I flew to Dubai recently with my niece and her two young girls. It was supposed to be 12 1/2 hours but ended up being closer to 14 1/2 due to a delayed takeoff. We flew on Emirates Airlines and it was delightful. The flight attendants are beautiful and lovely. They are true professionals.
We were sitting in the front row so my niece could have a bassinet for her eight month old. Her baby is extremely smiley and was very popular with the other passengers. The woman next to me even asked if she could hold her. The three year old was occupied with the children's tv programs. I think the time went by fast because I was with family.
The service was top notch and the food superb. The return flight was 15 hours normally 14 but it still was nice. I look forward to flying Emirates again and visit beautiful Dubai. I have already planned my next visit.
2
It sounds dreadful. A 10 hour flight is doable, and it it's on a European airline it can be fun, even in coach. If the movies are good, the time can fly.
Also isn't it AN LAX stop?
1
I've taken the current longest flight - the Singapore Airlines direct Singapore to Newark flight - several times now, both in premium economy (they don't offer regular economy - it would be evil), and in business. This is my advice. Sleep when it comes to you, you are flying for a really long time, accept it, even if you only manage a series of hour long naps it will waste some time. Eat as simply as you can, and as little as you can - I bring food with me for this flight. Break it up, and only tackle the hour you're in. Know that the day you land is likely to be a weird jet lagged fog, do not make plans or any big decisions :) It's still way better than transferring through somewhere. You save hours, and it's way less likely they'll lose your luggage.
1
My wife and I just did a 10.5 hour direct flight from Rome to Atlanta in economy class and I thought that was bad enough. I could barely limp off the plane in Atlanta. 19 straight hours in the air? No. Way. Ever.
19 hours on a luxury flight? Why don't you try 24 hours in an 8' x10' room with minimal human contact, light or outside stimulation. Over 60,000 Americans are currently in solitary confinement, some for weeks at a time.
@Steve #LobstersToo
Judgment is cheap.
For my part, I found this piece hilarious, relatable and bracingly honest. And, yes, informative.
Thank you, Ms. Lyall.
2
My daughter lives in Australia, and so I fly from Chicago to Melbourne (through LAX) at least once a year. The trip takes 25 hours door to door, best case, and it’s rarely best case. I fly coach (or sometimes premium economy, which is a huge upgrade for a small additional amount of money). But I can assure one and all that the very worst part of the trip by far is the four hours or so I spend at LAX — very late at night on the way down, and at sunrise on the way home. I can’t wait for a non-stop 17- or 18-hour flight. It will be wonderful.
I took a 17 hour flight to Singapore. I ate, slept, read, watched a movie. It wasn't all that bad. Certainly not news.
1
Wait, everyone changed into pajamas? Where?
3
I have taken a 16.5 hour flight, adjusted well. But, I never would have done it if I were sick like you. Why would you write an article about your unique experience and then why would the NYT Travel publish it? It is not applicable to other travelers and seems to try to diminish Quantas’ efforts aimed at providing a very good flight experience.
And those pjs? I save them, nice memories.
2
Press trip?
1
After reading this article, what did I actually learn? Especially with the bad choices made by the flyer. There was no real insight.
6
Better than rowing a boat.
2
Sarah, I’d suggest you stop taking so many drugs and use rest, sleep, exercise and good eating to get healthy
Flying seems less important given the way you abuse your body
9
I have flown long haul flights many times (like Newark to Singapore for example).....Ms Lyall’s article was almost useless as a guide to long haul travel.....flying while using (over-using?) medications and sharing her issues with her illness plus trying to estimate what other non-ill, non-medicated flyers were feeling is a totally wasted effort ...send her when she is well, or send someone else who is healthy write another article-maybe we’ll get something out of that future article
6
I have had most of my problems flying to GMT not away from it.
I flew from NYC to Sydney with a layover at LAX on Halloween 1983. Quantas distributed PRINTED menus in economy class! I kept mine. We refueled in Tahiti but weren't allowed to disembark because of local labor unrest. Revolution in paradise, just my luck.
As soon as the plane touched down under, two men in shorts and bush hats boarded, lugging the same cannisters with hoses that bug exterminators use. They then proceeded down the center aisle spraying us to murder our far-away germs.
Welcome to Australia!
So if your sick, why did you fly? Why didnt another employee fly for you. They could of written this story. Most normal people unless it is extremely necessary they dont fly when they are so ill unless they are going to a funeral or some boss who happens to be male wants to show that they are in charge. you only get sicker from an airplane
.
I have flown to Sydney and we all want to get their as fast as possible, so it sounds better than taking Amtrak from NYC to California..
Not sure what the purpose of this article was all about, you pay for what you get on any mode of transportation. The exciting days of air flight have been over for decades, you are treated like cattle no matter where you sit.
3
I'm a frequent travel and 'road warrior'. The author did everything wrong. Then complained about the result. I love the NYT - but don't see the value of this article. What was the purpose?
8
Having read a number of articles by folks on this flight, this one takes the cake ( or should I say the Ambien). Really great writing, Sarah. Rather you than me for the experience.
Note to self: Saying you're aware you're whining doesn't make the actual whining any easier for others to take.
Note to self 2.0: Don't refer to the effect of amphetamines being shot into your veins unless you've actually done so.
5
Not sure the flight to Sydney is worth it, but for New Zealand it would be. We bypass the Caribbean for Hawaii, which is considerably farther so maybe down under is in the cards. I cannot imagine taking so many drugs on any trip let alone one of this distance. Yuck.
This is a disappoint article - The inward focus of a fussy reporter instead of a genuinely fascinating scientific and pioneering voyage is a missed opportunity for true travel journalism.
7
There is no subject that warms the hearts of the very affluent more than taking long airplane trips. It will certainly become the next travel name drop at the summer beach homes in 2020. It will be tough to be a one upper on this trip. Funny, with all the talk that goes on in the Times about disparity of wealth this is really being embraced by your readership.
3
In 2012 I had the experience of flying Non-Stop - Houston to Brisbane a meer 16 hr flight. It was part of a direct Boston/Houston/Brisbane/Sydney trip my company had sent me on. The journey started with a 1 hr delay - mechanical discovered after we had boarded in Logan. I arrived at the Qantas gate with only employees at the jetway - waiting just for me. I boarded, was blessed with an aisle seat in coach on a full flight. I don't sleep on planes - ever. I too thought I'd out fox the sleeplessness deamons by packing a pair of Ambien's. About two hours into the flight, I popped them and sure enough, next thing I remember, I was waking up, fumbling for the vomit bag in the setback and filling it before resuming unconsciousness. From there, I vaguely recall getting off in Brisbane, zombie marching through immigration and reboarding the plane and resuming unconcousnessness until we reached Sydney BTW, I was working on ships and had gone through many a good storm and never once got motion sickness - till this incident.
Sydney was a blur. I was there only 1 night and best I can recall I slept through that afternoon and evening too. I felt pretty good at that point. Cognition had returned and I was functioning normally again. My lesson, If I ever have to do it again, I'll take a break in Honolulu, get out and smell the hybisucs, enjoy a day or two and then take the rest of the journey to Sydney. I just don't need to get there that quickly.
5
Hilarious. You are an awesome writer. On my last trip to Australia I watched the entire first season of Barry. On some trips I have watched 3 full movies, and that's just on a flight between L.A. and Brisbane. Thanks for sharing your wonderful relatable story!
I would suggest the future long-hauled fleet (or any plane actually) to be equipped with some sort of energy harnessing devices so that passengers, if in the mood, can transfer their kinetic energy into power storage by doing some sort of cycling/peddling exercise.
We need not have to just sit and watch the screen or read a book, we could also do some exercises meanwhile and charge up some batteries while travelling.
Sign me up! I always find that travelling on a long flight from Boston to Sydney generates less physical disruption and a better night's sleep than a short overnight flight from Boston to London. I don't get jet-lag on arrival in Sydney - but always in London.
This is such a great travel article! I laughed out loud and imagined myself in the writer’s shoes (or travel booties). I would definitely be willing to be a guinea pig if the airlines ever want ordinary people to try one of these long-range flights. I think being in business or first class would make all the difference. On the other hand, I don’t think I have access to that many drugs.
This was not a real review of the flight experience. It was an account of a self absorbed person who couldn't stop self medicating. I wold much rather have had an objective account from someone who had the self control to experience the flight as the professionals recommended.
10
I come from New Zealand and have flown around the world several times since commercial flights began, non-stop except for a brief refuel in LA or Singapore. Never needed the pills, comfy childish care, specially prepared food or a dozen journalists/camera crew with me. Long flights are just that - long - and it's always strange to be elsewhere than where you began. My method is to be patient 24 hours before getting active so that my soul catches up with my body.
2
So this article is just a little confusing, what is it about?
Is it about Qantas's long fight, the adjustment to your sleeping and waking hours because of the time zone changes and seasonal weather patterns, or is it the historic aviation flight of 19 hours and some odd minutes or the sad state of affairs of the journalist making the trip.
I myself if I could take a trip to Sydney, I don't think I would be in a rush to get there.
If you have the opportunity to travel, do it at a snail's pace.
I would fancy a voyage on a large cruise ship, relaxed and enjoying the time getting there.
4
I'm amazed anyone would take so much pharmaceutical junk, including (a possibly unnecessary) antibiotic and two Ambien and expect to feel anything but terrible is a mystery.
5
JFK to Nairobi with Kenya Airways is 14 hrs and the local brew Tusker beer generously offered makes a walk with lions in Masai Mara a welcome relief. I have done this trip 3 times and the toll on my senses is beyond the pale.
1
It is an interesting story of Sarah Lyall on non stop flight from NYK to SYD in less than 20 hours. I have flown four times eastern route WAW-LHR-HGK and finally SYD which is far challenging and less comfortable, than research non stop. Basing on my experience and personal preferences, I would prefer to board the flights with at least one stopover. It is nicer to meet, the new Crew and new passengers on final leg of the flight, whether going East and/or West.
Business class would be a piece of cake, as long as you aren’t making poor decisions about medication as the writer did. Doing this flight in economy class would be an absolute nightmare.
4
We learned so little from this author about what 49 participants did for 19 hours during this ultra-long-distance nearly-day-long flight. We didn't even learn what SHE did for 19 hours!
She began with the correct question: "How would such a ridiculously long flight affect our sleep, our moods, our digestion, and our hormone and melatonin levels?"
However, Sarah Lyall's answer was: she ate, took meds, slept, took meds, watched shows, took meds, couldn't read her notes, took meds, and lost her kukkabarra doll!
I still don't know how the passengers, and especially the pilots, handled and fared after 20 hours. What did they do to cope with this 20-hour confinement? And how will her business class trip compare to an economy cabin trip?
At the end she asked "what happened to Saturday?"
