NEW! My Best Long Haul Flight Tips

hey everybody it's Jen welcome or welcome back to the channel do you have a long haul flight coming up maybe you're going to visit family for the holidays maybe you have a vacation plan that you're super excited about I did I think eight Long Haul flights just in the last 12 months and in that time I have learned a lot so I'm bringing you some new information today and also it's important that you know that only one of those eight flights was I in first class so I am a frequent economy traveler so hopefully these tips will help economy feel a little bit more like first class and you'll enjoy your journey no matter where you're headed first of all if you're new to my channel it is an honor to have you here if you find that you love this video please give it a big thumbs up and it would mean the world to me if you would subscribe it's free it's easy and it really does help me out here on YouTube I was raised by an airline pilot my dad was in the military and then he was a commercial pilot for Continental Airlines and my husband is now a commercial pilot for Delta Airlines I have have traveled all over the world uh most recently last spring I took my longest flight yet to Tokyo Japan um you can learn all about how I learned how to sleep really well although I am going to talk a little bit about in this video if you head to this video right here but today mostly we're just going to give an overview right the five things that I think you have to know if you are planning a Long Hall flight so the first couple things you're going to do before you ever leave home and the first is going to be choose your seat wisely now I know that a lot of us are either window people or aisle people I really don't like being in the middle I don't know anyone that likes being in the middle I could go either way I do find I get better sleep if I'm in the window seat uh but I also don't love having to disturb my neighbor to use the ladies room but when you're in the aisle keep in mind there is kind of a steady stream of activity going on so if you're someone that hopes to sleep for me I think the window is usually my preferred seat but everybody knows what they like generally so just make sure that you've picked the seat that you like Pro tip there the earlier you book your flights the better odds you'll have of getting a good seat and certain airlines like Delta if you're part of their Sky miles program you have access to certain preferred seats earlier than the general public things like that so definitely take advantage of any affiliations that you can to get the best seat possible the so categories are interesting um Delta for example has obviously Delta 1 Premium select on a lot of longer flights Comfort plus and then economy I always feel that like an exit Row in economy is actually better than a comfort Plus or a premium select seat because even though you might get slightly upgraded amenities to me unless you're in the live flat seats up front there are no amenities that are worth the extra leg room so I always pick the the most comfortable seat seat over necessarily the class of service if that makes sense I always wish that they and I think one Airline is starting to do this that they would give like a first class light where all you're paying for is the life flat bed and not any of the upgraded food or alcohol or any of that I don't want any of that nonsense but if I am flying overnight to Greece as I just did for example your girl wants to sleep so that LifeLight bed would just mean the world to me but choose your seat very well the other thing I want you to do before you leave home is make sure you have picked your meal if you have any dietary restrictions um I am a lacto vegetarian I'm actually a pescatarian but I always order the lacto vegetarian meal on Delta it's set up with my preferences and you must do this I believe it's 48 hours before travel I just do it as soon as I've booked my flight if you have a gluten sensitivity if you're Celiac if you have you know a dairy allergy whatever it is make sure you order that meal with plenty of time um otherwise you won't have anything to eat unless you pack your own which if you have a really severe allergy that might be the way to go but if it's it's an 8 n 10hour flight you're going to want to make sure you have something to eat so make sure you select that special meal if you need it the other thing I want you to do before you leave home is pick out what's going to go in your cabin bag I have done at least one video about the cabin bag concept maybe two this is not your personal item bag this is a bag that's going to go inside your personal item and this is going to have every that is Mission critical for you during the flight so for me that is going to be things like tissues like sanitizing wipes um these are great to use on the bathroom if you're concerned that it's not as fresh as you would like it it's wonderful to go in there armed also be sure if you walk in and the bathroom is really gross let the flight attendants know they really do want to keep the bathrooms refreshed and if no one tells them they won't know but I like to have my own sanitizing wipes I take a little contact lens case uh this one has Advil and also the medication I take before I go to bed at night so any medicines that you might need I've got a pen although for the most part all of my travels recently um all the countries are moving to doing things online um but you still might need a pen so always good to have a little nail file I have some hand lotion this is H2 from Disney which the smell of it I just love it and it's not too heavily fragranced do be ious that you don't use really heavily fragranced things on flights it can be disturbing to other passengers especially if they have any kind of allergy so keep that in mind lip balm there's nothing more Mission critical to me on a long haul flight than lip balm your lips will get very very dry and that's something you want to make sure you have I have my charging cable from my phone that's super important and then I also have these little Colgate Wisps now you guys have heard me talk about these um they are basically disposable little throwaway toothbrushes um the water is not potable in the airplane bathroom so you want to take a bottle of water with you or you can just do this at your seat there's not even any reason to rinse and it has a little toothpick thing on the end and these are fantastic for inlight I also have a hair tie and then I have a little bit of my contact solution although generally I'm going to be wearing my glasses on a long haul flight um sometimes I like to take my disposable contacts and put those in right before we land so that's