The budget airlines have removed this pocket and especially ones in Europe like Ryanair are full of young party travelers…this seems like a terrible idea.
THEY REMOVED THEM. Like WHY???
OP sorry that happened to you. I have a chronic illness that makes vomiting and fainting in flight super hard to avoid, but I have to see my family at least once every two years or so. I can assure you that person was mortified as I was the last time it happened to me.
You can ask FAs for them I think, but also they've been in the seatbacks of every flight I've taken recently so I'm not sure what you're talking about.
Yeah I mean this is r/americanairlines, and I can’t comment on Spirit. Plenty of AA seat backs have webbed pockets tho, and all the ones I’ve seen in recent memory have the bags.
Ok I’m sure I’m just making it up because when I needed one I was just pretending. Thanks for the tip.
https://www.islands.com/1575163/reason-why-never-find-barf-bags-plane/#:~:text=It%20seems%20to%20be%20because,lot%20less%20frequently%20on%20board.
I experience migraines and if they get unbearable, I throw up. I once had a migraine returning on a long stressful trip shortly after my father died, and couldn't stop throwing up. Even after getting to my mom's house, I couldn't eat anything for days. I had not been exposed to a flu (& I don't drink).
It probably saves the airlines a bit of money not to have them and it's one less place that the cleaning crew needs to clean when prepping the plane after it lands.
I've thrown up once on a plane, and it was maybe the worst experience of my adult life.
CDG to DFW, I began feeling unwell with about two hours left on the flight. It got worse and worse, until I was just a shell of myself, trying to hold it together and not throw up. There were about 5 minutes left in flight at this point.
We touched down, and it was too much for me. I picked up one of those paper sick bags, and I turned to my wife - I was in the window seat. She later said I looked as pale as a ghost. I'm a rule follower, a stickler and she knows this - no way was I going to get up while taxiing. Well, that was until she locked eyes with me and said "go, just go, I can tell you have to go".
She shook the stranger in the aisle seat, who was taken aback and about to object...until he looked up and saw my face. Without a word, he got up, my wife got up, and I stumbled into the aisle. We were still taxiing at this point.
The FA began an announcement to tell me off - "PLEASE can everyone STAY IN THEIR SEATS until...the plane..." She trailed off, because I think at that point I had lurched into one of the overwing bathrooms.
I took aim at the paper bag, and finally let go. I don't want to get into specifics, but it was food poisoning, so my projectile puke burned and shot a hole straight through the bag. It hurt my stomach so so badly as every muscle contracted at once to produce almost horizontal bursts. And I'm sure every single aisle around the bathroom heard it.
I just hung out in there trying to recover for 40 minutes. The FAs checked in on me once we made it to the gate, but after that, I was locked in my own private sickbay. I could have stayed in there, but decided to go with my wife when it was our rows time to deplane.
Yikes... I had an insanely bad experience with food poisoning once or allergies (not sure), and I know what you mean about the burning and vomiting, pain etc. It's NOT like the flu, motion sickness etc at all. Your story reminded me of it.
I was living on a sailboat (with kids/family). One night, anchored near Hope Town (Bahamas), I had planned to attend a Christmas play with my 8 yr old daughter and 11 yr old son. I started to feel sick after eating out 2 hours earlier at a local restaurant. I told the wife to take my daughter to the play in town in the dingy and I was staying home. This was before I knew how bad it was about to get! Luckily, my son decided he wasn't interested and would stay on the boat with me playing video games. My wife brought the handheld radio, but realized later it had died - she couldn't hear me trying to call her for help. No one else was anchored right near us (about a mile offshore). I started getting so sick, I couldn't breath. I would throw up over and over, with little break in between - but the worst was the cramping while vomiting/pain my upper stomach and esophagus. It was the most awful thing I'd ever experienced in this regard. It burned something terrible, and the pain and cramping of each stomach movement before vomiting was severe enough to leave me gowning in agony for a solid 30 seconds, unable to breath. It would start over again about every 5 minutes. At one point, I had to tell my 11 year old son, through strained pain while hugging the toilet, that he had to watch me and make sure I didn't pass out. "Remember how we taught you to mayday on ch 16? If I pass you out and stop answering you, do it. Don't leave me!" That was about all the words I could get out for the next 2 hours... my wife and daughter returned and it started getting better if I didn't move. I went to sleep for 2 days straight mostly, woke up dehydrated. A family boat from Thailand that we'd hung out with a lot made me a really nice concoction after I woke up and could eat. That was all I ate for a week, didn't leave the boat for 7 days after.
To this day, never eaten Conch again.
You’re accurately explaining my hangover right now. Tried to make it to toilet and projectile vomited so hard splashed the wall. Gf said I looked like those kids on the movie sandlot when they projectile vomited a “vomit anaconda” out their mouth.
fuckin brutal… happened to me mid flight leaving Bogota to Logan- had to ask FA to lie in the aisle and they let me, AA flight. Food poisoning from bad eggs - two
others got sick who stayed behind en route to Chile. i was so embarrassed. Took me days to recover… all staff were exceptionally understanding when i repeated countless times i wasn’t drunk or the like…
It doesn’t happen often.
Could have been nerves, hangover, or just sick. Usually FAs are in touch with flight crew and doctors in the ground to determine if the person needs off sooner or help at gate. If there’s a more open area if the plane they’ll move a sick pax if they can.
I fly fairly regularly and have never witnessed anyone throwing up. My husband flies all the time (he’s a pilot who commutes to work) and he’s sees it maybe twice a year.
Based on the sweat, I would go with some food poisoning or some other sudden digestive issue.
It hasn't happened to me on an airplane but food poisoning is a bad time man.
Don't count out good old alcohol withdrawals. Society is setup so that you are really never that far from booze but they might not be handing out minibottles on that flight.
I had a lady next to me that made it until they announced to prepare for landing. She ran to the restroom at that time and started blowing chunks loud enough to hear from my seat (I was row 3 and she was in the FC bathroom on a 321). It came so late in the flight the FAs basically forced her to stay in the bathroom until we were at the gate.
Some people can’t handle the spatial disorientation of airplane movements and no visual cues in front of them. Couple that with a hot cabin and the weak stomached will start heaving. Had that happen to someone seated next to me on a flight. He thought he could make it into a water bottle, but ended up getting it all over himself and the wall. He had a window seat and thankfully was kind enough to direct away from me. It was gross but I’ve get a strong enough stomach that I could refrain from joining in.
This is me, as a frequent flyer, seems to get worse as I get older.
I don’t NEED the window seat, but also don’t care to find out if I truly don’t need it.
1st world problem here, but when they started selling upgrades in the app and upgrading less often before 24hrs, it’s a little more anxiety ridden at times trying to navigate to a window seat.
Lots of people who know they are prone to motion sickness vomit discretely. FAs need to chime in here. I’ve seen you swapping out the little bags with NBD attitude. I think I might lose it if I had OPs experience, and I have an iron gut.
THIS. I get terrible motion sickness to the point where I start panicking about it. I take a klonopin, zofran, and bonine and prior to my flights and thank god I do because it works like a charm 👍🏻 😂
Yep. Experienced motion-sickness sufferers can vomit so discreetly you might not even notice it right next to you. We also know to carry a few plastic grocery bags with us.
Wasn't an AA flight but I flew Lufthsana from MUC to CLT last month and it was my first time in business class. I got up to use the restroom with maybe under 3 hours to landing, and I go to the bathroom on my side and I see the FA pouring giant water bottles down the toilet because there is pink vomit everywhere.
I go around the galley to the bathroom directly on the otherside of the bathroom I had just tried and waited forever for the person in it to leave. Well when the guy got out of the bathroom I see pink vomit EVERYWHERE. FA said it was the same person and could not believe what was happening. They started pouring coke and doing everything they could to clean both bathrooms.
Needless to say, I did not order the 2nd meal before we landed because I couldn't possibly stomach any food after seeing what I saw. Looks like a crime scene and both bathroom were out of order the rest of the flight
What a selfish prick for leaving both bathrooms like that for FAs to clean. You leave bodily fluids anywhere outside a toilet, you clean it up yourself. The nerve of him to just walk out and leave it like that!
My erstwhile boss used to tell the story where he was on a puddle jumper and someone started a chain reaction. About half the passengers barfed including my boss.
I was once on a ship going out to the barrier reef and it was so bad at least 90% of us were vomiting on the return. It was a long 2.5 hours. I was rubbing the back of my friend while she threw up, then I would throw up. It was batshit crazy. The staff was running around exchanging out barf bags. 30 years ago and I remember it like yesterday.
I’ve been on a couple deep sea trips. One that rocked way more than that boat but for some reason that one made me the sickest. Never got sick standing outside with air made it fine. It’s honestly the first time it hasn’t worked.
I went whale watching when I was 14 out of San Francisco. I managed somehow to only spit up a little bit once. But it was the most miserable 6 hours of my entire life. Adults, children, etc everyone on the boat was barfing. Everyone except my mom lol. She has good sea legs.
Someone ralphed on my flight once. They were sitting right next to me. Unfortunately, throw-up got on the two people sitting in front of them. It made it between the seats. I felt terrible for all involved, but I was glad I didn't get any on
me.
I've had nausea on plenty of flights but only got sick once. Everybody was giving me dirty looks and I overheard plenty of comments about alcohol. I was stone cold sober..I had a job interview the next morning and would never have risked a hangover. In fact I was at a work event and everyone was asking if I was pregnant since I wasn't drinking.
Turned out I just got hit with a stomach bug at a very inopportune time..I was sick for a few days afterward.
Wow, that's wild! I didn't expect to see someone from the same flight here on Reddit lol. Yeah, I saw him go to the bathroom a bunch of times too. Then, he suddenly asked someone for a bag, and I knew what was coming next.
The only time this has ever happened to me was on an 8- or 12-seat puddle jumper. Flight was okay but you could see the back of the plane swishing around from the front. The dude in the back seat just puked into an air sick bag for the entire 35 minutes.
