that short YKA-YLW hop on the 737-200.

Once I got booked on a YFI -YYC flight, booked a flight YYC-YEG to meet a friend and flew back to YYC to catch a flight to YVR then LAX and then LAS, 6 different 737 on 3 airlines in one day

Had to fly YLW to YEG one time and found a $99 seat sale that routed me YLW-YYZ-YEG - great way to spend the day.

Other than that, nothing too crazy. Always try and look for stop overs at airports I haven't been to, makes flying fun again.

Only flown twice in the last 3 years. My life now officially sucks

When the AZ error fares were around, me and a mate flew
MXP-FCO AZ E170
FCO-CDG AF A321
CDG-SIN AF A380
SIN-CDG AF A380
CDG-TRN AZ 320
TRN-BRI AZ 319

All for the price of €80’s

Does this one count? Couple of years ago, wanted to go to Riga, Latvia. Nonstop with Air Baltic ZRH-RIX was quite expensive, but a connection on to Helsinki was much cheaper. Could do a no-show at RIX. Decided to book an additional SK flight HEL-ARN-RIX back to Riga, was still much cheaper and gave me 3 more segments... Was on two tickets though, but still self connecting at HEL, with 3 hours of layover. The 717 logged on HEL-ARN was just the icing on the cake

TUGMASTER wrote:

When the AZ error fares were around, me and a mate flew
MXP-FCO AZ E170
FCO-CDG AF A321
CDG-SIN AF A380
SIN-CDG AF A380
CDG-TRN AZ 320
TRN-BRI AZ 319

All for the price of €80’s

Nice one, wasn't there a Tokyo deal too?

eastafspot wrote:

TUGMASTER wrote:

When the AZ error fares were around, me and a mate flew
MXP-FCO AZ E170
FCO-CDG AF A321
CDG-SIN AF A380
SIN-CDG AF A380
CDG-TRN AZ 320
TRN-BRI AZ 319

All for the price of €80’s

Nice one, wasn't there a Tokyo deal too?

Ahh you've got to love the AZ error fares. There were a bunch of cheap options, but SIN and NRT were the lowest. I did them back to back... in hindsight that was nuts:

STN-BGY ... Ryanair ... B737-800
MXP-FCO ... Alitalia ... A320-200
FCO-CDG ... Alitalia ... A321-100
CDG-SIN ... Air France ... A380-800
SIN-CDG ... Air France ... A380-800
CDG-TRN ... CityJet ... RJ-85
TRN-BRI ... Alitaia Cityliner ... E170-200LR
BRI-BGY ... Ryanair ... B737-800
MXP-FCO ... Alitalia ... A319-200
FCO-NRT ... Alitalia ... B777-200ER
NRT-FCO ... Alitalia ... B777-200ER
FCO-BRI ... Alitalia ... A320-200
BRI-STN ... Ryanair ... B737-800

All accomplished in around 83 hours


Dan

A couple decades ago, I went to a convention in San Fran. The flight out was PIT-SFO, the return if memory serves was something like SFO-BUR-DFW-PIT.

I've also done PIT-EWR-MCI and return, flying almost directly over my house on the EWR-MCI leg; also PIT-IAH-LHR and return. The former was for scheduling reasons and the latter was a can't-refuse price while flying on my own dime.

I had a change in my travel plans, and tried to change a ticket setup I already had. Originally, I was to go from CTA to NAP, spend about 3 days, then up to FCO to ATL to BHM. The need to go to Napoli ceased, so I wanted just to get from Catania to BHM by however Delta wanted to do it. The gum-popping nothing I got on the phone said the change in ticket would involve a surcharge several hundred dollars more than the original round trip ticket.

I hung up, and started researching one-way tickets on various sites like CheapTickets and others. I also called Delta back again (I really like Skype at times!), and this time got a really go-getter type. For the older US readers, think voice like Eve Arden ("Our Miss Brooks") and that tomboy girl you knew in the third grade who liked to play softball with the rest of the guys, and was good at it. I explained to her I had my browser open and was hovering over a one-way and would argue the refund when I got home unless she could cook something up. "Mr. DC6B, I love a challenge!"

