'I saw an elderly lady chasing a ticket agent while swinging her cane': 20+ bizarre airport experiences

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Nov 6, 2023 4:00 PM EST

There are certain places where you can see the full range of the human experience, warts and all: the subway, the DMV, and, of course, the airport. We have all had memorable experiences waiting in the security line, sitting at the gate, or being stuck on the tarmac for hours on end. Those memories are seared into our brains forever and inform every insecurity we'll have the next time we travel. Most of the time, however, what we experience at airports is completely outside of our control. Because that's the ugly beauty of these environments: you're stuck shoulder-to-shoulder with total strangers. Personally speaking, it has been a full week since my last trip and I still can't get over the entitled woman who took off her shoes and socks and then subsequently placed her feet on someone else's armrest. Literally, where do these types of people come from??

Keep scrolling below to see what these folks said were the strangest experiences they had at the airport, which were compiled from this r/AskReddit thread. When you're finished, check out this compilation of bizarre fun facts.

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  • 01
    "What are the strangest things you have witnessed and/or experienced at an airport?"
    via Oskar Kadaksoo
  • 02
    r/AskReddit . Posted by u/hereaftertime = What are the strangest things you have witnessed and/or experienced at an airport?
    via u/hereaftertime
  • 03
    Jk_Jacob_ Flying out of Orlando I was in the TSA line and this lady in front of me has a full jar of pickles put up on the table. I believe the TSA agents informed her that the amount of liquid in the jar exceeded the acceptable amount, so naturally the woman picks up the jar and drinks half of it. It was too early in the morning for that..... ↑ ↓ 4.0k Share
    via u/hereaftertime
  • 04
    levelingdaredevil. 1. A woman eating cole slaw from a gallon ziploc bag with her hands
    via u/hereaftertime
  • 05
    2. I had a super early flight, and was in line for security with ahead of this girl who was clearly still da from the night before. She was slurring her words, dropping things and didn't know where she was. I thought for sure she was going to throw up or pass out. Security noticed how trashed she was, and took her away from the line. She started crying and was saying "Nooo please don't, please please please don't." 3.4k Share
    via u/hereaftertime
  • 06
    [deleted] This isn't weird, exactly, but I was in the Phoenix airport, having a terrible night (it was actually about 1 am), My flight was cancelled, the hotels were all full. I was heading back to the waiting area to sleep on the floor and I heard a little sob. I looked around and saw a man kneeling on the dirty carpet, proposing to his girlfriend with a HUGE diamond. At least someone was happy in that airport that night. ↑ 2.7k ↓ Share
    via u/hereaftertime
  • 07
    shitz_brickz Flying out at 5am so in security line at 4am, literally like 4 people in total going through security, but I still had to wait 10min in line because the idiot in front of me, middle aged moderately well dressed guy, went through the security scanner with almost every metal object he possibly could. Watch on his wrist, cell phone and change in his pockets, pen in his jacket pocket etc. TSA lady asked him if his pockets were empty and he legit takes out his keys and change to show her
    via u/hereaftertime
  • 08
    Yeezus-of-Nazareth. I was recently in the airport in Bogota and all of a sudden every single speaker in the airport played the windows xp start-up sound. It was really loud and pretty funny ↑ 1.7k ↓ Share
    via u/hereaftertime
  • 09
    knz-rn. I was sitting at my gate at the Denver airport a couple years ago when the guy who was overhead making announcement accidentally ended it with, "love you bye" 1.1k Share
    via u/hereaftertime
  • 10
    Painted Lady5519. Sitting at arrivals. See a kid holding what I think is a swaddled baby. Nuzzling it. Talking to it. Rocking it. NOPE! Puppy! Our airport is very dog friendly. 1 850 Share
    via u/hereaftertime
  • 11