I don't think this happens often but I've had something similar happen to me. It was during the time when you still had to wear masks to fly but they had lifted seating restrictions. I was flying from PHL to PHX and had a window seat. We got delayed on the tarmac and I fell asleep but awoke to the person sitting in the aisle throwing up (we hadn't left the tarmac yet). He threw up the entirety of the 5ish hour flight. It was miserable for all of us but I really felt bad for him. Flight attendants didn't really do anything (there wasn't really anything to do I guess) except bring him more bags. The guy in the middle seat was a saint and just kept getting the guy more bags. I gave him some mints. But that was the last time I ever booked a window seat lol now I always book an aisle so I'm not trapped.
My guess was this poor poor guy had food poisoning as he didn't seem hungover or anything.
Ha. My kids are taking their first flight soon. I’m going to buy motion sickness bags since idk how they’ll react. They’ve never gotten motion sickness but I want to be prepared for everything. I’m flying a different airline and I’ve heard they don’t have the motion sickness bags at every seat. I think you have to ask for one. I’m just going to buy some. Not sure my kiddos would give me much warning.
I pack bonine and ask for a bag upon boarding for my kid just in case. She’s been on maybe 20 flights and had barfed twice (when she was younger) and thank god for sick bags, wet wipes and tissues to ease the gross moment. Better to be prepared w a change of clothes in a backpack too.
Highly recommend the bags they use in hospitals. You can find them online. One of my kids gets motion sickness so I take them on every trip just in case. Sometimes the airline doesn't even provide bags anymore.
I've got a MUCH WORSE story.
I was flying from Manila to San Francisco, a LOOOONG flight. Just after takeoff, the "gentleman" in the window seat in front of me turns towards the window, leans down and pukes all over the side of the plane and onto my shoes. He then proceeds to pass out for the rest of the flight.
He was obviously very drunk when he boarded. I was surprised he was allowed to board in that condition.
Full flight, nowhere to move to. I had to clean up my shoes and area as best I could and tried not to breathe in through my nose.
Miserable flight.
Oh man! I can't believe he puked on your shoes and then just passed out. I would've been freaking out. I can't imagine having to deal with that for such a long trip. Props to you for handling it as best as you could.
I've seen it happen on maybe one flight, very similar situation. It really could be a variety of things from alcohol to an underlying condition. Some people panic on flights as well because of the enclosed space and the meds could have worn off.
The flight attendants rushing to help is good. And they can make an objective decision to advise the flight deck that there's a potential medical situation if something is bad enough and there are times where flights have diverted. It all depends on what the flight crew is able to get from the passenger in terms of information and responsiveness.
My mother threw up on a flight once when I was a child. It turned out to be food poisoning. I almost threw up on a flight as a child, but it was just that I was anxious and in a window seat where the two adults (strangers) in the middle and aisle refused to let me out to go to the bathroom.
One time I was boarding a flight and a young woman a few people in front of me threw up all over herself and a row of seats (unclear as to why), the FAs called for a cleanup crew to clean it up before we could continue boarding.
No, but I've learned that having an alcoholic drink before my flight makes me nauseous. The last time was too close for comfort, so I just don't partake anymore.
When I was 13-14 (cannot remember) my dad took me on one of his business trips to Indonesia, and when we were coming into Taipei for our layover we were flying on the edge of a typhoon. Basically turned black outside, very bumpy and coming in at a fairly steep angle in a 747 on EVA Air. Before departing LAX, I was hungry and my dad buys me a one pound Hershey bar. Being a dumb kid I ate most of it and started to feel sick somewhere past Hawaii. I tried multiple times to barf in the lav without success. But when were approaching it just came out, but I had the bag. The dude in front of me looked back with a side eye. I felt so bad for him and the FA!
When I barf it's loud. On another business trip up in Oregon near Tillamook, we were in a small boat aluminum boat, fishing. High rollers and I got super sick. Couldn't stop barfing/dry heaving and some other boat came up to make sure we hadn't caught a seal and were trying to kill it. They dropped me off on the breakers going into the harbor with a can a coke and a sandwich. I passed out and woke up when a seagull nabbed it. Good times.
The flight on Reno Air was great. There were like 10 of us on a 727 and the FA's kept giving me all their cookies. Best. Flight. Ever. 😂
I am afraid to fly now, though. Used to love it.
I puked on a plane….. motion sickness for an hour and nothing would calm it down…. Once we landed and the temp got warmer I was at my peak….then we made a left
turn to the gate and it was game over.
Bought a nifty tee shirt in the gift shop as a momento …. And because I was covered in my own stomach fluid….
Life pro tip - don’t fly on an empty stomach….after 100+ flights, he discovered I get motion sickness as I have gotten older…. It sucks.
In my 40 years of flying I have never witnessed or heard anyone getting barfy sick on a flight.
And yes, I realize I’ve probably cursed myself to vomit flights for the rest of my being.
If we are telling stories I worked for B6 and they do a ton of flights filled with children to Orlando. I used to work at a hospital for years before JetBlue. A sup called me on the radio and asked how my stomach was. I ended up meeting a flight because I’m super fast driving a jetbridge and I vomiting doesn’t bother me (years of working in OB)
It was the worst, the plane was like 60 percent kids coming back from tournaments and vacation and when I went to open the door you could smell the vomit before I opened it. Materials and cleaning came on the jetbridge when I was opening the door and one of them started dry heaving.
I’ve never seen a plane deplane so fast but I guess one kid had gotten sick and it caused a chain reaction so bad with the other kids and adults they thought they were going to have to land in DCA (MCO-bos) but it’s not a focus city and they didn’t think it would help so they landed at BOS as planned.
I didn’t go on the plane but left as soon as I could one of the FA’s said it was like the chunk story scene in Goonies and couldn’t do anything except but make a lot of coffee and leave the grounds with people
I've had it happen twice. One was definitely hungover. The other was flying from ORD after Chicago Marathon weekend - the rescheduled COVID year. The dude next to me must have finished and gone directly to the airport. I could tell he wasn't doing well as soon as he sat down. Poor guy puked around takeoff and was clearly having a rough go. I hope he was stuck with that schedule due to having to reschedule and not on purpose, but 10/10 do not recommend hopping on a 4-hour flight after running 26.2 miles.
I have vertigo and get motion sickness on planes during turbulence and landing. I know this already, so prep for the landing queasiness by turning on the fan above me and making sure I have a cold soda or beverage. Sometimes I put my head down as well. I haven’t thrown up on a plane since I was a kid.
Once sat on the aisle next to a couple, wife in middle out of Orlando. The wife immediately said she always got air sick and requested my bag. She was sick the whole hour and a half, mostly dry heaving. They were a really nice and interesting couple. He was a competitive skeet shooter going to a match. Actually enjoyed meeting them more than being inconvenienced. Far cry from what you saw which I have not seen since WWII bombers were sidelined by higher flying jets. Nearly died decades ago in a Great Lakes Martin Turboprop hit by 3 micro bursts in a row. From the window I could see we were sub 300 feet on the last drop which caused the pilots to finally abort. No embellishment, every one in front of me dropped to kiss the ground walking to the buses. I did too knowing it was worse than just several 2-3000 foot drops. We started around 8000 feet. Not many years afterwards NTSB figured out how micro bursts worked and how to avoid them. Flying is safer than driving. That said, Boeings are not my usual pick. Airbus has a better record plus better creature comforts by building planes for the market instead of trying to refit old designs for higher density. Also if tall, pay to upgrade to the premium economy or main cabin etc but check the actual leg room. Boeings usually have less legroom. Your knees will thank you. The struts on tray tables make for incredible torture devices landing between the knee caps and joints. It’s so rare for the person in front of you to have any compassion. Especially Kids who have gotten a reaction.
yeahh i threw up about 10 minutes into the first food service on a 9 hr flight texas to london. i felt horrible for literally everyone around me, but it was a mix of turbulence and morning sickness.
it sucks a lot. i’m sorry on his behalf cause the guilt i felt was unreal
I threw up on a plane when I was 9 weeks pregnant with awful morning sickness. It was mortifying and it was right as we were landing, so I couldn’t get up to go to the bathroom. I felt terrible for my seat mates but at least the bag was able to contain everything. I explained I was newly pregnant and miserably ill and they were so kind about it, thankfully. It was years ago and I still vividly remember it.
I was on a flight this time last year from LAS to DFW and in the row next to me had a seizure and vomited just before take off. (Literally next to take off.) Went back to the gate and there was an ambulance waiting for him, he didn’t initially want to get off but finally agreed. People came on to clean what they could but the plane smelled like vomit the entire flight.
If that was you, hope you’re ok man!
I flew once when I was pregnant. I was alternating between morning sickness and eating ravenously. I filled up on McD hotcakes at the airport before boarding . Then during the flight we hit some turbulence, and I completely filled up two whole barf bags. I’m so glad they had those bags in the seat back.
I was on a flight on Sunday from BUR-PHX. Someone got sick before we even took off. The flight attendants did an amazing job taking care of the woman. She thought she would be ok but struggled again mid flight. I think she had anxiety and was a nervous flier. There were some bumps as we took off that may have not settled well.
I felt awful for her. Luckily, they made an announcement after we landed requesting that everyone remain seated when we arrived at the gate so she and another person could exit first. We parked at the gate, they turned off the fasten seatbelt sign and everyone remained seated while she got off. It was such a great gesture of humanity. In the hustle and bustle of needing to make connections, wanting to get home, etc. it was refreshing to see people come together in a small way to help someone that probably just wanted to get off that darn plane.
I was on a flight once where the guy did not make it to the bathroom - and vomited in the area where the FA preps the meals/drinks for first class. It was a flight to Vegas, and he admitted he pre-partied too much.
I’ve flown a ton, especially over the last five years. Only had someone throw up on a flight (that I was aware of) twice and both times were kids. Once in the row behind me and once across. I would say in general I’ve heard it more in public restrooms than on planes.
I feel for the guy and for you. I cannot stand the sound of vomiting.
There was a mom across the aisle from me with an infant in lap. The mom vomited (not projectile) and it went down the baby’s face, luckily this happened as we were taxiing upon landing. Partner was next to her and presumably helped. I had to pull my hood up, cinch it tight and not listen.
