Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I'm used to take 13~14 hours flights, it's not that unbearable as what most other people said, personally I'm totally fine. So anything longer than 12 hours would be considered a long flight.
UK to Chicago, Detroit, and further west, 10-11 hours. An 8 hour-long flight to Boston/NY is okay, although I'm starting to find it more boring the more often I do it, there are only so many cloud formations to photograph. Once the plane's over land, and I can occasionally see things on the ground, I find the flight more interesting, and the time goes quicker.
Well, in Europe almost all domestic destinations can be reached within around 2 hours. "Long" airplane flights for many people is just "overseas flights".
In Economy class, more than 3-4 hours for me is "long but bearable". More than 8-9 hours is getting really uncomfortable as I am roughly six-five and I really try to avoid more than 10 hours in coach. Did AMS-LAX recently in 10:20 plus one hour sitting in the plane before getting ready and after a while it was really not that convenient anymore.
However, in Business class I have done some longer flights, the longest was almost 18 hours, and still enjoyable.
At what point does air travel start to become uncomfortable for you? I ask because i noticed Americans love to brag about their fly proximity to other major cities where as Europeans have high speed rail for semi-long distance traveling.
I'd get bored fast in a plane than a train because i enjoy looking out the windowin train rides. Airplanes im stuck with a movie or nap
Bring your favorite music to bliss out to, and the time will fly. You can also bring reading material, obviously. I always travel with books, and on long flights, I also bring music. Heaven!
I guess it's just a matter of the individual's patience
There seems to be a psychological factor. When flying from the West Coast to Europe, it was a long f-ing flight, and the jet lag after arrival the last time I went, was killer. (When I was younger, I was unfazed.) OTOH, back when there were direct flights from the West Coast to the Russian Pacific Coast, it was around 10-12 hrs. including stops on the "polar route"--Anchorage & Kamchatka, usually. I was never bored. I was so grateful that service even existed (flying thru Moscow from West Coast USA, & from there way over to the Pacific, sucks, and now the only other option is to fly to Korea or Japan, spend the night, then connect onwards from there), and I was always so happy to be going to Russia , somehow all that mitigated any sense of tediousness from a long flight. The jet lag in that direction wasn't bad at all, either. Coming back was a different story. But still, the flight itself didn't bother me.
Has anyone noticed, btw, that the older you get, the harder jet lag hits you? I guess it depends partly on whether you can sleep on the flight.
Has anyone noticed, btw, that the older you get, the harder jet lag hits you? I guess it depends partly on whether you can sleep on the flight.
For me, familiarity induces jet lag. The first few times I went to Tokyo, I was all hopped up and barely felt it, except for waking in the middle of the night occasionally (that's always a good time to make calls back to the States. ). After doing it a few times, it became somewhat routine and jet lag would pound me by 2 - 3 in the afternoon even though I always sleep on the flight. The same holds true for Europe. If it's a city that I'm familiar with, it's a slower adjustment. That said, being wide awake at midnight is not a bad thing in Europe. Coming home takes about five days to get fully reoriented whether coming from the east or the west.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
). After doing it a few times, it became somewhat routine and jet lag would pound me by 2 - 3 in the afternoon even though I always sleep on the flight. The same holds true for Europe. If it's a city that I'm familiar with, it's a slower adjustment. That said, being wide awake at midnight is not a bad thing in Europe. Coming home takes about five days to get fully reoriented whether coming from the east or the west.
