I’ve been on a lot of long haul flights recently. While I wouldn’t say I enjoy them (who tf does?? teach me your ways lol) I’ve found a few things that make them bearable- or at least not leave me a grimy, horrendous mess at the end. I wanted to share some of them (mostly for my own reference, but also hopefully for your benefit).
I am, of course, writing this on a long flight. There’s only 3 hours left, so let’s see what I can do!
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01. booking
While you might already think long flights suck, they will suck even more if you paid $3000 to subject yourself to the misery.
Most credit card enthusiasts will point out that you should be using your points for plane tickets, especially business and first-class ones, since they’re the highest dollar-per-point value of anything you can get. I’m not a credit card expert so I won’t give any advice on this, but you should do some research to see if it’s a viable option for you.
If booking with regular money, I find that Kayak ↗ works best for me. It’s especially helpful to be flexible with which dates you’re flying in and out, since the prices can be rather drastic between a weekend flight and a random Wednesday evening one.
Everyone has differing opinions on which airlines are good/bad/ok. Here are mine, based on past experience:
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Good:
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JAL
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ANA
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Singapore Airlines
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Southwest
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Ok:
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Air Canada
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Delta
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Ryanair
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Alaska
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Jetblue
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Bad:
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United
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Spirit
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02. window or aisle?
While I enjoy window seats for shorter flights, the very clear choice for long flights is the aisle seat. Specifically, if you’re in a larger plane with a middle section, always take one of these two rows:
Why these seats specifically?
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You don’t need to bother your neighbors every time you get up / go to the bathroom.
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You only have 1 middle seat neighbor that needs to bother you, rather than 2 if you’re in a outer aisle seat.
- (be nice to your middle seat neighbors, they’re going through a lot…)
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On a less-full plane, you have the highest chance of getting 2 seats to yourself.
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The right side is marginally better if you’re right-handed, since you won’t bump into your neighbor as much while eating/trying to get stuff from your backpack.
03. packing list
Items I deem necessary:
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A good pair of noise cancelling headphones
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earbuds are ok too, but they can get uncomfortable and the battery won’t last the entire flight. I can wear my XM4’s for an entire 12-hour flight and not have sore ears!
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download some sleep music/background noise (the spotify sleep playlist works well enough for me).
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Travel pillow
- I use this one ↗, which I like because I can stuff it into the little pouch to move around in between flights.
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A jacket
- In-flight cabin temperatures trend towards the colder side. Make sure you don’t freeze to death!
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Water
- I always feel super dehydrated during flights, so having water on hand at all times is a must for me.
Nice to haves:
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Snacks
- I forgot to pack snacks today and fully regret it.
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Eyedrops
- Pressurized cabin + overhead blowy things + staring at screens for 12 hours makes for some very dry eyes…
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Eye mask
- Sometimes they leave the cabin lights on, or someone on your row doesn’t want to close their window :(
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A pen
- Many countries have immigration forms you need to fill out. You can just do it at the airport too, but might as well fill it out on the plane instead.
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Wet wipes
- For disinfecting the tray.
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Power bank
- In case your nearby power outlet is broken or occupied.
04. wtf do i do for 12+ hours?
Some combination of the following:
A. Sleep
Unless you have some heroic superpower, the chances of sleeping through the entire flight are 0. but if you can, it’s the best use of time!
B. Entertainment
You can always have a LOTR marathon and the entire flight will pass in the blink of an eye :)
I personally have around 15 Marvel movies to watch before I’m caught up with the MCU.
Make sure you download everything you’re even remotely interested in watching, in case the in-flight entertainment isn’t working or doesn’t include something.
**C. Do Nothing
** This is a very underrated option imo. Within the writing/creative spaces, people seem to maintain a deep respect for boredom, but outside of it I get weird looks when I say I like being bored.
Nearly all of my best ideas and creations spawned from a session of Doing Nothing. Granted, sitting in a cramped, dark airplane seat is a significantly lower class of Doing Nothing than being on a train or leisurely walk, but it’s still a place you’re stuck in with few distractions.
05. jet lag
I’m pretty good with jet lag; it never incapacitates me to the extent where I feel unable to function during regular daylight hours at my destination.
There are definitely a few things that help me with managing jet lag:
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Keep an eye on your destination’s time a couple days before the flight.
- You don’t necessarily have to shift your schedule, but do grab free opportunities to do so. For example, you could choose to pull an all-nighter before a 9am flight if 9am is actually 10pm at your destination.
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Be ready to take lots of naps.
- Leave room for small chunks of downtime for a couple days after your flight, where you’re able to disappear from whatever you’re doing and go lie down for an hour.
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Try as hard as you can to maintain a normal schedule.
- Even if you’re wide awake at midnight, go to bed anyways. Even if you’re super tired in the middle of the day, just take a short nap instead of going to sleep.
06. Conclusion
Being able to go on a long flight is a privilege that not everyone can afford. That being said, it’s hard to feel privileged in a cramped and uncomfortable economy seat. We’ll make the best of what we can :)