She clicked, clattered on her keys, hmm'd, haw'd, and then finally came up with a difference of about $112 surcharge. Fine, BUT. To do this, I would be going from CTA to FCO to ATL and then NOT to BHM, but on to DTW then BACK DOWN to BHM. Something about how the flight number from FCO to ATL didn't end there, but despite a plane change, maintained the flight number all the way to DTW and the tariffs said I had to finish the flight blah blah blah.

I took it. I realized later that because I went through customs in ATL, I should have just rolled out the door and grabbed a rental car, but didn't. I was so exhausted when I got home the driver almost had to pour me out of my cab.

PlymSpotter wrote:

eastafspot wrote:

TUGMASTER wrote:

When the AZ error fares were around, me and a mate flew
MXP-FCO AZ E170
FCO-CDG AF A321
CDG-SIN AF A380
SIN-CDG AF A380
CDG-TRN AZ 320
TRN-BRI AZ 319

All for the price of €80’s

Nice one, wasn't there a Tokyo deal too?

Ahh you've got to love the AZ error fares. There were a bunch of cheap options, but SIN and NRT were the lowest. I did them back to back... in hindsight that was nuts:

STN-BGY ... Ryanair ... B737-800
MXP-FCO ... Alitalia ... A320-200
FCO-CDG ... Alitalia ... A321-100
CDG-SIN ... Air France ... A380-800
SIN-CDG ... Air France ... A380-800
CDG-TRN ... CityJet ... RJ-85
TRN-BRI ... Alitaia Cityliner ... E170-200LR
BRI-BGY ... Ryanair ... B737-800
MXP-FCO ... Alitalia ... A319-200
FCO-NRT ... Alitalia ... B777-200ER
NRT-FCO ... Alitalia ... B777-200ER
FCO-BRI ... Alitalia ... A320-200
BRI-STN ... Ryanair ... B737-800

All accomplished in around 83 hours


Dan

Well done Dan ! Certainly not for the faint hearted . Lucky you it all went smoothly, otherwise what were you back up plans if stucked somewhere in the middle?

I once took an 11 day long trip doing the following flights:
MEX.ZIH-PVR-SEA on a Mexicana 727-200
SEA-HNL on a United DC-10-10
HNL-NRT on a United 747-100
HND-OSA on a JAL DC-10-40
OSA-HND on a JAL 747-200 SUD
NRT-HKG on a United 747-100
HKG-NRT on a United 747-100
HNL-JHM-OGG-HNM on an Aloha Island Air DH-6 Twin Otter
HNM-OGG on an Aloha Island Air DH-6 Twin Otter
OGG-HNL on a Hawaiian DC-9-50
HNL-SFO on a United 747.100
SFO-SEA on a United 737-300
SEA-MZT on a Mexicana 727-200
MZT-SJD-GDL-MEX on a Mexicana 727-200

eastafspot wrote:

TUGMASTER wrote:

When the AZ error fares were around, me and a mate flew
MXP-FCO AZ E170
FCO-CDG AF A321
CDG-SIN AF A380
SIN-CDG AF A380
CDG-TRN AZ 320
TRN-BRI AZ 319

All for the price of €80’s

Nice one, wasn't there a Tokyo deal too?

Yep, as Dan has said, NRT was the other cheap option we did,
MXP-NRT-FCO-BRI,
A little more expensive at 85 euro.

The trick or error was that you had to book a MXP-BRI flight. However you could book it via anywhere on the AZ network, and it would be treated as a domestic sector MXP-BRI for costing.
Great fun indeed.

2018. When my STL-ORD flight on American was late, causing me to miss my ORD-CLT connection, I ended up flying STL-ORD-SBN-CLT.

My first trip to China, I used US Airways miles that allowed a route from Asia to North America via Europe, so I decided to make it a round the world trek.

Outbound I made a couple stopovers: PHX-SJC-NRT-GUM (with a GUM-ROP-SPN-TIQ-SPN-GUM thrown in) -TPE (with a TSA-KNH-TSA daytrip) -CTU

But I did the return via Europe in one shot: PVG-TPE-ICN-IST-YYZ-SFO-PHX 6 flights on 5 airlines.