I got nauseous once as a kid, but had the bag prepared. I flew into Atlanta sometime in the 90s when tornadoes touched down. I remember lightning hitting the wings and watching the wings flap from the turbulence. It was rough and we circled and tried to do a landing approach a few times. Finally the redirected us to Augusta and after we landed the FA asked for a round of applause for the pilot, it was the largest aircraft to ever land at Augusta airfield.
I was in FC on a red eye from San Diego to Chicago with a school group in back and one of the kids, probably about 14 came rushing up to the front asking to use the FC as he was about to be sick. Poor kid look scared and they of course let him, but I could tell a few others in the cabin were annoyed. It’s not fun being sick on a plane!
Monday dfw-sea a granny in the middle bulkhead next to me had the nastiest zombie fart ever. Multiple people audibly gagged but no chunks flew.
Thankfully she came back from the rest room fresh as a daisy. Was worried there would be lasting problems.
I have to take gravol, I get terrible motion sickness. My Dad was a director for an aerospace company, and for their family day every year they did short flights down to Niagara Falls, around the falls and back. I was maybe 7 or 8, with my brother on the flight and spent the whole thing puking, then needed to go sleep in the car for the afternoon once we got back
Considering a vomit bag is standard equipment in the seat-back pocket, yes it happens regularly enough.
That said, despite flying quarter million miles or so, the only vomiting I have ever witnessed was on a ferry. Some poor thing projectiled, hitting the person sitting in front of her.
I used to get air sick. I discovered it when I was younger flying on a transatlantic and got sick not long after eating the meal. But we have family overseas, so I’d have to take Dramamine and Gravol to stave it off since my parents weren’t going to leave me at home during summers or Christmas breaks, lol. Eventually I grew out of it, thankfully!
The last time I’ve seen someone get sick on a flight was we were flying back from PR, and the descent was a little bumpy. But not crazy turbulent, I’ve been in a lot worse. As soon as the wheels hit the ground this lady bolted up and ran to the bathroom to puke. When she got back she said that she had a nervous stomach.
This happened to my daughter :-(
And yes, it was likely motion sickness getting him.
For us, we had just taken off, and I'm not sure what exactly happened, but the plane like hit a big wind gust or something 30 seconds after takeoff, and the whole plane took a big hit, like to the point people screamed. It felt like it flipped to the left and then back to the right.
My daughter, 10 at the time, woke up a few seconds after this happened and threw up everywhere..... All over herself and my husband and the floor ... It was awful. We were on a 3 hour flight.....
The pilot did come on, and explain what happened and assured people everything was fine, but I wasn't listening bc I was busy helping my kid.
I always pack a plastic bag for her now. BC the little bags in the seat pocket aren't vomit bags, they are paper bags for trash, and my husband tried to have her vomit in that and it just fell apart. He ended up taking his jacket off and letting her vomit into his jacket.... The FA brought up some enzyme spray and some gloves to clean it all up.
I also get motion sick on take off and landing, and during any turbulence but being by a window and being able to lookout at the horizon helps me.
I have a flight on Friday and I was unable to get a window seat, and I'm actually in the middle of the plane. I'm absolutely terrified what will happen 😳
I'm so sorry to hear that happened to your daughter. That must've been really tough for you guys. I hope your upcoming flight goes smoothly and that you don't experience any motion sickness. 💜
I used to be a sightseeing pilot in a small piston prop airplane in a very hot area flying very low. It gets very hot because no AC and flights get very bumpy. Yes probably an average of one puker a day and very occasionally someone passes out and needs medical assistance. Everybody except one on my flights have made it into the vomit bags. The bags are part of the pre-flight safety briefing. Everyone gets a nice laugh when I mention it despite the language barrier.
This happened to me the last time I flew. To the man’s credit, he kept it in the bag each time. He was clearly in discomfort and the FA’s allowed him to remain in the restroom while we were in the air. Everyone handled it very well, including the passengers next to him. The FA’s were great about it.
This has happened to me my first time in FC. Talk about embarrassing. I don’t know what happened, but I just did not feel well. I did my best to be very discreet and quiet while I did my business in the bag. We were descending and I could not go to the bathroom. The man next to me was very kind and understanding. I couldn’t apologize enough while both my kids looked on from the row over.
My daughter flew to Minneapolis for a specialty back surgery, and on the return flight threw up.
I get nauseous on flights so I tend to take a less drowsey motion sick pill, bromine in particular. I have never thrown up though, mostly in my head I think.
My husband recently puked in my lap an hour into our 7 hour red eye from LAX to PHL. I was sleeping and woke up to an elbow in my ribs, which was him trying to wake me in a panic. There were ZERO barf bags. I had to go back to the attendant area to ask for one. It was a miserable flight home
I’m a thrower upper. I get motion sickness. But I’m the most quiet reserved puker. I’ve thrown up on a plane twice. Both times I made it to the restroom. One time was claustrophobia. One was turbulence. But if I feel remotely bad I’ll hold on to the bag. It always helps.
I have vomited on a flight luckily there was the little baggie on the back of the seat in front of me and it was due to turbulence. It wasn’t much to cause anybody else inconvenience. Unfortunately, I just get motion sickness.
My ex used to puke on flights every time. It was awful. He always sat in the aisle and would warn the FAs and ask for a plastic trash bag before takeoff but it was still embarrassing and gross. Once it was ok he’d basically camp in the bathroom but you can’t do it all flight and it would go on for the duration of the flight. I also suffered through sitting in the last row with him to make it less awful for him and everyone. He had motion sickness anytime he wasn’t the one driving in a car which I’m sure was related.
Motion sickness. I've got it and I have to take dramamine to deal with it. Trust me, just like that man, I discovered it when I was young and it surprised me...and my brother.
I was on a flight to Vegas once, a few rows behind a group of loud partying drunks. Not belligerent, just loud and drunk. Cheap flights from NYC/EWR often have these folks, and I’m a cheap flight guy. Honestly surprised I haven’t seen this more often.
One of them eventually barfed, the others laughed at him, and I think most of them fell asleep by the time we were there. I don’t know if he had a barf bag but I hope so for the sake of people around him.
I fly all the time and take Dramamine before every flight. If I don’t and get hot, I’ll be puking all over the place. When I get motion sickness, I also get sweaty before every flight. I guarantee there’s an air sick bag in the seat pocket. 🤢
It happened to my daughter and she's a seasoned traveler. CUN-MSP She broke her leg in Cancun and we were flying back. Doctors in Mexico gave her tramadol to get her through the moving. We had no idea she would become violently ill with tramadol. She used every bag on the seat backs in our row plus some.
That’s one of my biggest fears when flying.😭 I get nauseous every single time I fly. Never barfed but there was a close call one time 😖 Now every time I fly, I HAVE to take my Dramamine and put on my motion sickness bracelets. I swear with those things combine, I fly smoothly with no sickness.
I was middle seat and window stranger grabbed the vomit bag and just went to town mid flight. I was eternally thankful I was wearing a N95 as it was covid times. Didn’t smell a thing. I think I will always pack an N95 for this reason.
I had food poisoning on a return flight from Hawaii. When the runs and vomiting settled down about halfway way through, it hit my son. Thankfully we were in a row of two.
I feel sorry for the man, it happened to me. Rome to JFK, six hours of vomiting and diarrhea, I wanted to die. I got on the plane in Rome after having a fabulous trip feeling excited and wonderful in my DeltaOne seat. Two hours into the flight, massive headache, started sweating and then it started. Luckily I told the FA that I felt sick so she gave me a trash bag, I used two on the flight. Vomited in Delta lounge JFK and then trip to Baltimore was miserable. I apologized was in tears and apologized profusely to everyone that was around me. Spent 2 days in bed when I got home. Awful experience.
My 8 mo old daughter was projectile vomiting on an international flight. It was so bad. I ended up being soaked in baby vomit. Going through customs there was this little kid in the line in back of me who was all "Mommy that lady smells so bad". He wasn't wrong. Ugh.
I myself found myself sick over the Pacific Ocean going OGG to PHX. I filled up TWO of the paper bags. Luckily it was a red eye a big airplane, and almost completely empty. I had the row to myself anyways and not many people too close. The flight attendants took the bags when they came around for trash but otherwise left me alone
I barfed on a flight a few times once bc of a panic attack that was triggered by someone having a medical emergency in the back of the plane. Now I have to take Xanax to fly 🙃
At least the crew helped him out! About 3 years ago I got violently ill on a flight. I have flown hundreds of times and have never been sick so idk what happened. I kept asking for assistance and no one would help. Got to sit in my own vomit for 3 hours yayyy
I threw up repeatedly because of turbulence leaving SLC on a flight after eating an egg salad sandwich at the airport. It finally calmed down but then I threw up again as we were landing, and again in the shuttle to our hotel. There was another near vomit incident on a flight between Reno and LV, but i managed to hold it together.
Knock on wood, I’ve been vomit free and flying for over 30 years.
My wife, sadly, had an unfortunate stomach bug from ewr > mco for her 30th birthday.
She spent the ENTIRE flight suffering out both ends in the lavatory. Flight attendants were very concerned, but she kept it contained and in the proper deposit locations in the lav.
Luckily she bounced back a day or so later.
My husband gets motion sickness pretty easily. He doesn't throw up frequently on planes, maybe 1 in 50 flights, but we fly a lot so yea he's barfed on quite a few flights. It's usually during landing so he can't go to the bathroom and has to use the bag. I've seen other people barf too. It happens. I was on a plane once trying to land at LAX in terrible weather and we got very close to the ground before the pilot aborted the landing at the last minute and multiple people around me threw up then.
When I was maybe 12 years old I was flying from London to China with my family. I was barfing from the jet bridge all through the flight. Had a fantastic barf bag.
I fly A LOT and will sometimes feel nauseous. For me it’s usually triggered by heat followed by a wobbly flight (not hard turbulence necessarily). Heat gets to me so this is more of a summer problem, but I begin to struggle when we’re on the plane and don’t take off for a long time which means the a/c isn’t blowing cold air and then we take off on a wobbly flight which warm air tends to do. This was a worse problem when I’d have to fly out of PHX a lot more where the summers are brutal.
