Long-distance flight (America to London) help?

It used to be quite boring. New York to London is often overnight, so there's nothing to look out at. Even if it's during the day, there's just clouds and water as far as the eye can see. These days, though, the planes are huge and decked out with consoles in front of every seat, which have movies on demand, video games, TV shows, etc.

Usually the plane has two aisles; Coach section has two or three seats on each side and four in the middle. Although the seats are bigger than on, say, a JetBlue flight, it can still feel cramped if you're expecting to go to sleep.

And because the plane is big, turbulence tends to be minimal.

Been a few years since I flew to Europe, but I did recently do round trips to Hong Kong (15.5 hrs/trip). It was boring. It was disorienting. I felt gross. Especially your mouth feels disgusting after a while, and then you think "Damn why didn't I buy any gum in the airport" and then you're all "because I don't have any Hong Kong money woman." I felt utterly repulsed by myself towards the end.

I couldn't sleep, but I kept 'dozing off' and going into furious hypnagogic twitching mode before coming to again. Accidentally slapped the woman next to me. That was fun.

Your butt hurts. You begin to think you're developing stress fractures in your butt. You get really sick of sitting down but there are people walking all over the aisles, rocking their babies, standing around outside the restrooms etc. You feel like you need to flail your legs a lot.

The recycled oxygen makes your brain a little fuzzy. Just enough to make you feel sleep-deprived/tired/like you just need to get somewhere and shower the nastiness off you and go to sleep.

Anyway, this is much more based on my more recent HK flight than European; don't know how bad the butt-stress-fracture thing is for that.

Europe's not as bad, probably. Actually, long flights have gotten better since the last time I went to Europe because in-flight entertainment has improved dramatically. Long flights means you get the big fancy planes with individual screens in the backs of the seats, and you can choose from several movies/tv shows/video games. But I imagine the general physical sensations are in the same ballpark.

I'm about to take such a flight.
It is dull, you just read or sleep or watch a movie. Most planes have individual screens now and will display a graphic of where the plane is.
The worst part is when you land, feeling tired and disorientated then you have to queue to get your bags, queue to get through immigration and then find your onward transport.

Not glamorous at all.

What part of America to England? Keep in mind that if you start on the west coast, you first have to fly across country. LA to London takes twice as long as New York to London.

It's been about 10 years since I last flew to London, so things have probably changed, service-wise, but the main thing that differed between my two legs (Los Angeles-Atlanta-London) was the food. I believe the airline was using food as entertainment while crossing the Atlantic. (There were two movies, as well.)

We got fed multiple times on the Atlanta-London leg -- beverages/snacks, dinner, more beverages, ice cream, breakfast.

Sleeping in coach really depends on how easy you find it to sleep while squished. The plane I was on had 3-5-3 seating and every seat was filled. If you're the poor sod stuck in the middle seat of that section of 5, you're screwed.

On the way home, I had the misfortune to be seated in front of a woman who had not bought a seat for her child and kept him on her lap for the whole 9 hours to Atlanta. This was not an infant. This was a three-year-old who did not really fit on her lap and should have had a seat to himself. He spent most of the flight kicking the back of my seat and howling in frustration. I was ready to howl, too.

Done the US-Europe flight many times.

Fuzzy head. Disorientation. A mild feeling of being trapped if you're trying to sleep and can't on a night flight with the lights down.
Movie catch up.
Danger of getting a big guy next to you. Can be very uncomfortable.
Screaming baby one seat behind.
Jumpy kids, playing and kicking the back of your seat.
A fidget seated behind you who keeps getting up by levering himself up on the back of your seat.
Once on the way to New York I saw the northern lights, beautiful and eerie.
Lonely on a long flight on your own when you're tired.

I've always found it relaxing - especially (if it's a night flight) when things quiet down after the lights are dimmed.

I just do my best to shut my body down. The airlines seem designed to suit that mode of travel, they regularly bring light snacks. Most of the ones I've been on leave a drink cart by the bathroom so you can get a pop, juice or water any time you like.