I booked MDW-DET-MDW on Southwest flights 1990s. I was at Detriot City airport waiting for a flight back home to MDW. Southwest had delayed flight due to snowing weather conditions in Michigan. I waited and got ready to board to MDW. But the gate agent announced that we have to fly to Detriot Metro to pick up some passengers who have stranded cancel flights to MDW We offered to pick up DTW from DET. We laughed. I got boarded the plane and took off and landed in 9 minutes shortest hop that I have had best flight shortest ever had it. LOL

Q

I once flown from HKG to BNE, arrived on Sat 11pm, spend one night at the airport hotel, then board the QF Antarctica flight on 6am.
The QF flight returned to BNE around 9pm then I immediately connected to the 1am CX flight back to HKG.

On a MEX-MTY 737-200F flight, our flight dispatcher "forgot" to inform our pilots that MTY airport was going to be closed for reparir work by the time we estimated our arrival. This was made known to our pilots while we were already flying towards MTY. Pilots had 3 choices hold for one hour near MTY till the airport reopened, divert to alternate or return to MEX to wait and refuel. That last option is what we did thus I made a MEX-MEX-MTY flight that night.

Hi folks, how about your craziest air trip you have ever made.

In my case I have a couple:

I was once scheduled to fly PXM-MEX connecting in OAX. When I was informed that the PXM-OAX Aerocaribe J34 flight was canceled I was offered a nonstop PXM-MEX on board an Aerocaribe DC-9-30. I argued that I had a meeting scheduled at OAX that I still needed to attend. I was lucky enough to get a PXM-MEX on that DC-9 and then a MEX-OAX-MEX on Mexicana´s 727-200´s

In another case I had to supervise a cargo charter operation at HMO airport. Instead of flying MEX-HMO nonstop and back, I managed to get a MEX-GDL-LMM-HMO-CEN-CUL-GDL-MEX trip on Aeromexico´s DC-9-30 and MD-80´s on the same day.

Regards.

Not too crazy but the craziest I did:

AUS-DFW AA M80 8/29/2009
DFW-JFK AA B752 8/29/2009
JFK-LAX AA B762 8/29/2009

Spent the night in the LAX AA terminal, slept on the carpet with my backpack as a pillow next to one of the big windows next to the 762 I came in on.

LAX-AUS AA M80 08/30/2009

I have one planned in January I booked for fun:
BWI-ORD UA A319
ORD-LAX UA B789
LAX-SEA AS A320
SEA-ATL DL B763
ATL-BWI DL B739
In 23 hours

Nearly two years ago I flew EIN-VIE-MXP-BRI-BUD-EIN just for the fun of it. It was the last trip I took before COVID-19 broke loose and I haven't flown since.

What was also fun was that the total fare for all those flights added up was no more than €60 with no flight costing more than €15. I've spent more on hostels to sleep in on the trip than on flights.

Many moons ago, on the AA.com website, long before its redesign, you could pull up a very creative multi-city routing feature.

One time, on the AA website, mind you, I booked STL-CVG-CLE on Delta, then switched over to Continental Airlines and flew CLE-EWR-ATL and then switched back to Delta to fly to LGA.
The return home was much easier just LGA-CLE on Continental then back CLE-CVG-STL on Delta. This was at the time when Delta was still flying 732s.

We used the feature a few times for mileage runs. There were a couple of just dumb, stupid routings we did - one being STL-DFW-TUL-DFW-OKC-DFW-MCI-ORD-STL all in one day all on AA. We can into the same flight and gate crew a few times in DFW and received some rather puzzling looks.

had a few interesting onES on my 5th freedom quest:

HKG-CDG => HKG-DUB-EDI-AMS-OSL-ARN-HKG
HKG-BKK => HKG-KUL-MLE-MAA-DAC-CGP-DAC-HKG
HKG-BKK => HKG-BKK-CCU-IXB-BKK
HKG-SIN => HKG-DMK-CCU-GAU-SIN
CDG-HKG => CDG-FRA-MAD-HKG

I am not sure if this is what the op had in mind but I had a crazy journey which involved two/three flights so I think it does.

I was scheduled to fly AMS- BRS- CWL with Dan Air on a BAE 146. Due to heavy fog the inbound flight was diverted to Brussels. The airlines answer was to give us train tickets to Brussels to pick up the plane. Their logic was this would be quicker than waiting for the fog to clear as it was expected to last all day.

