re: World’s longest commercial flight starts tonight

I've gone Atlanta to Seoul in 15.5 hours direct. It was fricking brutal. I can't imagine adding another 4.5 hours.

LAX TO New Zealand.

quote:

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What’s the longest flight you’ve been on?

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Seattle-Tacoma to Osan Air Base, South Korea - About 12 hours give or take.

That was a grueling flight, I don't think I'd want to be on a plane for 20 hours even if it's on a dreamliner.

17 hour flight.

DFW to Hong Kong.

I couldn't get on a plane knowing I couldn't get off for 20+ hours without copious amounts of benzos. frick that.

I’ve done Dallas to Brisbane 16 hours which was previously the longest non stop flight in the world. It was actually worse coming back bc it was constantly daylight. (In economy seating I might add).

Just imagine, you can watch the entire lord of the rings trilogy including the hobbit series from start to finish on these flights....

I’ve been wanting to take my two kids (1 & 3 yrs old) to Australia so this is great news.

How to survive long flights, as someone who doesn’t sleep much on planes:

- Bring some form of sleep aid. You need to at least get an hour or two of sleep to reset your system, or you’ll start to shut down
- If you are tired but can’t sleep, put on the eye mask and listen to an instrumental album on a low volume. You’ll go in and out without being as frustrated
- Wear layers. The plane will be warm during the day and freezing cold at night. It will be especially cold around your feet, so plan accordingly
- Get up and walk around every few hours. It’s easier to stay ahead of your legs wearing out than to fix it once they start to cramp
- Always take a bottle of water when offered. Attendant service thins out for long periods of time, and you’ll feel like a dick hitting the attendant request button
- Rotate between forms of entertainment. There’s always another movie to watch, but doing some reading , or hell, some work, will help break things up
- Try not to stare at the flight track map
- If you do, yes, that weird arching path is in fact quicker than flying in a straight line
- Pay for the WiFi and fall down a Wikipedia rabbit hole reading about why that’s so
- Be kind to the flight attendants. It’s a long fricking day for them, too
- Try to avoid putting anything in your seat pocket. You will likely forget it. Especially ear buds.

I could do it with an internet connection. shite, I do 12 hours on the reg at work. 20 would be no big deal as long as I had a comfy chair and the internet so I could mock you fools, Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc.

The internet is crucial, though, for all the different forms of entertainment, opportunity to work, etc. it can provide via one conduit. 20 hours just sitting there with no connection to the outside world? I believe I'd be wearing a skin suit made out of my neighbors by the end.

It's still better than a day and a half of traveling to get there with layovers in foreign airports. 20 hours non-stop in the air in a great circle route is the fastest way to get there. Otherwise, you're just spending more time in the air so you can fly to airports somewhat near your ideal route so you can sit there for a layover.

The route lives and dies on whether people will take it over the day and a half with layovers.

I've done the Los Angeles-Sydney route, 14 hours, a handful of times.

The longest damn trip I ever had, including layovers, was driving to Sydney from Nowra (3 hours) - Sydney to Tokyo (9 hours) - Layover in Tokyo (12 hours) - Tokyo to Dallas (14 hours) - Layover in Dallas (2 hours) - Dallas to New Orleans (1.5 hours) - Drive from New Orleans to Baton Rouge (1.5 hours). Total from doorstep to doorstep was 43 hours. I maybe slept for about 8 of those hours.

Repeat in reverse a month later.