Chances are, your Round the World trip will result in you taking off on a long haul flight to some far off destination. I prefer most methods of travel over airplane travel, but inevitably you’ll be forced to board a jet knowing very well you wont be going anyplace else for the next six, eight, or twelve hours. Even for those who don’t suffer from claustrophobia, the thought of being confined to an airplane for extended periods of time can be daunting.
And rightly so. Even for seasoned travelers, the thought of a long haul flight and the aftereffects of one (severe jet-lag) can be quite stressful. Yet these 7 tips for dealing with a long haul flight should allow you to have a much more comfortable experience – on the plane and off when you arrive at your destination.
1) Make Minimal Transfers On The Way
Believe it or not, much of the planning for your long haul flight starts before you even get on the plane. And this tip starts long before you head to the departures terminal. Your long haul flight will be significantly easier if you don’t transfer five times on the way. Get to your departure airport as quickly and directly as possible – and the same goes for the destination. This can be difficult as a budget traveler, as we’re always looking for the cheapest option. Consider your options though, and if you can, avoid those annoying two hour layovers.
2) Get Heaps of Exercise The Day Before You Fly
Make a point to get lots of exercise the day you fly out (or the night before if you’re flying early). The day I boarded my 13 hour flight from LAX to AKL, I went on a half day bike ride along the beach. The benefits of exercising the day you fly are twofold.
First, exercising releases chemicals in your brain that helps to reduce stress. For the same reason you might go for a jog after a long day at the office, you should go for a jog before your long haul flight. You’ll be much more relaxed and less stressed about the upcoming half-day spent in the air. Second, if you get a good exercise in, you’ll be much more likely to get tired as the day goes on. If your body is exhausted, you stand a better chance of a deep sleep and catching some Zs in that cramped airline seat.
3) Reserve a Window Seat In Advance
When booking your ticket online, try and reserve a window seat for the long portion of your journey. You’ll want to try and sleep, and nothing is worse than getting woke up by the man in the middle seat who suffers from a weak bladder. If you forget to do this online, talk to the ticketing agent at check-in and see if they can secure you a window seat.
4) Grab Empty Seats Before The Seatbelt Light Goes On
This one takes a bit of practice, skill, and determination. It’s an art you could say – one it pays to master. If you’ve traveled before, you know the situation. You’re snugly smushed against your neighbor in the two window seats, while the same situation is going on at the other window. Yet between you and your fellow cramped traveler are three vacant seats in the middle row. A sleeper’s paradise.
When do you decide to take them? Right before the seatbelt light goes on. Too soon? You risk taking a late arrivals seat. Too late? Someone else jumps in ahead of you and you spend the night with your newfound travel partner’s head on your shoulder.
5) Drink Lots Of Fluids
Spending hours confined to an airplane will result in you getting dehydrated. That airplane air is not only cold, it’s also extremely dry. The effects of dehydration are the last thing you want to deal with in addition to your jet-lag. So, drink heaps of fluids before you get on the plane and continue drinking as you fly. Most long-haul flight operators make a point of bringing water and juice around – yet bring a big bottle of water for yourself as well.
That complementary beer and wine will be hard to turn down, so limit it to a couple to take the edge off and help you sleep.
6) Avoid The Post-Flight Nap
Regardless of when you arrive at your destination, do everything you can to avoid taking that quick ‘one hour’ snooze. It won’t work. You’ll hit the pillow, crash into dream land, and chances are you’ll feel worse when you wake up. Power on through the day (by following the next tip) and go to bed at a normal hour. You’ll feel much better the next morning.
7) Get Lots of Sunlight and Fresh Air When You Arrive
It won’t be easy to avoid that nap. Despite how excited you’ll be to have arrived in a new country, it will still be hard to stay away from a pillow after a long haul flight. Make it a point to stay active and explore your newfound city. This will result in you getting exercise, fresh air, and the sun’s Vitamin D. This will help keep you alert and allow you to make it to bedtime.
While these seven tips should help you deal with a long haul flight, you’ll inevitably feel a bit off when you arrive to your destination. That’s okay. Deal with it – be kind of tired, slightly delirious, and somewhat nauseous. Enjoy it for being a part of traveling and get excited to be someplace new.
What do you think? There are certainly more tips to dealing with a long haul flight – please leave yours in the comments section below.
Backpacking Matt 
I just bought my plane ticket to Tokyo and the non-stop flight is 14 hours- more than twice as long as any flight I’ve been on before! I was stressing out about that so this blog post came at a really perfect time. Thanks Matt!
@Steph Glad you found it useful. Share some tips after your mega journey to Tokyo!
@Anil Interesting about your body clock being regulated by the liver. One thing I always do is to set my clock to the destinations time before setting off. Mentally getting yourself into that time zone helps as well.
@The Jetpacker & @Ken Doing the provided exercises on the plane is always a good idea. Especially if you can’t sleep.
I’m big on #6. Also, much of your body clock is regulated through the liver. By eating according to the clock at your destination, you’ll get a jump start of overcoming jet lag.
Definitely make sure to get up every few hours and stretch or do a little exercise to keep your body from getting sore. If you don’t move around a bit, you’ll be cramped by the time you arrive and wind up laying in bed and losing energy on your trip.
I cannot agree more on #2 – I even try to exercise day-of, if it’s feasible. Not only does it make you feel better about sitting around all day on a plane, it also helps pre-emptively burn the nasty calories you’ll consume in airplane food. ICK.
I’ve always exercised before flights, though it didn’t help much for sleeping in the air. Probably countered by travelling excitement. Recently I discovered ear plugs were conducive for snoozing. Never turn down a chance to get up and walk. If your neighbour gets up forcing you to stand (or taking advantage of the opening if you’re penned in), stay up until they return.