The airline forgot to mention we had to change, at Leiden I think, so this resulted in a long convoluted journey to Brussels Airport. We arrived at Brussels at the Dan Air desk to be met by very puzzled looks. The sales assistant left to discuss the situation with her supervisor. We could see into the office where their discussion took place and there were more puzzled faces. We could see they phoned someone which was followed by some laughing. The assistant returned to tell us we had been misinformed and the plane had been diverted not to Brussels but to Rotterdam and in any event it had now flown back to Cardiff.

As there were no flights to Cardiff from Brussels they proposed, and I accepted, that we flew to LGW with them and they would book us onto Brymon Airways flight to CWL. The flight to LGW was on an HS748, my only flight so far on that type so all was not bad news. The plane was full of well dressed business men/bureaucrats and boy did they knock back the free alcohol on that short flight. (It was about 1700 on a Friday evening by now).

After a quite short wait at LGW we we were back in the air on a Brymon Dash 8, I don’t recall the variant off the top of my head, to CwL via BRS. After a short stop in BRS we taxied out and then stopped. The pilot announced a puncture had occurred and we were returning to the gate, very slowly. We had to disembark whilst the puncture was fixed and we finally took off arriving in Cardiff at around 2200 instead of the midday arrival I had expected.

To add insult to injury we arrived in CWL to find that our luggage was still in AMS and I had to return to the airport, luckily only about 15 Miles from my home, to collect my suitcase when it arrived the next day.

Is that crazy enough?

To get from Germany to New York I went eastwards:
NUE-MUC-DEL-AMD-SIN-EWR

Not a pure air trip, but pretty crazy: flew PIT-PHL-DUB-BHX arriving on a Saturday morning. Friend picked me up and we drove to a Cotswold village for his birthday party that evening. Next morning (Sunday) drove back to BHX, flew BHX-FRA, got on a train to Ilmenau. Stayed there for most of the week (work). Friday, train back to FRA, flew to BHX, went back to my friend for a four day visit (I hadn't seen him in 3 years), and returned LHR-PIT. We flew into a snow squall on short final, got struck by lightning - impressive.

All this happened in late Feb 2020, people were starting to drop like flies in Italy from covid when I flew back home.

STL-CLT-YYZ on AA (to connect to TS)
YYZ-VCE on TS (to get on an A310)
VCE-AMS on U2 (spotting at AMS)
AMS-CPH-ORD on SK (to get on A340-300)
ORD-STL on AA

This was in the span of 6 days

Sorry about the lack of detail, and some may doubt this happened, but I assure you it did. It was in the mid-late 70s – UAL 747 ORD to either FLL or MIA. We pushed back and engines started. After a short delay the captain informed us there was a problem that would not enable the cabin to be pressurized. OK, that happens – rarely but not unheard of.
I’ve told a few people about what occurred and was met with disbelief. The captain gave us a choice (I am paraphrasing here).

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to give our passengers a choice. You can choose to have us return to the terminal and book a later flight with our customer service agents. I cannot tell you when that would be. Your other choice would be to have us fly at a very low altitude and much lower speed. We are going to ask our passengers to vote on this. Our flight attendants will report the vote and we will act accordingly. Now, those of you who want to continue and fly lower and slower, please raise your hand." With that, nearly everyone raised their hand. He then asked for a show of hands by those for returning to the terminal. There were a few. Upon being advised of the outcome, the captain said we would be flying but first gave passengers who didn’t want to go the option of deplaning and taking a later flight. Nobody did.

We flew at about 10,000 ft. without incident and a great view. I think it took about an hour or two longer than scheduled.

I didn’t understand why this decision was made and know it would never happen today. UA had a maintenance facility at ORD and I doubt either FLL or MIA did. I know this doesn’t make sense and doubt it can be verified. If it can somehow be verified please reply with detail so I can document it and show it to the sceptics.

