Howdy y'all, fixing to travel OCONUS for work and am looking at a 15+5 hr flights to my destination. Anyone have any tips for surviving these long haul treks? Thanks.
Tips for surviving long plane rides?
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58 Replies |
Last: 1 yr ago by damynair
Scotch
My normal routine is find the nicest restaurant at the airport (sometimes the layover in the US). Get a nice meal and a few drinks. A couple drinks on the plane and some melatonin while I watch one move, then sleep. Wake up to the sun and good to go.
I've flown between the USA and Australia/New Zealand over 100x
Between the USA and Saudi Arabia at least 10x
Between Australia and Europe 8x
Throw in a few trips to India, Japan, Singapore, etc. this is one of the few things I specialize in.
Last piece of advice is that once you board, start thinking about getting your schedule onto the time zone you're going to. The only time this doesn't work is if you're going due North/South like Sydney to Tokyo.
Between the USA and Saudi Arabia at least 10x
Between Australia and Europe 8x
Throw in a few trips to India, Japan, Singapore, etc. this is one of the few things I specialize in.
- Fly a foreign carrier (not Chinese, Indian or British) whenever possible. Emirates, Etihad, Singapore, etc. Never flown them but I've heard good things about Qatar.
- Get fit, it helps.
- Stay hydrated
- Eat before you get on the plane, eat what you want from the meals they provide
- Fly in as high of a class as is covered by your employer - Premium Economy is usually good enough
- Get an aisle seat - that way you control your own destiny with respect to going to the bathroom and/or just simply getting up and going for a walk
- Get as tired as possible before you get on the flight. I'm usually getting a few hours of sleep per night before a big trip because I'm making sure that everything will be taken care of until I get back. It's not like you're doing a weekday trip to Salt Lake and back.
- Personally, I like to slam 4 x high strength beers before I board the flight. I'm usually knocked out before we even take off.
- Sleep as much as you can on the plane, there's not much else to do.
- Bring a book just in case you can't sleep.
- Depending on the airline, they should have far more movies and TV shows than you can possibly watch. If you get bored with the regular English language options, try out Bollywood and Japanese movies. I've seen some really great foreign films. And even a few great series from New Zealand. Anil Kapoor as the Indian version of Jack Bauer on Indian "24" was great too.
- If you get lucky and can talk to your seatmate (1 in 50 chance that they're interesting), do that but somebody who wants to sleep might get offended that you're talking. I've been shushed in both Economy and Business Class.
- If they've got audio programming, here's one of my favorites. When I'm trying to sleep, I used to put on Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon" and put that on loop. "I wonder why he keeps hanging up? There must be somebody at home besides your wife"
- Whatever you do, DO NOT watch all 3 Godfather movies back-to-back-to-back. You'll think about nothing but Italians killing each other for the next few days.
Last piece of advice is that once you board, start thinking about getting your schedule onto the time zone you're going to. The only time this doesn't work is if you're going due North/South like Sydney to Tokyo.
Get a good set of noise canceling headphones. Something like the Sony XM series are wonderful. I have the XM3's, they have served me well on planes. The newer models should be even better.
I'd add a white noise app as well as the good headphones.
Going to sleep as soon as you get on the plane is a Catch 22 and really should depend on both departure and arrival times. For instance if you are leaving at midnight and arriving at 5AM, you will likely be awake the last 4 or 5 hours the flight. If you have to work the day you arrive that will lead to a very unproductive afternoon.
I tend to try and adjust as best I can to the destination time and sleep accordingly. Flying west that tends to be easier than flying east but for 15 hour flights that mostly works.
I tend to try and adjust as best I can to the destination time and sleep accordingly. Flying west that tends to be easier than flying east but for 15 hour flights that mostly works.
With some Ambienaggie_wes said:
Scotch
Melatonin. Go with less sleep leading into it if you can. Watcha film and then knock out.
I struggle to sleep on airplanes and will just watch movies the whole way.
My 11 hour flight from Greece last month, I watch The Batman -> Top Gun: Maverick -> Dune -> Uncharted all the way home. Still had an hour to kill after that
I struggle to sleep on airplanes and will just watch movies the whole way.
