9 Must-Dos to Help You Prepare for a Long Flight

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If you don’t take long-haul flights very often, everything about the experience can seem intimidating—the interminable hours aloft, the sketchy choice of seats, choosing an airline you know nothing about, wondering if and how well you will be fed, dealing with boredom. And then there’s the pricing, which can put you back on your heels within seconds of clicking “Search for Flights.” If you don’t know how to prepare for a long flight, your trip can quickly turn into a demanding experience, both physically and mentally.

To keep long-haul flying from becoming long-suffering, here are nine tips to consider before booking your next big international flight.

Once you get into the stratosphere of long-haul flight pricing, the numbers involved start to become a little scary—there aren’t many three-figure long-haul price quotes out there, and the sticker shock can sting.

However, when you consider a long-haul flight as a by-the-hour experience, a higher cost on a comfortable aircraft with a stellar entertainment system and good food may start to seem fairly attractive when compared to a hellish flight on a cramped aircraft with overhead screens showing bad movies.

Take stock of your options carefully when weighing price vs. amenities; if you are going to be on a plane for a total of 30 hours coming and going, and it costs an extra $150 to get a better flight on a better airline, ask yourself if you would pay $5/hour for a much better seat, with better food, better movies, and better service.

Sometimes you simply can’t get from one point to another on a single lengthy flight, so you will have to choose a connecting flight. On long-haul travel in particular, where you will in many cases make your connection on foreign soil, transferring to another flight can be an arduous endeavor. Frequently it can involve clearing customs, picking up luggage, moving to a different terminal, rechecking bags, clearing security again, etc.—this can sometimes take hours.

When booking your travel, you may sometimes see a connection that the airlines think is reasonable—but often these decisions are made based on arbitrary, computer-imposed timeframes, and simply are not possible. A connection may be “legal,” but that doesn’t mean you can make it happen, or even come close.

For example, I recently was shown a 50-minute connection on a flight coming from Mexico, connecting to another airport in California. This connection gave me less than an hour to get off the plane, collect my bags, clear customs, recheck my bags, go through U.S. security, and get to my gate. Given that you are really required to be at your gate 20 minutes minimum before takeoff, in truth I had about a half-hour to do everything—that is, if my first flight arrived and unloaded on time.

Another connection I was recently offered by an online system turned out to require an overnight stay in Germany—so even discounting the hassle, I would have had to pay for a hotel room to boot. The flight was priced nicely, sure—but add a 100-euro hotel stay to the airfare, and it didn’t look so great any longer.

Not all airlines are created equal; in fact, long-haul travel may be where you find the greatest differentiation between airlines. You will want to concern yourself mainly with three things:

• Food
• Entertainment
• Comfort

For food, almost all long-haul flights include a sensible frequency of meals. If you are a picky eater, however, you will want to do some research on the meal offerings of your various airline options. Almost all airlines have this information on their websites—or check out AirlineMeals.net, which has thousands of pictures from different meals on countless airlines.

Also, plan to pack some food that you would eat during a normal day at home or work—so if you eat a handful of trail mix every morning to get you through to lunch, plan on having some when you fly.

After making sure you will more or less like the food, you will want to know how you are going to fill the hours on the plane, which will pass more slowly than you think. In particular, unless you have a massively tricked-out tablet going, a decent in-flight entertainment system is absolutely critical. The most important part of this is to have your own individual seatback screen rather than overhead screens. Seatback screens offer two advantages:

• Over the course of several hours, they are far less physically demanding to view.
• Seatback systems usually offer much greater variety, so you are not stuck watching whatever terrible movie has been loaded for everyone to watch on the aircraft equipped with overhead screens, whether they like it or not.

SeatGuru (SmarterTravel’s sister site) can really help here, as its seating charts include information not only about seat locations, sizes, and the like but also whether the aircraft has seatback or overhead screens. You will also want to check whether your seat will have an outlet to power your phone or tablet, especially if you’re counting on bringing your own movies, music, or TV.