Not me, but my ex. In the late 1990s he spent a year working in Bosnia. The war had ended in Bosnia, but the Kosovo conflict was still going which had occasional impacts on Bosnian airspace. He and I had met up in Spain for a couple of weeks. I was flying home Barcelona-Frankfurt-Singapore-Auckland, and about two hours after I left he was supposed to be flying Barcelona-Zürich-Sarajevo on Swissair. The last few days of our holiday he rang Swissair every morning to check the flight was still operating and they assured him it was. When he got to check-in they advised we will need to reroute you Barcelona-Zürich-Münich and put you on Lufthansa as we've cancelled our Sarajevo flight . He got to Münich only to be told by LH that they had also cancelled their Sarajevo flight, but not to worry, we'll reaccomodate you, we'll fly you to Vienna and put you on Austrian to Sarajevo ( I'm sure you can guess what happened next). He got to Vienna to be told by Austrian, our Sarajevo flight has been cancelled, but we'll carry you to Zagreb then put you on Croatian Airlines to Sarajevo. When he got to Zagreb Croatian assured him they were still flying to Sarajevo, but the flight left 30 minutes ago. We can put you on standby for tomorrow's flight, but at the moment it's full because we're the only carrier currently servicing Sarajevo. After two days in Zagreb with the flights oversold, he finally convinced them to put him on a bus to Sarajevo. By the time he got there ( BCN SR ZRH SR MUC LH VIE OS ZAG bus SJJ ) I'd already been back in New Zealand a day and a half

Had a customer fly on AA using points, LHR - LAX - DFW - FLL. They were really tired when they arrived in FLL!

I had this flight booked for me by our travel office way back when.

LGW-EWR-CLE-IAH-LAS

The agent checking me in at LGW took one look at their screen, said "hold on", spent 5 minutes punching keys and had me on LGW-EWR-LAS

Love this kind of post, here are mine most remembered, all done for flying more. (Yeah I need to see a doctor)

As a regular pax:
GRU-JFK-DCA-FRA-LIS-GRU (RG, UA, LH, RG)
GRU-FRA-BKK-AKL-ZQN-AKL-EZE-GRU (LH, TG, NZ, AR)

In cabin jump seat:
CDG-BCN-CDG (AF A320)
MAD-GRU (RG 762)
GRU-POA (VP A300)
Inaugural domestic flight of VARIG T7 PP-VRB: POA-GRU

Damn those were the days...

My first.
Joined BA in 1983, just a kid, 17, I got the chance not long afterwards to go as an 'observer' on a Certificate of Airworthiness Test after an extended period of maintenance. The aircraft was G-AWNE a B747-136.
The shift manager in the hangar told me 'you'll shit yourself' probably after I told him that I'd never flown before.

The aircraft had the flight crew, included one from the Civil Aviation Authority, a few like me, some ground engineers, no baggage or cargo of course.
So in August 1983 we leaped off the runway at LHR, the tests started over the English Channel, including several stalls, in what then was Club in the upper deck, I felt the climb, the flight deck door being in front of me, heard the warning horns then the engines off, then the drop.
Several times.

A very clear August day, once we leveled out you could see both sides of the Channel switching sides, then going down those early 747 spiral staircase it got hard to move, once in what was then First Class looking outside I saw why, we had been pulling out of a dive, according to the horizon.
Some cans of soft drinks and snacks had been in a First galley, not after those stalls so I had been going to see what the noise was!

Later, it was announced that with all tests done, we had got permission to do a low level fly past over this airfield;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MoD_Boscombe_Down
That day there was a flight of USAF F-111's on the ground there.
Then back to LHR.
I found it fascinating and fun.

My second flight was the acceptance of BA B747-236 G-BDXL, stored in the early 80's recession and now delivered in a unique British Airtours, the then charter arm of BA, in a one class seating configuration for a service to MIA.
Not as exciting as the C of A test but concluding with a touch and go at a then not much used airport with a long runway called Stansted!

My third was a charter on a DC-3 Air Atlantique, From and back to Luton including over LHR, full of aviation enthusiasts many of who threw up! Call themselves aviation people? Lightweights!
There would be some notable ones with a certain Supersonic airliner, including one on an infamous day for the aviation world in 2001, for another thread.

Back in early 2018 I pieced together a very affordable connection from CHC-PDX which involved flying NZ CHC-WLG-AKL-HNL and then flying AA HNL-LAX-PDX. It gave a full day in HNL on the way back between the two redeyes.

There was a storm that came through and washed out Highway 1 on the north end of the South Island, so we decided to curtail our trip around the South Island, dropped our rental car in Picton, and then took the ferry to Wellington.

Being unable to change the flight to depart from WLG instead of CHC, we booked a cheap Jetstar flight from WLG-CHC to pick up our original flight right back to WLG 45 minutes later.

So the entire section ended up being WLG-CHC-WLG-AKL-HNL-LAX-PDX.

