A lot of WSO readers will find themselves in consulting, and a major part of a management consultant's life is air travel. I was thinking about this last week on the train from Paris to Frankfurt. I absolutely detest air travel and wouldn't care if someone offered me a million bucks a year to fly all over Hell's half-acre - I wouldn't take it. So you can imagine how my eyes bugged out when I read about a non-stop flight from Dallas to Sydney in coach. Ugh.
15 hours in a seat that's 16 inches wide is not my idea of a good time. (pro tip: if you want to keep the guy in front of you from reclining into your lap, jam a 1-liter water bottle between your tray table and the back of his seat where the tray table stows - his seat will no longer recline) And this got me thinking about some of the longest flights I've had to endure. In descending order of flight time:
MSY-ATL-SVO-OVB-GDX = total flight time 22 hours. And I made that round trip twice for a grand total of 88 hours in the air. That's three and a half days of my life spent white-knuckling an armrest while some half-drunk Aeroflot pilot tried to put a WWII era cargo plane down on the Siberian ice.
DHA-MAD-BOS-LAX = total flight time 20 hours.
LAX-YHZ-RMS-DHA = total flight time 18 hours.
SAN-LAX-HNL-GUM-SPN = total flight time 14 hours with an overnight on those hard-ass wooden benches in the Honolulu airport.
NRT-ANC-LAX-SAN = total flight time 13 hours and I've actually made this trip a few times over the years.
Air travel is just brutal these days and I hate it. Since moving to Europe I've come to love train travel. There's just no bullshit when travelling by rail. Once you're out of the cities the trains maintain a pretty steady 200 MPH, you've got tons of room, there's usually a bar car, you can show up five minutes before the train leaves and just get on with no security bullshit, and you can bring with you anything you can carry. Plus it's cheap. I happened to glance at my return ticket from Frankfurt to Paris and it was €49. I'd pay more than that just in tolls and take almost twice as long to get there if I drove.
I know some of you are from some pretty far flung places on the globe, so somebody is bound to have me beat for longest flight time. Let's hear it, guys. What's the longest flight you've ever taken in coach?
when i went to school in PDX i' travel at leace once a year back home to Saudi. thats a 20+ plus flight. I just did a 14 hours straight flight from JFK to Qatar 2 weeks ago actually. Get over it.
LAX to Sydney...was about 15 hours. Brutal.
total trip time of 30 hours, London ==> Bangkok ===> Sydney ====> Queenstown 24 in the air, 6 on the ground. (give or take 1-2 hours). Was in coach too, booked too late to fly the airline of my mate for free upgrades :(
To top it off, we had to get an 5 hour drive afterwards, had a throat infection so didnt sleep at all, stimmed up on caffeine and sugar, rotated driving, blasting tunes in a 4x4 watching the sun set over the NZ mountains. Best day of my life.
I'm flying to JFK from SIN in July. In coach. Flight time of about 18 hours, but ~29 including stopovers. Also happen to have inherited a little bit of a disposition toward motion sickness. Am not looking forward to this shit.
I did Atlanta-Tokyo-Singapore in coach. It was pretty rough. I think it was ~28 hours including layover time.
Singapore is probably the only place I would go through that flight again to visit though. I loved Singapore.
What is so great about Singapore? I could name 100 places I would rather visit..
I'm a city guy. I like visiting places with a lot of people, culture, etc. Singapore is a cool city located in a tropical locale. Also, I think it is pretty cool that Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, and people of other religions all live in relative peace and harmony. I also respect how Singapore has achieved what it has achieved. The food is amazing (a place where they blend all the best elements of Asian food). The people are nice and highly educated.
I'm not one of those people who visits a place, has a vacation-gasm and decides they want to live there for the rest of their life, but I really liked Singapore and would visit again (when I have money).
I appreciate your points, but although the city is very multicultural and at peace I believe it lacks its own identity. It has a great transit system and underground infrastructure to avoid the awful humidity but I didn't find a whole lot of excitement in the city or much good food for that matter. Definitely the most developed city in SEA though.