everything that I would need for a flight you may need more you may need less but the important thing about the cabin bag is just to make sure that it's only the things you're going to need for during the flight um in past flights sometimes I will put these things in a bum bag or a cross body bag so I'm actually wearing it this is small enough that I can probably just tuck it in the seat next to me or put it in the seat back pocket every time I talk about the seat back pocket some of you are like oh it's so disgusting they never clean that maybe they don't I need it if you are flying long haul you don't have any storage and you need everything you can get so what I'll frequently do is use one of my sanitizing wipes and kind of clean out the inside of that myself if you think that's gross I'm sorry but I need every available space okay so before you've left home you've chosen your seat wisely you've taken care of your special meal you've thought through your cabin bag I also want you to make sure that any of your mission critical items for the trip itself are actually in your personal item bag not in your carry-on and here's why sometimes those roller bags if they can't fit it in the overhead for whatever reason maybe it's going to end up on a very different part of the plane than where you are you want to make sure things like glasses medications all of those types of things are in your personal item I also would not put anything with a lithium battery in that bag that goes in the overhead your roller bag because it could be that they end up having to check that bag and lithium batteries are not allowed in checked bags so so this is everything from your Kindle to any um you know if you have a battery pack or anything like that any phones whatever all of that should be in your personal item back okay so now you're in your seat you've settled in you've organized yourself I want you to kind of keep in mind what is the schedule for the flight generally they will make an announcement or it will be printed in some way or you can find it on the Airlines app or you can ask the flight attendant just to kind of get an idea of what to ECT if it is an overnight flight which is what I normally fly or like my 12-hour flight to Tokyo um they're going to have kind of a rotation of meal services and quiet time and it will totally depend on the schedule although they do try to put you on the meal schedule for the destination that you're flying to so kind of pay attention to that when they dim the cabin lights that is your cue to rest of course you don't have to sleep but think about it like in kindergarten right if they're dimming the lights and the cabin is dark it is because the plane needs to be quiet because people are trying to sleep I am always kind of shocked um and I know it's because people are excited maybe they haven't traveled a lot but how many people will be loudly talking to their neighbor during that time in the flight where a lot of us are trying to get just the tiniest little bit of sleep what I think people don't realize is because the airplane itself is so loud you have to yell to be heard by your neighbor so if you're back in economy and honestly even if you're in first class please when they dim the lights take that as a social cue that it is now time to be quiet and it's just it's just better for everyone so please please please save all unnecessary conversation until the lights are back up thanks okay now when it comes to sleep I did a whole video about how I sleep on Long Haul flights but y by now if you've watched the channel know that I have my eye mask that I love my neck pillow that I love and yes I do have Creature Comforts I normally don't travel with a blanket the airlines do Supply those yes they are sanitized they are wrapped in plastic um I do have my um three yard uh wrap from Blue salt that I love it's just kind of a cozy little Comfort item um but I have a whole routine y'all and I don't know what your routine is like when you're at home but if you have some things that you always do like if there's a particular face lotion that you always use if there are you know some makeup removing wipes that you are accustomed to the scent it's amazing how our bodies will pick up on cues that it's time to sleep so even if you're completely off your normal schedule go through the routine of sleep go through the routine of brushing your teeth of doing all those kinds of things to just make you feel like you're setting yourself up for Success so that you can get as much sleep as possible lately I've become a little cocky with how much sleep I get on Long Haul flights I need to cut that out because it's going to bite me in the butt and I just booked another long haul flight and I don't want to jinx it so I won't say that I always sleep great but I will say that I feel confident that I have set myself up for Success another small thing that I have talked about before is having some sort of bag that's disposable it could be a grocery sack it could be a Ziploc bag I've even heard people tell me they use the air sickness bags I don't love that but uh something that you can put your trash in you're not guaranteed that the flight attendants are going to come by when you have trash or maybe you'll be asleep when they come by whatever the case may be it's remarkable to me how disorganized everything gets and when they do the meal service they give you a lot of stuff and so you want a way in my view to consolidate all of that so I usually will bring a couple of Ziploc bags or a couple of grocery sacks just to kind of police my own area and make sure that I don't have a lot of trash lying around that just does not speak restful flight to me so I think that's super super important the most important thing is don't stress out the airlines are there for you it's amazing how much they know about what you actually need during your flight and it's probably a lot less than you think that you need so do your work in advance make sure you pick out that meal do your cabin bag and whatever you do just stay calm enjoy the journey and I know you're going to have a f Fabulous Adventure I hope you liked today make sure you subscribe hit that like button and if you want to support the work I'm doing here and get exclusive videos and live streams head to patreon.com laforge and it will tell you all the ways you can join our fabulous community over there whatever you're doing I hope you're finding joy happy travels

Channel: Joyful Living with Jen Lefforge

Views: 29,696

Keywords: long flight tips, tips for long flights, travel tips, jen lefforge, joyful living with jen lefforge

Id: mMBUUsapUw4

Length: 12min 48sec (768 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 19 2023