How to prepare for a Long Haul flight

The prospect of your first long haul flight can be scary. However if you get your self ready for the journey, you can help combat the hours of boredom before landing.

1.Choose a good airline

I cannot stress this point enough, when you have to spend a reasonable length of time in a small space you don’t want to sit their thinking I hate everything about this. If you haven’t flown with the airline before, do your research and look at reviews to make sure it is a reputable airline. You will always get better value for money if you pay that bit extra for a good airline than saving money for a bad experience.

2.Bring your own entertainment

Some airlines will have a great choice of films and TV shows, others will not. Bring along an iPad, laptop, kindle or magazine or whatever else will help pass the time. I would especially recommend this for flights longer than 10 hours as around that time you will have got through all the good Films/TV shows on the inflight entertainment.

3.Consider extra leg room

I have only done it once on a long haul flight before, but considering it was 14 hours it was the best thing I ever did. It meant my legs were not cramped and I could stretch them out for the whole flight and it is the first time I managed to get to sleep properly on a plane.

4. Eat before you board

Have you ever got on a plane and wanted to sleep straight away? Yes so have I. Have you also slept for the first 5 hours of the flight, missed dinner and had to wait towards the end of a 12 hour flight before you were served food again? maybe not but I learnt that this was a terrible idea the hard way. Eat a good filling meal before the flight just incase you sleep through the meal or if you want to avoid eating plane food (lets face it, its usually not great).

5. Make yourself tired before you board the flight

One of the best ways to pass time is to sleep through it. But its not easy when you are sitting upright on a cramped economy seat. Do what ever you need to do before the flight for you to get extremely tired. Everyone has their own ways of doing this but I find being very busy during the day before I board the flight helps as well as extra leg room.

6.Bring what you need, not what you think you need

Who wants to be that person that is dragging their hand luggage on the plane and can barely lift it up into the overhead locker because it is too heavy. Not me! but I have definitely been guilty of this in the past. All you need to bring is your passport, ticket, any documents you made need to enter the country you are travelling to and your entertainment. That is it! I would also recommend that you put a few items that you will use throughout the flight in the pouch in front of your seat. It can be frustrating having to get your stuff out the overhead locker every time you want to use something.

7.Don’t Panic Everything will be fine!

For people who don’t like flying/never flown long haul or only on a few occasions, the prospect of spending a long time in the air can be daunting. There is no need to feel like this, yes you may get bored but that is honestly is the worse thing that is going to happen to you. I have been fortunate enough never to have a problem with flying but if anyone has any tips of how to overcome these worries please comment below for our fellow travellers.