That's what education will do for ya... teach tolerance
San Antonio - Dallas - San Francisco - Hong Kong - Wuhan, China
22 hours in the air, ~8 on the ground. In coach the whole way. The kind of trip that makes you forget what happiness feels like.
I've clocked over 48 hours! My work has me in the most random of developing countries at times and the flight connections get insane. Madagascar to Iceland was a particuarly brutal trip last year.
But unlike you Edmundo I love flying. (Company never has us in economy...that helps). It's the connecting that irks me. As for trains, there is nothing better. The scenery in Central Europe is breathtaking. I was based in Luxembourg & took a trip into Germany during the weekend just to enjoy the scenery and blank out.
I've flown JFK to Singapore...but the flights were so costly that week that I had to go through LA, and Hong Kong just to get there. Well over 24 hours and only got one upgrade, LA->JFK. I work for a small company and when biz class exceeds 10K we usually can't do it. Company 'policy' (yes at a company of 6 we have policies) tries to make up for it by mandating only quality/brand-name hotels regardless of price, but that LA->HKG flight in coach was absolutely horrendous.
I've racked up over 500K miles on American the past two years, and the bankruptcy has really affected the quality of their service. The food is awful, the flight attendants are now all disillusioned old women and the prices have only gone up.
LAX--Manilla...18 hours straight, crammed between a family of filipino people...not fun.
Did LAX-SYD roundtrip, it was a little over 14 hours, took some ambien so the flight wasn't that bad, what wrecked me was the 17 hour jet lag (coming back home I landed 3 hours before I departed lol). I haven't had the "opportunity" to do much travelling other than flying cross country from Boston to California for holidays and visits during school, but I have had some interesting things happen during those flights. I still say to forget guantanamo, put terrorists in a coach middle seat in Chicago on US Airways/Delta next to a huge fat guy and a screaming baby, while grounded for 4 hours waiting for weather to clear in the winter and we'll see how long he lasts before he talks.
Agree. Travelling by train (in Central Europe) is more confortable, e.g. ICE, TGV, any train of SBB, ÖVV, or the AVE. No long trips to airports, congestions, security (incl. plastic bags for fluids +100ml), they offer a quality 1st class. Only disadvantage are delays, but I'd rather wait for a connection in a city centre than spend some empty hours wandering in an airport miles away of any sort of real life (particularly at modern truman-show airports).
Whenever flying book at top Asian/ME carriers and Lufthansa/Swiss. By any means, avoid the US American way of air travelling/connecting... is plainly gruelsome.
Longest trips: FRA-EZE; DUS-CDG-BOG; ZRH-MAD-GUA... I'm not really into accumulating miles anymore.
SFO to Singapore... 18-19 hours, when I was a kid.
ORD-PEK, 12 PVG-ORD, 13-14ish depending on which direction you're going. MSP-NRT-PEK, 18 total, 15 in the air.
For me, after doing these routes so many times, I'm just kind of used to it now.
I'm gonna go ahead and slap this whole thread with a big ol' #FirstWorldProblems
Flew non-stop from NY to Tokyo... 13 hours in a seat is not fun. I can't imagine going 20 hours straight. Even 5 hour flights are too long for me.
HTFD-MSP-SEA-HNL
Took about a day.
ORD-BKK. 21 hours flying. 4 on the ground. RT twice a year - only way to get home.
used to travel back and forth from the east coast and south east asia as a kid. Thats a long ass flight but I don't remember it too much.
Serious question, do they not put you on business when you fly that far?
My longest was JFK -> CDG -> FLR, 10 hours total counting a tiny layover. Same thing to return.
I loved train travel in Europe. Was in Munich one weekend and decided we wanted a day trip out to Dachau ... the train was amazing. Pulled out of the city at 80kph, were at 150 within minutes. I cannot believe how far behind the rest of the world America is in terms of high-speed rail.
Dachua is a 20 minute car ride out of Munich. What are you on son?
I fly from new york to south east asia quite often--enough to get upgraded from coach to business 80% of the time. Business class makes the trip so much more bearable.
