What In The Air is Going Here? Surviving the Airlines Part 2

Updated June 2018

What in the air is going on here?! Surviving an airline flight in coach during the modern age.  

Remember flying during the "Madmen" age? Well, of course not! Most of us are too young to remember it for real, so just think about when you last binged watched "Madmen". Now, forget all about that!  Flying has become a cattle call onto filthy, cramped airplanes run by airlines with very little concern about much below the bottom line.  And trust me, if you haven't flown recently, passengers are below the bottom line!  As actual human beings, you do have some rights as a flyer, those that have been afforded of you by the people who sit at the table in Washington and make our airline consumer laws: that would be the airlines' lobbyists. But it is important to know your rights and I recently read an article in the Boston Globe Business section which provided an excellent summary of airline passenger rights.  It's linked here, Airline Beefs Lead to Circles of Frustration and don't worry, it's not long; there are not that many rights! 

My own bill of rights (if I had enough money for my own lobbyist) would look something like this..

1. Tell us what the heck is going on, exactly, and often.
2. If you are going to nickle and dime us with fees, disclose that, exactly, and often.
3. Give human beings seats that accommodate the size of real human beings, not seats that accommodate size of real chihuahuas.
4. Clean the planes with actual cleansing products, exactly and often.  And for flights longer than 4 hours that means someone needs to attend to the lavatories and not be pretending to straighten the magazines or manning the forward door when the lav floor is covered with excrement (yup, don't even look at the floor on an overnight flight and for heaven's sake wear shoes!!) and the toilet paper ran out over Hawaii.  It's an icky job, so draw straws or take turns, but someone must do it!  Ideally, I'd love to see those lavs that completely hose themselves down with hot water after each user like they have on the streets in Paris.

I could go on, but really, that's it...just treat humans with basic human decency, I'll start with that and move onto boarding methods, bag fees and lack of snacks another day, when I hire my lobbyist.  You might have your own priorities, but you'll have to hire your own lobbyist! If you'd like to read a humorous tale of one of our recent flights, you can find it here.

Before I even get on the plane, I have several things I do to purchase the right flight and get ready for a flight.  I blogged about those recently in part 1 Successfully Hunting Down Fights which details the things I like to do before booking a flight and part 1 1/2 : You Have To Take Steps To Fly, which describes packing and preparing to leave for the airport.   

Here are the things I do to survive a coach airline flight in the modern age

1. Score a decent seat

One of the things to do before arriving to the airport is choosing the right seat online when you book the flight.  This can dramatically improve your experience in the air!  When booking flights, I will often check what kind of plane (the pros call this "equipment")  is being used for that flight.  It's usually listed on the airlines website. I use Seat Guru, to look at the flight I will be flying. This website lists all the advantages and disadvantages of the seats on that plane.  It will direct you to the best area of the plane and any seats that have an issue, such as not reclining, or being near the lavs (Remember the lavs?...and my rant about cleanliness? Now  picture yourself outside of it for 12 hours with a line of passengers looming over your seat during the entire flight! You DO NOT want these seats!)

Sometimes, its worth paying a little extra for comfort.  One of the advantages of the new a la carte pricing system airlines are using now (extra fees for extra stuff) is that you can pay a  fee for the parts of the experience you want; such as paying to upgrade to early boarding, and or extra space in your seat. This is usually cheaper than buying a business class ticket, with lots of extras bundled into the price you might not need. If you add the fee to the cost of your whole trip, you might find it's a small price to pay for some extra comfort.  We will try to forget they used to give us all of that included in the airfare, and hope that takes the sting out of it!

2. Pack a flight survival kit

I have different ways of surviving short flights than surviving long flights.  For me a short flight is anything under 4-5 hours.  A long flight is one over 6 hours and any combination of flights that take over 6-8 hours. The big difference is that for the short flights, I don't pack anything for sleeping (earplugs, pillows, eye shades etc.) 

