Seven tips for long-haul flights

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Flight over Tofino

How do you survive long-distance flights?

Our seven tips for long-haul flights will help you survive a long-haul flight. You should consider this: You sit for a long time and hardly move. The seats are narrow and often uncomfortable. Extending legs is difficult in some aircraft types. The air in the plane is dry and takes a toll on your skin and nose. Flights are not always on time. However, there are things you can do to make your Long-haul flight can survive well. We got our tips on flights to the USA, to Canada or after South Africa, Russia or even Australia collected.

 

Long-haul Flights Essentials
Seven tips for long-haul flights

Seven tips for long-haul flights

1. Plan the journey, so that you feel fit when getting on the plane

One thing that stresses us on long-haul flights is, when we do not plan enough time to get to the airport. If that's the case, the flight starts with stress, and we're already tired, before we get on the plane. Therefore, one of our tips for long-haul flights, not to schedule trips before a flight, that are time-consuming. Often it is difficult to judge, what can delay the journey. Therefore, we prefer to spend the night before the flight either at an airport hotel or at least in the city, where the airport is located.

Do you travel with children? Then these are Activities with children on flights helpful. How stressful a flight with children can be, you can find out here.

Tips for long-haul flights - Know your Rights as a Passenger

Nevertheless, when traveling by air, it happens again and again that you miss your connecting flight. As a passenger, however, you have rights that you can use. One of our tips for long-haul flights: use your rights. If the connecting flight is missed, you are entitled to compensation. There are various companies that can help you enforce your rights. Some even go to court for you if need be. They offer the most stress-free and safest way to enforce your rights as a passenger. The best thing about it: You only pay if you are successful.

2. What to Wear on a long Flight?

On long-haul flights you sit in a cramped seat for hours. You usually sleep for several hours on this flight. In addition, there is occasional turbulence, which sometimes results in sauce or soup dripping onto clothing. We therefore do not recommend elegant clothing for long-haul flights. Instead, one of our tips for long-haul flights is to wear clothing that is as comfortable as possible. Our long-haul flight outfit always consists of comfortable pants that still look good when sleeping in all possible positions. We also wear loose-fitting shirts or sweatshirts where every movement doesn't immediately leave wrinkles. This means you can survive a long-haul flight and still look good afterwards.

 

Where do we travel 2016 by plane?
How can you survive a long-distance flight?

3. Which Shoes are Suitable for a long-haul Flight?

On long-haul flights, I often have the problem of my feet and ankles swelling during the flight. Having swollen legs on a long-haul flight is especially uncomfortable, when you wear shoes, that are too tight. Two of my personal tips for long-haul flights: I usually take off my shoes on such flights. If I want to put them on again before arrival, it is important that they are big enough, so that I can put them on again with swollen legs. That's why I prefer to wear comfortable shoes for wide feet. If the journey goes to a region, where we spend a lot of time in nature, I often put on hiking boots. These are bigger than elegant street shoes. Wearing them on the flight, is also useful, because I do not have to carry them in my suitcase.

4. Which Stockings are Suitable for long-haul Flights?

If your legs swell slightly on long flights, then you should consider whether you want to wear compression stockings on a long-haul flight. These ensure that the blood is transported better through the veins and prevent the legs from swelling.

5. Tips for long-haul Flights - The best Seats on long-haul Flights

As Economy Class seats are tight in most types of aircraft and offer little legroom, we always try to reserve the optimum seats. On our travels it turned out, that these are the seats at the emergency exits. These have greater legroom in front of the seats, because they provide access to the emergency exits. However, you should understand the language of the airline. The on-board personnel usually informs passengers in the emergency exit seats and asks them, if they understand the instructions for opening the emergency exit doors.

6. Sleep on a long-haul Flight

For the most part, we try to sleep late on long-haul flights. Then the time passes faster and we are rested on site. However, we do not use sleeping pills. Instead, we take an inflatable neck pillow with us. There are now even some with hoods that extend over the eyes. This means that no light disturbs your sleep anymore. Others can be warmed up in the neck area to prevent neck pain. We like the neck pillows because they keep the head and neck in a comfortable position even in the most uncomfortable airplane seats and prevent you from waking up with a sore neck after sleep.

7. Packing List for a long-haul Flight

Here are our recommendations for the things that make a long-haul flight more comfortable. In our backpack or our carry-on baggage we always have with us:

  • comfortable stockings or compression stockings
  • a neck pillow.
  • comfortable pants
  • loose shirts or sweatshirts
  • wide shoes that can be worn well with swollen legs after a flight.

Do you need more Recommendations for long haul flights?
tina has 10 tips on how to make your flight pleasant.

 

Long-haul Flights Essentials
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Source: Research on intercontinental flights. In any case, our opinions remain our own.

Text: © Copyright Monika Fuchs and TravelWorldOnline
Photos © Copyright Monika Fuchs and TravelWorldOnline

Seven tips for long-haul flights

Monika Fuchs

Monika Fuchs and Petar Fuchs are the authors and publishers of the Food and Slow Travel blog  TravelWorldOnline. They have been publishing this blog since 2005. TravelWorldOnline has been online since 2001. Their topics are trips to Savor, wine tourism worldwide and slow travel. During her studies Monika Fuchs spent some time in North America, where she - partly together with Petar Fuchs - traveled to the USA and Canada and spent a research year in British Columbia. This intensified her thirst for knowledge, which she satisfied for 6 years as an adventure guide for Rotel Tours and then for 11 years as a tour guide for Studiosus Reisen around the world. She was constantly expanding her travel regions, but curiosity still gnawed at her: "What's beyond the horizon? What else is there to discover in this city? Which people are interesting here? What do they eat in this region?" As a freelance travel journalist (her articles have appeared in DIE ZEIT, 360° Canada, 360° USA, etc.), she is now looking for answers to these questions as a travel writer and travel blogger in many countries around the world. Petar Fuchs produces the videos on this blog as well as on YouTube. Monika Fuchs from TravelWorldOnline is among Germany's top 50 bloggers in 2021. Find more Information about Monika and Petar Fuchs here.