My 11 hour flight from Greece last month, I watch The Batman -> Top Gun: Maverick -> Dune -> Uncharted all the way home. Still had an hour to kill after that
Please don't talk to your neighbor. Just got back from vacation and had a 9 hour flight with two people talking for 8 of those 9. It was incredibly annoying for those of us around them.
These are all really good suggestions. I would add- I like to bring a scarf (or light t-shirt) to throw over my eyes. Better than an eye mask - learned that trick offshore from a roughneck.
Qatar is amazing, better than Emirates IMO.
If you have the ability through your employer, travel business class at least on the long haul.
The one I imagine most people overlook is 'get fit' on the this list. I like to do a long and intense cardio workout the day I travel. It helps with sleep, but don't suggest this unless you already are somewhat fit. Being sore in economy on a long haul would be hell.
Qatar is amazing, better than Emirates IMO.
If you have the ability through your employer, travel business class at least on the long haul.
The one I imagine most people overlook is 'get fit' on the this list. I like to do a long and intense cardio workout the day I travel. It helps with sleep, but don't suggest this unless you already are somewhat fit. Being sore in economy on a long haul would be hell.
I drink three IPAs and take a Tylenol PM. Works like a charm.
It is not a bad idea to have a light sweatshirt with a hood as well (especially if you get cold on planes)04aggiegirl said:
These are all really good suggestions. I would add- I like to bring a scarf (or light t-shirt) to throw over my eyes. Better than an eye mask - learned that trick offshore from a roughneck.
Qatar is amazing, better than Emirates IMO.
If you have the ability through your employer, travel business class at least on the long haul.
The one I imagine most people overlook is 'get fit' on the this list. I like to do a long and intense cardio workout the day I travel. It helps with sleep, but don't suggest this unless you already are somewhat fit. Being sore in economy on a long haul would be hell.
Like I said, it's a 1 in 50 chance that the person next to you will be worth having a conversation of any length.Aggie71013 said:
Please don't talk to your neighbor. Just got back from vacation and had a 9 hour flight with two people talking for 8 of those 9. It was incredibly annoying for those of us around them.
My two memorable times being shushed were:
- talking to a girl about my age who had just gotten out of a relationship and was basically headed to Australia to find herself.
- talking to an old lady who was returning from Japan to Australia after flying to Tokyo for free because her husband worked for Qantas. The older Australians are the ones to talk to if you want any serious conversation. The ones who remember what life was like before "decimal currency". And the ones who remember that the USA came and saved their asses from the Japanese.
Craziest time was sleep apnea mask wearing guy who switched seats with his wife because she was afraid that I was going to spill over into her seat (which I wasn't). That dillweed proceeded to elbow me in the ribs for the next 12 hours. I was so tired I just collapsed and lived with it.
Attire is a good point. Alway got to wear layers.AustinScubaAg said:It is not a bad idea to have a light sweatshirt with a hood as well (especially if you get cold on planes)04aggiegirl said:
These are all really good suggestions. I would add- I like to bring a scarf (or light t-shirt) to throw over my eyes. Better than an eye mask - learned that trick offshore from a roughneck.
Qatar is amazing, better than Emirates IMO.
If you have the ability through your employer, travel business class at least on the long haul.
The one I imagine most people overlook is 'get fit' on the this list. I like to do a long and intense cardio workout the day I travel. It helps with sleep, but don't suggest this unless you already are somewhat fit. Being sore in economy on a long haul would be hell.
On the long haul flights, plenty of blankets are available.
One other thing I forgot to include.
Go to the bathroom about 1 hour before you're going to land.
They'll usually make an announcement about 30-45 minutes before you land that you'll be landing soon. That's when everybody rushes to the bathroom. But if you've already gone at 60 minutes to touchdown, you'll be all set.
What you don't want to do is to get stuck waiting to land, deplane and then rush to the nearest bathroom when you should be making your way towards immigration, baggage claim, etc.
Go to the bathroom about 1 hour before you're going to land.