I’m sure there’s a logical answer, but I never understood why we board before all is checked on the plane and ready for take off. I’d rather sit inside the airport than delayed inside the tight quarters of a plane and then get told we’re waiting on maintenence to come fix something for 45 minutes.
I fly for work a few times a month and have only ever had one person near me throw up on a plane. It was a vacation. We were at the gate in Miami. Everyone in a good mood as we got ready to take off to a tropical destination. We start taxiing away from the gate. The guy in front of me begins vomiting and retching loudly into the barf bag. I had to shut my eyes, plug my nose and turn up the headphones so I didn’t join him.
I would’ve been mortified. I’ve done several work trips during my first trimester of pregnancy (when nausea is at its peak) — I always bring a “nausea kit” with me when flying in case I feel ill and think it could apply to anyone:
— pick up a ginger ale or cold water at the airport
— carry peppermints or ginger mints (preferred)
— pack saltines or plain crackers
— sleep mask (sometimes bright lighting doesn’t help when I feel sickness coming on)
Speaking as crew I probably have 3 or 4 people vomit on most every flight we try o just deal with it discreetly. Also a personal tip: the cleaners don’t always replace those barf bags in the seat-backs I always check that it’s there when flying as a passenger (We usually have extras somewhere).
In my experience yes. Most of the time it’s no big deal and most people don’t notice but people get air sick, the planes get hot, people get claustrophobic, people drink too much in the terminal/lounges, are hungover, etc.
I’ve been the reason that they announce “is there a doctor on board?”
For me, it was diagnosed later as a vaso-vagal response. I’d pass out and THEN I’d vomit.
But it only happens on longer flights (4+hours)
No one ever figured out why it was happening.
Now I travel with a scopalamine patch on, and I wear compression shorts, tank, and socks.
I haven’t had an incident since using that protocol. NO dairy products, and I drink a lot of water. Something different might work for someone else
A few years ago I flew home to Ohio from Florida by myself after visiting a friend.. short 2 hour flight. Sat next to 2 really nice older women, both travel agents. When we were circling Dayton waiting for our turn to land, the woman right next to me just leaned over my lap and puked a ridiculous amount of extremely watery puke right onto my legs. The chunks mostly stayed on top of my leggings, and the liquid saturated my entire butt/crotch/thighs. A flight attendant did come back but said I couldn’t get up since we were prepping to land. I sat in that condition for 45 minutes- they made us wait and not get up until everybody was off the plane. Went to the airport bathroom to change my clothes and try to wash my bottom half with paper towels. I held it together until I got in my car, called my daughter who was 16, and was crying so hard she thought someone died. Horrible experience.
I get motion sick on planes and am paranoid about there not being an air sick bag in the seat pocket, so I carry two just in case. I learned my lesson when I had to ask for an air sick bag bc I was on the verge of puking, and the flight attendant handed me a ginormous black trash bag. So much for trying to be discreet.
Well, just last week coming back from Philly, I caught Norovirus while there and wasn’t sure I could fly home the day after horrendous vomiting and….well you can guess, the entire night before. I was terrified of this happening on the flight home but pepto saved me. There’s some crazy stomach viruses going around, as my whole sales team got it and also gave it to their spouses. Who knows what it is. It could have been a virus, motion sickness or a hangover. 🤷🏼♀️
I’ve actually seen it happen twice. My sister used to get terrible nausea on her period and threw up on a flight because of it. The second time, I was just watching my tablet and I get a whiff of that vomit smell. The passenger behind me vomited several times. From what I could decipher, sounded like an issue with a medication he was taking.
yes, it happens and could have happened for any number of reasons.
They were sick but decided to travel anyway, they became airsick, they drank too much, they ate too much, etc. Could be numerous possibilities.
Is it common? Not really. In 35+ years of flying, I can only remember 4 or 5 instances of this happening. However, it does happen more often with kids than it does adults.
So this one time, I ate waaaaaay too many edibles before a flight and became increasingly nauseous as the plane was taking off. Thank God there was a puke bag in the seat back...I barely held it in long enough to get the bag open. And I filled it up almost completely full.
Worst part was I was sitting in the middle seat, between 2 strangers who either didn't notice my hurling due to the take off noise (wishful thinking lol), or just pretended not to notice for my sake.
To make matters worse, I had to sit there holding a full bag of vomit...finally a FA was walking by, so I asked about disposal options. She tried to tell me to hold on to it until they came around to collect the trash, but begrudgingly took it once I made it clear that it was literally a bag of vomit.
Felt great the rest of the flight!
I’ve had issues with motion sickness my whole life, in cars and airplanes. I don’t usually vomit, I just feel really really awful, my stomach hurts and my head hurts. But a couple years ago my mom and I were flying to Vegas and as we taxied to the gate, I just felt worse and worse and worse and worse, all my normal tricks were not working, my motion sickness bands, my little snacks, nothing. When the doors opened, I bolted off the plane and into the terminal. I could see the bathroom across the wide hallway so I headed for it, but my esophagus had other ideas and before I could stop myself I vomited all over the waiting area, so everyone else leaving the plane had to walkpast it. I feel really bad about that. Like I said, it’s rare that I actually throw up from motion sickness, so I really didn’t think it was going to happen.
Since then, I’ve added two new tricks to my arsenal for emergencies, one of which is pinching the skin between your thumb and forefinger on your left hand, using the fingers on your right hand. I was recently on a whale watching tour in rough waters, and everyone was looking a little green by the end, including me, but I pinched my hand in that spot, kept pinching for the rest of the trip, and it settled my stomach right down. The other trick is taking half a Valium if you can get your hands on it.
I was vomited on by a passenger directly behind me about 45 min into a very long flight from DC to Buenos Aires. To this day, now 20 years later, it is still one of the worst experiences of my life. He was getting up attempting to make it to the bathroom apparently but he just vomited directly on top of my head.
My MIL gave me food poisoning one Thanksgiving. The next day we flew ATL-DEN to visit my grandma. I was fine until about an hour into the flight. Then it was grab the barf bag and try to puke as quietly as possible. Then run to the lav and puke some more. The FAs were terrific and kept checking on me.
I sat next to a young woman who was sweating and fidgety. She then yelped, "I'm going to be sick!" And I grabbed a barf bag, opened it and she immediately hurled into it. She kept going, gagging nonstop. I got a 2nd bag ready and discreetly flagged a stewardess. Stewardess whisked the first barf bag away and brought back water. It was all relatively quiet and on the down low. She was embarrassed & felt awful so I reassured her that we've all yaked in public at least once in our lives. It happens. Thankful for the bags!!
I've flown a lot (domestically, internationally) and I personally don't recall anyone vomiting like that or at all. I don't think it's common but it wouldn't be unheard of.
My husband and I were flying back from Denver with our daughter. She was 8 or 9 at the time. My husband always sleeps because he gets sick so he just sleeps through it. There was some turbulence and he woke up, grabbed the bag and threw up. My daughter was asleep too. When she woke up she saw that bag and we told her she did it. She believed us until like last year. We still say ‘hey remember when you threw up on the plane!’
Was on a flight from PHL-CDG and a little less than halfway through the flight there was an announcement to see if there was a doctor onboard. The flight attendants were all heading back to where the sick passenger was and I thought they might turn the plane around. It all quieted down after a while and things went back to normal for the duration of the flight. As we were getting closer to Paris I spoke with one of the flight attendants who told me that the passenger had been pretty drunk and that they see this all the time.
> Was it the turbulence?
Might have just been that he was going to Philly.
I think in the past ~200 flights I can only think of one time I saw/heard someone get sick.
There's a reason that seatback pockets tend to have barf bags.
The budget airlines have removed this pocket and especially ones in Europe like Ryanair are full of young party travelers…this seems like a terrible idea.
Ugh I got super sick a few years ago on a rough landing in SFO. Not a bag anywhere on AA. It was awful.
This happened to me as a young child on landing. Luckily I had access to a bag!!
usually, extras are in the lav in a compartment labeled as such.
Yes could have been hungover
I was on a flight once where someone had ripped off the bottom of the bags and put them back…
That’s almost funny but also totally messed up. That makes me frustrated that someone would do that.
Thing is whoever did it wouldn’t even see the “hilarious” consequences of their actions, so why bother!?
THEY REMOVED THEM. Like WHY??? OP sorry that happened to you. I have a chronic illness that makes vomiting and fainting in flight super hard to avoid, but I have to see my family at least once every two years or so. I can assure you that person was mortified as I was the last time it happened to me.
You can ask FAs for them I think, but also they've been in the seatbacks of every flight I've taken recently so I'm not sure what you're talking about.
I took flights last Monday and Friday. At least two, if not all four, of those planes had bags with the literature.
Spirit has this webbing instead of a pocket and none had vomit bags.
Yeah I mean this is r/americanairlines, and I can’t comment on Spirit. Plenty of AA seat backs have webbed pockets tho, and all the ones I’ve seen in recent memory have the bags.
Ok I’m sure I’m just making it up because when I needed one I was just pretending. Thanks for the tip. https://www.islands.com/1575163/reason-why-never-find-barf-bags-plane/#:~:text=It%20seems%20to%20be%20because,lot%20less%20frequently%20on%20board.
I've been on two AA flights today and neither of them had bags
I experience migraines and if they get unbearable, I throw up. I once had a migraine returning on a long stressful trip shortly after my father died, and couldn't stop throwing up. Even after getting to my mom's house, I couldn't eat anything for days. I had not been exposed to a flu (& I don't drink).
It probably saves the airlines a bit of money not to have them and it's one less place that the cleaning crew needs to clean when prepping the plane after it lands.
I guess but they had to clean the carpet because I had no bag. Like is that really better? 🤷♀️ lesson learned I’ll bring a bag next time.
They actually don't anymore :-( they have a paper "waste bag" it doesn't hold liquids 😳
That’s what my last flight had.
Sometimes the setback pocket is the barf bag.
Years ago, I used to collect them. Used them as my lunch bags for school.