Well, anyone half-conscious would know they spent it on a plane flying over oceans. She didn't "lose" Saturday. She spent it not doing her job.
6
We recently flew from San Francisco to Dubai (and back, of course), a flight of more than 16 hours. We carried ambien in case it was needed, but never used it. You sleep a little, eat a couple of meals, read, watch a movie, sleep little more, and suddenly you're landing. I doubt another 3 hours would have made a difference, and that was on a full plane. It really feels like the author is straining to make something out of nothing.
3
Anything beats a psychedelic 3 or 6 hour layover in Taipei, HK or Singapore...
Why not find a more mature writer who didn't have issues with sinus congestion? One who doesn't double dose on a sleeping pill like Ambien, against medical advice, because she's compulsive?
6
I would rather have all of my teeth pulled without novocaine than sit in an economy seat on a 20-hour airplane flight.
3
Thank you I am laughing out loud. I did the JFK to LAX to Sydney flight. That was quite enough for me. Qantas was wonderful, we bid for business class and got it. So I still have my kangaroo pajamas. BUT even on that 16 hour flight I could not sleep and walked around in my kangaroos like a zombie. It just doesn’t work. Then I needed to connect to cairns and to this day do not know how I got out of the airport with my luggage and transferred to a bus to another terminal. Got on a plane squeezed 8 across and flew into the tropical rainforests. Not so lucky to get business class back, got searched, seat was changed in a row of four next to a drugged woman. They had to wake her up. Planes are great but not human. I am happy I didn’t take drugs but one drink and I really don’t know who I am. My husband took the Singapore flight and slept, sigh.
So am I a glutton for punishment,JFK TO Toronto to Tokyo in June.
Yea.
2
People regularly do 35-hour bus trips across Europe because it's cheap. I fail to see why it should be particularly difficult to spend 19 hours on a plane, which is considerably more comfortable than a bus. I've never heard of a bus where passengers had the space to do a macarena dance.
3
@GS: Do they do them with zero stops? I would think it would be illegal for a driver to go 35 hours without stopping, so there would at least need to be a couple of stops to change drivers.
1
@Heliotrophic Of course they change drivers, or sometimes there are two drivers who sleep in shifts. They also do stops for the passengers for sanitary reasons and so people can stretch their legs, something that is neither possible nor necessary in a spacious airplane.
I mean, such long trips are always horrible, but I'd much rather be 19 hours on a plane than on a bus.
1
Wait, I get to 2-hour binge-watch whatever I didn't have time to watch over the last few years? As long as I have a power port for my ipad, sign me up.
From someone who has taken ten 14hour plus flights over the last 2 years -- just for fun.
1
I would like to second Prof. Marie Carroll’s advice to set your watch to the same time as the arrival destination right after takeoff. Also no alcohol, but that takes will power when the booze is free. On a flight to France last spring, I set my watch ahead to French time right after takeoff for no particular reason. I’d never done it before, and had not read any advice to do that, but I did it and discovered that it helps tremendously to orient your mind/body to the arrival time zone so that when you do arrive, there’s almost no discrepancy between your body clock and the actual time zone you’re in. I have absolutely no clue why this happens, but I can testify that having done it, this flight to europe was the very first time that I experienced almost no jet lag at all. I was able to spend the first day walking around Paris feeling relatively fresh and relatively energetic. Relatively, because there’s no escaping your body clock 100%, but eliminating even 50% of the jet lag goes a long way to making the adjustment practically painless. Is it mind over matter? Don’t know. Maybe Prof. Carroll can explain the “set your watch to destination time” trick in a follow-up article.
I have done long distance travel a fair bit - NY-Sydney thrice, NY-Singapore non-stop, SFO-Singapore, Brisbane-London and countless other trips, all in Business or First Class. These non-stops are not exactly in demand anywhere - airports today are a significantly better experience for a stopover from even 20 years ago. The trips I enjoyed better were the ones with stopovers where I could stretch my legs and take a shower, change and have a good meal. And flights with stopovers cost less than non-stops because of the extra fuel being carried, and extra everything else, from crews to food.Just as we would like to stop over at a rest area when we drive long distance, we need stopovers but not long layover times with change of aircraft. The ME3 airlines ensure any layover is not more than 3 hours unless a traveler wants to take in the airport experience or local sights which are often arranged free.
2
"What happened to Saturday?"
There is an easy answer to that - you slept through Saturday.
When you get back home, there is (though it doesn't happen all the time) there is a more difficult question - How did I arrive home before I even stepped onto the plane?
3
When I arrived in Sidney in 1983 on Qantus via NYC and LA, it was daybreak and numerous other jumbo jets were just landing. So we had to wait about half an hour on the plane while an overworked ground crew were spraying all arriving passengers to avoid importation of undesired insects into Australia. Not exactly a welcome half-hour.
3
Yes, it would! I've made the trip twice from LA (approx. 16 hours) and as my young son said about the trip, "I feel like I've just run through the gauntlet."
As someone who has flown from Charlotte to Brisbane and had a layover in LA, that long non-stop flight sounds better. Longest I’ve had was a two layover flight from Singapore to Atlanta that took roughly 30 hours. Also, coming back from a 12 hour flight yesterday that was delayed, I’m full of sympathy for the reporter. Flying is the worst part of most trips.
1
Cool it with the OTCs...
Fun story tho
5
By far the best thing about the test trip from New York to Sydney was this article.
6
If you're flying coach, yes, it will make you crazy. Take something to put you to sleep.
Green New Deal will eliminate airplanes.
Now send someone in economy class and tell us how it went.
12
I've taken pills and drank too much on long haul flights before so this sounds familiar. My fetal position was in the back of a taxi in Thiruvananthapuram, on the way for another 2 hours up the Keralan coast. It was fine a day later.
Thank God for masala tea.
1
Singapore Airlines’s 19-hours trip between Singapore and Newark has been operating for years (with a break post recession) without any melodrama. Why is a flight that is one hour longer news?
9
Because for a long time the Singapore Airlines flight from Newark was operated by an all-business Airbus 340-500, with only 100 seats. That’s not your usual cramped, serviceless coach flight from JFK to LAX.
The new flight (which resumed this year) is operated by a regular Airbus 350-900, so I agree, the poor chaps in the back must be suffering...
1
Great read, thanks Sarah!
1
Decongestants and double doses of oxymetazoline????? Those are vasoconstrictors and just make your heart work harder. Take it from one who has pulmonary hypertension AND a bad nose. I mix my own oxymetazoline to a high dilution but can still feel the vasoconstriction. Twenty hours on an airplane? Fortunately, not being able to travel by air anymore means “never again” and for that I guess I can be grateful.
4
19 hours in Business Class and Medicated... My Story
In the mid eighties I married an Australian and moved to Pittwater a suburb of Sydney.
Now safely repatriated I think I must have been insane to make the Trans Pacific flights as often as I did.
I did my first flight to Australia in coach, a mistake I never repeated and can tell you that coach, business class, or first class after only 9 hours of flight not even the Rockettes doing a military toe tap on tray tables could distract me from how much I hated being on a plane.
trapped in that aluminium tube hurtling towards the International dateline I hated everyone and everything.
My eyeballs dried in their sockets, the mucus in my nose turned to stone and I longed for a shower followed by a hot bath.
Now at 70, the longest trip I can tolerate on a plane must be under 3 hours.
I was, however, lucky enough to take all the long haul flights anyone could hope for before the age of 50.
3
The real question should have been: How crazy would I drive my fellow passengers, who spent 19 hours sitting near an adult in kangeroo pajamas?
4
12 hours LHR to SFO drives me nuts...not sure I could handle 19!! I'm thinking SFO > JFK. spend a few days in NYC...then JFK > LHR or CDG might be easier...but then opt for non-stop home or back thru NYC??? hard to say. thinking!!!
This is hilarious!
I would rather spend two hours in an MRI thantwo hours on a plane. You couldn’t pay me to take a 19 hour flight… I would much rather take a repositioning cruise to Australia.
1
I've done a ton of long-distance flights- probably the longest being flying from LAX to JFK and then on to Johannesburg, South Africa, with a stop on a tiny pit-stop island in to middle of the ocean (no deboarding) to refuel the plane. That was 19 hours+ !!
1
No one who can afford a flight like this in first class/business class lie-down seats has a right to complain.
8
I would rather go to the dentist that have to fly non-stop 12 hours again.
2
Glad to see this vital coverage of one of the critical issues of our time. The fact that a few hundred people with short attention spans are bored, is clearly right up there with global warming, racism and the drug crisis. Kudos to all who are studying this issue!
3
@stevevelo: You may missed the pertinent fact that this is in the Times travel section, not news.
1
Nicely written Sarah. Quite funny yet also slightly profound.
It'd be interesting to find out how the Strategic Air Command pilots handled their 24 hour plus airborne alert flights...my father was one. Actually, his longest flight was in a B-36 for 37 hours. Smokes lots of cigarettes no doubt.
4
Hilarious story but I'm not unsympathetic; anyone who can endure 19 hours in the air deserves an award. I have enough trouble sleeping in my own time zone so, if I ever go to Australia it would have to be by ocean liner.
Recently I booked a non-stop flight from Mumbai to JFK, but at the last minute the flight was changed so that we had a 3 hour layover in Germany, during which time the passengers weren’t permitted to deplane. All told, we sat on the plane for 19-hours. I was in economy. So I read this article and laugh. Business class? Piece of cake.
4
Better hope those infamous Boeing 787 lithium-ion batteries don't catch on fire mid-way over the Pacific. Most of the airlines have traded-in the 747 for the 787 for flights to Australia...in either aircraft, you're about running on fumes by the time you get to Sydney, even when leaving from LAX or SFO.
Whew. The author consumed A LOT of drugs and supplements in a short amount of time. I can’t tell if she first sought professional medical or pharmaceutical advice about mixing all of these. I’m kind of astounded, repulsed, and scared for her.
13
As an Australian who lives in New York and who has lived on the east coast of the US for several years I know how long the regular QANTAS run to New York, via LAX, is and feels. So when I first heard about QANTAS’s recent non-stop trial flight between JFK and Sydney I thought it was a brutal experiment in how the airline could avoid LAX. Yes it’s a nuisance to travel through it and yes it’s an awful airport but the thought of a 19 hour non-stop flight to Australia is beyond inhumane, even to seasoned travelers.
It is possible to prepare for long haul flights and to arrive at your destination feeling human without the expensive of a First Class, Business Class or Premium Economy ticket. Firstly stay well hydrated and avoid the booze. Secondly, select an aisle seat towards the back of the plane and get up and stretch your legs down at the very back near the toilets. Finally, rest and relax. Whether you’re traveling for work or leisure you’ll be thankful you’ve taken the opportunity to unwind. Besides, that period before a trip commenced is always stressful.