Here are my two candidates to qualify in the "crazy routing" category, although I read some reaaaaaally crazy flights from you guys!

1) Sept. 2018
ANF-SCL-AKL-PPT-BOB, returning BOB-PPT-IPC-SCL-ANF

2) Fingers crossed to do this on February 2022
ANF-SCL-PTY-CUR-SXM, and back.

Cheers!!
G.

I wanted to fly in a 747-8. I also wanted to sit in seat 1A on a 747 of any type at some point in my life. My husband, a points geek, figured out how to make it happen in the spring of 2019 after a Tahitian cruise. We flew PPT-AKL. Spent a night in AKL. Then AKL-SIN-BLR. In BLR we boarded D-ABYM and I got to sit in seat 1A to FRA. In FRA we got to enjoy the LH First Class lounge, then connected on the very first A320NEO ever delivered to MUC where we then took an A380 home to SFO.

So, SFO-PPT-AKL-SIN-BLR-FRA-MUC-SFO. Around The World in 3 days.

DocLightning wrote:

I wanted to fly in a 747-8. I also wanted to sit in seat 1A on a 747 of any type at some point in my life. My husband, a points geek, figured out how to make it happen in the spring of 2019 after a Tahitian cruise. We flew PPT-AKL. Spent a night in AKL. Then AKL-SIN-BLR. In BLR we boarded D-ABYM and I got to sit in seat 1A to FRA. In FRA we got to enjoy the LH First Class lounge, then connected on the very first A320NEO ever delivered to MUC where we then took an A380 home to SFO.

So, SFO-PPT-AKL-SIN-BLR-FRA-MUC-SFO. Around The World in 3 days.

Wow! Now that is a crazy trip !!
PPT and AKL are really fantastic places, I hope I can go back in a couple of years, although the prices are very high now that Latam is not flying the south pacific routes…but I guess they will be flying to AKL soon.

Best Regards,
G

A couple immediately come to mind:

In 2004, DMK (then BKK)-SIN-FRA-JFK-IAD

In 2019, ORD-DFW-YVR-NRT/rush to HND-BKK

Both of those were without breaks, so they were quite miserable.

I think in 2012, I did EWR-IAD-NRT-HKG, HKG-CRK, MNL-HKG-NRT-SEA-EWR, over three days (mileage run).

mine was a combination of business and leasure trip in early 2019 in Business Class flying LX,A3 and AA in 10 days (l spent 6 nights in Las Vegas):

ZRH-VIE-ATH-TLV-ATH-MXP-ZRH-LAX-LAS-LAX-ZRH

l miss those days…..

Not as crazy as the ones I've read here, but for me, it was DSM to EWR via DEN, and not by choice. I was originally booked DSM to ORD to EWR, but was re-routed via DEN when I was told the DSM to ORD sector had been cancelled. Come to find out the day of the flight it hadn't been cancelled, but rather switched from an A320 to a CRJ. Later on, I found out my friend was flying from DSM to KUL via DEN, SEA, NRT, and SIN. His DSM to DEN flight ended up being the same flight I was flying on.

Around 10 years or so back I was in LPB when there was a volcano eruption in Chile, and ash cloud scattered across the Pacific Ocean so all flights were cancelled.

My LBP-IQQ-SCL-AKL-MEL on LA/QF was rerouted to be LPB-IQQ-SCL-LIM-DFW-LAX-MEL on LA/AA/QF. Earned many unexpected points on that one, but 48 hours in Economy was far from ideal ...

I thoght I got a reasonable flight to Australia. Jan-Feb 2011. It was bloody hard!
CPH-ARN SAS A321
ARN-PEK Air China 777-200
PEK-HKG Air China A330-200
HKG-KUL Malaysia Airlines 777-200
KUL-SYD Malaysia Airlines 747 -400
and three weeks later
SYD-KUL Malaysia Airlines 777-200
KUL-HKG Malaysia Airlines 777-200
HKG-PEK Air Macau/AirChina A321
PEK-FRA Air China A330-200
FRA-CPH Lufthansa A320

Not as crazy as some, but in 2014 i did LBA-LHR-SAN-LAX. The connection in SAN might seem odd to get to LA, although those 2 hours on the ground saved me around £300 instead of flying direct.