They'll usually make an announcement about 30-45 minutes before you land that you'll be landing soon. That's when everybody rushes to the bathroom. But if you've already gone at 60 minutes to touchdown, you'll be all set.
What you don't want to do is to get stuck waiting to land, deplane and then rush to the nearest bathroom when you should be making your way towards immigration, baggage claim, etc.
Yeah man, you stuck in that customs line and got to piss or **** you got real problems.
Edibles
Also a great tip!! That and eat when you can. Sometimes I underestimate when my next easily accessible meal will be.
Especially since the variable time to make it through immigration at Sydney, or LAX ranges between less than 5 minutes to as much as 2 hours.Stat Monitor Repairman said:
Yeah man, you stuck in that customs line and got to piss or **** you got real problems.
If you land at the same time in the morning when 5+ flights from Asia arrive, you're screwed. Every second that you can shave off of the race to immigration provides exponential gains on the other side.
Funny scene burned into my memory.04aggiegirl said:
Also a great tip!! That and eat when you can. Sometimes I underestimate when my next easily accessible meal will be.
We take off from LAX and 90-120 minutes into the flight, they start the dinner service.
Passenger: No thanks, I'm not hungry
Qantas Flight Attendant: Mate, it's gonna be 10 hours before the next meal service
The sad part is that 10 hours will pass before the next meal and we'll still be sitting in the same place.
If you're lucky enough to get on the A380, they do have some self-service snacks at the back of economy class.
And if you're on the Korean Air A380, they have an entire duty free store in the back.
At least before the world got shutdown back in 2020, I got to take the 19 hour long nonstop on an A350 with only Business Class and Premium Economy from LAX-SIN on Singapore Airlines. Because of the Vid, there were only 34 passengers on that flight.
1. Try not to look at the screen that shows the time remaining in your flight unless you are 1000% CERTAIN you are over halfway to your destination.
2. Noise cancelling headphones.
2. Noise cancelling headphones.
Counterpoint said:
1. Try not to look at the screen that shows the time remaining in your flight unless you are 1000% CERTAIN you are over halfway to your destination.
About this time last year, I was flying back to Houston from Frankfurt. I'm a lolpoor and fly coach, and it's the 3-4-3 set-up. I had the window seat, the middle was empty, and the aisle was taken by an elderly woman who had those transition lenses. She leans over and asks, in a thick-ass German accent, if I can help her with the screen. I look and it's all in Kraut, but thanks to a relationship with a Fraulein I can read enough of it to know what's going on and reference my screen. I ask if she wants TV or movies and she says she just wants to see the plane.
"The plane? Like, the map?" I ask. She confirms with a nod. I find the map and throw it on the screen, it shows we have 10-plus hours to Houston.
I ask if she's visiting America or what her plan is, and she motions to a man across the aisle from her and says it's her husband (also a German) and they live in Chicago. She tells me she was born in Germany in the 30s and when she was about 10, they had to evacuate her village because the Red Army was coming through and indiscriminately killing and torching just about everything. Her family fled from town to town and ended up in southern Germany, where she befriended her now-husband. They had been together for more than 60 years.
She looked at that screen for the entirety of the flight.
Moral of the story: I guess when you're in your 80s and you had to flee the Russians in your childhood, watching an airplane on the screen for 10 hours isn't so bad.
I do a merino wool base layer + a fleece jacket + merino wool socks. It can get really cold on longhaul and its easier to sleep if you aren't freezing your ass off. Also merino wool doesn't absorb odor.
If you are addicted to caffeine to the point you get withdrawals, keep an eye on that. Time zones will **** you up on that. You'll end up with a splitting headache out of nowhere and be hating life. i use to travel with a few Nescafe single serving instant coffee. Hotel and plane coffee is often rot gut and you don't need that.
Don't go crazy with the alcohol. Nothing worse than being jet lagged, hungover and expected to immediately do some work on arrival. Try to build in a full day on arrival before you are expected to do anything. Longhaul and jet lag is a beatdown no matter what you do. Being hungover makes it 10x worse.