3
I had no idea so many people get nauseated on long flights, apart from air sickness, I mean. What is the reason?
@Renee Hoewing not probably due to air sickness. I can easily get motion sickness in a car or on a boat, but have rarely had issues on a plane. The only time I did, I had taken quite a bit of cough syrup for a cough. I can suggest that the reason most people get nauseated on long flights (and I've been on quite a few to India and Thailand and New Zealand) is that they are medicating themselves with OTC products, which they overdo, or prescription medication such as Ambian. Or with the free alcohol. Not advisable at an altitude of about 9,000 feet on the plane. The present article strongly suggests this. And don't envy those too much who drop off to sleep quickly on the plane. I have been informed this is due to sleeping agents. The less you medicate yourself the better you will feel at the end, and the more quickly you will adapt to the new time zone. And drink lots of water before, on and after the flight. Works.
3
I’m always one for saving time, I’m the queen of the 45min running through 3 terminals layover, seriously I know how long it takes from gate to gate in Zurich and LHR like the back of my hand but even to me, this seems BRUTAL. I’ll just have to deal with the charms of LAX.
After three trips to Australia, my favorite was with a stopover in Honolulu--just 12 hours, but long enough to take a $6 bus ride to the Sheraton on Waikiki, take a nap in my day-rate room, a walk on the beach, have a normal meal, and a shower. Then it's just 6 hours to Sydney. Manageable!
4
I don't understand the big deal. Singapore airlines has been flying Newark to Singapore for years and the flight is almost as long. And they have planes that carry your bags.
3
So we are hearing about a business class flight by a ill person who is downing pills (legal pills) along the way; reminds me of a vanilla Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I think you would get a better idea by watching Bill Murray (as the author referenced) in Lost in Translation.
I took a flight down to Dallas to catch the American Airline flight to Tokyo (14+hours going west, ten days later 12+ hours coming back to Dallas with the Trade Winds) back in '95 or so. I am 6'1" and 200 lbs. Economy seating but comfortable. Plane 2/3's full so some folks took the opportunity to lay down. Great meals (3), three movies. Lots of snacks. Free booze. When the plane dimmed the lights for sleep there was a space between the business class and economy where I stretched out, did some yoga, got my feet above my head (lol) in a stand and after ten minutes went back. I was 45 years old. It was fun.
When I landed at Narita Airport I tossed down two shots of espresso, a high school friend, now an expat living in Japan for 20 years, picked me up in his vintage Porshe convertible (no seatbelts) and we sped north for Mito. Later when the movie Lost in Translation came out it was easier to describe the strange upending of perception and sleep brought on by such a flight through time by using the movie (minus Scarlet Johansson).
If you are young and healthy, embrace such a trip. It will be quite an adventure. Much more than this somewhat neurotic essay implies.
5
Welcome to our world. Amusing article, one I can relate to. Living in Aus, arguably the greatest country on earth, we are used to long distance travel. I am amazed at how many people in the US haven’t even ventured out of their States, let alone OS. I travel regularly to the US and Europe. Europe used to be three 8 hour stints from Melbourne. The US used to have a mandatory stop in Hawaii before LA. Times have changed. Even the air quality in planes is so much better. However flying ‘cattle class’ is a nightmare but so cheap now. Flying Business class as per the article is a highlight and anyone who says it’s not is very hard to please. Being pampered around the clock, sitting in luxury massage chairs, sleeping on a lie flat bed, having new release movies, snacks on demand and landing in a different country with fast tracked exits...And not to mention the luxury departure lounges to prep you? The cost? If you can afford it? Worth every cent. Look for discounts, pay early so you won’t miss the money and just lay back and ‘suffer’ silently and keep making excuses you’ve worked for it and deserve it!
4
Big deal. I did 17 1/2 hours Auckland to Doha. Followed by a 2 hour layover. Then another 7 hours to Manchester. In economy. No fancy pyjamas. No nice seat. No wine. And no whining. There’s no point. Nobody cares. Anyway, sitting in a metal tube for hours is easy. The worst part is always the airports, coming and going. The sooner airports employ new technology and humane innovation to deal with the problems of processing large numbers of people the better.
5
The non-stop is only marginally 'shorter'' than a flight with a stop-over. Actually, the stop-over can mitigate the misery rather than making it worse. Symptomatic medication for congestion is a terrible idea; attention men: older men can experience sudden blood-pressure collapse from anti-histamines. Plain ordinary painkiller and a mild sleeping pill are better; however, sleeping during intense excitement is impossible-- just pretend the experience is 'normal'. I once flew 1st class and got no sleep at all. Once you get there, make sure you soon do exercise in the sun, like brisk walking.
1
5 hours is my limit for being in the air. Wherever 5 hours takes us, that's where we spend one or two days recouping, before traveling forward. It certainly takes us longer to reach our destination, but it also makes the trip a 100 times more enjoyable.
1
Agony. I fly internationally fairly frequently, but I just flew back to SF from France, with a plane change on the East Coast and that first leg nearly did me in. After 6 hours in a big bulkhead space, all I could think of was I am locked in a metal tube with an incipient cold and no ability to nap for even a half hour. The writer's description brought it all back with the added horror of having a trip last 3 times as long. No. Way.
IMO The duration is one factor, time of departure is a bigger issue. In the early 2000's for work I had 26 roundtrips JFK to Melbourne. The best trips there were the early morning departure from JFK, and then the 12 or 1pm LAX to Sydney and a 8:30pm SYD to Melbourne. In our winter the sun was up until just before the final landing. It was one long day, during which I took a nap or two and nibbled when hungry. No medications, maybe a glass of wine on the last leg. Lots of stretching and it helped when I had something else to focus on (e.g. overdue letters and a great book). Got to Melbourne, slept the sleep of the weary and was okay (not perfect) for work the next day. Oh, about half the flghts were upfront and half steerage. Tried to get the window on the sunny side. Up front definately better but I'd rather fly the sunshine route in coach than the other options up front. I'd prefere the direct flight - if it leaves the right time of day.
The airline and its inflight staffing and services makes a difference. SFO to Singapore (16 hours) with Singapore is pretty good. Lots of video choices plus WiFi. Sleep masks and earplugs, even in coach. Dubai to SFO (16 hours) with Emirates is also pretty good. But I'd be concerned about flying SFO to DEL (16 hours) with United, even though my Gold status would upgrade me to Economy Plus. Fewer flight attendants and less attention to passenger service (food service, restroom maintenance, entertainment options, etc.) stands out on these long flights. To me, it's pretty clear what Qantas must do to make the 19 hour flight tolerable for most coach passengers (longer seat pitch and more), but I have no idea if they are willing to give up revenue from a row or two of seats in coach to provide a little more legroom.
1
If you have to sit in a middle seat in coach, with a full airplane, don't do it.
If you're in first class, however, it could be nice.
Twenty hours in the air non-stop takes a toll on the body and mind, no matter how young and/or healthy you may be.
You'll need some time once you arrive to recover.
It could make your overall transit time shorter, but your seat assignment, and how full the flight is is critical to the overall quality of your trip. You'll be able to stretch out a little bit if the flight is not full.
Price considerations, of course, are paramount for most people. Non-stop flights from New York to Sydney will likely be overpriced, at least initially. Wait until there's some competition to drive the price down.
I once flew (first class) San Francisco-Tokyo-Bangkok (business class)-Zürich-Barcelona. There was a series of connections of a couple of hours each, but I didn’t stop in any city except Barcelona. This was not a holiday on a mileage ticket—it was actually a work-related trip.
I fell asleep for a couple of hours before landing in Bangkok, and then fell asleep on takeoff from Bangkok to Zürich and slept for 9 hours straight. I woke up feeling amazingly well physically, but was not quite in my right mind for a few days.
I wouldn’t do that again. I think being able to get off the plane and orient yourself for a couple of hours over the course of 30+ hours of continuous travel helps a great deal, but ultimately the travel took a toll. 20 hours straight in the air? I don’t think I’m up to that. I’m bored and uncomfortable after 12 hours.
Let's be clear--this flight would exist only for business travelers flying upfront who need to save time and the young who can handle being in coach for 20 hours. The rest of us will continue as we always have, transiting so we can get cheaper tickets.
This spring, I spent 20 hours in business class flying from SFO to Delhi with a stop but no deplaning in Sharjah for refueling.
At the counter when I checked in, I was shaking with nerves as I was flying alone to India for the first time to get married and knew I had a long flight with excited relatives I'd never met on the other end. I asked about an upgrade and the desk agent replied, "If there was ever a flight to upgrade, this is the flight." I took his advice and I am so grateful I did.
Our return flight was 30 hours thanks to an airspace closure causing a missed connection in Helsinki combined with issues of European law lacking a provision for 24 transit for Indian nationals so we were rerouted to Shanghai as China allows a 24-hour visa on arrival. While the first two 10 hour legs we flew were business class on Finnair (lovely), the third was economy on United (nice flight attendants). My husband and I joke that it was our honeymoon on Airbus and I look back on it fondly as it was an adventure to kick off our marriage.
Having been on these and other long flights, my recommendations are compression socks, a neck pillow, and a couple good books.
No. My husband insists that we always buy the cheapest seats. That is the one reason I don't want to go anywhere that I have to fly. He won't consider a ship. He will take a train but only in the same circumstance as the airplane. When he wanted me to buy a new car I told him "I like the one I have now" and I did that for months. Finally, I said "Perhaps I will consider it if your show me what you want me to drive." And he brought up a picture of the same car the company he worked for gave to him as part of his salary.
"Nope."
So this went on for about another 4 months and he offered to let me choose the car and all the accouterments I wanted. I warned him I would be buying exactly the car I wanted. If there were any 'advise' to what I wanted it was a game over. Okay, he said and made an appointment the next day to talk with a Renault salesperson.
I went in with a list. Every thing from exterior hub cab to the interior. Now that is our family car. He loves it! It is extremely first class comfort and it is powerful. He has retired. He said to me: I knew if I could make you build our car we would most likely not need another for 20 years but if we do, you are in charge.
I wouldn't drive 19hours and 16minutes straight. What this article is not saying that you have to be at the airport 3 hours before and then probably another 3 on re-entry into America.
I flew from Atlanta to Johannesburg (17 hours) and back 2 weeks later (18 hours). I stayed up late, watched several movies, took some ambien, and slept for 6 hours or so. I watched a few more movies and we were there. It was long and I wouldn't want to do it weekly or even monthly, but it wasn't that bad.
The article attempt to create a buzz out of pretty much nothing. Yes, 19+ plus hours is a long flight, but it is only marginally longer than the 17 to 18 hour flights that have been offered for years. I have taken roughly two dozen such flights, almost always in coach since I was a federal employee. (The only way for a non-political fed to escape coach is to upgrade oneself, an expensive proposition.)
