How to Be Comfortable on a Long Airplane Trip

A long domestic or international flight can often sour what should be a pleasant holiday or business venture. These guidelines can help your necessary travel time be as comfortable and painless as possible — for you, and for your fellow travelers.

Steps

Reserve a good seat. Even within the same class and fare, some seats are far superior to others. Consider an aisle or exit row seat for leg room, or a window if you want to sleep. Try to avoid seats near the toilets/lavatories, as other passengers will be accessing these regularly. It is common on long-haul flights for there to be queues, and people walking to or from the toilets may bump or knock your seat. Also keep in mind that the noise and light that escapes when the door is opened may be disturbing, particularly when trying to sleep.

Bring something to entertain yourself. Usually, movies don’t start for some time, and the built-in music selection can be quite poor, so bring an iPod, iPad, Nintendo DS, or CD player. You could also bring a new book or portable game.

Don’t look at the time during the flight. You can’t do anything about it and the flight will feel much longer if you keep looking at the time. Don’t check your watch regularly and avoid looking at the in-flight map showing the current position of the plane.

If possible, go with an airline that offers AVOD (Audio Video on Demand), which is a TV screen in front of your seat that lets you choose what you want to watch, play or listen to.

Bring your own headphones. The headphones available on the plane (whether for purchase or for free) are usually of poor quality. Noise-cancelling headphones and in-ear headphones are great if you have them, and can help block out a big improvement.

Minimize your carry-on luggage. One backpack is fine for the plane, and it is easier to find a place in the overhead bins or under the seat for a small backpack than for a larger roller bag.

Bring a toothbrush, and anything else that isn’t a liquid or a gel – which you need to help freshen up before meeting your loved ones at the end of your long flight. They, and your neighbours in-flight, will be glad you did!

Consider bringing your own food on board if you care about taste or health. On some airlines, plane food is quite poor.

Beat Jet Lag

Jet lag is caused when you travel through multiple time zones. These changes in time zones confuse your body’s 24-hour inner clock – which throws off your “circadian rhythms.”

Your circadian rhythms control the timing of the release of hormones and chemicals to let you know when you should be hungry, sleepy, etc.

Symptoms of Jet lag include fatigue, insomnia, disorientation, headaches, and irregularity.

It normally takes about one day to adjust for each time zone you cross. Jet lag is often worse travelling eastward. However, flying north or south within the same time zone does not seem to cause jet lag.

Overall health, habits, and age all play a big part in how badly someone suffers from jet lag. Being well rested can help reduce its symptoms – whereas overeating, smoking and drinking alcohol can exaggerate the effects of jet lag.

Tips for dealing with Jet Lag:

• Exercise while airborne and upon arrival will help circulate your blood and you will feel rejuvenated.

• Adjust your sleep time before you leave on your trip to match your destination time zone.

• Don’t stay on your home time zone. Change your watch to your destination time zone.

• Meals high in protein stimulate wakefulness. Carbohydrate rich meals promote sleep.

• Use caffeine drinks to help you stay awake until your new bedtime at your destination.

• Eat high-fibre foods to fight constipation and avoid fatty foods.

• Drink LOTS of water.

Flying with Kids: Childproofing your Flight: PART 1

Parents go to great lengths to keep children safe at home and on the road. But what about in the

air? When you’re traveling by airplane, an approved child restraint system (CRS) is the only way to make sure your little one will be safe in the event of turbulence or an emergency.

Turbulence is air movement that normally cannot be seen and often occurs unexpectedly. It can be created by many different conditions, including atmospheric pressure, jet streams, air around mountains, cold or warm weather fronts or thunderstorms. Turbulence can even occur when the sky appears to be clear.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) strongly urges you to secure your child in an appropriate restraint based on weight and size. Turbulence can happen with little or no warning. And when it does, the safest place for your child is in a CRS, not in an adult’s lap. Your arms just aren’t capable of holding your child securely, especially when turbulence is unexpected. Keeping your child in a CRS for the duration of the flight is the smart and right thing to do so that everyone in your family arrives safely at your destination.

Always follow the manufacturer’s instructions for using a CRS. Be sure that the shoulder straps

are properly adjusted and fasten the airplane seat belt around the CRS as tightly as possible.

Do not place a child in a CRS designed for a smaller or larger child than indicated in the manufacturer’s instructions. The FAA recommends that a child weighing:

• Less than 20 pounds use a rear-facing CRS.

• From 20 to 40 pounds use a forward-facing CRS.

• More than 40 pounds use an airplane seat belt.

Fifty years ago, flying had a certain glamour: the luxurious seats, the doting (and beautiful) flight attendants, the gourmet meals… Women all over the world aspired to be flight attendants (“stewardesses,” as they were once called). On Southwest Airlines (pictured), the motto was “sex sells seats” — and, for better or for worse, the attendants’ outfits were fully in accordance. Today, most of the majesty of commercial air travel has been scrapped thanks to cutbacks and tight security…
Hot on the Job – When Flying Was Fun – LIFE Photo Gallery – 19 pictures

Why is ArrivedOK THE PERSONAL flight arrival tracker? Simply because when it notifies your recipients about your arrival it relies on your personal mobile phone status instead of general data from dispatcher centers like all other trackers do. Those data can be about flight delays, scheduled arrivals, departures, even about actual time of a plane’s touchdown but they say a little about YOU – whether you’re okay or not. ArrivedOK does.

Well, it goes a step further in that respect. It’s not a secret that taking off and landing are most dangerous moments of a flight. I don’t want to scare anyone but if a plane crashes at touchdown at the scheduled arrival time, a usual flight tracker still may say that it landed normally, while in fact it did not. ArrivedOK will not mislead you in that case. If you landed safely enough to be able to turn on your phone, it will notify your buddies that you’re ok. If you are not, it will keep shut.

Learn more about ArrivedOK behaviour in different situations (‘Right Time-Wrong Place’; ‘Right Place-Wrong Time’; ‘Wrong Place-Wrong Time’).

See our previous posts about flight trackers:

• Top 5 (Web) Flight Trackers
• Mobile Flight Trackers