For long flights, I wear compression socks, pack slippers, pillow, blanket, and eye shades

• headphones -even for littlest kids games, no sound should emanate from any device by any person of any age on any flight, ever!
• earplugs, if your headphones aren't noise cancelling, If you have NC headphones, I like to download spa sounds onto my device for sleeping instead of earplugs.  You can get over 100 "songs" for 99 cents on iTunes! I listen first to pick the the ones that don't have sounds that annoy me, and play about 25 of them on a repeat.
• an inflatable neck pillow which saves space in your carry on
• a pashmina, shawl, or lightweight blanket, once at your destination you can use this as a shawl, picnic blanket or towel.  
• a pair of disposable slipper (I have a pair from a fancy hotel stay I take everywhere) These are great for when you are tucking your feet up under you while sleeping...I put my shoes back on for using the lav and then put my slippers back on at my seat to avoid bringing germs from the lav floor into my teeny tiny air space! I also like to use compression socks for flights longer than 4 hours.  
• A pair of compression socks. My favorite pair is from Travel Sox. My legs are definitely less fatigued, swollen and jumpy since using the socks. They aren't just for old folks in nursing homes; endurance athletes also use them! 
• a small RuMe bag with essentials: any medication I'll need during the flight (so I don't have to access a weeks supply in my carry on to take a single dose) I include my preferred pain killers, stomach and sleep aids, in case of troubles mid flight.  Any bigger medical issues can be addressed by my travel medical kit (see my blog post here about what I travel with!) packed in my carry on bag. I also include gum or mints, a small toothbrush (you can buy tiny disposable rubber brushes wrapped in plastic with toothpaste already loaded on them) and toothpaste, a comb and any other grooming essentials I require. The airlines sometimes give these things out on long flights, but that is becoming less common on US carriers. 
• phone, laptop, or tablet loaded with my favorite books, music, audio books, and magazines. The Texture App is a great app to subscribe to magazines and down load them so you can take them with you without all the bulk of actual magazines.  You can usually download books and movies from your library for free, and if you already subscribe to a movie service (cable, Netflix, Amazon etc) you can usually download some content onto your device and take it with you. 
• my favorite snacks, which are usually nuts, peanut M & Ms and pretzels because they pack lots of energy and are small, "unbreakable" and don't stink! I also fill my water bottle after clearing security so I don't have to wait till the flight attendants make it to my section to slake my thirst.

I use a RuMe 3 pocket bag to hold all my flight essentials...it fits right in the seat back pocket and I won't need to pull my carry on bag out or dig through the overhead  to get what I need during times when those bags must be stowed. My tablet has Next Issue on it. I pack hand sanitizer because I can't always get up before eating to wash and I use alcohol wipes to clean the armrests and tray table as soon as I board.

3. Avoid Jet Lag

There is lots of advice about how to avoid jet lag.  I think of this as pseudo "medical" advice, so rather than tell anyone else what to do I will share how we manage to avoid the worst of jet lag.  Using these techniques usually by day one, we are feeling pretty good and essentially on the new time zone, except for maybe waking a little earlier or feeling sleepy a little earlier.

• adopt the new time zone immediately upon boarding; we change our watches, eat and sleep according to the new time zone.  If it's an over night flight were we will arrive in the evening, we sleep early in the flight and awaken and stay awake late in the flight so we will be tired by bedtime in the new time zone.  I use melatonin, a natural sleep supplement to sleep when I'm not sleepy, both on the plane and in the destination to help transition my own system to the new zone. Unfortunately, medications, caffeine or alcohol are known to only make matters worse...sure you might sleep, (or stay awake in the case of coffee) but you will suffer after affects and are still not meeting the goal of getting your own body chemistry to the new time zone. Here is  an article from the Australian Government  that discusses why using alcohol, caffeine and stronger drugs aren't helpful for jet lag. (why Australia? I thought it was trustworthy, succinct and given how far Australians have to go to get anywhere, they probably know a thing or two about jet lag!)
• eat meals on the schedule of the new time zone and drink lots of water; even if I have to pack your own food and buy/fill my water bottle after passing security. Airlines tend to feed you based on the time zone you left.  If we arrive at 4 PM, we don't eat the "breakfast" served by the airline, we eat a lunch/dinner food. 
• expose ourselves to the day light on the plane and in our destination, as much as possible without disturbing others, even cracking the shade on the plane can help.  Once we arrive in the new time zone, we get outside, active and exposed to the natural light conditions in our destination as soon as you can.  A long walk in our new destination works well. We do not nap, and usually by doing these things we don't need to.  If we must nap (or die!) we set an alarm and only allow a short cat nap (30-45 minutes)