Super long-haul flights are very rough, no question about it. They are still better, however, than the alternative, which is generally to take back-to-back 10 - 12 hours flights with three or four hours in the middle in a crowded, noisy airport -- often with no place to sit. The big advantage of the long-haul flights is that they cut a 24 - 30 hour ordeal into a 17 - 19 hour ordeal.
1
I have long said that if I had a button I could push, and get rid of short-haul aviation, nothing could keep me from it. Sounds like I need another button, for the antipodean flights. They would be harder to replace with the train, though.
1
I fly to Singapore at least once a year (initially in coach) and I've never had an issue getting there, it's the way back that feels like a total nightmare (I definitely had a complete meltdown in LAX switching planes) I'm useless for at least a day or so after. The most successful formula I've had to ride out the flight there is to eat a carb-heavy meal, two cocktails and motion sickness medication right before boarding, and lots of water throughout the flight. I used to be self conscious about it, but I also am that person who puts on a sheet mask at some point.
I agree with others here that this very long non-stop flight only makes sense if one can fly business class or better, i.e. a seat that can recline fully and become a bed (of sorts). However, in that case, those flights are great. I had the pleasure of taking one of these 16 hour+ flights to Asia for a paid-for business trip, and appreciated it very much. The layovers and connections otherwise required would have prolonged the misery of that long distance travel to almost two days. However, spending 19 hours in overly tight coach seating would border on cruel and unusual punishment. So, yes, those ultra-long distance flights can be great, but only for those who can afford business or first class, or have someone paying for it.
1
I've flown non-stop from Vancouver to Sydney, in coach, four times. Not fun, but if you enjoy Australia as much as my wife and I do it is worth it. Jet lag for us seems to be much more pronounced when we return to Canada. I have read that there is a physics reason for this when flying west to east, but I can't remember what it is. I'm only able to sleep for 2 to 3 hours, but I don't think that I would sleep any better in first class so I save the money to spend when I get Down Under. There are far worse experiences in life!
I took a return flight from Port Louis, Mauritius to London and then on to New York. I was staying at a place near Grand Bay. It was in the mid-90s. The owner took me to a pharmacy and asked the pharmacist for one little white pill. Then he suggested that I have a good meal on the flight with a cognac and then take the pill—you will wake up in London. Ah, he was right.
1
What a fun read -- felt so good to laugh out loud (especially these days)! Thanks, Sarah.
1
Qantas should remember its WWII "Double Sunrise" flights: up to 32 hours non-stop from Perth to Ceylon in a Catalina. You can YouTube that for interviews with people who flew it.
4
I've flown CA to Oz and Ca to NZ a number of times, either premium economy or business, which offers lay-flat seating on Qantas and Air NZ. PE was quite tolerable, business quite pleasant.
NY to down under in coach? Cannot imagine.
1
My idea about the best way to fly very long distances is to have medical personnel start an IV carrying a strong sedative. The passengers would be stacked flat in rows, like plates, on a shelf and be completely unconscious until arrival. No food, no booze, no entertainment. Just sleep.
24
@Susan
Along those lines, I used to suggest to my dentist that we could make a fortune if we used her access to nitrous oxide and started an airline called "Flying High".
It continues to seem like a viable plan.
1
@Susan, omg, that is my own exact fantasy! Including the image of stacking the somnolent supine bodies. My idea was inspired by my experience with propofol during colonoscopies, although I think a colonoscopy must be more pleasant than a nonstop flight to Australia.
1
Sorry, Sarah, for your pain bringing me so much pleasure. Your style and wit in your writing is as good as it gets. Hope your trip home was easier than your Quantas flight out.
5
Big baby, I have had flights back from places that lasted 36 hours getting back. Sure, the paramedics had to take me off the plane on a gurney with IV's in my arms but I made it.
6
Lived in Singapore with two babies— newborn and 21 month old. Flew at least 8 times between Singapore and New York, babes in tow. Door to door, it used to be about 28 hours. The last few trips, Singapore Airlines started the direct flight to Newark that was about 19 hours and bit. A long haul where the only person you have to entertain is yourself?? Give me a break. Y’all are amateurs.
31
This morning, while reading about some technical troubles with a new jet engine, a fantasy of the future came to mind: humanity suddenly realizes that air travel is not really necessary. Like Greta Thunberg, we travel on the oceans with the wind, on land by bicycle or electric vehicle. Wars have become a thing of the past, because the world gave up fighting, finally having realized what a waste it was...
Then, of course, I reawakened.
11
Air travel not necessary? You're right, it was a dream. A nightmare, in fact. Only the most desperate environmental utopian wants to go back to the time when it took an entire day to go over to the next town; if you even had a horse; and weeks or months to travel to another country by boat.
In 2006 I took the Singapore airlines flight from Newark to Sing, then some weeks later, from Sing to EWR. Easiest and best flight I've ever taken. You left @ 11pm, stayed awake for an hour or 2, Slept for 6-7 hours. Wake up, stretch, watch a movie, then take an ambien and sleep for another 9 hours or so. Wake up and you're only an hour or 2 from Sing. If i could I would take the same exact flight (assuming the seats are business class seats, forget the service). Easier, and more relaxing than any domestic flight or even some Euro-US business class flights.
5
The author is unfairly taken heavily to task by commenters for this article and her drug use. But that was part of the point of it. She was frank, self-effacing, and lighthearted about the experience. I found it an amusing and engaging account. It's also a valuable cautionary tale with a pretty serious message. She probably shouldn't have gotten on the plane in the first place but I don't think I would have passed up the chance to be wined and dined for free in business class for a day either. As long as she's not contagious she sounds like an interesting traveling companion. I'm happy to accompany her on the next historic jaunt. Always available to carry luggage and fetch chocolates from the all night snack counter.
PS: Long haul flights - compression stockings, always. Anything five hours or more.
9
@Stevenz - baby aspirin for circulation.
I guess I'm never going to see Australia, unless I can go on a cruise ship.
Since this was a promo flight, I'm sure the author was given the best they had to offer. It still sounds like a total nightmare. I dread flying and abhor airports even more, but even a non-stop flight of this length and even with medication, I would end up in a straight-jacket and locked in a cage in the luggage hold.
Just slip some of that soup through the bars of my crate.
6
Last month I took 2 long business-class trips to and from Europe and the US, ranging from 11-14 hours counting the much-welcome layover. (I know, well short of 19 hours on the same plane, but still challenging.)
The flat-bed seats in business class enabled sleeping for several hours at a time, but for me what made the biggest difference was having noise-cancelling headphones.
The earbuds dramatically cut the low-pitched roar of the plane engines, and even quieted the annoying voices of passengers who decided to have loud conversations with their seat mates.
It is even possible to use the earbuds without attaching them to a music or movie source, when you just want some peace and quiet. Just be sure to get the “active” noise canceling versions since the “passive” versions merely work like earplugs.
A friend’s active noise-canceling earbuds cost $249; mine cost $49. Hers are slightly more effective, though not enough to warrant my paying 5 times more.
3
So how does a whole planeload of people change into pajamas at the same time? In public? In the washroom?
12
Thanks for asking. I’ve been envisioning several scenarios for these two mass clothing changes in a 787 at 40,000 feet, none of them seemingly possible but all amusing.
1
Thank you for glorifying a major cause of global warming: airplanes.
4
"Upscale refugee camp" - really? What a daft and cruel metaphor to use for availing yourself of expensive privilege when there are millions of children in actual refugee camps.
23
I suppose it was too late for the NYT to get another reporter to fill in for Ms. Lyall. Visas and passports and all that. I pity her that she had to fly while being so sick.
2
Great article. But using the phrase “upscale refugee camp” to describe the trials of winging across the planet, and no doubt arriving to a clean and comfortable hotel room, while millions of real people are suffering atrocities in actual refugee camps, is unconscious and tone deaf. We want (need) more from our journalists than that, even in lighthearted pieces.
22
Delightful story, TY. My husband is from Cape Verde, so we also take long flights a couple of times a year, though not as long as this one. We drink a lot of water, walk around, but forego the drugs even though one of us (not saying who! lol) is a fearful flyer. Did you fly over the Pole?
4
First off, Sarah shouldn't have been on the plane with what sounds like a sinus infection. Second, the odd combination of uppers and downers taken, plus spicy soup, and add to that the disruption of a superimposed time schedule. This was a recipe to make an exciting and privileged event into misery.
It is not that complicated. Fly when healthy. Eat a bland diet. Forget the dope and try not to binge watch for fifteen hours. Humans are remarkable creatures and if given half a chance will sort the vagaries of the modern world out.
9
Meh. I've seen pictures of Australia. That's enough for me. I'm sticking to travel by good old automobile.
3
What a great article! So much fun to read. Congrats to the author. I hate air travel already, anyway.
OK, wow: decongestants since mid-afternoon; 3 prescriptions; an allergy tablet; a Sudafed; Afrin nasal spray; a spicy dinner; 2 mg. of melatonin; another [airline] meal; and 2 Ambien. And you complain of "post-flight nausea"? I'm surprised you did not need to be hospitalized.
23
This sounds like a scary prospect. We will not be flying this route. BTW, LAX is not a "Hellhole" for international stopovers. The international terminal is much better than most around the world. the lounges are exceptional with good food and libation. There are many good restaurants and plenty of space to stretch while waiting for your international connection. I have flown in and out of there many times, as recently as last week.The LAX regular terminals, if you are dropping off or being picked up, can be rather taxing in terms of traffic...partly due to volume and partly to construction.
7
Once on the way to Sydney from New York for work, I was grateful for my layover in LAX. I got a blinding headache that turned into a migraine just before landing on the JFK to LAX leg. Upon disembarking at LAX, I had just enough time to throw up in a lovely clean, large bathroom and purchase Exedrin from a newsstand before boarding the Sydney leg. Bless that layover.
4
it is easier when you fly business. why don't you tell us how it feels when you fly economy??
7
@manli: Because this nonstop flight with an economy section doesn't exist yet?
1
It's a tough experience, especially when one can drink limitless lattes made to order. Eventually all said and done, you can douse an outhouse with Chanel Eau de Parfum and decorate it with potpourri, it still is an outhouse and any thoughts of lingering are quickly dispelled by the odorous experience.
This sounds truly awful, even in business class. Planes often make me feel like I'm gonna puke too. Great article.
1
The Boeing 787 with its composite material structure allows more pressurization and higher relativity humidity levels, which should significantly reduce instances of low humidity based nasal and throat confections. High intakes of non-alcoholic liquids is advised, as well as getup and moving about.