As HBQ mentioned, aisle seat, and I usually like the middle row for this, because if somebody in the row needs to get up they can go out the other side and not bother you.
Laps around the plane every couple hours and hanging out back by the aft galley is helpful.
Always have a pen on you for customs forms. Pain in the ass if you scrambling around trying to find or borrow a pen.
Theres a hidden button on some armrests that get them to go up.
If you can find a three row empty seats where you can lay down flat, jump on that at first opportunity.
You want to avoid first row or back row against the bulkhead because seats don't recline or you stuck with armrest table. Check seatguru before finalizing your seat.
You can try and game the system to get a row to yourself but this often backfires because some ****birds board last minute and then you stuck next to them. If it looks like a full flight i don't even risk it.
Lastly, if you got an early morning intl flight, staying at the airport hotel the night before will make your life easier. Getting up at 5a and scrambling to the airport is unnecessary stress.
If you are addicted to caffeine to the point you get withdrawals, keep an eye on that. Time zones will **** you up on that. You'll end up with a splitting headache out of nowhere and be hating life. i use to travel with a few Nescafe single serving instant coffee. Hotel and plane coffee is often rot gut and you don't need that.
Don't go crazy with the alcohol. Nothing worse than being jet lagged, hungover and expected to immediately do some work on arrival. Try to build in a full day on arrival before you are expected to do anything. Longhaul and jet lag is a beatdown no matter what you do. Being hungover makes it 10x worse.
As HBQ mentioned, aisle seat, and I usually like the middle row for this, because if somebody in the row needs to get up they can go out the other side and not bother you.
Laps around the plane every couple hours and hanging out back by the aft galley is helpful.
Always have a pen on you for customs forms. Pain in the ass if you scrambling around trying to find or borrow a pen.
Theres a hidden button on some armrests that get them to go up.
If you can find a three row empty seats where you can lay down flat, jump on that at first opportunity.
You want to avoid first row or back row against the bulkhead because seats don't recline or you stuck with armrest table. Check seatguru before finalizing your seat.
You can try and game the system to get a row to yourself but this often backfires because some ****birds board last minute and then you stuck next to them. If it looks like a full flight i don't even risk it.
Lastly, if you got an early morning intl flight, staying at the airport hotel the night before will make your life easier. Getting up at 5a and scrambling to the airport is unnecessary stress.
HollywoodBQ said:
I've flown between the USA and Australia/New Zealand over 100x
Between the USA and Saudi Arabia at least 10x
Between Australia and Europe 8x
Throw in a few trips to India, Japan, Singapore, etc. this is one of the few things I specialize in.Long flights are intimidating at first but, eventually they'll become routine.
- Fly a foreign carrier (not Chinese, Indian or British) whenever possible. Emirates, Etihad, Singapore, etc. Never flown them but I've heard good things about Qatar.
- Get fit, it helps.
- Stay hydrated
- Eat before you get on the plane, eat what you want from the meals they provide
- Fly in as high of a class as is covered by your employer - Premium Economy is usually good enough
- Get an aisle seat - that way you control your own destiny with respect to going to the bathroom and/or just simply getting up and going for a walk
- Get as tired as possible before you get on the flight. I'm usually getting a few hours of sleep per night before a big trip because I'm making sure that everything will be taken care of until I get back. It's not like you're doing a weekday trip to Salt Lake and back.
- Personally, I like to slam 4 x high strength beers before I board the flight. I'm usually knocked out before we even take off.
- Sleep as much as you can on the plane, there's not much else to do.
- Bring a book just in case you can't sleep.
- Depending on the airline, they should have far more movies and TV shows than you can possibly watch. If you get bored with the regular English language options, try out Bollywood and Japanese movies. I've seen some really great foreign films. And even a few great series from New Zealand. Anil Kapoor as the Indian version of Jack Bauer on Indian "24" was great too.
- If you get lucky and can talk to your seatmate (1 in 50 chance that they're interesting), do that but somebody who wants to sleep might get offended that you're talking. I've been shushed in both Economy and Business Class.