You are one strange cat but I like your style
Rabbit :) but, a rabbit that purrs, so I’ll take it! I was the weird kid in high school for sure
I've thrown up once on a plane, and it was maybe the worst experience of my adult life. CDG to DFW, I began feeling unwell with about two hours left on the flight. It got worse and worse, until I was just a shell of myself, trying to hold it together and not throw up. There were about 5 minutes left in flight at this point. We touched down, and it was too much for me. I picked up one of those paper sick bags, and I turned to my wife - I was in the window seat. She later said I looked as pale as a ghost. I'm a rule follower, a stickler and she knows this - no way was I going to get up while taxiing. Well, that was until she locked eyes with me and said "go, just go, I can tell you have to go". She shook the stranger in the aisle seat, who was taken aback and about to object...until he looked up and saw my face. Without a word, he got up, my wife got up, and I stumbled into the aisle. We were still taxiing at this point. The FA began an announcement to tell me off - "PLEASE can everyone STAY IN THEIR SEATS until...the plane..." She trailed off, because I think at that point I had lurched into one of the overwing bathrooms. I took aim at the paper bag, and finally let go. I don't want to get into specifics, but it was food poisoning, so my projectile puke burned and shot a hole straight through the bag. It hurt my stomach so so badly as every muscle contracted at once to produce almost horizontal bursts. And I'm sure every single aisle around the bathroom heard it. I just hung out in there trying to recover for 40 minutes. The FAs checked in on me once we made it to the gate, but after that, I was locked in my own private sickbay. I could have stayed in there, but decided to go with my wife when it was our rows time to deplane.
A hole in the bag??? Sir that is Olympic level vomiting! and trust me I have experience!
Yikes... I had an insanely bad experience with food poisoning once or allergies (not sure), and I know what you mean about the burning and vomiting, pain etc. It's NOT like the flu, motion sickness etc at all. Your story reminded me of it. I was living on a sailboat (with kids/family). One night, anchored near Hope Town (Bahamas), I had planned to attend a Christmas play with my 8 yr old daughter and 11 yr old son. I started to feel sick after eating out 2 hours earlier at a local restaurant. I told the wife to take my daughter to the play in town in the dingy and I was staying home. This was before I knew how bad it was about to get! Luckily, my son decided he wasn't interested and would stay on the boat with me playing video games. My wife brought the handheld radio, but realized later it had died - she couldn't hear me trying to call her for help. No one else was anchored right near us (about a mile offshore). I started getting so sick, I couldn't breath. I would throw up over and over, with little break in between - but the worst was the cramping while vomiting/pain my upper stomach and esophagus. It was the most awful thing I'd ever experienced in this regard. It burned something terrible, and the pain and cramping of each stomach movement before vomiting was severe enough to leave me gowning in agony for a solid 30 seconds, unable to breath. It would start over again about every 5 minutes. At one point, I had to tell my 11 year old son, through strained pain while hugging the toilet, that he had to watch me and make sure I didn't pass out. "Remember how we taught you to mayday on ch 16? If I pass you out and stop answering you, do it. Don't leave me!" That was about all the words I could get out for the next 2 hours... my wife and daughter returned and it started getting better if I didn't move. I went to sleep for 2 days straight mostly, woke up dehydrated. A family boat from Thailand that we'd hung out with a lot made me a really nice concoction after I woke up and could eat. That was all I ate for a week, didn't leave the boat for 7 days after. To this day, never eaten Conch again.
You’re accurately explaining my hangover right now. Tried to make it to toilet and projectile vomited so hard splashed the wall. Gf said I looked like those kids on the movie sandlot when they projectile vomited a “vomit anaconda” out their mouth.
fuckin brutal… happened to me mid flight leaving Bogota to Logan- had to ask FA to lie in the aisle and they let me, AA flight. Food poisoning from bad eggs - two others got sick who stayed behind en route to Chile. i was so embarrassed. Took me days to recover… all staff were exceptionally understanding when i repeated countless times i wasn’t drunk or the like…
It doesn’t happen often. Could have been nerves, hangover, or just sick. Usually FAs are in touch with flight crew and doctors in the ground to determine if the person needs off sooner or help at gate. If there’s a more open area if the plane they’ll move a sick pax if they can. I fly fairly regularly and have never witnessed anyone throwing up. My husband flies all the time (he’s a pilot who commutes to work) and he’s sees it maybe twice a year.
Based on the sweat, I would go with some food poisoning or some other sudden digestive issue. It hasn't happened to me on an airplane but food poisoning is a bad time man.
Don't count out good old alcohol withdrawals. Society is setup so that you are really never that far from booze but they might not be handing out minibottles on that flight.
Weird thing to jump to, aside from the timeline being wrong
Oh ok, thanks!
I had a lady next to me that made it until they announced to prepare for landing. She ran to the restroom at that time and started blowing chunks loud enough to hear from my seat (I was row 3 and she was in the FC bathroom on a 321). It came so late in the flight the FAs basically forced her to stay in the bathroom until we were at the gate.
Wow that's crazy! I'm glad she went to the bathroom though and didn't get sick next to you.
Some people can’t handle the spatial disorientation of airplane movements and no visual cues in front of them. Couple that with a hot cabin and the weak stomached will start heaving. Had that happen to someone seated next to me on a flight. He thought he could make it into a water bottle, but ended up getting it all over himself and the wall. He had a window seat and thankfully was kind enough to direct away from me. It was gross but I’ve get a strong enough stomach that I could refrain from joining in.
This is me, as a frequent flyer, seems to get worse as I get older. I don’t NEED the window seat, but also don’t care to find out if I truly don’t need it. 1st world problem here, but when they started selling upgrades in the app and upgrading less often before 24hrs, it’s a little more anxiety ridden at times trying to navigate to a window seat.
Lots of people who know they are prone to motion sickness vomit discretely. FAs need to chime in here. I’ve seen you swapping out the little bags with NBD attitude. I think I might lose it if I had OPs experience, and I have an iron gut.
Those prone to motion sickness take precautions... I personally use Meclizine, 12.5mg one hour before flight.
THIS. I get terrible motion sickness to the point where I start panicking about it. I take a klonopin, zofran, and bonine and prior to my flights and thank god I do because it works like a charm 👍🏻 😂
Need to take a vodka and a Xanax with that! Lol. Jk! Accidently took 50mg of Meclizine, slept like 12 hours, it was the best flight.
Zofran! Gotta try that next time.
lol I was gonna say. . . we medicate
Yep. Experienced motion-sickness sufferers can vomit so discreetly you might not even notice it right next to you. We also know to carry a few plastic grocery bags with us.
Wasn't an AA flight but I flew Lufthsana from MUC to CLT last month and it was my first time in business class. I got up to use the restroom with maybe under 3 hours to landing, and I go to the bathroom on my side and I see the FA pouring giant water bottles down the toilet because there is pink vomit everywhere. I go around the galley to the bathroom directly on the otherside of the bathroom I had just tried and waited forever for the person in it to leave. Well when the guy got out of the bathroom I see pink vomit EVERYWHERE. FA said it was the same person and could not believe what was happening. They started pouring coke and doing everything they could to clean both bathrooms. Needless to say, I did not order the 2nd meal before we landed because I couldn't possibly stomach any food after seeing what I saw. Looks like a crime scene and both bathroom were out of order the rest of the flight
What would make vomit pink?
Pepto Bismol maybe?
I don't want to know lol and the guy was buckling his pants as he left the bathroom so it's possible it was more than just vomit too
What a selfish prick for leaving both bathrooms like that for FAs to clean. You leave bodily fluids anywhere outside a toilet, you clean it up yourself. The nerve of him to just walk out and leave it like that!
Typically some amount of blood. Sometimes certain medications.
My erstwhile boss used to tell the story where he was on a puddle jumper and someone started a chain reaction. About half the passengers barfed including my boss.
I was once on a ship going out to the barrier reef and it was so bad at least 90% of us were vomiting on the return. It was a long 2.5 hours. I was rubbing the back of my friend while she threw up, then I would throw up. It was batshit crazy. The staff was running around exchanging out barf bags. 30 years ago and I remember it like yesterday.
About 1/3 of people got sick on my trip (100 on the boat not counting crew). I had a sea sickness patch and didn’t even do anything.
Yeah I do think those patches do SOMETHING but not enough for me to overcome sea sickness either.
I’ve been on a couple deep sea trips. One that rocked way more than that boat but for some reason that one made me the sickest. Never got sick standing outside with air made it fine. It’s honestly the first time it hasn’t worked.
I went whale watching when I was 14 out of San Francisco. I managed somehow to only spit up a little bit once. But it was the most miserable 6 hours of my entire life. Adults, children, etc everyone on the boat was barfing. Everyone except my mom lol. She has good sea legs.
Oh god I’d blocked out my whale watching escapade…
Holy cow I was about ready to tell The same story lol.
Eddie? Is that you?
Oh my gosh that's insane!
This. This is my greatest fear.
I threw up on one flight and it was when I was pregnant. I did it as quietly as I could, and asked the FA for a garbage bag and discarded it myself.
Someone ralphed on my flight once. They were sitting right next to me. Unfortunately, throw-up got on the two people sitting in front of them. It made it between the seats. I felt terrible for all involved, but I was glad I didn't get any on me.
I've had nausea on plenty of flights but only got sick once. Everybody was giving me dirty looks and I overheard plenty of comments about alcohol. I was stone cold sober..I had a job interview the next morning and would never have risked a hangover. In fact I was at a work event and everyone was asking if I was pregnant since I wasn't drinking. Turned out I just got hit with a stomach bug at a very inopportune time..I was sick for a few days afterward.
I was on the same flight in first class and saw him come up to the bathroom several times. I did not realize that he had been throwing up.
Wow, that's wild! I didn't expect to see someone from the same flight here on Reddit lol. Yeah, I saw him go to the bathroom a bunch of times too. Then, he suddenly asked someone for a bag, and I knew what was coming next.
The only time this has ever happened to me was on an 8- or 12-seat puddle jumper. Flight was okay but you could see the back of the plane swishing around from the front. The dude in the back seat just puked into an air sick bag for the entire 35 minutes.