Cincinnati > Detroit > Salt Lake > Tokyo > Singapore
36 hours with layovers, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.
The BusinessElite seats really help though.
Flew to Germany 10 times last year, fucking brutal in coach...
ATL-ORD-JAC or LGA-SAN for domestic... Rough life.
ATL-CDG for int'l.
I'm adventurous.
New Delhi-JFK-LAX coach. 22 hours total in the air and 16 just from New York to India. Brutal flight as I cannot sleep on planes and got sick for the next week as a result.
Longest trip was about 48 hours including 1 flight from Kolkata to London, a European flight, a Ferry boat and 2 very long drives. When I got home I only wanted to cry. I have been in many direct flights around and above the 12 hour mark, mainly Europe-LATAM//East Asia. You generally have to combine those with internal European flights, which makes it around 14-19 hours of flight plus the airport shit, so around 20-30 hours. All of this in Economy. I've done it around 20-30 times. Thankfully they all have been leisure travels where I stayed at least a week in destination, so I didn't really care. I'd never do this for work unless they paid for business/first class tickets.
Tallahassee > Atlanta > Detroit > Seoul > Beijing
...was 20+ hours of flying and layovers with a 2 hour bus ride from Beijing > Tianjin.
I couldn't sleep at all on the flight and was pretty miserable with the exception that I met one of the hottest (and coolest) girls I've ever known and she was sitting next to me and was kind enough to use my lap as her pillow. The flight was painfully long but thankfully I was partially distracted because I spent much of the time trying to not wake her up with my boner that was pressed against her face. Still regret not fucking her...kinda
Obviously that was round trip and after the flight back I made an immediate 4 hour drive home to Tampa to see my gf...and sexed her brains out. So, if you factor in my 8 hour round trip drive to Tampa before the flight (moved my stuff home), the flights, travel to and from Tianjin and then my final drive home...we are talking about 60hrs of travel for that trip. Granted it was a study abroad and there was several months between getting there and leaving but I also traveled a ton while there, probably another 50+ hours in country.
Regards
LGA --> MIA
Really brutal sitting in Coach for two and a half hours. God damn.
Not super long but pretty brutal FLL-CLT-DCA-LGA-BDL then 18 hours later BDL-PHL-DCA-FLL
Newark -- Hong Kong -- Singapore. 22 hours. On United. It's a miracle I arrived in Singapore alive...
Train travel spoils you... It really is far superior to air regardless of what airline you're using even if you are in business/first. Even for short trips like Paris/London I wouldn't consider getting on a plane.
Having said that, long flights are not really a big deal if you have the following covered: - Non-USA airline - especially the better Asian/Middle Eastern ones, Singapore/Emirates have nice A380s - Direct flight - if you need layover, make it a 2 day break somewhere pleasant - Being physically fit & below average height - not necessarily an F1 driver, but this helps with comfort - You can sleep sitting up - a very useful life skill than anyone can pick up with a bit of practice
Considering the above, being tall is the only hindrance that you can't really control... My longest flights in economy were probably in the 13-14 hour range between the US & Middle East or between Europe & South East Asia during my university days... luckily, I travel business/first on all my work related trips so I have enough miles for when i travel personally.
The biggest issue with Air travel is Airports and related security non-sense and sometimes paperwork... Most airports are unpleasant places where you feel like you're entering a prison or a fascist state's security facilities. Even the better ones manage to make you feel like cattle. This is worse than the recycled air or cramped conditions on flights and one of the reasons rail and road travel is so much more pleasant.
Not the LIRR lol.
But yea trains in Europe are amazing. I travelled from Stuggart to Amsterdam on a night train and it was awesome. Even a short trip from Budapest to Vienna had a great train.
The bullet trains in Tokyo were fast but the luxury of the Germany to Netherlands train was unmatched. The seats were huge and there was a lot of space.