Two come to mind:

Non-Rev on UA to eat ramen in Tokyo.
DEN-SMF-Rental Car to SFO
SFO-NRT (744)
NRT-HNL (the same 744)
HNL-SFO (737)
SFO-MFR (CRJ)
MFR-SLC (CRJ)
SLC-CPR (CRJ)
CPR-DEN (CRJ)

The 787 UAL flight from NRT to DEN was cancelled which was our original plan.

All in 48 hours

Next one: I booked UAL from TPA-DEN but it was oversold so they asked for volunteers to connect through EWR. I took it for some flight credits. Original flight was scheduled 3.25 hours and to arrive in DEN at around 0930.

Here's what happened instead:

TPA-EWR
EWR-ORD
ORD-SFO - Flew over my house and I could see my neighborhood.
Missed my connection to DEN by 10 minutes. Slept on the floor in SFO.
SFO-DEN at 0600 the next morning. Landed at 0930, exactly 24 hours after I was scheduled to land in Denver originally. That $250 flight credit wasn't worth it after all.

Flight from HKG to BNE on Sat morning, arriving on Sat 10pm, stayed in the airport hotel.
Continued to the sightseeing flight to Antarctica which departed on 7am and backed to BNE 10pm.
Take a bath at the Plaza Premium lounge then finally connected to the BNE to HKG flight back on 1am
(and I go to work directly from Hong Kong Airport haha) (all flights in Y)

Not so crazy but memorable, a long time ago:

In August 1974, I travelled to Israel to an international medical students’ meeting. In the 7Os, student flights were popular and cheap, many of them operated in Scandinavia by the Danish Sterling.

My flight to CPH was uneventful. There I boarded Sterling’s Caravelle bound for TLV together with some friends. All good so far.
I can’t remember if there were any detailed announcements by the crew, but we were just told that we have to land in GVA. Once in Geneva, we were not allowed to leave the aircraft. It was getting late. After a rather long wait, it turned out that the airspace in the eastern Med had been abruptly closed due to the conflict in Cyprus.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_i ... _of_Cyprus

Eventually we were allowed to continue but only as far as to Rome where we arrived in the early morning hours, and of course with no accommodation. In addition, my suitcase did not follow me from CPH!

Miraculously we found a cheap dormitory in downtown Rome, not far from Fontana di Trevi. I think we stayed in Rome a couple of days. My friend (with more AE traveller’s checks, fortunately) managed somehow to get one-way tickets on El AL to TLV. IIRC they were one of the first ones to resume operations when the airspace was opened. It was by first flight on a 747!

Forgot to add, I was in Bangkok when protesters shut down the airports, so I took a taxi to Hat Yai, through intermittent torrential rains, 11 hours away.

Thus, BKK-HKG became...KUL-HKG.

Copenhagen to Stockholm with SAS B736, then onwards to Doha with Qatar A332 arriving in Abu Dhabi with a Qatar A320.

Then having to make my way to some obscure terminal apparently only used by guest workers to go through a laughable security check, board a Biman DC-10 to Chittagong, getting to ride the jumpseat on the same DC-10 onwards to Dhaka.

Being interrogated by Bangladeshi airport police for an hour because I came with no entry visa.

Denied entry

Deported back to Abu Dhabi with the same DC10

In Abu Dhabi I found the last seat on a KLM A332 to Amsterdam, upon arrival I took a Fokker 70 flight back to Copenhagen.

Was 16 and found an incredible error fare (nothing like what I’ve seen on this forum) of 300 Euros for the weekend (400 including hotel).

Left a Friday night and flew back a Monday morning at 5:00 am from SOF. Craziest trip that comes to mind and still very memorable.

JFK-BRU-SOF-BRU-JFK, Bulgaria Air (great catering, unprofessional crew) & SN.

Back in 2011 Lufthansa offered 399 EUR return tickets from Amsterdam to Johannesburg on the A380. I remember leaving Schiphol on a Saturday evening, boarding the largest passenger aircraft in Frankfurt and travelling the entire night, arriving in Johannesburg around nine in the morning.

I spent the day at the airport watching aircraft and airlines which I had never seen before. Around seven in the evening I boarded the same A380 for the return flight to Frankfurt. The take off roll was really long and the climb out rather slow. On monday morning I was back in the Netherlands.

Later at the office my coworkers asked if I did anything fun over the weekend. "Yes, I went to South Africa."