International airline travel comfort tips and discussion thread

[fish2plus2]

Tip For long flights, I like to carry on a couple of asian brand noodle cups and periodically ask the stewerdess to fill them up with warm water for me.



Tip For long flights, after the lights are closed, several of the flight attendents usually end up in the back of the plane gossiping; walk to the back, stretch and maybe chat one of them up (assuming its an Asian airline).


Tip If you make any meal specification, such as "No Beef", you will recieve your meal before everyone else regardless of what is being served. If the options are Chicken or Fish, you still get it first.


I would like to hear comments on the following:

Sleeping pill cocktails

Portable DVD players vs watching movies on laptop

Stretching and things to do physcially

Other good foods to carry on that arent junk food

Head Phones/Ear Plugs

Getting upgraded to a higher class

Pillows/Similar items

Information/Tips about particular airports

[Kneel B4 Zod]

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Portable DVD players vs watching movies on laptop

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DVD players are better than laptops for watching DVD's. should be better battery & smaller. however, it means carrying 1 more thing (assuming you are already carrying a laptop)

for headphones, get some Shures like these. much better than the Bose which cost 2x as much.

bring a few good books, page turner types. This will pass the time fast and you might even learn something. Like I said, for an airplane I sometimes like to avoid deep content stuff (ie Guns, Germs and Steel) and go for something easier to read (ie Moneyball). I have friends that alternate reading w/ Suduko as a mental exercise.

for real long flights, I do like sleeping pills. even OTC stuff should be fine.

your snack idea is a good one. I always like to bring extra water b/c I get dehydrated and it's a pain to continually bug the stewardesses.

I never bring pillows, but like to wear a puffy fleece that I can roll up an use a pillow. I also like to wear jackets with lots of zippered pockets b/c I always seem to carry lots of stuff with me (ipod, headphones, passport, the various airline documents, treo, my wallet) and it's easier to send all this stuff through the security checks in my jacket than it is to pull it out of my pockets and risk losing something.

[AZK]

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I would like to hear comments on the following:

Sleeping pill cocktails

Stretching and things to do physcially

Other good foods to carry on that arent junk food

Head Phones/Ear Plugs

Pillows/Similar items



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Sleeping pills - I took one on a flight to London (Tylenol PM). I woke up in heathrow at 8am groggy as [censored] and my head felt like it was splitting. I think this flight was too short. I think unless a flight is 8+ hours you screw yourself self-medicating. People take melatonin but that doesn't really work for me. I think the best solution is just to tell myself to stop being a vagina and deal with the jet lag/sleepiness and not sleep on the plane unless I am really really tired. Most times I am trying to force myself to sleep.

It's important to stretch, walk around, depending on your HR/BP/relative physical activity. Just getting up and doing some walking is good, and there are certain muscle exercises you can do, and look up on the internet. I don't know them specifically off the top of my head but I would imagine something like flexing your calves.

Good portable healthy foods: Nuts/fruits/jerky (a healthy jerky, not something loaded up with chemicals, might be difficult to find in certain non-western places)

Head phones - I have a pair of Shure E4s that work great.

The best seat in a jumbo jet is in between the first class and coach cabin, this is the first row of coach where you have unlimited leg room. Despite being near the bathrooms I still think this is the best seat since you can stretch and really spread out. Next I suppose would be the exit row as far as room goes. I normally always go window seat so that I can prop things up on it and pass out. For flights that aren't packed, you can also put your chair back and prop your arm up on the chair next to you and sleep on your arm. Your arm is hanging over your head and you are sleeping on your bicep. I sometimes also do this on windows. If you aren't that tall, you can also put your foot up on the chair in front of you and rest your elbow on your knee to pass out. These are pretty much the only ways I can fall asleep on a plane. I can't just put my head back cause once I fall asleep my neck falls forward and I wake up. 5 minutes of doing this while in that groggy sleep state feels like an hour and I want to kill myself. I also can't sleep on the tray table on my arms, I don't know how people do this.

[HajiShirazu]

If you fly from america to japan and aren't flying first class, don't fly on northwest, fly united or some other carrier even though it may cost a little more.

[Dadswell]

To find the best seats on the aircraft you are flying on check out seatguru.com

[TheMetetron]

There was this Danish prescription med I took a few times on trans-Atlantic flights that was incredible. You took it about 30 minutes before boarding and if you weren't asleep within 30 minutes of the plane taking off you had to be a giant or something. Even waiting to get on the plane, you could start to feel the heaviness of your eyelids.

I have no idea what it was called, but I'll try to find out and get the English translation. Unfortunately, I ran out a while ago and haven't tried to get more.

[Analyst]

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Portable DVD players vs watching movies on laptop

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The screen is bigger on the laptop, and why carry another gadget? Try to get a seat that has power so battery isn't a consideration.

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Stretching and things to do physcially

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I try to get out of my seat every couple of hours (if awake), and head to the galley area to stretch. There's usually space by the exit doors for some calf and quad stretches.

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Other good foods to carry on that arent junk food

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Try to upgrade so that you don't need to bring any snacks. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] Getting water usually isn't a problem on long flights, but I'll sometimes bring a bottle anyway and a bag of dried fruit.

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Head Phones/Ear Plugs

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Second the recommendation for the Shure E3c (or E4/E5). The sound quality is great, the sound isolation is even better - much better than noise-cancelling phones, and they take up almost no space.

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Getting upgraded to a higher class

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You really have to be at least a mid-tier frequent flyer (ex: American Platinum, United Premier Executive) to have any chance of a free bump, and that will only happen if the flight is full and they need to roll cabins. You can find people trading upgrades on Flyertalk, but you will need airline miles, hotel points or the like. You can get these upgrades *very* cheaply when the expiration dates get close. For example, American Airlines VIP upgrades all expire (almost all) at the end of February. If you're flying right now, for example, you can probably get one free if you are a regular FlyerTalk poster.

AA milage upgrades used to be a good deal at 25k miles each way, but I haven't done it since they introduced the new copay ($250-300).

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Information/Tips about particular airports

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Any particular airports?

[AZK]

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where can i buy one of these for general sleep?