You know what always works for me? Nyquil. Just take a sip of that baby before a long flight and I’m out like a log until we land.
@Monica I’ve tried Nyquil. Sleeping certainly wasn’t an issue, but I felt crap when I got off the plane.
@KiwiNick Turning off the in flight entertainment system is a great tip! Yet one that’s hard to follow. It’s so difficult with all the movies and TV shows.
@jim Great point Jim. Less chances to loose your luggage.
@Lauren Cheers. Thank the Creative Commons library!
After years of travelling I have found the best way to sleep is to turn off your in flight entertainment system. In fact don’t even turn it on if you can!
Minimizing layovers is crucial, each one makes your long flight that much longer and increases the probability they’ll lose your luggage if you change planes.
The longest flight I’ve been on is 11 hours, and it stinks. I’m in Texas, where it takes four hours to get to either coast. Oh how I envy East Coasters who can be in Europe in just six or seven hours!
You’re spot-on with the exercise tip. That really is a huge help. But oh, the nap–I hate that part. There are times when I’m so torn about whether to nap or not, but I’m absolutely miserable if I don’t nap (though when I do, my schedule is even more jumbled). No matter how you slice it, long-haul air travel can be rough.
@Emily Being on the coast makes traveling abroad a lot less stressful. I know what you mean coming from Iowa!
Love the photos Matt!
Hehe… I am quite a veteran of lang-haul flights since Australia is so far from anywhere! I usually go back to Oz from Sweden once a year and it takes around 24-30 hours with two stopovers. I have actually come to love these longhaul flights oddly as a time when I have an excuse to not work and just relax, catch up on movies. You had some really good advice here Matt… I haven’t tried the exercising thing but will be sure to in August when I’m heading home.
Here are few things I find helpful:
– If possible book your long-haul flight as an overnighter. Make it so you are getting on the plane quite late in the evening – like 22.00. Then I usually find a movie I want to watch if there is an entertainment system. They will serve you dinner as you watch it. With dinner have some wine but not too much (make sure you offset with lots of water). By the time the movie is finished you will probably be feeling quite sleepy so this is a pretty good time to try and get some zzzs.
– have a shower at the last possible moment before you leave. It is going to be a looong time before you get another one and you will feel icky regardless but at least it means the time to ickyness is reduced
– don’t drink coffee. It tends to make you feel slightly nauseous, keeps you awake and dehydrates you
– wear comfy clothes even if they look ugly. It won’t increase your chances of getting an upgrade but at least you won’t be uncomfortable
– clean your teeth often. It makes you feel soooo much better every time you do.
– Last time I flew I was horrified to discover my feet now swell (must be a getting older thing 🙂 – for really long-haul flights it is a good idea to wear those ugly anti-deep vein thrombosis stockings. They are actually quite comfortable and it beats having fat ankles for a week
Hope these help :). Thanks again Matt… I will be definitely taking your advice for my next long-haul flight 🙂
Hi Verity! Thanks for the comment – it’s full of excellent advice. RE deep vein thrombosis, it’s a good idea if nothing else to do the exercises on the plane they tell you about. With the shower, many airports have showers for travelers so if you need a quick rinse, it’s a good idea to keep your soap etc handy.
ps. sorry for the monster nature of my comment. I clicked the button and was like woah!
Hi Matt
Pretty good tips, I’ve had my share of 13+ hour flights and they are quite annoying. However I don’t agree with tip #3, the reason being that in such long flights you will probably have to visit the loo; if the passengers beside you are sleeping you might not feel comfortable waking them up, and you’ll be stuck. In long flights I always try to reserve aisle seats because of this, and I’ll be free to walk whenever I want.
Nice post!
Federico
@Federico I guess that one comes down to personal preference, eh? I’d prefer to be the guy waking up the person in the isle – as opposed to getting woke up every time someone needed to walk around.
I went to Peru a couple of years back and well the fight isnt that long ..6 hours from NYC give or take..But the bus rides withing the country were 16-18 hour rides..nyquil helped and def xanax lol…my vacation planner (www.closerperu.com if interested) changed the second part of my trip to just flights for my comfort..best thing i could have done (xcept for buying xanax)
@Jason 16 hours on a bus?! Yikes! That would be a challenge.
We’ve taken so many long haul flights and our biggest tip is #6 as well. We force ourselves to stay up until 9:00 p.m. (or, at least, until 8:00 p.m. on the night that we land) and we don’t allow ourselves to take a nap on the next day either. On the second day, we concentrate hard on keeping ourselves busy between 2-5 because that’s the “danger” zone of getting jet lag. Once we make it through those two days, we’re out of jet lag!
@Akila Excellent points. The schedule you lay out is perfect. Hard to fight the nap, yet worth it in the end.
Like the ideas. Have to say I’ve never thought of #2 but will certainly try it. Also, as a pert of #6, I find it best to try if possible to force yourself to stay awake until a somewhat normal bedtime the first day/night. Speeds the adjusting process.
Thanks,
-David
@TheGypsynesters Thanks for the comment, let us know how you get on with exercise tip – I think it works wonders to be physically wrecked from a good workout prior to doing a long haul.
I think chewing gum while you are taking off and landing as you don’t get heaps bad blocked ears. Also don’t go on a plan if you have a really blocked nose.
On long flights like Washington DC to South Africa via Senigal and Seattle to Thailand via S.Korea number 7 worked great “Get Lots of natural Sunlight”. Except in Thailand we arrive at 3am. Didn’t make sense not to get a post flight nap (4 hours).