hey turtle travelers mark us Walters room today we are in Prague but unfortunately we’re flying home tomorrow on a long-haul flight back to the US and so I thought I’d give you is advice for how to survive or at least make your long-haul flight across the Atlantic across Pacific a little bit easier so let’s get started now the first thing you need to know about long-haul flights I’m talking about the flight 7 to 15 hours going across continent or are to another con another part of the world these longer flights can really be a lot really stressful for a lot of people so we’re trying to do is give you advice to make it a little bit less stressful we’re not going to take all the stress out that that’s how it is we have these long flights you are going to get your arms stuck in the middle to four hours or there’s things you can do to make it a little bit less frustrating and a lot of it starts one you actually booked your ticket ok when you’re booking your tickets look up the airline see how they’re rated by people are they comfortable how are the seats what’s there on time ranking things like that to see you J do people actually enjoy taking the long-haul flights with them and I’ll be honest please along with a lot of carriers and as carriers we prefer to fly with and as crews were carriers we prefer not to fly with so depending on the destination you’re going to you might want to check those things out because maybe the airline you have miles with isn’t so great for that transatlantic flight but when you’re going abroad it might be somebody else so you do want to check those things down now when you’re getting your tickets if you can’t upgrade I’m not saying business class because I could never afford business class what if you get like those there’s the economy and then this idiot like Economy Plus or Economy Comfort this slightly more legroom that does make a really big difference if you can get that I know it costs more but if you have miles stuff like that I will use your miles for those upgrades over versus getting the free flights because I find it gets more bang for your buck doing that but if you can’t upgrade for those things you might look at where your seat is going to be one thing obviously in the middle is never a good place to go I usually recommend the aisle or the window the aisle because you can stretch your legs out and things like that you know and yes the carts come through but you can put your lay again or the window so you can kind of rest your head against the window that makes things a little bit easier so that’s one thing there another thing if you’re looking for more legroom exit aisles the emergency exit aisles and the bulkhead seats do have extra leg room to stretch out however there’s nowhere to put your bag in front of you so you put everything above so that’s one of the drawbacks for that also try to avoid the seat the row in front of the exit row because sometimes those seats don’t lean back and so you’re a little bit more I can’t even lean back anymore that can be a bit problem so now the morning of your flight another thing you need to look at is what are you going to be wearing look you’re wearing loose clothes don’t wear a turtleneck gets up here don’t worry things that are uncomfortable because you’re going to be in those clothes pretend of 15 hours and it’s going to get more and more that’s comfortable so make sure you do wear things that are comfortable one of the most important things I find are socks and underwear okay I actually use these Duluth trading company buck naked underwear and honestly because you know if you were your whitey tighties they’ll cut into you a little bit on it with the seams and the same thing with other H&M underwear these dilutes trading company buck naked underwear I mean I’ve made fun of them before but oh my goodness you fly with those it makes it so much comfortable also your socks compression socks very important to have the circulation going also it just feels a lot better when you’re flying with those so I do recommend those the ones we do recommend they’re down below if you want to get them or whatever just just you a shout out to them because honestly I made fun of them a lot of times but those things really do help okay no other little things about your clothes that can make your life a little bit easier it’s obviously what I would say is layer your clothes so maybe you have a t-shirt underneath a shirt here at a jacket or a sweatshirt or something because then I could take this off and use it as an extra pillow or I can use it as kind of like a blanket over my eyes when I fly also I’d like to have a little pocket here because I could put my plane ticket here or somebody really need to have right away like my headphones I can put that right in there easy access no big deal now the next thing you look at is what you’re going to take with you because usually when you’re doing these long-haul flights they give you one carry-on and one personal item look your carry-on it’s the carry whatever you pack in your carry-on the big one pack stuff that you don’t need it’s not the stuff you’re going to get out the little personal item that little backpack or those you’re kind of person of thing that’s the one you’re going to put the ions you’re actually going to use on the flight the big one is where you pack everything else and you put it up there and you don’t worry about it that’s one of the things that annoys people is the people how you crack the open up the overhead and they search they have to climb up there to search their big suitcase to find something look if you’re going to need it on your flight don’t put it in that one put it up there so you don’t have to worry about it anymore okay the stuff you need goes in that little backpack or that personal item you have with you that you can put under the seat in front of you so it’s easy access to get to okay because it does make a big difference and in general these long-haul flights I do recommend pack light because you probably check the bag anyway so get most the weight in there because when you’re running through the Train the airports and stuff like that you don’t want a lot of weight on there because it just weighs you down even more especially after a 15-hour flight trying to drag all this stuff with you to get to customs a pain in the rear I’m telling you right now now what are you going to pack in that day pack well one of the things is we all have our phone so yes you don’t have your phone or your tablet or whatever but realize that I mean I don’t know about you but my phone doesn’t get 15 hours of battery life so I always bring an actual battery a backup battery pack to recharge my cameras and recharge my phones and the kids tablets a mine actually has two plugs in it so I can charge my phone and one of the kids can charge their iPad or something like that just to make it easier because I know yes there are new there’s movies and TV shows on the airplanes but if you’re flying in the same month like you’re flying June 3rd and coming back to 23rd you’re gonna have the same movies do you really want to watch it again sometimes you don’t so have some extra stuff on