Tips for the Long Haul

I made it! Back in Sydney after about 30 hours of travel. I've done a "long haul" flight 8 times in the past 7 months (I'm not sure what the airlines classify as long haul, but I'm guessing anything over about 10 hours?). From DC to the west coast to Sydney it's about 20 hours of flying all told, with the bulk (15ish hours) coming in the "haul" from the west coast to Oz.

I don't have enough miles yet to even qualify to LOOK at first class and can't imagine how many long hauls you'd need to take to be automatically bumped up, so I've had to come to terms with the long travel day, stale airplane air and gross airport food. No, it's not the best day of your life but it can be bearable.

Here are some of my tips for making the long haul more your friend:

1. Mentally prepare. I kind of tell myself that the flights are just like parking my butt on the couch for a Saturday and watching TV/dozing/eating crappy food all day long. It kind of works, especially because most airlines (cough, cough United and your in-aisle TVs) have individual TV sets that have hundreds of choices between movies, TV shows, podcasts etc. Since I'm not a huge movie buff it always means I get to hang out and watch some "new" releases and chick flicks. If you go into these trips anxious and thinking you'll hate sitting long enough to develop bed sores, you're going to fail at the long haul. Long live laziness!

2. Stay up late the night before you fly. Not insanely late, but late enough so your body is a bit cranky at you the next day. This will help you get to sleep when you finally get past the west coast.

3. The morning of your long day of flying drink a big ass cup of coffee. Again, you can't sleep before you're over the Pacific (I'm mean, I'm sure you could but that would be really really stupid) so might as well be charged up so you don't accidentally snooze early.

4. Chug water like it's your business the days before you fly as well as the day of and during. Seriously, act like a camel and pack it in-- I try to get one of those giant Smart Waters and will refill as often as I can. Ask the stewardesses to fill up your water bottle instead of those small cups. They usually will roll their eyes but will give in. The more you drink, the less crappy you'll feel after landing.

5. When you get to the west coast east something substantial. I don't care if you ate a Big Mac before you boarded in Atlanta, you don't want to be woken up by your stomach growling on the plane. And a full stomach makes me real sleepy, so it's kind of like a mini sleeping pill.

6. For goodness sake, STAND while you can. I don't get the people sitting down before boarding a 15 hour flight. I'm sorry- do you not realize you're going to be trapped for quite some time? Let those legs stretch out while you can, and if you're not embarrassed do some stretching at the gate.

7. Get a sleeping pill. Doesn't have to be prescription, just something that will do the trick. Sleeping pills affect everyone differently and it's taken me awhile to figure out what works for me-- I've come to the conclusion that if the box says take 1-2 pills, 1 is for sleeping in a bed and 2 has to be for uncomfortable situations like an airplane. Has to be (or maybe for a large overweight man). If you can figure out the appropriate dosage you will be looking at cutting off 8-9 hours of the flight time. That only leaves you time for 2 new releases!

8. When you get on the long haul, they'll serve "dinner" about 1 1/2 hours after take off. If you don't get to sleep before dinner you're looking at another hour or so of hearing the dishes clang and smelling whatever unappetizing tinfoil box they're putting in front of you. Get on the plane, get comfy, start a movie, and pop your sleeping pills.

The time passed pretty quickly this go round for me, mainly because I had Wi-Fi from the east to west coast and because I slept for 9-10 hours of the long haul. Easy peasy, right?


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