Totally agree with the tips. A few more: - Resist eating too much. In most of my long haul trips (13-15 +hrs, 4-5x yr) I take a light meal and avoid heavy courses (mostly also the in-betweens and frequently breakfast. - Resist drinking (too much) alcohol. One glass wine with food is ok. Some colleagues drink, particularly high proof, to "sleep better". From my observation (and own experience) this is not necessarily true and the hangover can be brutal. Not pleasant if you follow up with meetings or negotiations. - Wear confortable clothes, change your business attire if you have the chance. Have a sweater at hand. I prefer rather fresh temp than heat (tend to sleep more easily and if needed just put the sweater as a blanket). - Good book rather than on-flight entertainment. - Bring your own music and specially own confortable headphones (confy enough to sleep with them on - e.g. BOSE). If you still have the original iPhone/iPod, for your own benefit, invest in better ones. - Drink lots of water. - If in business/first, choose first rows. (I also prefer aisle) - Try to get a row for yourself, specially if seated on the sides (or flying on old planes with 3 seats on mid aisle... luckly now quite uncommon , e.g. KLM). After bording is completed, check if there is a row free - Wear the eyes cover (goggles) provided at most long flights. Helps when someone slides open the window pane when flying over Groenland
I had a roommate a couple of years ago that was a light-skinned Muslim Indian-Canadian(? do they call it that like they do in the US?), he had some horror stories about traveling to Dubai and even just taking a bus home to Montreal. I always feel like airport security blows tough, but at least I don't have to deal with that shit.
They call that Abdel
LDN - KL - SYD (24 hours) was the longest overall and longest direct flight was JFK -SIN (18 hours) arrived at 6am Monday morning, quick shower, straight into the office...
For these flights to be bearable, flat beds are non negotiable as is not flying with a US carrier.
Looks like quite a few of you chaps have been heading over to Singapore. You lot here on business or something?
Out of curiosity how did you get into banking there?
Just applied to a Big 4 firm. BBs, too, but I think they probably threw my resume away when they saw my grades. Why?
Waited on a runway at LGA for 6 hours, flew to LAX which was another six hours, stayed 24 hours, got back on a plane and flew from LAX to LGA... 6 more hours... 18 hours total
This isn't allowed anymore, after 3 hours on the runway they have to deplane.
I know, it was minutes for a ride. We asked the conductor how fast we were going, maybe she just lied to us.
Another thing i dislike about flying... Airmiles or whatever they're called (frequent flyer, etc...)
People try to think of them as money, which they aren't. Airmiles / loyalty programmes also serve to raise switching costs and make comparisons between different trips and operators more cumbersome... Also, the airlines can always change the terms on you.
What do you guys think of Airmiles? Good perk of flying, or more trouble than they're worth?
I know United started forcing people to use frequent flyer miles to upgrade to first class (no straight cost amount) last year, I stopped flying United because of the problems with their acquisition of Continental so I don't know if they still do this. So they force you to put your name into marketing lists that they sell, then they increase the cost of the upgrade because it costs more money to buy the miles than the upgrade would have been if paid for directly. I don't really mean to get into a conversation about my immense hatred for airlines that are US based, but I hate the way they are allowed to run via their government sponsorship and lack of free competition.
I feel like a noob, i'm young so my longest flight has been from Houston to Jersey around 3 hours and 30 minutes.
My longest was:
Portland -> San Francisco -> Hong Kong -> Shanghai
Was something between 14-16 hours.
Some of the long-treks I've done:
JFK-ANC-SHA (and return) JFK-ANC-SEL-SHA (and return) JFK-SFO-PVG (and return - luckily in business) IAH-SFO-HKG SIN-FRA-JFK
IIRC - the longest flight was the SFO-HKG segment at 14.5 hours... not too bad considering I was on SQ and one of their newer Boeing 777s, and took advantage of the complementary alcohol. The return (SIN-FRA-JFK) was on one of their older planes but still had stellar service. The flights with the stopover in Anchorage was before the era when we had planes that could fly further than 7000 miles (pre mid-late 90s)
I had a really long trip home once.
CPT-JHB-DKR-BWI-LAX
I left at noon on a saturday and got home on sunday in the afternoon -- I left with a 9 hour headstart
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