The background whine of engines makes everything else seem very quiet. Movies on demand are the greatest invention in travel since hot air balloons. A true live-saver as I tend not to sleep on the long haul flights (mostly on purpose, since it helps to be tired when you're adjusting to a new time-zone so you can sleep there when you need to). Of course, traveling to Cape Town you'd need to sleep some time during the trip.

Sometimes you see northern lights, or something interesting out the window, but mostly it's just ocean.

It's cramped, crowded, either too cold or too hot.
I can't sleep, I doze off, but wake up because it's not dark, because someone always has to have their light on. You get this dinky little pillow that keeps slipping, and the blanket just about keeps your knees warm.
You can't stretch out because the moron in the seat in front of you has their seat tilted as far back as it can go.
The kid behind you is playing soccer with the back of your seat.
There's inevitably some poor baby who can't settle, through no fault of its own, so there's crying and, possibly, puking.
The food is ... not great, and you have to hack at it with plastic cutlery and there's never enough room so you have to move components around like some kind of puzzle, making sure you don't get the chewy bread roll in the chocolate mousse.
If you need to go to the bathroom there's usually a queue, and if you're walking down the aisle you're bound to end up face to face with a stonking great big linebacker trying to go the other way, so you end up sitting on someone's lap so the linebacker can get past.
By morning, your feet are swollen to the size of small logs, you feel grubby, nasty, you never want to wear the clothes you traveled in again.
At the airport you walk for miles, half-dead from lack of sleep. Stand in a mile long queue, if your a non UK resident, at passport control. Walk a bit further, collect your luggage (assuming it's not been forwarded to Kuala Lumpur). Stroll through the empty customs hall. If you're leaving the airport, you walk into arrivals and there's loads of people clustered around the entrance anxiously awaiting friends, relatives, etc.

That's pretty much my memory of last year's flight from AZ to London, although I missed the bit about my kid barfing and the nasty flight attendants who could've happily played the part of the witches in the Scottish Play.

Ah, the joys of air travel in the old, civilized, days. Forty years ago I flew LAX (Los Angeles) to Gatwick. Plenty of butt and leg room. Beverages on demand. Food that was actually edible. No movies, but that's why they invented books. This was a charter, so no fussy babies. No passengers who had not bathed in a month. Don't know that I would want to do it today unless I could afford at least business class.

MM

Yep, not much interesting to note. Most do have your own screen on the back of the seat in front of you, and a control that's tied by a cord to one of your armrests. You can watch movies, or news, TV shows, travel shows about where you are going, that sort of thing.

The meals they serve get cleaned up pretty quickly, imho, so you don't sit there with your tray table out. I've seen folks sleep on them, though. People do sleep, and they do turn down the lights after a while (I forget when).

I always sleep by the window because I have a bad back and have to lean on a lot of stuff and change positions frequently. I bring big sweaters or coats and have them handy for the plane, as pillows. The flight attendants get snooty if you need as many pillows as I do for my neck

The emergency door gets really cold! London or Ireland to NYC goes over some spooky stuff, too. Greenland/Iceland/ice flows at night look really creepy and cold

Also, the toilet is very loud. And I always want to smoke when I have to go, because there are so many signs mentioning smoking in there.

I've done a Missouri, USA to London and back again flight three times. I hope to never do it again. I know a lot of people have already shared their experiences, and I'd agree with all of them.

The first trip wasn't so bad. We were in a 3-5-3 plane, and I was with my dad and a friend of mine. My dad had the misfortune of getting an uncooked brownie, so when he tried to pick it up he got a handful of goo. They slept, I couldn't get comfortable, so I watched Finding Nemo. Three times. In Spanish.