4. Practice Yoga

No I don't mean try the "downward dog" pose in seat 15 G or "sun salutations" in the aisle (though I'm sure it's happened!) But I started a yoga practice about a year and half ago and I noticed something interesting happened on my last overnight flight.  I was able to manage the stresses of travel and flying with my breathing.  My yoga breathing and meditation also helped me to block out distractions so I could rest better during the flight.  I found I was more flexible and less stiff during the flight because of all the practice I had with twisting and folding poses!   It's unfortunate that in order to have a good flight, I had to marshal all the physical and mental benefits of yoga to tolerate it.  But it's not a bad idea...stand and stretch regularly, breathe deeply into your belly and let your mind push away distractions and irritations of flying and you will have a better experience!  I always remind myself that despite all the jokes about airlines, I am fortunate enough to be able go up into the air to go somewhere else in a relatively short time, and that the airlines do in fact do a good job of getting me there safely.  So in addition to my carry on, I try to pack a great attitude and sense of humor and so far...I've survived every flight (so far!)

(For more on using Yoga to make flights more comfortable see our post here)

Note: We don't sell trips or any travel related items mentioned and we haven't been paid to travel or accepted free items to review, mostly because no one has offered!  If that ever happens, we would disclose that clearly. All of the products profiled here are products we've used ourselves and liked.  

How do you survive a flight?...share with us!

New Feature- Trip Reports!

I'm adding a new feature to our site- trip reports!  First up, Sydney Australia.

You can always find trip reports on the upper right, under "Trip Reports" drop down menu, but we will also post on the blog when a new one is available.

The iconic scene in Sydney; the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House

We will be working on posting some past trips, while also adding trip reports for new trips as we take them.  Sydney was one of our first trips with digital photos, in 2002.  Our disclaimer is that user generated web content was brand new in 2002, and we didn't have any inkling then that we'd ever share these photos on the internet! So, of course, you'll see lots of ourselves in the photos!  Our newer trips, we try to capture more photos of general interest, with fewer personal photos.  Also, Jeff would be the first to admit that he has learned a lot since he picked up his first digital camera!  While there is nothing to apologize for in his photography, he knows he's learned a lot over the last 13 years that have hopefully improved his pictures!!

Successfully Hunting Down Flights Part 1

Airline travel in the 21st century- Successfully Hunting Down Flights: finding the right flight at the right price (part 1) and What in the Air Is going on Here?!: surviving the flight  (part 2). 

Recently, I posted about all the steps I take after I've booked a flight, but before I get on a plane, You Have to Take Steps To Fly  That should be called part 1 and 1/2, because its's actually the middle piece of three.  Today I plan to share Part 1- the process I use to find flights for trips I plan to take, and later Part 2- how to make flying as comfortable, or more comfortable, or just tolerable??

There are lots of ads for "cheap flights" and plenty of travel websites that will sell you airfare, but it's also important for pleasure or vacation travel to make sure that the flights fit in with the rest of your itinerary.  It's no fun to arrive in the morning, sleepless after a red eye if you are only spending a short weekend someplace like Vegas, where you want to enjoy the great nightlife!  It's also of no use to arrive on a cheap flight, if it arrives 2 hours after your cruise has left!

Having all the official paperwork in front of you (or windows open on the computer) when booking ensures you are booking flights on the right dates!

Here is the process I use to find affordable flights that meet my needs. 