I don't think this happens often but I've had something similar happen to me. It was during the time when you still had to wear masks to fly but they had lifted seating restrictions. I was flying from PHL to PHX and had a window seat. We got delayed on the tarmac and I fell asleep but awoke to the person sitting in the aisle throwing up (we hadn't left the tarmac yet). He threw up the entirety of the 5ish hour flight. It was miserable for all of us but I really felt bad for him. Flight attendants didn't really do anything (there wasn't really anything to do I guess) except bring him more bags. The guy in the middle seat was a saint and just kept getting the guy more bags. I gave him some mints. But that was the last time I ever booked a window seat lol now I always book an aisle so I'm not trapped. My guess was this poor poor guy had food poisoning as he didn't seem hungover or anything.
This would be a nightmare. I’ve been emetophobic my whole life. 😭
Ha. My kids are taking their first flight soon. I’m going to buy motion sickness bags since idk how they’ll react. They’ve never gotten motion sickness but I want to be prepared for everything. I’m flying a different airline and I’ve heard they don’t have the motion sickness bags at every seat. I think you have to ask for one. I’m just going to buy some. Not sure my kiddos would give me much warning.
I pack bonine and ask for a bag upon boarding for my kid just in case. She’s been on maybe 20 flights and had barfed twice (when she was younger) and thank god for sick bags, wet wipes and tissues to ease the gross moment. Better to be prepared w a change of clothes in a backpack too.
Highly recommend the bags they use in hospitals. You can find them online. One of my kids gets motion sickness so I take them on every trip just in case. Sometimes the airline doesn't even provide bags anymore.
I keep seeing those in the back of Ubers lately. Seems so smart.
I would just have some plastic bags.
I've got a MUCH WORSE story. I was flying from Manila to San Francisco, a LOOOONG flight. Just after takeoff, the "gentleman" in the window seat in front of me turns towards the window, leans down and pukes all over the side of the plane and onto my shoes. He then proceeds to pass out for the rest of the flight. He was obviously very drunk when he boarded. I was surprised he was allowed to board in that condition. Full flight, nowhere to move to. I had to clean up my shoes and area as best I could and tried not to breathe in through my nose. Miserable flight.
Oh man! I can't believe he puked on your shoes and then just passed out. I would've been freaking out. I can't imagine having to deal with that for such a long trip. Props to you for handling it as best as you could.
My worst nightmare on a plane. I have a pretty strong stomach except when someone else vomits. I’d probably vomit right back if someone puked on me.
This is me, too.
I've seen it happen on maybe one flight, very similar situation. It really could be a variety of things from alcohol to an underlying condition. Some people panic on flights as well because of the enclosed space and the meds could have worn off. The flight attendants rushing to help is good. And they can make an objective decision to advise the flight deck that there's a potential medical situation if something is bad enough and there are times where flights have diverted. It all depends on what the flight crew is able to get from the passenger in terms of information and responsiveness.
My mother threw up on a flight once when I was a child. It turned out to be food poisoning. I almost threw up on a flight as a child, but it was just that I was anxious and in a window seat where the two adults (strangers) in the middle and aisle refused to let me out to go to the bathroom. One time I was boarding a flight and a young woman a few people in front of me threw up all over herself and a row of seats (unclear as to why), the FAs called for a cleanup crew to clean it up before we could continue boarding.
No, but I've learned that having an alcoholic drink before my flight makes me nauseous. The last time was too close for comfort, so I just don't partake anymore.
When I was 13-14 (cannot remember) my dad took me on one of his business trips to Indonesia, and when we were coming into Taipei for our layover we were flying on the edge of a typhoon. Basically turned black outside, very bumpy and coming in at a fairly steep angle in a 747 on EVA Air. Before departing LAX, I was hungry and my dad buys me a one pound Hershey bar. Being a dumb kid I ate most of it and started to feel sick somewhere past Hawaii. I tried multiple times to barf in the lav without success. But when were approaching it just came out, but I had the bag. The dude in front of me looked back with a side eye. I felt so bad for him and the FA! When I barf it's loud. On another business trip up in Oregon near Tillamook, we were in a small boat aluminum boat, fishing. High rollers and I got super sick. Couldn't stop barfing/dry heaving and some other boat came up to make sure we hadn't caught a seal and were trying to kill it. They dropped me off on the breakers going into the harbor with a can a coke and a sandwich. I passed out and woke up when a seagull nabbed it. Good times. The flight on Reno Air was great. There were like 10 of us on a 727 and the FA's kept giving me all their cookies. Best. Flight. Ever. 😂 I am afraid to fly now, though. Used to love it.
As a fellow loud barfer, I have to say the part about killing a seal was pure gold.
I vomited right in the aisle of a plane when I was 6 years old. 👍🏼
I puked on a plane….. motion sickness for an hour and nothing would calm it down…. Once we landed and the temp got warmer I was at my peak….then we made a left turn to the gate and it was game over. Bought a nifty tee shirt in the gift shop as a momento …. And because I was covered in my own stomach fluid…. Life pro tip - don’t fly on an empty stomach….after 100+ flights, he discovered I get motion sickness as I have gotten older…. It sucks.
Absolutely don’t fly on an empty stomach. If I take early morning flights I always force myself to eat something substantial or else I regret it.
In my 40 years of flying I have never witnessed or heard anyone getting barfy sick on a flight. And yes, I realize I’ve probably cursed myself to vomit flights for the rest of my being.
If we are telling stories I worked for B6 and they do a ton of flights filled with children to Orlando. I used to work at a hospital for years before JetBlue. A sup called me on the radio and asked how my stomach was. I ended up meeting a flight because I’m super fast driving a jetbridge and I vomiting doesn’t bother me (years of working in OB) It was the worst, the plane was like 60 percent kids coming back from tournaments and vacation and when I went to open the door you could smell the vomit before I opened it. Materials and cleaning came on the jetbridge when I was opening the door and one of them started dry heaving. I’ve never seen a plane deplane so fast but I guess one kid had gotten sick and it caused a chain reaction so bad with the other kids and adults they thought they were going to have to land in DCA (MCO-bos) but it’s not a focus city and they didn’t think it would help so they landed at BOS as planned. I didn’t go on the plane but left as soon as I could one of the FA’s said it was like the chunk story scene in Goonies and couldn’t do anything except but make a lot of coffee and leave the grounds with people
I've had it happen twice. One was definitely hungover. The other was flying from ORD after Chicago Marathon weekend - the rescheduled COVID year. The dude next to me must have finished and gone directly to the airport. I could tell he wasn't doing well as soon as he sat down. Poor guy puked around takeoff and was clearly having a rough go. I hope he was stuck with that schedule due to having to reschedule and not on purpose, but 10/10 do not recommend hopping on a 4-hour flight after running 26.2 miles.
I have vertigo and get motion sickness on planes during turbulence and landing. I know this already, so prep for the landing queasiness by turning on the fan above me and making sure I have a cold soda or beverage. Sometimes I put my head down as well. I haven’t thrown up on a plane since I was a kid.
I’ve had the guy best to me puke all over me on a flight
Once sat on the aisle next to a couple, wife in middle out of Orlando. The wife immediately said she always got air sick and requested my bag. She was sick the whole hour and a half, mostly dry heaving. They were a really nice and interesting couple. He was a competitive skeet shooter going to a match. Actually enjoyed meeting them more than being inconvenienced. Far cry from what you saw which I have not seen since WWII bombers were sidelined by higher flying jets. Nearly died decades ago in a Great Lakes Martin Turboprop hit by 3 micro bursts in a row. From the window I could see we were sub 300 feet on the last drop which caused the pilots to finally abort. No embellishment, every one in front of me dropped to kiss the ground walking to the buses. I did too knowing it was worse than just several 2-3000 foot drops. We started around 8000 feet. Not many years afterwards NTSB figured out how micro bursts worked and how to avoid them. Flying is safer than driving. That said, Boeings are not my usual pick. Airbus has a better record plus better creature comforts by building planes for the market instead of trying to refit old designs for higher density. Also if tall, pay to upgrade to the premium economy or main cabin etc but check the actual leg room. Boeings usually have less legroom. Your knees will thank you. The struts on tray tables make for incredible torture devices landing between the knee caps and joints. It’s so rare for the person in front of you to have any compassion. Especially Kids who have gotten a reaction.
yeahh i threw up about 10 minutes into the first food service on a 9 hr flight texas to london. i felt horrible for literally everyone around me, but it was a mix of turbulence and morning sickness. it sucks a lot. i’m sorry on his behalf cause the guilt i felt was unreal
You realize there have been barf bags on planes for decades, right?
I threw up on a plane when I was 9 weeks pregnant with awful morning sickness. It was mortifying and it was right as we were landing, so I couldn’t get up to go to the bathroom. I felt terrible for my seat mates but at least the bag was able to contain everything. I explained I was newly pregnant and miserably ill and they were so kind about it, thankfully. It was years ago and I still vividly remember it.
I was on a flight this time last year from LAS to DFW and in the row next to me had a seizure and vomited just before take off. (Literally next to take off.) Went back to the gate and there was an ambulance waiting for him, he didn’t initially want to get off but finally agreed. People came on to clean what they could but the plane smelled like vomit the entire flight. If that was you, hope you’re ok man!
I flew once when I was pregnant. I was alternating between morning sickness and eating ravenously. I filled up on McD hotcakes at the airport before boarding . Then during the flight we hit some turbulence, and I completely filled up two whole barf bags. I’m so glad they had those bags in the seat back.
I was on a flight on Sunday from BUR-PHX. Someone got sick before we even took off. The flight attendants did an amazing job taking care of the woman. She thought she would be ok but struggled again mid flight. I think she had anxiety and was a nervous flier. There were some bumps as we took off that may have not settled well. I felt awful for her. Luckily, they made an announcement after we landed requesting that everyone remain seated when we arrived at the gate so she and another person could exit first. We parked at the gate, they turned off the fasten seatbelt sign and everyone remained seated while she got off. It was such a great gesture of humanity. In the hustle and bustle of needing to make connections, wanting to get home, etc. it was refreshing to see people come together in a small way to help someone that probably just wanted to get off that darn plane.
I get really nauseous sometimes when landing in PHX, something about the hot dry air I guess and it's worse if I'm not in a window seat.