- If they've got audio programming, here's one of my favorites. When I'm trying to sleep, I used to put on Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon" and put that on loop. "I wonder why he keeps hanging up? There must be somebody at home besides your wife"
- Whatever you do, DO NOT watch all 3 Godfather movies back-to-back-to-back. You'll think about nothing but Italians killing each other for the next few days.
Last piece of advice is that once you board, start thinking about getting your schedule onto the time zone you're going to. The only time this doesn't work is if you're going due North/South like Sydney to Tokyo.
Damn dude how many miles/points do you have?
If you can't handle the stress, log off until August. If you can handle the stress, be supportive and donate to United. No more buildings and concrete. Gotta channel funds to the collective for now.
Currently sitting at Ewr after my flight from Singapore. Worlds 2nd longest flight by 2 miles.
My advise is to set the time on your phone to your destination and have a sleep plan. I took my first nap after 1 movie and the first meal and slept for about 6ish hrs. Got up watched 2 more movies, had my second meal and popped some sleeping supplements and slept another 2 hours waking up an hr before landing
My advise is to set the time on your phone to your destination and have a sleep plan. I took my first nap after 1 movie and the first meal and slept for about 6ish hrs. Got up watched 2 more movies, had my second meal and popped some sleeping supplements and slept another 2 hours waking up an hr before landing
If you can't handle the stress, log off until August. If you can handle the stress, be supportive and donate to United. No more buildings and concrete. Gotta channel funds to the collective for now.
My guess is around 20 million flight miles just based on 100 round trips to Australia/New Zealand.78669AG said:HollywoodBQ said:
I've flown between the USA and Australia/New Zealand over 100x
Between the USA and Saudi Arabia at least 10x
Between Australia and Europe 8x
Throw in a few trips to India, Japan, Singapore, etc. this is one of the few things I specialize in.Long flights are intimidating at first but, eventually they'll become routine.
- Fly a foreign carrier (not Chinese, Indian or British) whenever possible. Emirates, Etihad, Singapore, etc. Never flown them but I've heard good things about Qatar.
- Get fit, it helps.
- Stay hydrated
- Eat before you get on the plane, eat what you want from the meals they provide
- Fly in as high of a class as is covered by your employer - Premium Economy is usually good enough
- Get an aisle seat - that way you control your own destiny with respect to going to the bathroom and/or just simply getting up and going for a walk
- Get as tired as possible before you get on the flight. I'm usually getting a few hours of sleep per night before a big trip because I'm making sure that everything will be taken care of until I get back. It's not like you're doing a weekday trip to Salt Lake and back.
- Personally, I like to slam 4 x high strength beers before I board the flight. I'm usually knocked out before we even take off.
- Sleep as much as you can on the plane, there's not much else to do.
- Bring a book just in case you can't sleep.
- Depending on the airline, they should have far more movies and TV shows than you can possibly watch. If you get bored with the regular English language options, try out Bollywood and Japanese movies. I've seen some really great foreign films. And even a few great series from New Zealand. Anil Kapoor as the Indian version of Jack Bauer on Indian "24" was great too.
- If you get lucky and can talk to your seatmate (1 in 50 chance that they're interesting), do that but somebody who wants to sleep might get offended that you're talking. I've been shushed in both Economy and Business Class.
- If they've got audio programming, here's one of my favorites. When I'm trying to sleep, I used to put on Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon" and put that on loop. "I wonder why he keeps hanging up? There must be somebody at home besides your wife"
- Whatever you do, DO NOT watch all 3 Godfather movies back-to-back-to-back. You'll think about nothing but Italians killing each other for the next few days.
Last piece of advice is that once you board, start thinking about getting your schedule onto the time zone you're going to. The only time this doesn't work is if you're going due North/South like Sydney to Tokyo.
Damn dude how many miles/points do you have?
All the miles from when I was a kid in Saudi Arabia were on PanAm so those disappeared into thin air.78669AG said:HollywoodBQ said:
I've flown between the USA and Australia/New Zealand over 100x
Between the USA and Saudi Arabia at least 10x
Between Australia and Europe 8x
Throw in a few trips to India, Japan, Singapore, etc. this is one of the few things I specialize in.Long flights are intimidating at first but, eventually they'll become routine.
