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I stopped doing red eyes in the economy section. My last one was a summer ski trip to Chile at age 50. My business trips to Asia, it’s lie flat business class or I won’t go. We’re in Europe a couple times per year these days. I’ve been taking the Boston-Heathrow morning flights for decades. Depart Boston at 8am. In the passport control line in London at 7pm. Free bus route to an airport hotel. Walk to get a bite to eat. Sleep in a real bed. Continue on the next day after a leisurely morning. It makes the time zone adjustment much easier. We have a Munich-Boston flight in October. With an aisle seat so I can get up and walk around, that’s fine.
Recently did a 10 hour flight from Barcelona to Ft Lauderdale in economy and was surprised at how well it went. I did take an aspirin, as I've had a DVT before. I also got adjacent aisle seats for DH and I so we could still talk but could also make it easy to get up and walk around. It turned out the flight was more than half empty so we each had a row to ourselves, and the flight crew didn't care if people were switching seats or laying down across the entire rows. We also had a very nice and hearty lunch and evening snack, and free liquor. I was not aware that they still did that. With the choices of about 50 different in-flight movies and TV shows available, and a good book, the time flew by. I did try to get up about every 2 hours and walk the length of the aisle and back once or twice and did some toe raises and stretches a few times just to stay loose. I expected to be miserable, but was pleasantly surprised.
Never had any issues when flying. Being retired we now take advantage and fly BC for flights over 4 hours, making flying even easier. We feel much better when arriving at our destination and can hit the ground running without much problem.
I’ve been taking the Boston-Heathrow morning flights for decades. Depart Boston at 8am. In the passport control line in London at 7pm. Free bus route to an airport hotel. Walk to get a bite to eat. Sleep in a real bed. Continue on the next day after a leisurely morning. It makes the time zone adjustment much easier.
DH and I did that on the way to Scotland years ago. We were going on to the Orkneys, so a few more stops beyond Heathrow and it was a good break. I thought I wouldn't be able to sleep because my body would still be on East Coast US time. I was wrong.
DH and I flew to Rio nonstop from Newark in 2000. Continental was initiating their service and they offered us round trips for 17,500 OnePass miles each. We jumped on it. Good thing- never saw that offer again. DH, who was 62 at the time, said that was the longest he'd ever want to be in Coach.
My longest flight has been Newark to Delhi nonstop. That was 15 hours but it was Business Class, so it was manageable. My department head offered us the option of flying to India in Coach with an overnight somewhere; I did that once and chose London. The overnight really helped and I got in a little sightseeing.
Now, at 66, I won't do long-hauls in Coach. If I can't do it with miles or for a manageable price, I go elsewhere.
A co-worker suffered a pulmonary embolism last year caused by a string of delayed flights and lay-overs from Detroit to Aruba. He told me later the total time in cramped seats was 9 hours. What should be most alarming to everyone is that this guy is in excellent physical condition, fit & trim, playing full-contact Senior Bracket Hockey two or three times each week!
At age 50 we started flying business class to Europe (we went every year). At age 60 we started flying 1st class domestically on any flight longer than 2 hours. At age 65 we started flying 1st class on all flights no matter their length. Makes a big difference in our tolerance levels. Still prefer flying to driving as we can stand and walk around when we fly.
Just a tip and a lot of you probably already know this: Google Maps Street View has covered most of the WORLD. It's extremely satisfying to see the back streets of world famous cities and countryside, farms, etc. Not just the tourist spots (the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of David, the Coliseum, Buckingham Palace, etc)..we've seen those 69 hundred times. Wouldn't you be more interested in seeing how the typical Japanese or German or Korea or Venezuelan or Australian, etc live..the folks like you and me? What his driveway, school, 7-11s, cars, garbage cans, telephone poles, street scenes, buses, front lawn, traffic, window coverings, advertisements, clothes, litter, community zoning, graffiti, theaters, grocery stores, auto repair buildings, restaurants, etc looked like?
For example, I've heard Japan is one of the most peaceful countries in the world so I googled something like "Japan's most dangerous neighborhoods" and did a street view on them. And sure enough, nothing...maybe a teeny bit of graffiti, no bars on the windows. Similarly, find majority Muslim neighborhoods in Sweden or Germany. Interesting. These are things you'd NEVER see traveling there unless you spent weeks there and rented a car. More likely you're on a bus, driving for six hours, getting out, taking a picture, getting back on a bus, driving six hours, taking a picture, getting back on the bus....
One other thing, if you live in a super multicultural city like Los Angeles, you don't need to travel to see how other people live, work, eat, etc....they came to you. In Los Angeles there isn't one group of people in the world not living here. I can hear their language, see their customs, eat their food, etc. any time I want. These further lessens the desire to travel to another country.
Last edited by SoCal_Native; 07-28-2019 at 09:16 AM..
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