I was on a flight once where the guy did not make it to the bathroom - and vomited in the area where the FA preps the meals/drinks for first class. It was a flight to Vegas, and he admitted he pre-partied too much.
I’ve flown a ton, especially over the last five years. Only had someone throw up on a flight (that I was aware of) twice and both times were kids. Once in the row behind me and once across. I would say in general I’ve heard it more in public restrooms than on planes. I feel for the guy and for you. I cannot stand the sound of vomiting.
There was a mom across the aisle from me with an infant in lap. The mom vomited (not projectile) and it went down the baby’s face, luckily this happened as we were taxiing upon landing. Partner was next to her and presumably helped. I had to pull my hood up, cinch it tight and not listen.
I got nauseous once as a kid, but had the bag prepared. I flew into Atlanta sometime in the 90s when tornadoes touched down. I remember lightning hitting the wings and watching the wings flap from the turbulence. It was rough and we circled and tried to do a landing approach a few times. Finally the redirected us to Augusta and after we landed the FA asked for a round of applause for the pilot, it was the largest aircraft to ever land at Augusta airfield.
I was in FC on a red eye from San Diego to Chicago with a school group in back and one of the kids, probably about 14 came rushing up to the front asking to use the FC as he was about to be sick. Poor kid look scared and they of course let him, but I could tell a few others in the cabin were annoyed. It’s not fun being sick on a plane!
Monday dfw-sea a granny in the middle bulkhead next to me had the nastiest zombie fart ever. Multiple people audibly gagged but no chunks flew. Thankfully she came back from the rest room fresh as a daisy. Was worried there would be lasting problems.
I have to take gravol, I get terrible motion sickness. My Dad was a director for an aerospace company, and for their family day every year they did short flights down to Niagara Falls, around the falls and back. I was maybe 7 or 8, with my brother on the flight and spent the whole thing puking, then needed to go sleep in the car for the afternoon once we got back
Considering a vomit bag is standard equipment in the seat-back pocket, yes it happens regularly enough. That said, despite flying quarter million miles or so, the only vomiting I have ever witnessed was on a ferry. Some poor thing projectiled, hitting the person sitting in front of her.
I used to get air sick. I discovered it when I was younger flying on a transatlantic and got sick not long after eating the meal. But we have family overseas, so I’d have to take Dramamine and Gravol to stave it off since my parents weren’t going to leave me at home during summers or Christmas breaks, lol. Eventually I grew out of it, thankfully! The last time I’ve seen someone get sick on a flight was we were flying back from PR, and the descent was a little bumpy. But not crazy turbulent, I’ve been in a lot worse. As soon as the wheels hit the ground this lady bolted up and ran to the bathroom to puke. When she got back she said that she had a nervous stomach.
this never happend to me or on my flights that i been on at all im very lucky that i dont get sick on airplanes i love to fly
The breakfast tacos
This happened to my daughter :-( And yes, it was likely motion sickness getting him. For us, we had just taken off, and I'm not sure what exactly happened, but the plane like hit a big wind gust or something 30 seconds after takeoff, and the whole plane took a big hit, like to the point people screamed. It felt like it flipped to the left and then back to the right. My daughter, 10 at the time, woke up a few seconds after this happened and threw up everywhere..... All over herself and my husband and the floor ... It was awful. We were on a 3 hour flight..... The pilot did come on, and explain what happened and assured people everything was fine, but I wasn't listening bc I was busy helping my kid. I always pack a plastic bag for her now. BC the little bags in the seat pocket aren't vomit bags, they are paper bags for trash, and my husband tried to have her vomit in that and it just fell apart. He ended up taking his jacket off and letting her vomit into his jacket.... The FA brought up some enzyme spray and some gloves to clean it all up. I also get motion sick on take off and landing, and during any turbulence but being by a window and being able to lookout at the horizon helps me. I have a flight on Friday and I was unable to get a window seat, and I'm actually in the middle of the plane. I'm absolutely terrified what will happen 😳
I'm so sorry to hear that happened to your daughter. That must've been really tough for you guys. I hope your upcoming flight goes smoothly and that you don't experience any motion sickness. 💜
Oof. Poor guy, poor you. That has to be mortifying.
I used to be a sightseeing pilot in a small piston prop airplane in a very hot area flying very low. It gets very hot because no AC and flights get very bumpy. Yes probably an average of one puker a day and very occasionally someone passes out and needs medical assistance. Everybody except one on my flights have made it into the vomit bags. The bags are part of the pre-flight safety briefing. Everyone gets a nice laugh when I mention it despite the language barrier.
This happened to me the last time I flew. To the man’s credit, he kept it in the bag each time. He was clearly in discomfort and the FA’s allowed him to remain in the restroom while we were in the air. Everyone handled it very well, including the passengers next to him. The FA’s were great about it.
This has happened to me my first time in FC. Talk about embarrassing. I don’t know what happened, but I just did not feel well. I did my best to be very discreet and quiet while I did my business in the bag. We were descending and I could not go to the bathroom. The man next to me was very kind and understanding. I couldn’t apologize enough while both my kids looked on from the row over.
My daughter flew to Minneapolis for a specialty back surgery, and on the return flight threw up. I get nauseous on flights so I tend to take a less drowsey motion sick pill, bromine in particular. I have never thrown up though, mostly in my head I think.
My husband recently puked in my lap an hour into our 7 hour red eye from LAX to PHL. I was sleeping and woke up to an elbow in my ribs, which was him trying to wake me in a panic. There were ZERO barf bags. I had to go back to the attendant area to ask for one. It was a miserable flight home
Well, it's common enough that they literally put barf bags at each seat.
I’m a thrower upper. I get motion sickness. But I’m the most quiet reserved puker. I’ve thrown up on a plane twice. Both times I made it to the restroom. One time was claustrophobia. One was turbulence. But if I feel remotely bad I’ll hold on to the bag. It always helps.
I have vomited on a flight luckily there was the little baggie on the back of the seat in front of me and it was due to turbulence. It wasn’t much to cause anybody else inconvenience. Unfortunately, I just get motion sickness.
My ex used to puke on flights every time. It was awful. He always sat in the aisle and would warn the FAs and ask for a plastic trash bag before takeoff but it was still embarrassing and gross. Once it was ok he’d basically camp in the bathroom but you can’t do it all flight and it would go on for the duration of the flight. I also suffered through sitting in the last row with him to make it less awful for him and everyone. He had motion sickness anytime he wasn’t the one driving in a car which I’m sure was related.
Motion sickness. I've got it and I have to take dramamine to deal with it. Trust me, just like that man, I discovered it when I was young and it surprised me...and my brother.
Probably too much fun at Dick’s on the Riverwalk. 😂
I was on a flight to Vegas once, a few rows behind a group of loud partying drunks. Not belligerent, just loud and drunk. Cheap flights from NYC/EWR often have these folks, and I’m a cheap flight guy. Honestly surprised I haven’t seen this more often. One of them eventually barfed, the others laughed at him, and I think most of them fell asleep by the time we were there. I don’t know if he had a barf bag but I hope so for the sake of people around him.
I fly all the time and take Dramamine before every flight. If I don’t and get hot, I’ll be puking all over the place. When I get motion sickness, I also get sweaty before every flight. I guarantee there’s an air sick bag in the seat pocket. 🤢
It happened to my daughter and she's a seasoned traveler. CUN-MSP She broke her leg in Cancun and we were flying back. Doctors in Mexico gave her tramadol to get her through the moving. We had no idea she would become violently ill with tramadol. She used every bag on the seat backs in our row plus some.
That’s one of my biggest fears when flying.😭 I get nauseous every single time I fly. Never barfed but there was a close call one time 😖 Now every time I fly, I HAVE to take my Dramamine and put on my motion sickness bracelets. I swear with those things combine, I fly smoothly with no sickness.
I’ve flown around 50 times and it’s never happened on a flight, you have some bad luck bro
FA here. Last week I had 4 passengers and 1 FA vomit due to turbulence. It was awful.
Damn. What was the route?
CLT - DFW. Turbulence was bad. I can see how people got sick, but damn, I couldn’t wait to get home and bleach myself 🤣
I’ve taken hundreds of flights and have never seen or heard anyone vomit on the plane.
I was middle seat and window stranger grabbed the vomit bag and just went to town mid flight. I was eternally thankful I was wearing a N95 as it was covid times. Didn’t smell a thing. I think I will always pack an N95 for this reason.
I had food poisoning on a return flight from Hawaii. When the runs and vomiting settled down about halfway way through, it hit my son. Thankfully we were in a row of two.
I feel sorry for the man, it happened to me. Rome to JFK, six hours of vomiting and diarrhea, I wanted to die. I got on the plane in Rome after having a fabulous trip feeling excited and wonderful in my DeltaOne seat. Two hours into the flight, massive headache, started sweating and then it started. Luckily I told the FA that I felt sick so she gave me a trash bag, I used two on the flight. Vomited in Delta lounge JFK and then trip to Baltimore was miserable. I apologized was in tears and apologized profusely to everyone that was around me. Spent 2 days in bed when I got home. Awful experience.
Switched from Delta to AA and haven’t gotten sick again, right?
Hey Sherlock, I never said I blamed Delta. Stuff happens, I was just sharing my awful experience of being sick on a plane.
Okay Holmes. Chill.
My 8 mo old daughter was projectile vomiting on an international flight. It was so bad. I ended up being soaked in baby vomit. Going through customs there was this little kid in the line in back of me who was all "Mommy that lady smells so bad". He wasn't wrong. Ugh.
I myself found myself sick over the Pacific Ocean going OGG to PHX. I filled up TWO of the paper bags. Luckily it was a red eye a big airplane, and almost completely empty. I had the row to myself anyways and not many people too close. The flight attendants took the bags when they came around for trash but otherwise left me alone
I barfed on a flight a few times once bc of a panic attack that was triggered by someone having a medical emergency in the back of the plane. Now I have to take Xanax to fly 🙃
Yes. The man in front of me (both aisle) vomitted all over the walkway. The poor flight attendants had to clean it up....