My second trip was with my dad, aunt, and brother. They were on the other side of the aisle from me, so there was a lot of back and forth talking and "what?" moments. My aunt is a chain smoker, so the flight was awful for her. She was jittery and perpetually angry; I felt sorry for the gentleman seated next to her. She did have a little nicotine thing that is like a cigarette but there's no flame, not sure exactly what it was (it wasn't an e-cigarette, though those might be okay for flights, I'm not sure).

The third time I was on a school trip. I know that the constant giggles, excitement, laughter, and loud conversation was a huge annoyance for the other passengers, especially since we were scattered throughout the cabin. For the record, I took no part in any of that.

Every flight has a kid who gets bored and starts throwing fits, someone who doesn't speak English getting frustrated that the flight attendant doesn't know what they want, someone gets conked in the head by a suitcase. The worst is when you're by the window and you have to use the restroom, but the two people between you and the aisle are asleep. I know some people would just politely wake them and do their business, but not me. I'm way too shy, and that just feels rude to me. So I just squirm for hours and hours until the drinks come around and they wake up.

Ah, yeah, I use one of those nicotine capsule holders on trips. I wuv them They look like a small cigarette holder from days gone by, and they hold a capsule full of nicotine that you suck in instead of burn.

You can't smoke in the airports, so it's a long, long time between real cigarettes. If your character ever smokes, remember that.

Pretty dull, I've done a few times from east coast, and twice from west. From the east coast you pretty much fly over the Atlantic. From the west we went upto the pole and saw the Northern Lights - absolutely stunning.

Seats are pretty cramped, although slightly better than the cattle trucks they use for internal flights. Depending on the airline, in flight entertainment is free and usually a decent selection of movies/tv.

I've done the trip once with a three year old screaming for the entire flight while the apparently demented old guy behind me spent the entire flight rocking against the back of my seat. Believe me that can make you very grumpy.

I don't get jet lagged going west to east, east to west absolutely sucks.

Immigration is horrendous - depending on nationality you want to allow 3 hours for immigration at the end of the flight (if they're American into UK, that is, a UK subject can walk through UK immigration in minutes but will have the same delay getting into US).

Hah, some great descriptions in this thread. Very entertaining, and I'm glad I'm not the only one who always seems to get the seat next to the kicking, screaming child.

If you're starting to feel that putting your MCs on such a flight would be cruel and unusual punishment, you might consider bumping them up to first class. That way they have acres of room to stretch out in, get served haute cuisine and a selection of fine wines, then when it's time to nap a few hours away the chair folds down into a comfortable flat bed with a nice blanket and a fluffy pillow. The worst you have to worry about is being woken up during a pleasant dream so someone can offer you a glass of brandy.

sigh. I went transatlantic in the front cabin once, using a friend's free upgrade voucher. I've never crossed the water since, because I can't afford it on my own and I wouldn't survive economy again after that experience.

Just done Prague to New York and Los Angeles to Amsterdam last weekend. Prague to NYC was atrocious - paid for a supposed 'comfort seat' which actually seemed smaller and more cramped than the regular ones. Delayed two hours taking off as well so everyone on board was a bit crabby. The guy next to me, an American, was on his cellphone when I took my seat, and because I spoke Czech to the stewardess (who had spoken to me in Czech first), assumed I was Czech, and said very loudly to whomever he was speaking to on the phone 'yeah and to make it worse they've put me next to one of these Czech sluts, really ugly one'. He proceeded to then be as rude as hell to the cabin crew as well.

I always try to get an aisle seat on a long haul flight because then I can stretch my legs out to the side of the seat in front, and also I can get out to the toilet or for a walk whenever I want. It's really hard to sleep though and those cushion things for your neck don't work for me. Plus just as you drift off, it's drinks time or meal time or someone stomps past the seat and wakes you up.