2
First flight was to Tokyo on Pan American at age six aboard a 707 with flight attendants which doted on me, and asked me to assist distributing menus. No inflight entertainment was provided because the Japanese government did not have a competing inflight entertainment aboard JAL DC-8s at the time, so the video monitors installed on coat racks remained dark throughout the 12 hour flight (there as a "tech stop" in Anchorage to refuel) from SFO (the return was non-stop). This was the first of several international trips I was privileged to have in my childhood. As an adult, asking me to endure 19 plus grueling hours, even aboard QANTAS, a leader in long-haul travel which puts DL, UA and AA to shame, in business class is something I can do without. However, to business travelers with exacting schedules, I am sure, is worth it.
3
So all this for a flight that is only an hour longer than an already-existing one? How is that one any different?
1
Having recently arrived from Europe into JFK, I find it rich the complaints about LAX. Sadly, our 2 ‘flagship’ airports I just cited pale in comparison to other (especially Asian) airports.
A few years back (when we lived in Perth Australia), we frequently flew on Singapore Air from LAX to Singapore and then another 5 hours to Perth. The now defunct flight from LAX to Singapore was 17 + hours. I do not quite get that 3 more hours is a big deal.
And yes, it does help to fly Business rather than Economy. And, no ambien!
2
I used to travel annually in my youth between the UK and Oz and the East Coast and Oz. In those days, the Pacific route stopped in LAX, Honolulu and Auckland before you hit Sydney, and the only inflight entertainment was the single movie with inaudible sound provided by rubber stethoscopes. I think the whole journey took 26 hours.
To this day, I'm still traumatized by the boredom of those journeys as a 10 year old.
2
They seem to putting everyone through the same regimen, which makes it less of a research flight. Everyone seems to be in an experimental group with regards to the meals, exercises, etc. They missed a solid research opportunity here, even if they had fewer than 50 people to experiment with.
And in any case, they're doing it wrong! Resetting your watch to Sydney time as soon as you get on the plane is a good idea, but the schedule they set doesn't follow that lead. They were trying to keep people up for 6 hours and then make them sleepy at 3am NYC time, which was 5pm Sydney time. Is that when you want to be ready for bed in the destination? Doubtful!
They should be helping people stay awake for at least 9-10 hours and then letting them sleep for 9-10 hours until morning, Sydney time--probably shortly before landing (which based on the numbers they provided would be 6:16am).
Everyone I've talked to who doesn't get jetlag, like myself, uses this approach. Not sure why all the drama. I guess it makes for a more interesting article.
3
Recalling some long distance flying long ago while serving in the USAF. Some hops from, say Kansas to France, on a tin seated C130 Hercules transport were in the 24 to 36 hour category. I also believe B52 missions were often in excess of 24 hours and included air refueling.
I don’t recall anyone asking if I was “comfortable”.
4
Not sure this experience is representative of ordinary travel, certainly not coach, with no free pajamas, and even a short flight could be miserable with all that medication. I recently flew coach from Texas to Doha on Qatar Airways. It was a 14-hour flight, but the service, cleanliness of the plane and restrooms and video entertainment all made it bearable, even reasonably comfortable. I would opt for business class if I was flying another 5 hours. Yes, it was tiring, but the basic amenities onboard and in the spacious, spotless Qatar airport certainly reduced the physical and mental stress. (And, yes, Qatar is a wealthy country that can provide a high level of service to any flight class in its airline.) The experience made me a bit sad, because I know that flying anywhere was once like this.
3
My husband and I rarely travelled far for vacations, but from 2004-12, we made 7 "pleasure" round trips to visit our son and his family who were living in Taiwan. From our door to theirs, it was 8000 miles, 12 time zones and a 25-hour-long journey. Then in our early 70s, we flew Business class on EVA, their national airline, and wanted for nothing. Only our very last flight from TPE-NWK was non-stop, a surreal 19 hours in air.
The logistics, the fatigue and everything else were all outweighed by the joy of seeing them and being seen, especially our young grand-children. But no amount of luxury, comfort or gourmet food could ease the month-long recovery here from the jet-lag, or soothe the pain of those heart-breaking good-byes.
Travel for pleasure? For us, time near our loved ones is the greatest joy. Everything else is just virtual reality.
2
As a very frequent super long-haul flyer (I'm taking off on a 14 hour 55 minute flight from Toronto to Hong Kong tomorrow), and also a health researcher, the description of this research flight varies so substantially from the actual experience of passengers on these long trans-Pacific flights that it's difficult to see what useful data will arise from this study. The passengers were accompanied by Professor Carroll, who provided advice and direction regarding how to cope with the long flight. They altered the schedule of the typical long=haul flight with respect to meal service, what was served for the meal, lighting, providing pajamas, exercise sessions, etc. The only useful findings would require a control flight, which would NOT offer these special conditions. So billing this as a "research flight" seems to be more of PR effort (and an effective one at that given the media coverage here and elsewhere!).
I flew Dallas to Brisbane, not in Biz, 17 hrs on Qantas about 4 years ago. The fight leaves late at night, I think it was 11pm so you are already naturally ready to sleep. Took 1 Ambien and the flight attendant said I was out when I spoke to him later. Took another after I woke up and it didn't do anything. It is like trying to turn the tides. I do a fair bit of int'l travel for work (Down under 2x this year, luckily up front this time) and I find that you save your Ambien for your destination so you don't wake up in the middle of the night and a nice flat white or 3 the next day to keep you going.
1
The writer should have stayed home. Boarding a flight with a cold is extremely ill-considerate to the others on that flight. I wonder how many others came down with the same illness after the flight landed.
2
I've done Chicago - Hong Kong. I've done Frankfurt - Shanghai. In fact, I've headed east to Europe, done the job, and continued on east to Asia and then back thru SFO. Twice.
It's always an interesting phone call, that one, "Hey, glad we got you, we know you're in Germany/France, but we have this other problem in Japan/China, we need you there. Let me know when you land."
But that is only partly interesting to me at least, it's kind of ho-hum. Another few chapters. Another boring movie. Since we're talking about traveling in metal tubes, what gets me intrigued is the craziness of living in a submarine.
Once we accept the existence of men living in a metal tubes for weeks and months, (with a nuclear reactor feet away) any lingering concerns about being stuck in an airplane tube for less than a day (with windows!) reduces in significance substantially, in my mind.
Of course, submariners are schooled and they do volunteer to get into that thing, and many passengers aboard Qantas have flown before they get aboard the 19 hour ride, there's that to consider, it's a known known.
So please give me a heads up when a prisoner with a touch of claustrophobia who has never flown before gets extradited either way aboard this marathon flight; that will be the true test of the long haul airplane experience.
Will Quantas give the prisoner Kangaroo jammies or not? Because I think denying headphones on this flight qualifies as cruel and unusual punishment.
Inquiring minds want to know.
Recently, I flew from Dubai to Hong Kong (7 hours) and then HK to San Francisco (12 hours.) Flying in business class, this was a no-brainer. Very comfortable and not disorienting.
This is simply a Qantas PR story to announce the new flight.
5
Over-medicated? I got nauseous from the meds list alone. Three prescription drugs, Sudafed, nasal decongestant and two Ambien because, well, one doesn't work. The next thing I expected to read was two glasses of wine and then a security diversion to LAX because of an unruly passenger (the writer). Perhaps there should have been a pharmacist on board to offer consultation to passengers for customizing their medication. Frankly, taking all those meds and flying with an ear infection causes me to question the writer's sanity.
22
@DKS But she didn't have wine because they said you "weren't supposed to."
I just returned from Australia/New Zealand last week. Going there I stopped in LAX which was truly disgusting - the travel agent made the arrangements before I had a chance to weigh in! However, I'm obviously in the minority in this forum, as I didn't really mind the 5.5 hrs to LAX, 2 hr layover, then 13.5 hrs to Auckland in economy seats (I am 5'1"). I never sleep on planes (I did rest my eyes on and off), ate some of the meal, a glass of wine, many cups of water, set my watch to NZ time immediately, and watched lots of movies. Air New Zealand is great! When I arrived in Auckland I went out for several hours, ate lunch, then feeling myself crashing I went to the hotel. I never felt jet lagged during my whole trip. (Returning was another story.) I'd try that non-stop flight any time. Going through security several times is a pain and seems unnecessary if you've just stepped off another flight, and I just want to get the flight over with so I get to my destination asap.
2
I once had to change planes in Iceland on a trip to Denmark from the East Coast. I was somewhat annoyed at the time waste, but when I arrived at my final destination, I was in much better shape than after any nonstop flights I have taken to Europe.
2
In 1983 I flew to Athens to run the marathon. I was single and It my first Transatlantic flight. I bought the cheapest ticket available on a 747. To my pleasant surprise, the two people who were supposed to be in the adjoining seats stayed home, leaving me with what was in effect a somewhat comfy bed for the flight. I looked back fondly on that flight when, on what is probably my last trip over the Atlantic, my wife and I went to Italy in 2017. By that time, such flights had become the classic cattle car experience. Exchanging elbows with the horde in Venice was little better. This fall we were supposed to go to Portugal, a trip that was foregone for one to Acadia in Maine, all in dread of another Transatlantic rite of sacrifice. Walking around in the fall foliage on Acadia’s carriage trails seemed a pleasant return to sanity.
1
@Dale Irwin I flew to Athens in 1982, cheapest ticket available; may have been a charter. We had an 8-hour delay at Kennedy due to a bomb threat. Then, on to Athens! I'd managed to snag an aisle seat-- but I was next to a Greek couple (who were exceedingly nice) but quite large. They also had an extremely large box, which didn't fit on one lap, or even two; so, the three of us balanced it it on laps for the next 12 hours. I can't tell you why this was allowed. Throughout the flight I felt guilty for my aisle seat (of which I occupied half, since the woman needed to sit on part of it) but.... I couldn't quite make myself trade. The thought of being accordioned on the left, right, and, of course, from that box, was just overwhelming. Flying long distances cheaply was always cattle-car ish, but you're right it's gotten worse and as we get older (well, as I get older)- tougher to bounce back from...
Surviving long haul flights is one of my semi-useless (but impressive) skills.
Being a poor sleeper in my own bed, let alone at 40,000 feet, in a chair that I am convinced is made to cause spinal deformation, has given me the ability to go without sleep for up to 20 hours (crazy summer of 2016. Just scotch, some peanut butter, and a Friends marathon).
I thoroughly enjoy the lights out period. Looking out at the heavens with almost complete silence around you is not something you can experience anywhere else.
Plus I always make good conversation with the air hostesses/stewards. One time I even managed to score a bottle of Teelings whiskey! The Irish accent does have its uses.
7
Yikes, folks — lighten up on this writer. I thought this was a fun article.
The NY Times is a very serious, important publication. There’s lots of serious, important, grown-up articles.