1. I assemble my itinerary of land arrangements or onward travel and decide which airports are closest to those components and when I need to be where.  I like to have the official documents of my arrangements out while I am booking airfare; having the "official" cruise invoice or a copy of the hotel confirmations insures I am actually using the correct dates.  Based on this data, I determine a "window" of travel for my itinerary.  Do I need to arrive in the morning to catch an afternoon train?  Am I flying into one place and out of another?  Rome2Rio is an app I downloaded and have used to see a variety of travel options to get from 2 places.  It will show you not only flights, but also other transportation options. 
2. I like to use a flight consolidator website to look at all the options at one time (although there are still some airlines that don't use the aggregators- like Southwest, which I have to check on their own website.)  I use the sites to set parameters to match my needs, such as flying out early, or only searching only for direct flights.  I like to use Kayak, because they don't sell the flights, but it aggregates all the options and then directs me to either the airline or one of the many other travel sites that sell airfare.  I can enter the potential combinations of flight days and airports I might like to use, and get daily email alerts of the itineraries I am watching. Then I can see if the price drops on the flights I am interested in.
3. The next thing I do is use the search engine (Kayak) to explore which airlines are offering what itineraries and the relative costs.  There are filters that allow me to eliminate connections if I want a direct flight.  I can also eliminate certain connecting airports I won't consider.  For instance, selecting flights to the south during the winter, I avoid connecting through other northern airports. This prevents weather from stranding me in a a connecting city.  Lastly, I can filter the times I need to make my flights work.  If I am taking a cruise, I often need to be in the port city early enough to embark the ship.  Once I've set those filters, I am sorry to report that the lowest prices usually disappear!  It just makes sense that the cheapest flights will be those with multiple connections, to places that no one else wants to go, at times that are inconvenient!
4. When actually searching,  If my party is more than one person, I search for the whole party first and note the per person price and ensure there are enough seats for my whole party. Then I refresh the search for just one or two people.  Airlines often only offer a few seats at the lowest price points.  If I am flying with 4 people and enter 4 during my first search, if there are only 2 "cheap" seats are available, I will be charged the higher price for all 4.  Once when booking flights 4 of us into RSW in Ft Myers, I was able to book two of us at the lowest price, and the other 2 at a higher price.  I saved about $140 dollars by booking separately, versus booking 4 flights together as the same reservation.  There are 2  downsides to this plan; one is that I had 2 different reservations, so there is no guarantee they would keep all 4 of us together if the itinerary changed later. (although when airlines make a change you can call and try to request being put back on the same itinerary) Secondly, sometimes you have to book 2 at a time because you don't want the airlines changing the flight of the adults and stranding a child or frail elder on a flight by themselves.  I do make sure that my minor children are each booked with an adult, (unless she is being particularly onerous that week, and then I might consider it!)    
5. When to buy?  That's the million dollar question! There are dozens of websites and airline gurus with advice about how to score the cheapest tickets.  But sometimes "cheapest" doesn't meet my needs.  What I usually find is that if I am particular about my itinerary with lots of tricky connections and timing, I prefer to shop early when flights become available and  plenty of choices exist, especially if I am booking during popular vacation periods or in high season.  Booking later can  turn up some deals, but only if the airlines aren't selling that route well.  Unless you are planning a trip during a shoulder season or off season (think Caribbean in summer, or Europe in Winter) chances are good you are looking when everyone else is, and so the airlines can charge higher prices and popular times and routes may go fast.  If you have flexibility in your itinerary, then booking last minute can be a way to save some money.  My own opinion is that I like to look for an airfare and route that meets my needs first and then I buy it when I can find it at a price I can live with!  By watching the prices on Kayak for a while before buying I can be satisfied that I got a  price I can live with.  Unfortunately, it's a lot like the trying to predict the stock market...people have lots of opinions and yet, no one has actually done it! 
6. Lastly, sometimes it's worth paying an expert to book particularly complicated itineraries.  My own Travel Agent, Travel Beyond  works with an airline specialist which can help me book my itinerary for a fee, most full service travel agencies will have a similar specialist.  It's best to make sure that all that person does is airline reservations, so you get an expert.  Usually that fee is a tiny fraction of the total cost of the trip and worth the expense because they can use professional software that allows them to more easily filter and scan flight segments than the consumer can.  Another place that requires a specialist is when trying to use miles to book complicated trips.  Most travel agents won't assist booking air with miles because its so complicated, but a whole group of other experts have cropped up to do this work now.  There are so many rules, fees and restrictions, and partner airlines. Oftentimes, trips booked on miles are treated differently in the case of cancelled flights, which can strand you at an airport being told by a tense ticket agent "you can't get there from here" without significant additional investment! it's probably not a bad idea to pay an expert to be your advocate, they will know the rules for all the various programs and be able to advise and advocate if something goes wrong.  I use Google and user generated reviews (Such as Trip Advisor, Wendy Perrin's excellent blog) to find the best experts.  It's getting harder to hide if you aren't delivering what you've promised in the wired world! 

Next: What in the Air is Going On Here! Some ideas about how to survive a flight.