here like some games and movies on your phones and stuff like that so you can’t enjoy that as well as the TV one but you do need to have that charger other thing I always bring is I bring my own headphones because a lot of times the headphones that the airline’s give you aren’t really that good and so they don’t work as well so I have my own and if you have little kids those head earbuds they give you on the plane those are too big for little kids ears so we go to Target and get they’re like $5 headphones no your kids do not need the Bose stereo system or the or the whatever Skullcandy hundred dollar things just given the five dollar ones because if they lose them no big deal and they fit for their head it makes a lot more enjoyable but the thing is though sometimes some people really swear by those noise canceling headphones and they can’t actually be really good if you can’t sleep on flights you need that noise reduction do you get one of those because that can I kind of stay away from them because it just takes up too much straight to my luggage and with all my camera equipment all my stuff I just don’t have the room for it but a lot of people do swear by those so you might want to check that out but if you just want to have your ears closed you can get the little ear plugs to put in there our youngest son plays drums so when we go to lessons we have those feels like it stacks I think we invested the company because we have so many so he has that also an eye mask really helps one thing joseline likes wanted me to tell you is she’ll wear a sweater that kind of wraps around and so she can just wrap around her head to like cover her eyes so she can sleep but some people just like to have that mask to get the get the light away that does really help so you might want to pack some of those things now another thing about the plain is its infamous for having bad food and since you’re going to be on this flight you’re probably going to get a dinner and a breakfast or a snack and a glorified snack and sometimes it’s not so good so what I recommend is to pack your own snacks when you go because you know what you like and you know what your kids like we always pack a snack bag for the kids with gummy or with gummy bears and fruit snacks and fruit roll-ups and not just gummy stuff there’s you know some fruit and stuff like that in there so the kids can snack on stuff if they don’t like the food but also I can snack on stuff if I didn’t get lucky because you know sometimes you get the pasta and sometimes the pasta gets you okay so have those snacks on there because it does make it a little easier another thing is we usually pack up a travel toothbrush and travel to face in our carry-on in that you little sack you can take with you so we’re going to get there we go brush our teeth before we get off the plane because not only does the passenger next to you deserve you know fresh breath and your friends you’re going to see in the new country deserve fresh breath but so does the TSA or the border guards they deserve your fresh breath as well okay now some things to make your flight a little bit better when you’re in the actual flight one thing is when you see the flight attendants coming by with waters drink it okay you want to stay hydrated drink a lot of water when you’re on there go for the apple juice over the orange juice to help you stay hydrated that really helps out there another thing that we do or I know I do is every couple hours like between each movie I’ll get up and I’ll walk to the bathroom I might not go in and I’ll stretch my legs out beat up your hamstring curls stuff like that squat down you know things like that just to get the blood flowing one of those things those compression socks really help with that blood flow and I mean I swear by a mouth and but that walk really gets things going so you don’t have any circulation issues and things like that how she keeps you from brought your butt from you know over sweating or whatever though with my underwear hey I’ve had that problem lately so I’m totally blocked so you do want to walk around a bit but sometimes you can’t walk around sometimes you get stuck in that middle seat so one of the things I do is I’ll actually spell the alphabet with my feet like I’ll point my legs out and then I’ll spell the alphabet and it really helps to kind of stretch out the calves and the foot and the ankle and stuff like that to get some of the kind of movement going and it does really help to like avoid like a leg cramp or things like that know another thing is that you’re more these transatlantic flights lights or trans-pacific flights you might want to look around to see as hey are there any extra seats available because sometimes you could you can move because if there’s a ILO seat open and you’re stuck in the middle of four hey no one’s going to mind if you switch back there but make sure you ask your flight attendant which leads us into one of the most important things about making a long-haul flight better is being nice to the crew the flight attendants the captain’s anybody you see because they’re there to make your flight better to keep you safe to get you home alive they’re there for that and if you’re nice to them they’ll probably be nicer to you and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been on the long-haul flight and I’m bored out of my mind because I’ve gone back and forth twice in a month and I’ve seen every movie on there twice i watch every TV show twice my yeah I’m tired listen to music and I’ll go back and talk with it with the flight attendants for a little bit and there’s some people and we’ve got crazy stories and fun stories from all their travels and sort of those cool little things to check out but please be nice to them it does make a big difference on these long-haul flights and my last word of advice for surviving these long-haul flights there’s one thing you really really really have to pack and that is a good attitude because everybody’s getting the most one flight no one wants to sit in it forever we all know that but if you go with a positive attitude a hello to the crew a hive your people next to you that goes a long way to making a long flight not seem so long so I wish you all great travels we have tons of videos to help you with rules for taking the train you know 13 ways to annoy the people next you on a plane you’ve got all kinds of stuff like that at our website at Walters WorldCom we’re also on Twitter Facebook Instagram here on YouTube and we really appreciate your like subscription and you know if you like videos like this travel videos ten things that will shock you about Prague what to eat in Germany you know what to see in Beijing we have all that so if you click the subscribe button we usually put out two or three travel videos every week so you can see all beautiful places like this from from the comfort of your own home anyway I send you a big travel hug and safe travels to all of you wherever you are going to be flying whether it’s a long haul to Beijing or Frankfurt or heading back home to Chicago we wish you all the best bye from Prague
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