I for one enjoyed a bit of a change. If after 3 paragraphs, you’re unhappy, why keep reading?
Also, as fun as this was, the writer did convey useful information to those not so incensed that they missed it: the effects of too much Ambien, the messages from Quantas experts on the right way to travel long distances, the disorientation you feel on arrival (even without a drug cocktail.
Finally, for those criticizing her use of antibiotics, you’re not the doctor handling the case, nor is she. Yes, antibiotics are overused but we lack the information to pass judgment in this case.
So there!
11
Hello to all of the readers whom have travelled or are considering travelling to Aus'. It is interesting reading the many and varied comments and experiences people have had on long flights. For we travellers from Perth, on the west coast of Aus', nearly everywhere is a long way from home and we regularly boast about it. Not really sure hwy, maybe so we can roll our eyes when people complain about flying for 8 hours, "It is soooooo long!". For those who consider 14 - 15 hours a long flight, meh!! For us to get to the west coast of the US whether via Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane or Auckland if doing the Trans Pacific from eastern Aus' or New Zealand, or flying north then east via Asia across the Pacific, the typically shortest time for travel including a single 1 -2 hour transfer, is between 22 - 28 hours. A non- stop 19 hour flight, glorious. though not in typical QANTAS Economy.
4
I'm pretty sure most people writing are taking this too seriously. She admits she had the good seats. She's not saying she's a samurai. She's merely getting us to laugh along with her at how terrible it all was. And isn't that where most of our favorite stories come from, some pain?
7
I would rather hear from a passenger who wasn't too sick to be flying in the first place.
7
For a comparison to a 20-hour flight in Earth's atmosphere, the author should have joined a space flight or at least interviewed astronauts. I would hate to be in a non-smoking environment for 20 hours.
“We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers... and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.
Not that we needed all that for the trip, but once you get locked into a serious drug collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can.”
Oh, wait--that's Hunter S. Thompson, not Sarah Lyall. But, given what she's written here, what's the difference?
19
Let me introduce you to my attorney, Dr. Gonzo...
3
@August West
That's exactly who came to mind : Fear and Loathing at 40,000 '
1
TWO AMBIEN? On top of all that other stuff you took?
You're lucky you didn't wake up duct taped to that nice new seat!
12
I highly recommend drinking vodka. Knocks me right out for a sound sleep.
2
There are several 16 hour flights.. would be interesting to hear how this is different from those..
3
Sailboats use less fuel. Hypocrisy rules!
3
I flew coach from NY to Hong Kong non stop...
I'm still here and not crazy. Just happy to travel round the world....
2
I spent 19 hours on a plane in 1966 and only flew from Washington D.C. to Kansas City. A combination of a snowed in airport and exhaustion of crew time, so we sat and sat until the weather passed and then until the weather passed somewhere else and allowed a new crew to come in.
Two weeks later I traveled back to D.C. on a bus: there was an airline strike and no one was flying and the army wasn't waiting.
3
Why bother flying when you are too sick or dependent on medication to enjoy it? Were you not allowed to give this assignment to someone else because you really weren’t in tip top shape? Were you not concerned about the effects of air pressure and the many medications you took during your flight? I’d like to think you cleared this flight with your doctor before traveling (with your bags of meds!) I also sincerely pray you are ok and hope that you consider looking out for your own health, fully recovered from any illness before embarking on this type of work assignment. You were a worker’s comp story waiting to happen in between the Ambiens, Sudas, nasals etc.
Am also wondering whether this a belated April Fool’s article? Hope the writer is feeling better and if there are other passengers on this trip not distracted by illness or meds who can share their flight experience, would love to read about it - even if in the comments section only. Thank you.
11
Sarah you’re hilarious. Laugh out loud level.
7
What was this article about? The Author, I can only think.
13
Here's an alternate suggestion for NY to SYD. Stop in Hawaii, about half way. Taxi over to a beach hotel. Spend a day at the beach in Honolulu, get a taxi back to the airport and finish the trip to SYD.
15
It's hard to imagine a more useless story. We hear a great deal about the predictable effects of the writer's awful choices regarding self-medication; we learn virtually nothing about what an actual traveler's experience might be on the flight. How will the seating and cabin amenities differ in various classes? Not a word about that. Will the airline's attempts at using lighting and meal choices to mitigate the effects of time zone change and enforced inactivity actually help, at least for passengers who can be bothered to try following advice? Who knows?
You should be ashamed, New York Times.
31
@Kyle Hoepner : It seems there were two layers of problems. First, since she was so sick, she shouldn't have even *been* on the flight. The assignment should've gone to another writer. Second, sick or not, she could've interviewed other passengers about *their* experience. Certainly, not all of them were under-the-weather pill poppers, and she may have been able to uncover patterns for more typical travelers that she could've shared with readers.
10
I completely agree, @Rose. And either of your two scenarios would have resulted in a story more useful to readers.
2
I used to fly EWR to Narita (Tokyo) every month for years in coach. 15 hours non-stop. Wasn't that big of a deal. I can't imagine 5 additional hours to be that grueling.
3
I'm an American living in Sydney, so I'm no stranger to the trans-Pacific route. I've flown every airline, connecting to the Midwest and East Coast through LAX, SFO, and DFW. I am always in regular ol' economy, occasionally in the middle seat. It's never a delightful experience, but if you exercise a bit of common sense and come prepared with the right equipment (neck pillow, eye shade, and noise-cancelling headphones are a must), it's tolerable. DFW>SYD is about 17 hours, so this flight is only an extra 2 hours or so. If the writer had chosen to listen to the reasonable advice of the people onboard, she would've been a bit tired but fine, like everyone else on board who didn't ingest an entire pharmacy.
7
Toronto to Shanghai is almost 13 hours; Shanghai to Toronto, which almost always includes a 1-2 hour wait on the tarmac, can clock in at 14-15hours. when I look up and see there's 7.5 hours to go, and the babies are waking up...
2
I would not recommend laying down in the grass anywhere in Australia as the continent is teeming with nasty venomous snakes and arachnids (Sydney Funnel Web, Red Back and White Tailed). While venomous snakes are very rare in the large cities, spiders can be found in many urban gardens and parks. While people rarely get bitten and there have not been reported deaths from spider bites in decades, it is just not smart to lay in the grass or swim outside of the shark nets on the beaches.
6
As somebody who flies longhaul a lot and would have no issue with a 20-hour flight, I can say that the author did absolutely everything wrong. Sure, planning when exactly to sleep on the flight, or before and after, is the first rule. (for example it's often good to shift your schedule in the days before to go to bed much later). The next rule is, no alcohol or coffee or medications of any sort- duh! (Melatonin is fine, it's not a medication - it just resets your sleep clock).
She would have been a total wreck if she had stayed in New York, just based on the medications and alcohol she consumed!
I've often flown to Hong Kong (16.5 hours), in business class and also economy, and it is true that after 10-11 hours it becomes a real drag, no matter how comfortable the seat is. Willpower and discipline (about sleeping, staying awake, what to watch, when to work) are the only ways to do this.
7
When I got off the plane (24 hours w a 2 hour stopover in Singapore), swirling in a madcap delirium and having even, mid-Pacific, been struck directly by a bolt of lightening,I asked my girlfriend to marry me! That act turned out to be a sane decision indeed.
5
Most outbound international flights go east. I've done that on flights to Europe, the Middle East and Africa. On these flights, the stops are part of the ordeal. A half mile walk, an inteterterminal bus and 45 minutes at the gate is hardly a respite. And if you start your day in Phoenix and fly 5 hours to JFK before leaving the country, 15 hours in the air and 4 hours on the ground is as taxing as the flight described. I'm sure Qantas appreciates the publicity. And they'll surely return the favor with high profile ads. But the way to make endless air travel manageable is with good old fashioned customer service. Let me suggest Qatar Airways, consistently voted first or second among all international airlines
@michjas
Most outbound international flights from *the US west coast* go east. Though many of them go north to north east.
If you really took all the OTC pills, sprays and Rx mentioned, you are just plain DUMB! Ask you doctor.
12
Ten years ago I flew from Chicago to LA to Sydney to Perth, a 40 hour journey, 30 of it on a plane. I'll never forget the searing pain in my knees after a six hour nap in the bulkhead seat in steerage, and how I've never purposely selected one of those seats since. I can't imagine subjecting myself to that adventure again, but if someone else were footing the bill I'd consider a 20 hour Direct flight. I'm sure in this age of entertainment on demand I could find plenty of things to keep me busy for a day.
I've done the Chicago <--> Sydney trip through LA (12.5 hours) twice and survived. The next time, I tried something an hour longer longer -- Chicago to Seoul, South Korea, This time, my luck ran out.
I had a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) following a round trip flight from Chicago to Seoul, South Korea. Spent the next week in the ICU, with a vascular surgeon devoting a three-day weekend to digging out a massive blood clot from behind my knee. Thankfully, it was caught right away, and I had excellent insurance and a heroic doctor.
Quantas, here is my advice for your 20 your flight to Sydney: (1) make ticket sales contingent on customer agreement to participate in 2 hours of hard, on-board calisthenics, (2) prepare for lawsuits anyway, and (3) don't wait around for my booking.
14
This is much ado about nothing! I took the Singapore Airlines (under 19 hours) flight from Newark to Singapore a long time ago before it was discontinued. It was a pleasant flight. I took no medication, had a good glass of wine and a warm meal, watched a good movie, and had lots of sleep. I don't understand what the fuss of flying 19 hours is all about. I regularly do 14 hours+ flights. I have just returned from Dubai to DC (14+ hours) on an Emirates A380. Great flight, great plane, and great service! I'm all for the new Qantas flight from JFK to Sydney. I might try it one day.
1
Most of my long flights are to Europe (8-9 hours). I eat dinner, drink some wine, watch a movie, then take half an Ambien. I sleep to my destination. Then I eat breakfast, take a nap, have an early dinner and go to bed at a reasonable hour. The next day I'm back to normal.
My worst long-haul flight ever was from Tampa to Cape Town, via Atlanta and Johannesburg in coach. I had muscle spasms in my neck and shoulders for weeks after. I would only do a trip like that again with a 2-3 day stopover midway.
Noise cancelling headphones, compression socks and staying hydrated -- can get you through almost anything. My first trip to Africa required 28 hours in steerage in the air, and due to incompetence in Nairobi, the trip stretched out to cover nearly 48 hours before arriving in Rwanda. This Australia flight, in business class, sounds pretty idyllic. Decent food and a science experiment too boot. Sign me up.
3
Thanks for this insightful, entertaining article. I can relate to much of what the author experienced. As annoying as long-haul travel might be, it's still worth it to me to experience another place on earth. Still, airplane innovations like carbon fiber components, variable lighting, and improved pressurization could ease the pain. I can't wait!