It is very very dry on a lot of flights and you find yourself going mad if you don't have a bottle of water to hand. And it can get really cold sometimes. Last few flights I've been on, even the long haul ones, have had really bad turbulence as well, so we've spent most of the time with the seatbelt sign on, not supposed to get up and wander about (though people do). If it's a night time flight they dim the lights in the cabin so quite often people are sitting sleeping in the dark, or just a few wee reading lights on, then the dim ones to be able to see in the aisle. One thing I have noticed, flying quite regularly, is that now people tend to use these wheelie bags for hand luggage, the flight crew type bags, there is very little space in the overhead lockers, and it takes ages to actually get to your seat because you have to wait for those people to drag their little bags along the aisle (guess what my current bugbear about air travel is?? ) so a lot of the initial 'getting the plane ready for takeoff' as you get seated is trying to find space for everyone's luggage, quite often with people having to put their case like four, five rows away because the lockers are full of such big bags there's no more room.

Amsterdam flight was not so bad because it was KLM, so we had individual TVs in the back of the seat with entertainment you could choose, rather than just having to crane over the seat in front to see one of the screens in the ceiling, and also the guy in the seat next to me didn't turn up, so I had much more space. A lot of turbulence on that one too though and the fog was so bad at Schiphol that we didn't even realise we'd landed, thought we were still in the cloud cover, until the plane slammed on the brakes. I've noticed KLM tend to feed you rather a lot on a long haul flight as well, more so than some other airlines I've flown with, who give you snacks. They actually give you like sandwiches and stuff as well as your meal. People were really bad tempered on that flight as well though because it was nearly full. We had one comfort seat available up front and people were fighting over it (it was 170 euro, so I wasn't fighting!)

Few months ago I also did London to Vancouver, which was a pretty long one, but weirdly I don't remember that being as uncomfortable as the shorter flights.

One thing I do love though is the little graphic you can get on most flights with personal entertainment, where you can watch where you're flying over and how long it is til landing. I like knowing where I am.

Haven't done US-Europe, but I've flown back and forth between Japan and the States a few times. Same as everyone else: cramped, boring, exhausting. When I want to sleep, I can't. When I want to work, I fall asleep. It starts feeling like airborne purgatory around the second hour or so, especially when that map keeps popping up and showing how much progress you HAVEN'T made toward your destination, which seriously looks like it's getting farther away instead of closer.

On my last flight from Japan, I was super stressed and decided that yes I WOULD take advantage of one of the perks of international flights: FREE BOOZE. I don't drink as a general rule, but I drank myself stupid on that flight. I was still drunk when my mom picked me up in Seattle (which made it a little challenging to get my cats through customs, since my brain wasn't quite operational, but I got through). Best. Flight. EVER.

To recap:
Sober? Sucks.
Drunk? Not too bad.

LA to London-- 11 hours of delight! I agree that it's super disorienting--your body is in a weird twilight zone and stuck in one spot. I am a super lazy slug and it's even too much sitting for my tastes! I finish all my fantasy novels and watch weird 80s cartoons like Barbapappa and fall asleep and have distressing dreams! They turn the lights off for a while overnight, then on in the morning and serve breakfast. When I flew Air France the stereotypically rude flight attendants shook everyone awake to serve breakfast, though I was glad of it. You can pick the movies and tv shows and music you want to play on your little tv thingy, and there's more leg room in coach than on a normal domestic flight.

Best thing that ever happened on a California-Europe flight: flight attendant announced that there was a self-serve box of haagen-daaz ice cream bars in the back galley. Let's just say that I totally did not at all eat three of them. That seriously never happened...

Worst thing ever: hippie chick next to us came in and took off her shoes and stowed them in the pocket on the back of her seat. Every part of her alarming barefoot self smelled like a toe that has never before been washed. My partner constructed a pitiful blanket barrier to try to protect her from the horror, and eventually Toe Woman moved to another seat, taking her sandals with her to terrorize other innocents.

I do a lot of travelling. We take 2 or 3 holidays a year. All these descriptions are true.

LA to London is 11 hours, New York to London about 6 hours, and don't forget the time difference. Jet lag is a killer.