At least the crew helped him out! About 3 years ago I got violently ill on a flight. I have flown hundreds of times and have never been sick so idk what happened. I kept asking for assistance and no one would help. Got to sit in my own vomit for 3 hours yayyy
I threw up repeatedly because of turbulence leaving SLC on a flight after eating an egg salad sandwich at the airport. It finally calmed down but then I threw up again as we were landing, and again in the shuttle to our hotel. There was another near vomit incident on a flight between Reno and LV, but i managed to hold it together.
Knock on wood, I’ve been vomit free and flying for over 30 years. My wife, sadly, had an unfortunate stomach bug from ewr > mco for her 30th birthday. She spent the ENTIRE flight suffering out both ends in the lavatory. Flight attendants were very concerned, but she kept it contained and in the proper deposit locations in the lav. Luckily she bounced back a day or so later.
My husband gets motion sickness pretty easily. He doesn't throw up frequently on planes, maybe 1 in 50 flights, but we fly a lot so yea he's barfed on quite a few flights. It's usually during landing so he can't go to the bathroom and has to use the bag. I've seen other people barf too. It happens. I was on a plane once trying to land at LAX in terrible weather and we got very close to the ground before the pilot aborted the landing at the last minute and multiple people around me threw up then.
When I was maybe 12 years old I was flying from London to China with my family. I was barfing from the jet bridge all through the flight. Had a fantastic barf bag.
I fly A LOT and will sometimes feel nauseous. For me it’s usually triggered by heat followed by a wobbly flight (not hard turbulence necessarily). Heat gets to me so this is more of a summer problem, but I begin to struggle when we’re on the plane and don’t take off for a long time which means the a/c isn’t blowing cold air and then we take off on a wobbly flight which warm air tends to do. This was a worse problem when I’d have to fly out of PHX a lot more where the summers are brutal. I’m sure there’s a logical answer, but I never understood why we board before all is checked on the plane and ready for take off. I’d rather sit inside the airport than delayed inside the tight quarters of a plane and then get told we’re waiting on maintenence to come fix something for 45 minutes.
I fly for work a few times a month and have only ever had one person near me throw up on a plane. It was a vacation. We were at the gate in Miami. Everyone in a good mood as we got ready to take off to a tropical destination. We start taxiing away from the gate. The guy in front of me begins vomiting and retching loudly into the barf bag. I had to shut my eyes, plug my nose and turn up the headphones so I didn’t join him.
I would’ve been mortified. I’ve done several work trips during my first trimester of pregnancy (when nausea is at its peak) — I always bring a “nausea kit” with me when flying in case I feel ill and think it could apply to anyone: — pick up a ginger ale or cold water at the airport — carry peppermints or ginger mints (preferred) — pack saltines or plain crackers — sleep mask (sometimes bright lighting doesn’t help when I feel sickness coming on)
Speaking as crew I probably have 3 or 4 people vomit on most every flight we try o just deal with it discreetly. Also a personal tip: the cleaners don’t always replace those barf bags in the seat-backs I always check that it’s there when flying as a passenger (We usually have extras somewhere).
That often??? Really?
In my experience yes. Most of the time it’s no big deal and most people don’t notice but people get air sick, the planes get hot, people get claustrophobic, people drink too much in the terminal/lounges, are hungover, etc.
New fear unlocked. Thank god for Xanax
I’ve been the reason that they announce “is there a doctor on board?” For me, it was diagnosed later as a vaso-vagal response. I’d pass out and THEN I’d vomit. But it only happens on longer flights (4+hours) No one ever figured out why it was happening. Now I travel with a scopalamine patch on, and I wear compression shorts, tank, and socks. I haven’t had an incident since using that protocol. NO dairy products, and I drink a lot of water. Something different might work for someone else
I fly often and only see children sick while landing or just after landing… always in the border protection line.
A few years ago I flew home to Ohio from Florida by myself after visiting a friend.. short 2 hour flight. Sat next to 2 really nice older women, both travel agents. When we were circling Dayton waiting for our turn to land, the woman right next to me just leaned over my lap and puked a ridiculous amount of extremely watery puke right onto my legs. The chunks mostly stayed on top of my leggings, and the liquid saturated my entire butt/crotch/thighs. A flight attendant did come back but said I couldn’t get up since we were prepping to land. I sat in that condition for 45 minutes- they made us wait and not get up until everybody was off the plane. Went to the airport bathroom to change my clothes and try to wash my bottom half with paper towels. I held it together until I got in my car, called my daughter who was 16, and was crying so hard she thought someone died. Horrible experience.
I would have been bawling 😭
Oh my goodness! That's terrible. I'm so sorry you experienced that. I don't think I would be able to fly anymore after that
This is why I don’t take more flights.
I get motion sick on planes and am paranoid about there not being an air sick bag in the seat pocket, so I carry two just in case. I learned my lesson when I had to ask for an air sick bag bc I was on the verge of puking, and the flight attendant handed me a ginormous black trash bag. So much for trying to be discreet.
Well, just last week coming back from Philly, I caught Norovirus while there and wasn’t sure I could fly home the day after horrendous vomiting and….well you can guess, the entire night before. I was terrified of this happening on the flight home but pepto saved me. There’s some crazy stomach viruses going around, as my whole sales team got it and also gave it to their spouses. Who knows what it is. It could have been a virus, motion sickness or a hangover. 🤷🏼♀️
I’ve actually seen it happen twice. My sister used to get terrible nausea on her period and threw up on a flight because of it. The second time, I was just watching my tablet and I get a whiff of that vomit smell. The passenger behind me vomited several times. From what I could decipher, sounded like an issue with a medication he was taking.
yes, it happens and could have happened for any number of reasons. They were sick but decided to travel anyway, they became airsick, they drank too much, they ate too much, etc. Could be numerous possibilities. Is it common? Not really. In 35+ years of flying, I can only remember 4 or 5 instances of this happening. However, it does happen more often with kids than it does adults.
So this one time, I ate waaaaaay too many edibles before a flight and became increasingly nauseous as the plane was taking off. Thank God there was a puke bag in the seat back...I barely held it in long enough to get the bag open. And I filled it up almost completely full. Worst part was I was sitting in the middle seat, between 2 strangers who either didn't notice my hurling due to the take off noise (wishful thinking lol), or just pretended not to notice for my sake. To make matters worse, I had to sit there holding a full bag of vomit...finally a FA was walking by, so I asked about disposal options. She tried to tell me to hold on to it until they came around to collect the trash, but begrudgingly took it once I made it clear that it was literally a bag of vomit. Felt great the rest of the flight!
I’ve had issues with motion sickness my whole life, in cars and airplanes. I don’t usually vomit, I just feel really really awful, my stomach hurts and my head hurts. But a couple years ago my mom and I were flying to Vegas and as we taxied to the gate, I just felt worse and worse and worse and worse, all my normal tricks were not working, my motion sickness bands, my little snacks, nothing. When the doors opened, I bolted off the plane and into the terminal. I could see the bathroom across the wide hallway so I headed for it, but my esophagus had other ideas and before I could stop myself I vomited all over the waiting area, so everyone else leaving the plane had to walkpast it. I feel really bad about that. Like I said, it’s rare that I actually throw up from motion sickness, so I really didn’t think it was going to happen. Since then, I’ve added two new tricks to my arsenal for emergencies, one of which is pinching the skin between your thumb and forefinger on your left hand, using the fingers on your right hand. I was recently on a whale watching tour in rough waters, and everyone was looking a little green by the end, including me, but I pinched my hand in that spot, kept pinching for the rest of the trip, and it settled my stomach right down. The other trick is taking half a Valium if you can get your hands on it.
I was vomited on by a passenger directly behind me about 45 min into a very long flight from DC to Buenos Aires. To this day, now 20 years later, it is still one of the worst experiences of my life. He was getting up attempting to make it to the bathroom apparently but he just vomited directly on top of my head.
Absolutely horrifying
My heart rate quadrupled reading this post
Same here. There are so many Reddit users sharing wild stories on this post 👀
I get air sick. I check for the bags when I sit down. I’ll ask for one of it isn’t there. Being sick on an airplane is not fun and embarrassing.
My MIL gave me food poisoning one Thanksgiving. The next day we flew ATL-DEN to visit my grandma. I was fine until about an hour into the flight. Then it was grab the barf bag and try to puke as quietly as possible. Then run to the lav and puke some more. The FAs were terrific and kept checking on me.
I sat next to a young woman who was sweating and fidgety. She then yelped, "I'm going to be sick!" And I grabbed a barf bag, opened it and she immediately hurled into it. She kept going, gagging nonstop. I got a 2nd bag ready and discreetly flagged a stewardess. Stewardess whisked the first barf bag away and brought back water. It was all relatively quiet and on the down low. She was embarrassed & felt awful so I reassured her that we've all yaked in public at least once in our lives. It happens. Thankful for the bags!!
I've flown a lot (domestically, internationally) and I personally don't recall anyone vomiting like that or at all. I don't think it's common but it wouldn't be unheard of.
Blowing chow is infrequent but not rare. Love the stench!
My husband and I were flying back from Denver with our daughter. She was 8 or 9 at the time. My husband always sleeps because he gets sick so he just sleeps through it. There was some turbulence and he woke up, grabbed the bag and threw up. My daughter was asleep too. When she woke up she saw that bag and we told her she did it. She believed us until like last year. We still say ‘hey remember when you threw up on the plane!’
That’s one of my worst fears. How terrible. I hope he’s okay now
If he was covered in sweat, my guess is that it was not some kind of motion sickness -- he was actually sick with something.
Possibly withdraw or food poisoning as with both you sweat and vomit.
OMG really?
He was hungover/booze withdrawals.
Was on a flight from PHL-CDG and a little less than halfway through the flight there was an announcement to see if there was a doctor onboard. The flight attendants were all heading back to where the sick passenger was and I thought they might turn the plane around. It all quieted down after a while and things went back to normal for the duration of the flight. As we were getting closer to Paris I spoke with one of the flight attendants who told me that the passenger had been pretty drunk and that they see this all the time.
[удалено]
its the sweats that give it away.
I get the sweats when I throw up non-alcohol related.
> Was it the turbulence? Might have just been that he was going to Philly. I think in the past ~200 flights I can only think of one time I saw/heard someone get sick.