1
@Jeff Galyon : How would carbon fiber components ease the pain of flying?
1
@Rose The hope is it would reduce jet lag.
@Jeff Galyon : Now I'm really curious ... how would flying in a plane made of carbon fiber components help jet lag? I thought that the point of carbon fiber was lighter weight to improve fuel efficiency.
With the thousands living in solitary confinement in tiny cells, and the millions who could never afford to fly, complaining about flying in airplanes is the epitome of entitlement.
8
Pack 'em in.
Steerage for this flight will be fun.
I just returned from Paris in steerage on an American Airlines flight -- 8 hours in a seat meant for a member of the Lollipop League. Anyone over 5' tall was cramped. The student next to me, 6'3" strapped on his neck pillow, took a pill, and slept the whole time so as not to have to disturb anyone by going to the bathroom.
20 hours? I guarantee you that they'll cram us in for that flight just as sardine-like as for a simple NY-Europe flight to anywhere.
I sure wish the airlines would smarten up. Great that it can be done, "aviationally" but physically, it'll be a nightmare.
2
The Author should fly from Minnesota to Beijing with the Tokyo pitstop where travelers are not allowed around the airport but, must stay in a holding area. I used to be required to do the trip regularly. it's about 27 hours and people regularly bed down on the floor of the aircraft to sleep through as much as possible of the trip.
@Tori Mathis Yes. Other airports in Japan have these shut away areas as well-when you know the main terminal has better food, shops and space to walk!
Could we make it standard operating procedure that travel articles covering aviation include information on where to buy carbon offsets?
This needn't be created from scratch with each column or article. The information could be part of a newspaper's style guide, revised as necessary and simply plugged in as need be.
Confused about which offset systems to cite? Start the process by writing an article on that, with useful conclusions (there are a plethora of robust, certified offset schemes easily available to people who know about them). Then, make sure that every article encouraging people to fly includes how to clean up after ourselves.
1
Flying in business class isn't what most people would be able to do. I fly 15hrs JFK-Nairobi direct every other month, I have done both business class and economy. The experience in coach is quite terrible, but it is just not practical to always purchase business class seats, as they are seemingly expensive for the working folk. This review is geared for the airlines, because over time, the seats have gotten smaller and increasingly more uncomfortable in the back, making us all aware that the airlines could care less about it's passengers comfort, unless you are very rich and can afford to pay 9k and up for a ticket.
Bragging rights belong to those who choose to enjoy the benefits of flying first class, on the airline's dime, and consider themselves grateful to be chosen for the opportunity to do so. The rest is just noise.
2
We fly to India every year with our two young children to see grandma, and only once flew through Dallas to Doha to Chennai.. It was a barely survivable nightmare. Now we know to break it in half.
1
I am planning on taking the the nonstop flight on Singapore Airlines from Newark to Singapore in March 2020. It is now the world's longest flight. This article has not made me rethink my plans but it has added a touch of concern . I knew that it would be tough but whoa-this is serious. Jammies not included. Great article though-Sarah Lyall is an amazing writer.
1
I've been flying from New York City to Johannesberg economy class since apartheid and the related sanctions ended. It's an 18+ hour flight. You sleep. You wake up. You watch a movie. You stretch your legs. You stand in line for the bathroom a lot. It's really not earth-shattering. Stay hydrated and don't kick the seat in front of you, and you'll be fine.
I've flown Qantas business (someone else was paying) 19 hours in Qantas Business Class? Sign me up!
Heck make it 20!
1
It's a shame when you have to use drugs just to get through one of life's many un-pleasantries.
4
Better to avoid both LAX and 19-hour flights by stopping over at DFW instead.
Incredible. You almost killed yourself for what? Three hours faster over a different plane to the same destination? My god, what's wrong with us. Are we all nuts?
1
Seriously? you could lay flat and had real food? thats is NOT a long-flight stress test.
I drive from my small town to DEN, park my car,fly from DEN to EWR (3hrs)-economy and EWR to DEL (16hrs)-economy, DEL to BOM (1.5 hrs)-economy and then a 4 hrs shared cab ride to my home.
It takes me 36hrs of traveling after I lock my front door.
give me a break-you guys dont have a clue about long flights and cattle class. This also reeks of White privilege BTW...
3
Privilege it may be, but why specifically white? Or is it impossible to separate the two words nowadays?
I just want to know what state the bathrooms on the plane were in after hour 14.
5
Bah. Did this several times: Doha, Qatar, and Dubai, UAE, direct to Houston, Texas 17 hours 45 minutes twice, and 19 hours 30 minutes twice. In economy, no less, on completely full flights. It’s doable. You have to sleep a lot, watch a lot of movies 9assuming the inflight entertainment system in your seat works), read if it doesn’t, hydrate every 2-3 hours, get up, walk around, do isometric exercises, stand in line for the restrooms... No, you won’t go completely crazy. The last 3-4 hours are the worst, so I try to schedule a sleep period then.
1
I know I'm in the minority of comments, but I think this sounds pretty great. The worst series of flights I ever had to take was (through entirely my own fault, adding personal travel on to a work conference) 48hrs of waking nightmare in economy class: Dublin-Paris-Dubai-Mumbai-Singapore-Auckland-Wellington.
The opportunity to settle into a long haul flight and skip the stop-start on-off of navigating airports is really appealing to me.
2
"Would 19 Hours and 16 Minutes in the Air Make Me Crazy?"
Depends where one starts out on the bell shaped crazy curve.
7
It isn't that I am a stranger to long-haul travel. One year I had 103 takeoffs and landings. But if I tried something like this I would be taken off the plane at the far end in one of those jackets that is all sleeves.
These days when I book a trip I try for four hours maximum in the air followed by the same amount on the ground, repeat one time only and then find a hotel for the night. I also have certain waterholes I use to decompress - Ike's in MSP, for example, or the AMEX lounges.
It sometimes costs a bit more to do it this way and it does take longer, but even my employer doesn't mind. They would rather have me able to show up and be functional immediately, than to be decanted at the other end as a gibbering wreck taking a day or to to regain sufficient coherence to do what I came to do.
It may be a sign of airline prestige to be able to put on a 20 hour flight, but you have to remember that the trip is done for a reason and the passenger has to be operational and more-or-less alive upon arrival, or there is no point to the trip.
2
I flew from Diego Garcia to Naples and after one hr on the ground on to Philadelphia.. at the time I was 24 and in really great shape and hadn’t had a drink in three months.... I stayed drunk the entire flight and don’t know if I got off the plane in Naples but when we got to Philadelphia I was ready to go out bar hopping for a few hours so we’re a bunch of my fellow travelers both squids and jar heads it was a lot of fun as I remember. It just kind of matters why you are traveling and which way you are going
1
I regularly fly the Qantas JFK-LAX-BNE route, and as most people who fly long-haul regularly will tell you, you get used to it; or maybe that's just the Australians, as we have to fly long-haul to get anywhere. Anyway, this trip was done on the 787, and as those who have flown it will know, there's not a lot of space on this plane to stretch out or walk. And for those of us with dodgy joints or backs, regardless of the travel class, we still need to get up and move, as do those with a higher DVT risk. I just hope that Qantas consider adding a designated space where people can stretch - if that doesn't contravene the US congregation rules of course.
2
I was a frequent traveler for 30 years, including to Australia from Rhode Island. It seems to me the writer is not at all representative of most passengers, even on long flights. I can't say I ever experienced any of the problems the writer describes. For me, the worst part of most flights was getting from the distant airport to my final destination. However, I agree that LAX is a nightmare.
3
A few years ago I had the same physical symptoms on the regular LAX-SYD route both ways without the interplay of any meds: overwhelming exhaustion within the first few hours of arriving in Sydney; and then vomiting/passing out from oxygen deprivation on the way back from SYD to LAX. I am happy to volunteer for this "research," though, if Quantas wants me to compare the two experiences!
I would love it if airlines would bring back the glamorous amenities they had in the 1970s - a conversation pit/lounge would be a great place to stretch out. Maybe some exercise bikes to pass the time?
My always latent claustrophobia really takes off whenever I get into a metal tube that flies. Flying first class does little to alleviate it and the longest time I can tolerate is about 4-5 hours. Like Ms. Lyall, I have used pharmaceuticals to cut down on the unpleasantness but it always makes me feel I need to attend a NA meeting afterwards. I would be grateful for any readers' suggestions.
2
I've flown from the USA to Shanghai and to Tokyo on separate occasions. As much as I'd like to return to both places for a visit, the prospect of being in the air that long again makes me think that I could easily forgo a return.
1
When your home base is Ft. Stockton, TX, you have a long trip to even get to the airport.
Usually when I travel from home base in remote West Texas, my drive to the airport is longer than my domestic flight.
2
There is a replication crisis in the social sciences. As a matter of journalistic responsibility, if the NYTimes would really like to explore the pathology of a business class trans-continental flight on drugs, I know several armies who would bravely volunteer to ensure that we do not leap to any hasty conclusions.
1
I could of sworn that I did this in the 60s
1
Qantas makes no real breakthrough with this nonstop, except perhaps in milking free promotions in the NYT and other media. Singapore began flying a Newark - Singapore flight of nearly 19 hours in the air in the early 2000s, without the Qantas hype and pseudoscience. SQ's is a great flight. Avoids uncomfortable stopover(s). Done right, it's experienced like a long night, leaving Newark after dark and arrive in Singapore at first light,
Hmm...imagine six months in the space station or a flight to Mars. A 20 hour flight should be a walk in the sunshine.
1
“Singapore Airlines’s just-under-19-hours trip between Singapore and Newark.”
Can you imagine enduring a 19 hour flight and then ending up in Newark?
65
@Dave From Auckland
Newark Airport is closer to most of Manhattan than JFK is.
2
thank you for the laughs this morning!
9
Stay home. Your ego travel will make the environment in which your precious progeny live substantially worse.
16
Could you rephrase that so as to be understood?
Direct flights are great. But some just pairs aren’t available such as ORD-MNL.
I’ve learned the hard way on long haul is layover time. The only thing worse than a long layover is a crazy short (yet legal!) layover unless you are absolutely pressed for time. I’ve been off a 16 hour flight only to hobble to my connecting gate in HKG with no carts allowed past a certain point. Never again — and I get to avoid Hong Kong to boot!
If you have the time, stop and smell the roses. Stretch your legs. Enjoy the transit lounges. Enjoy Changi, the best airport ever. Savor the experience.
1
Amusing read but in the end disappointing. The author was on a historic flight, which would have been more interesting to read about than her Judy Garland like drug binge.
40
Honestly, I feel like the author was simply lucky to have only vomited given the amazing amount of drugs she ingested. Decongestants and caffeine are two drugs I seriously limit - I can't imagine that cocktail with Ambien. Yikes.