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For comfort, read on.

Before you purchase a long-haul ticket, research what type of aircraft your airline options are likely to fly on the route, and how they have configured the aircraft. This information will come in handy not only when choosing your seats immediately after your purchase, but in choosing between competing airlines on the same route.

For example, a plane with a 3 – 3 configuration is typically more grueling than some other setups, such as a 3 – 5 – 3 configuration, mainly because the presence of only one aisle will have you competing for space not only with other passengers but especially with flight staff as they perform drink and meal services. These days passengers are expected to stay seated during these times—and on a long flight, this can be tough, not to mention unhealthy.

Going back to SeatGuru, there are a few other seat considerations to take into account. Having a seat that reclines, and does not have foot area obstructions, and does not have a ton of passenger traffic, and has a window, etc., will make a huge difference over the course of 15 hours as opposed to four or five. Make sure your aircraft and your specific seats do not show any yellow or red flags.

As I have written previously, the only flight I was ever sorry to see end was a long-haul flight on which I had used miles to upgrade to first class. I had decompressed to an extent that I had not felt since I was a school kid on vacation; it was an odd sensation.

You will want to check for upgrades before, during, and after you book your flight; see First Class for Free: How to Get an Airline Upgrade for some ideas.

If you are going to endure 14 hours in the air both coming and going on a long trip, you might as well get some frequent flyer benefit from the experience. To this end, you may want to choose an airline with which you already have a membership or at least one that’s in the same alliance as the airline you belong to.

Most people choose comfortable clothes when flying, but it isn’t uncommon to see men in stiff business suits and women in high heels wobbling onto planes. When it comes to a long-haul flight, these choices become critical when you remember that you will likely want to do the following:

• Fall asleep. Choose clothes that are forgiving of slumping in your seat, “rolling over” without clinging, or potentially even lying across a couple of seats if available.
• Take off your shoes. Go for footwear that can be easily slipped off and back on again, all without having to strain to reach under the seat in front of you.
• Walk around. Pick shoes that are very comfortable, and easy to balance in if you hit some turbulence.
• Stretch. Choose clothes that move with you.

I covered this a bit in 10 Ways to Survive a Long-Haul Flight, which is definitely worth a look once you have booked your trip. Also, see 18 Things You Should Always Wear on a Plane.

With tablets becoming ever more popular, especially among folks who travel quite a bit and are likely to take long-haul flights, this needs mentioning here. In this case, I don’t mean making sure your apps are up to date and organizing your icon and folder system—this is a much more serious task.

If you are going to rely on a tablet to get you through two 15-hour flights coming and going, you are going to need new, fresh, and absolutely compelling stuff on your tablet to get you through. I’m talking at least a couple of movies—and these should be bucket-list movies that will absorb you, not just whatever you have sitting around in your movie queue. Then add at least a couple of books in digital format, of different genres, so if you tire of a long novel, you can go read about indigenous local plants to consider for your garden.

So as you’re preparing for a long flight, maybe you load up one fiction book—one that you know you are going to like—and then one non-fiction, utilitarian book focusing on a subject in which you have a long-time, serious interest (business or hobby titles, an oral recording history of the Beatles, that kind of thing). And don’t forget an hour or two of your favorite tunes.

As I suggest above, a long-haul flight in first class is like a vacation day. I am not kidding. And unless you indulge in in-flight internet access, it might be the only true day off you get all year. Even if you don’t end up in the front of the plane, it is still a full day away from phones, email, driving around, lawn-mowing, etc. So as you prepare for a long flight, weigh all your options as if you were choosing your only day off all year—and then prepare yourself to take that full day off, complete with your favorite clothes, favorite books and movies, a nap, good snacks, all of it.

More from SmarterTravel:

• The 10 Best Flight Search Sites for Booking Cheap Airfare
• 10 Things Not to Do at Airport Security
• 10 In-Flight Essentials You Should Never Travel Without

Editor’s note: This story was originally published in 2017. It has been updated to reflect the most current information.

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