Flights from US to Europe are usually overnight. But I never get to sleep. Not because I'm not tired, it's just not comfortable. You have to sit up. When you nod off your head falls forward and jerks you awake. Even with those little pillows, eye masks and ear plugs, there's no way of getting comfy, and the noise from the engines keeps you awake (or the screaming child, as has already been mentioned).

If you're flying from the East Coast to London, you're not on the plane long enough to sleep, but because of the time difference you go through a day in New York, fly through the night, land in London the following morning and have to go through another day. You've had no sleep, you feel dehydrated, disoriented, and your body swells up. Not to mention you've been wearing the same clothes for more than 24 hours. Your eyeballs feel scratchy, from lack of sleep and the dry air in the plane.

it bugs me when people in films (and novels) get off a plane and go sailing into doing what they're meant to be doing, full of energy. The day after a long-haul flight, you're good for nothing. If you have to stay awake all day, your brain feels like mush. Simple tasks like remembering your phone number, your address, or even your name, become difficult.

The first thing I think about when getting off a plane is shower, clean clothes, cup of tea, sleep in a decent bed (not always in that order).

It also takes a couple of days of feeling disoriented and dehydrated before you get over the jet lag.

The fluids in your body expand, especially arms, feet and abdomen. I can't wear jeans on a plane - they become too tight and constricting after a while. I tend to go for things with elasticated waist bands. I take my shoes off on a flight because it's more comfortable, but sometimes it's difficult putting them back on again.

It's really not an idea way of travelling. Somebody please hurry up and invent teleporting....

Shara

JFK to Heathrow... five plus hours one way, six plus the return trip and about the only thing I looked forward to was international waters. That's when they opened the bar cart and I could finally relax a tiny bit.

I'm a veteran of long flights. Been doing it almost yearly since I was six (exactly six, my first flight was on my birthday ). So... that's about 40 times at least (there and back). Including a trip from India to Canada. That's practically around the world...

I've come to find it relaxing. Once you're up there, there's nothing to do about any of your worldly cares. You can't be reached by phones, there's only a limited amount of work you can do if so inclined...
Traveling coach can be uncomfortable, especially if like me you're on the larger side but it's bearable and most people now are used to sitting for long periods of time, even longer than a flight New York - London. If your character has a book or a computer, I would expect time would pass by quite quickly and transatlantic trips tend to be overnight and the rumbling of the engines and the A/C puts can put you to sleep fairly efficiently.

Planes do tend to be a bit chilly though and in my experience having a personal screen is still not the standard but the radio is decent enough for the purpose and there will be at least two films and probably some sitcoms playing on the cabin screens.

Stewards pass by regularly offering snacks or drinks but less often after the lights are turned down and people start going to sleep.

Kids can make the experience hell though, especially babies and toddlers and even more so if the parents are incompetent or don't care if their precious brood bother people. Some parents seem to think the cabin crew should double as baby sitters... Kids running down aisles can be extremely annoying. Most kids though are quite happy with crayons or video games (some airlines provide them inflight).

The food is much better now than it used to be. Stewards are much crankier and ruder than before (in my experience...).

Also, before the plane takes off there will be a safety demonstration where they show people how to buckle and unbuckle their belt etc (I'm sure there are videos on Youtube, personally, I could do the demo in my sleep >_<)...

I think the worst part really is the bits in the airports.

Shara said:

it bugs me when people in films (and novels) get off a plane and go sailing into doing what they're meant to be doing, full of energy. The day after a long-haul flight, you're good for nothing. If you have to stay awake all day, your brain feels like mush. Simple tasks like remembering your phone number, your address, or even your name, become difficult.

Click to expand...

Maybe it's because, as I said before, I've been doing it for a long time but I don't really suffer from jet lag and I do go straight into whatever activities I want after landing. I might get hungry at the "wrong times" but don't get any of the neurological symptoms of jet lag. When I watch films, unless they mention it's a person's first long flight, I don't think anything of it and assume they slept in flight. They all also seem to fly business anyway and that's COMFY (and the stewards are so much nicer...).