    basura_trash A Jr League Baseball team traveling to a tournament. Twenty- three American boys ages 10-12 all sitting, calmly, and quietly waiting for their flight. There were no mobile devices out of any kind. They all sat there. Some chatting quietly others reading. A few looking out the window but all in a nice calm order. I don't know about you but I have never EVER seen kids that age in any manageable QUIET order. Much less in such high numbers at once. 797 ↓ Share
    via u/hereaftertime
  • 12
    owen00600. I saw an elderly lady chase a ticket agent while swinging her cane as a club trying to hit the agent. 571 Share
    via u/hereaftertime
  • 13
    [deleted] Not the strangest thing ever, but saw an absurd amount of dogs in the airport on the 23rd flying out of St. Louis. My husband and I keep bringing it up because it was just hilarious and baffling. 552 Share
    via u/hereaftertime
  • 14
    OhioMegi Fabulous dude swaning through the Chicago Airport- thigh high leather high heels, sparkly blue shorts, flowing cheetah print coat flowing behind him and large Jackie O sunglasses. This was in January. 531 Share
    via u/hereaftertime
  • 15
    Shawaii. I forgot my iPad on the plane so had to wait until everyone got off so I could go back and get it. People stopped getting off so I go back. One guy is still in first class, sleeping like a baby. I grabbed my iPad from the pocket where I left it and as I'm leaving the plane, EMS is boarding. Dude was not sleeping peacefully. ↑ 514 ↓ Share
    via u/hereaftertime
  • 16
    Caloplopsita34. It's not that strange, but it was awesome. Flight was delayed by like 7 hours. We were constantly migrating from one gate to another. Mainly gate 2 and 14, which were like REALLY far away from each other.
    via u/hereaftertime
  • 17
    It had been around 2 hours since we changed gates (we were on gate 12 i think), thinking that it was settled there... But the airport lady went and said "Flight blablabla to blablabla, gate 2!"
    via u/hereaftertime
  • 18
    It was the biggest collective "Aaaawwww!" I've ever heard. Like, 200 people complaining! It was crazy. 488 Share
    via u/hereaftertime
  • 19
    AnneeDroid. There was a middle aged, average build woman a few people in front of me in the security check line. She was CRUSHING a whole bag of string cheeses. Not peeling them into strings but just chomping the whole stick in like 2-3 bites. I saw her take out at least 12 cheese sticks in the few minutes she was in front of me. 322 Share
    via u/hereaftertime
  • 20
    PLEASE_PM_ME_UR_FISH. This past Thanksgiving i saw three flight attendants teaching each other to fortnite dance. Something about it was so surreal 289 Share
    via u/hereaftertime
  • 21
    Pajamafied Well this is going to disappear under the pile but... Last year I was strolling through an airport looking for my gate when I saw a bald man with a very long ponytail draped over his shoulder walking the opposite direction. I was confused as he appeared fully bald and shaven. As he walked past I realized he was bald except for a small patch on the back of his head shaved into a heart from which he had hair down to his waist. 272 Share
    via u/hereaftertime
  • 22
    _CattleRustler__. The Denver Airport murals. Creepy as Ĵ 236 ↓ Share
    via u/hereaftertime
  • 23
    friendlymeanbeagle. I was going through security in some European country and there was a guy wearing a massive trench coat. Puffy and at least knee length. He tries to go through the detector and the agent asks him to take it off. He turns red and stutters "I...uh...I don't have anything underneath." 191 Share
    via u/hereaftertime
  • 24
    Nickzl. Someone in the x-ray lane next to me was pulled off to the side for further inspection of their bag. He pulled out a taxidermy weasel. 159 Share
    via u/hereaftertime
  • 25
    KicksButtson I got to watch as they loaded pallets of cash onto a plane I was going to fly on. We're talking about three 4'x4' pallets loaded with stacks of cash till they were 5' high and then wrapped in plastic and stamped with some kind of official government packing slips. They had armed guards all over the place. 117 Share
    via u/hereaftertime
  • 26
    [deleted] The TSA 80 yo mom get out of a wheelchair, take off her shoes to walk through the scanner....what kind of stupid bs is this? ↑ 114 ↓ that made my Share
    via u/hereaftertime

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airport security flight attendant airports airport flight askreddit TSA reddit thread Reddit cringeworthy funny airplane
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