Preparing for Long Flights

By Jay

• Airborne tablets for a week are good
• Prepare yourself for 8 to 16 hours of inactivity and airport time is far worse than flying time. The airport lounge is not getting you closer to your destination.
• Avoid caffeine and alcohol for 24 hours before flying. Save the celebration for your destination.
• Don't drink alcohol on the plane. If you think it will help you sleep you will be wrong. You may get snippets of sleep but no REMS.
• Drink copious amounts of water (no caffeine drinks) before and during flight. Dehydration is a big problem.
• Wear ANTI-DVT socks (deep vein thrombosis)
• Avoid the blue screen, it has an effect on melatonin production. Read books on Kindle.
• Sit up front when you can afford it.
• Take red-eye flights when possible so you arrive in the morning.
• Take sleep aid drugs if you must; we never do.
• It's very hard to get comfortable in a coach seat, but a lot of people prefer the window seat. If it is one of three, we prefer the middle and aisle. Sometimes we book the window and aisle and hope that no one books the seat between us. We negotiate if someone books the middle. If we book a very full flight, we sometimes book two aisle seats across from each other. Seatguru.com and themaninseat61.com are great sites to get seat configuration recommendations. You could also ask Jain.... she is very good at getting the best seats.
• If you pack your "mybaggbyjain" properly, it makes a good pillow or foot rest. After take-off, place your carry-on behind your legs so you have free leg space under the seat in front of you or use it as a pillow on the tray table.
• Always buckle your seat belt on top of the blanket so the flight attendant doesn't have to wake you.
• If you don't want to be disturbed after take-off, ask your neighbor to speak for you when the cart comes by.
• If you are unfortunate to have a noisy or stinky child in front or behind you, remember you had the opportunity to purchase business or first class tickets. Mayhem is never a good option, so suck it up and realize the parent is having a rough time too and they have to live with the brat 24/7.