I travel a lot. I've done Canada to Europe (our transfer was in Amsterdam though). The quality of the trip is dependent on the airline and the class of seat you've purchased. Coach on an Asian carrier is VASTLY superior to coach on an American Carrier. As people mentioned, it's mostly a bore, you read, you watch movies, you pace the aisles to stretch your legs.

Longest flight I've ever been on was 18 hours to Hong Kong. I wanted to murder people when I got off.

I was upgraded to first class for a trip to Japan once, and it was the most incredible flight-related experience I've had.

Ah, first class, how I long for our next meeting.

I've done London to New York and it was fine. It was about a 6 hour flight if I recall, which is dead easy compared to the 24 hour London to Sydney I usually do which is hell on earth for me.

No jet lag, and I was able to read part of a book and edit some of wip. Six hours is just long enough to do some work, read a bit, relax, watch some TV. I think it's ok. Towards the end you start to get a bit restless.

I wouldn't think you'd sleep unless you were tired - or flying beyond New York or course.

Incredibly boring. Also, when you have claustrophobia, it can be hard to keep your cool in a tiny airplane seat for hours and hours and hours. The middle aisle on a 777 is the worst. There's two, three people either side of you. I remember watching High Fidelity on the tiny screen in back of the seat in front of me and straining to hear the dialogue even with the sound turned right up. Didn't help that I'd missed my flight and was flying standby, heading for Chicago O'Hare instead of Newark. The man to my right held tight onto the armrests during take-off and landing. I gave up on High Fidelity even though I was incredibly bored because I thought the guy was just a shit and why should I care?

Now a flight home on an MD-11 in a window seat with nobody sitting next to me was much more pleasant. Room to stretch out, nobody crowding your space or to worry about disturbing if you want to get up. Somewhere to put things. Almost possible to forget you're in a tube you can't escape from for hours.

I remember one flight, I think it was a 767, the pilot had the ventilation cranked up so high that the air coming into the cabin was actually cold. My nose went all dry inside. Also, the let-down was so fast that the pressure in my head didn't adjust properly. On the connecting flight, waiting for take-off I was blowing my nose and swallowing and coughing, trying to equalize the pressure. We'd been at 41,000 feet.

This woman next to me actually told me off for getting on a plane when I was sick, and asked the stewardess to move her to another seat!

I didn't mind; I got two seats to myself.

I haven't flown for years and I suspect that it may have got easier with mobile phones and ereaders to pass the time. My sister flies more and says you just have to be prepared to be miserable and uncomfortable for a few hours.

My husband swears that if you adjust your watch to the timezones you're passing through, you don't get jet lag. Personally when I get very tired I act as if I'm drunk. Not good. I remember searching for my ticket on the Heathrow Express and thinking it hilarious I couldn't find it. The guard did not think it was hilarious.

If your seat is right next to one of the emergency exit doors, one of the flight stewards/esses will want to check that you're physically capable of opening the door should it be necessary. If you're not, they'll swap your seat so there's someone there who is capable. You're supposed to throw the door out of the plane.

The safety briefing is usually recorded. There'll also be a laminated safety sheet in the pouch fastened to the seat in front of you (or at the side of your seat if you're over a door).

Airlines I've flown with have allowed you to listen in on the conversation between the pilot and ATC during take-off/landing. There's often also a little map with a track showing you how far you've gone and showing current altitude. Some people like this stuff (I do).

You have to book special meals (vegetarian, vegan, kosher, etc) in advance. If you're flying standby you can be out of luck.

There's a button next to your seat to call the steward/ess and they'll bring you a drink or a blanket or a pillow or what-have-you. I've been given tiny toothbrush-and-toothpaste kits and also warm wet towels. There's usually airline-branded stuff you can buy, like pens and keyrings and playing cards.

(bear in mind that some of this info may be out of date)