- Fly a foreign carrier (not Chinese, Indian or British) whenever possible. Emirates, Etihad, Singapore, etc. Never flown them but I've heard good things about Qatar.
- Get fit, it helps.
- Stay hydrated
- Eat before you get on the plane, eat what you want from the meals they provide
- Fly in as high of a class as is covered by your employer - Premium Economy is usually good enough
- Get an aisle seat - that way you control your own destiny with respect to going to the bathroom and/or just simply getting up and going for a walk
- Get as tired as possible before you get on the flight. I'm usually getting a few hours of sleep per night before a big trip because I'm making sure that everything will be taken care of until I get back. It's not like you're doing a weekday trip to Salt Lake and back.
- Personally, I like to slam 4 x high strength beers before I board the flight. I'm usually knocked out before we even take off.
- Sleep as much as you can on the plane, there's not much else to do.
- Bring a book just in case you can't sleep.
- Depending on the airline, they should have far more movies and TV shows than you can possibly watch. If you get bored with the regular English language options, try out Bollywood and Japanese movies. I've seen some really great foreign films. And even a few great series from New Zealand. Anil Kapoor as the Indian version of Jack Bauer on Indian "24" was great too.
- If you get lucky and can talk to your seatmate (1 in 50 chance that they're interesting), do that but somebody who wants to sleep might get offended that you're talking. I've been shushed in both Economy and Business Class.
- If they've got audio programming, here's one of my favorites. When I'm trying to sleep, I used to put on Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon" and put that on loop. "I wonder why he keeps hanging up? There must be somebody at home besides your wife"
- Whatever you do, DO NOT watch all 3 Godfather movies back-to-back-to-back. You'll think about nothing but Italians killing each other for the next few days.
Last piece of advice is that once you board, start thinking about getting your schedule onto the time zone you're going to. The only time this doesn't work is if you're going due North/South like Sydney to Tokyo.
Damn dude how many miles/points do you have?
I will share this because it's hilarious - my little sister had Silver status on PanAm when she was 2 years old.
As an adult living in Australia, I tried to split my trips between Qantas and United so that I'd have Gold Status on both oneworld and Star Alliance.
Qantas has extended my Gold status through January 2024 due to the Vid. My last flight on Qantas was Melbourne to LAX in March 2020. Qantas doesn't count miles they count "Status Credits".
So I'm lifetime Silver on Qantas and I'm about 60% of the way to lifetime Gold. The thing about the Status Credits is that they base them on which fare class you fly so historically, a RT between Sydney and LAX in Business was worth 4x as much as a RT in Discount Economy. I did a lot of flights in Discount Economy.
On United, I've got about 600,000 miles but they don't have any lifetime recognition until you reach 1M. Since I haven't been able to fly overseas for almost 3 years, my progress has slowed to a crawl.
And of course I've flown all kinds of airlines over the years. I've used Delta for my SkyTeam account so I've only got maybe 100k - 150k miles on Delta / Korean Air.
Apart from my Qantas / oneworld status, I've got another 200,000 lifetime on AA.
If you want to play the lifetime rewards game, it really pays to live in the same city forever and have that city be a hub for only one airline. My brother's father-in-law explained to me one time the huge benefit of living in Waco that is only served by American. He'd qualify on segments every year and every trip had +2 segments to get to/from Waco versus DFW.
100 flights, not 100 RT.AustinScubaAg said:My guess is around 20 million flight miles just based on 100 round trips to Australia/New Zealand.78669AG said:
Damn dude how many miles/points do you have?
I've been around the world twice so that's about 50,000 there.
100 flights between AUS - USA is about 750,000
10 flights between USA - KSA is another 75,000
8 flights between AUS - EU is another 88,000
Lots to Singapore (10+), India (10+), Japan (10+), China/South Korea/HKG/TW (10+)
And I've probably done a good half a million domestically in the USA.
I don't know, all told, probably 2M+ miles. Maybe 3M.
Not counted are the miles with my dad as the pilot.
I was born in Puerto Rico where my dad used to fly us around the Caribbean and we spent 3 years in rural Alaska where my dad would fly us to Anchorage for shopping, etc.
Yep. When I lived in CS I'd fly Continental and hit Platinum on segments every year. 90 segments when you get 4/trip isn't bad. Those were the days. Mid 20s and flying first about 90% of the time. Occasionally when a boss joined me they'd be back in coach.
HollywoodBQ said:100 flights, not 100 RT.AustinScubaAg said:My guess is around 20 million flight miles just based on 100 round trips to Australia/New Zealand.78669AG said:
Damn dude how many miles/points do you have?
I've been around the world twice so that's about 50,000 there.
100 flights between AUS - USA is about 750,000
10 flights between USA - KSA is another 75,000
8 flights between AUS - EU is another 88,000
Lots to Singapore (10+), India (10+), Japan (10+), China/South Korea/HKG/TW (10+)
And I've probably done a good half a million domestically in the USA.
I don't know, all told, probably 2M+ miles. Maybe 3M.
Not counted are the miles with my dad as the pilot.
I was born in Puerto Rico where my dad used to fly us around the Caribbean and we spent 3 years in rural Alaska where my dad would fly us to Anchorage for shopping, etc.
I did a poor job early using my frequent flyer number but have just crossed 1M on AA (mostly BA flights to india). But am probably about 1.2 M lifetime do to random trips that were on other airlines or miles flights.
First long trip for me in 3 years is next week and this thread had reminded me of things that used to be second nature.
It was nice not traveling since despite all my travels I nevet sleep well on flights and always get bad jet lag.
brings up memories. I spent my 30s and early 40s traveling from IAH to Narita, Jakarta, and Perth. Pretty much all business class so the miles racked up fast. Lost a lot of family time and watching my boys grow up. Was great while I was in the zone, but some regret now days of the weeks lost due to the long flights. I recall once having a 32 hour or so birthday due to flying over time zone changes. that was a trip. Now days, i prefer to stay stateside and vacay in the Caribbean. My biggest regret is all of the weeks i spent in Jakarta and never went to Bali.
Travel trips for long haul, if you are doing it for work, demand any flight over 8 to 10 hours be at a minimum business class. ridiculous for employers to send you around the world in coach.
If you are in your younger years, drink as much as you want. If you are a little older, don't get smashed and drink plenty of bottled water.
Travel trips for long haul, if you are doing it for work, demand any flight over 8 to 10 hours be at a minimum business class. ridiculous for employers to send you around the world in coach.
If you are in your younger years, drink as much as you want. If you are a little older, don't get smashed and drink plenty of bottled water.
I always wear a sport coat when I fly. It helps pretty much everywhere to be dressed well, especially when half the people flying are in pajamas. This leads in to my next tip -
Always ask about an upgrade. I've been randomly upgraded on several occasions and I am convinced not looking like a slouch played a part in it.
If you can afford business class, make it happen. Nothing better than lay flat seats and hand and foot service.
ALWAYS CHECK SEAT GURU BEFORE YOU SELECT YOUR SEAT. you would be amazed by the crapiness or benefits of random seats on some planes.
Always ask about an upgrade. I've been randomly upgraded on several occasions and I am convinced not looking like a slouch played a part in it.
If you can afford business class, make it happen. Nothing better than lay flat seats and hand and foot service.
ALWAYS CHECK SEAT GURU BEFORE YOU SELECT YOUR SEAT. you would be amazed by the crapiness or benefits of random seats on some planes.
Get a pair of legit compression socks. And a change of clothes in carryon like a fresh t-shirt towards the end of the flight.
BigOil said:
Get a pair of legit compression socks. And a change of clothes in carryon like a fresh t-shirt towards the end of the flight.
I go with fresh underwear too
If you can't handle the stress, log off until August. If you can handle the stress, be supportive and donate to United. No more buildings and concrete. Gotta channel funds to the collective for now.
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