25
What's the problem? Those of us on the West Coast have been enduring 14+ hour flights home from Europe for years, with little worry. Somehow you can't do 5 more?
Grow up.
3
@Todd So, that would be more than one third more flying time - on top of an already very long flight. You can't see the problem with that?
1
I like a layover for a very long flight. U get up. Move around and get out of plane pressure
5
Flew Sidney to Heathrow...plane packed full of formula one teams “celebrating”. French, Italian, Brits...Leaning on the back of your seat, leaning over you, leaning ON you. Did I mention shouting? Falling over? Did we stop anywhere? Could it ever, ever end? Did I mention coach seats? 6’ 2”....Good times.
6
This article should probably at least mention the toll that such a long flight plays on the climate...
8
I guess it was pretty boring and that is accurately reflected in the article.
12
I can barely make it to Europe from NY without going stir crazy on a plane. For claustrophobics like myself flying is distressing. Asia or Australia is not in my future, unless I have my own private jet with a bed.
9
Instead of stopping at LAX,
wouldn't it be better to have the break at HNL?
4
"...the tiny upscale refugee camp created by the airline"
That's where I clicked out. "Refugee camp"? Are you kidding me??
I don't want to read anything by someone who would use "refugee camp" in such a frivolous manner.
29
@Linda S : Couldn't agree more. And she gets to resume her normal life 19 hours later, instead of enduring the trauma that leads one to be a refuge, the horrific conditions at most refuge camps, the interminable waiting, the life in limbo for months or years, the gnawing uncertainty.
6
Yes, you have a good understanding of refugee camps. But of amusing metaphors, not so much.
1
Wimps! Stop the complaining. I don't get vomiting from long-distance plane travel. I've flown to Australia from Philly. The stopover was Dallas. It was close to 18 hours from there. I felt great upon arrival. And, yes, I watched movies for most the flight. Buck up, people! The world is waiting.
3
Reading this article gave me a minor panic attack.
8
WAIT - we are talking about Australians. The conversation should be about hydration in the form of mass quantities of beer!
Never, never. never. never will I take a 20-hour flight. WHAT is the gain?
3
I have resigned myself to the fact that I may never get to see these far away places (Japan, Australia), simply because I cannot sit in a metal tube for more than 3-6 hours at a time. My sinuses start to explode and everyone thinks I'm sick, when really the air is just too dry. (I know, I need to buy a "singer's mask".) Not to mention sitting for such a long period of time. I just can't do it. I prefer road trips, where you can play music as loud as you want, stop along the way as you wish (especially for ice cream!) and enjoy the scenery as you pass. The US is very big and there is much to explore.
14
Dear Ms Lyall,
I found this article funny and enjoyed reading about your adventure . Also you might have a drug problem.
25
If they can guarantee I won't be seated next to a person of size who encroaches on my seat, I'd consider it.
1
@Moishe Pipik - "emotional comfort" critters?
1
Wow. After reading this article, I would have liked to have taken part in this flight/experiment.
2
When I went to visit some family near Perth in 2016 I flew through L.A. and Brisbane. Adding up layovers and travel time it took 40 hours from the moment I left my front door until I walked into my aunt's front door. Anything that takes away overall travel time will be a god send. When I convinced my father to go to Australia I was so pleased QANTAS started flying non-stop from London to Perth. He flew Denver to London non-stop, played a couple days in London then went to Western Australia, 17 hour flight. This broke the time changes up into almost even chunks and he had a much easier time adjusting. Plus the added bonus of avoiding LAX. I do agree that LAX is a hellhole of the highest order. From the moment the plane landed to get to the next gate for my departure to Denver, it took 3 hours. NO signs telling you where to go, hidden concourse gates, employees telling me to stand in the wrong lines. I felt terrible for the confused people landing from other countries, of which I saw many. I couldn't see where to go, how were they supposed to figure it out? What a great first impression for visitors.
4
What a great funny read! I have never been able to sleep on overseas flights so I understand the dread of a 20 hour flight. I learned to stop trying to sleep. The effort produced stress. If I get ten minutes, so be it. I'll catch up on the other end.
As someone with tender ears, I also dread the effects of flying, sometimes I am fine and other times sinus infections or vertigo might follow. Poor Sarah having a commitment to fly with sinus troubles! At times, I've had to cancel to prevent blowing out my eardrum. (And yes, EarPlanes help sometimes.)
If you had put me in Sarah Lyall's position, I'd have probably dosed anything offered to help cope. I'd have probably hopped up and down the aisles pretending to be a kangaroo in those pajamas to exercise and work out stress. Twenty hours without moving at least a mile's worth of steps is not in my DNA.
Good for those of you who routinely sail through such flights with aplomb. Pat yourself on the back. I'm content to laugh along with Sarah at the steps and missteps we take along the way to cope, especially when all is not right when we travel.
3
I would be interested in a follow up piece about a normal person sitting in cattle class seats for 20 hours.
21
Maybe the author has not been to LAX international terminal in a while. It's quite nice.
1
Would such a trip make me crazy? I don't know, but what is certain is I'd be livid if a fellow passenger, such as Sarah Layall, infected me and others with her melange of germs. Most irresponsible.
14
Enough already with the continuing stream of articles about this NY to Sydney flight. Singapore Air has been running an 18+ hour non-stop fight from Newark to Singapore for years (I flew on it back in 2004). Really, what's the big deal about one more hour than that? It's like the NYT and other news outlets have been hired by Qantus to do PR for them.
7
For Australians long haul flights are par for the course. We’re the mob who will airily say “It was a short flight, only 8 hours”. So 19 hours? Pffft. Even for those, like me, who travel economy class, 19 hours is like, “excuse me, what is all the fuss about?”
3
I now have immense sympathy for the Australian people from whom I never realized the extent that they probably have to listen to how horrible everyone’s flight was. To add further insult, they then have to contend with the traveller’s amazement of the seasonal differences between hemispheres. The coup de grace then has to be said traveler’s hackneyed “humorous” attempt an Australian accent whilst saying, “shrimp on the barbie,” and, “that’s not a knife...”
7
Fasting on such long flights likely would work better.
Now on the stretch to 65, I have learned to pay extra and fly premium coach on long hauls. Have used BA, Lufthansa, and most recently ElAl and find the seats slightly roomier, food service better, and toilets for use of the premium cabin only, making a long trip much easier. You also can check bags at no extra cost and are given a bag of travel essentials. On ElAl we were first to fly a new Dreamliner from LAX to Tel Aviv. Its a comfortable plane in premium and the much pricier business but coach looked like a sardine can. It’s a 15 hour flight and I couldn’t imagine flying in coach for that length of time. I highly recommend upgrading to premium level for any flight longer than the five hours it takes to get cross country. You can save money in other ways.
5
As a longtime fan of Sarah Lyall’s writing, I was so excited to read this article, and I found myself laughing out loud several times. Wonderful writing!
3
Over the past 25 years, I have flown most of the available routes between Australia & the US on both Qantas & United. I travel back to Australia at least once a year, typically in coach, and have flown the milk run routes as well as the more direct routes. If Qantas really wants to assess the impact of 19+ hrs straight in a plane, please test coach travel and focus on the reverse leg. My experience has been jet lag is much worse traveling from Australia to the US. Also, as opposed to travel writers, open the test flights to the types of customers who will fill the majority of seats on these flights and provide meaningful feedback. My family of 4 will be willing volunteers!
3
I flew 14.5 hours direct NYC to Tokyo last year and take an 11 hour direct flight from NYC to Tel Aviv nearly every year. COMPRESSION SOCKS. Total game changer. No bloating, less jet lag, no icky feeling after landing. I also take a Dramamine to help with motion sickness and it makes me pretty drowsy as an added bonus. Drink plenty of water and try not to stress about sleep, which only makes things worse. If it happens, great. If not, not such a big deal.
3
Several years ago on Emirates Airlines I was fortunate enough to be upgraded from coach to business class, flying first from Islamabad to Dubai (3 hrs), then Dubai to San Francisco (15.5 hrs). It was the first time in my life I've flown business class, and there is no comparison to flying coach. The claustrophobia is almost non-existent, there's a lounge to schmooze with fellow passengers, food and beverage top notch. It's long, yes, but not nearly the mental and physical test of coach. The story seems less about flying 19 hours than the reporter's cold and continual self-dosing of meds.
3
We make this flight at least twice a year (DC to LAX and then to Brisbane, and I am ready to get out of the plane in 14 hours ` cannot imagine more than that without extreme claustrophobia setting in. Some things are just not worth it!
2
It's a lot better than have a long layover -- or a short one where you run for your flight and miss it. If I could afford it I'd take the that option in a minute.
1
All this fuss over sitting on an airplane for 19 hours?
If we could ask Conestoga wagon riders who spent months getting to California what they'd do, I suspect they would scream "Yippee!" and thank their lucky stars. Same thing with Mayflower passengers. In college, more than once, we took coast-to-coast road trips, stopping only for gas. Go to the nearest Greyhound station (yes, they still exist) and ask cross-country passengers (yes, they also still exist) who spend nearly four days cooped up on buses what they think.
All of this is to say, make the seats a bit bigger with a bit more legroom and call it a day.
7
@August West
"All of this is to say, make the seats a bit bigger with a bit more legroom and call it a day."
Ha! Of over 200 comments, you nailed it.
4
@August West A bus does not travel 20 hours without stops. If I could take the bus to Australia, I would jump at the chance.
As for the pioneers, if they had to sit in an economy seat for 20 hours, I wager they would ask if they could return to the US on their conestoga.
1
Such a funny piece! I learned something, empathized with the writer, and got a huge laugh out of the whole thing. Kudos!
4
This is fantastically funny and convinced me I never want to do this flight-- as appealing as the pajamas do sound.
6
We only recently started flying business class. The difference is night and day when you can fully recline and sleep for a good portion of an international flight, without the seat in front of you feeling like it is in your lap. This was a cute article but said nothing about the experience of actually flying for over 15+ hours non-stop.
3
Graf Zeppelin, Hindenburg, 90-111 hours westbound over the Atlantic. What if the ship had to skirt storms sometimes, or if none of the 70 passengers was the best pianist aloft, or no carbon fuel was expended staying at altitude?
Was working pretty well until Uncle Sam embargoed the helium the Germans were using, because of strategic fears just before the war, and the Hindenburg had to fly on hydrogen.
I haven’t looked up passenger experiences on these great ships,but I assume that most were pretty sure that they were seeing the future, quietly floating above the waves. And 85mph without wind! Fast enough to get there, slow enough to see whales. Maybe they even dressed up for dinner. Nearly a century ago.
4
I've flown lots of long hauls in Economy: New York - Dubai, New York - Tokyo, Toronto - Tokyo, Hong Kong to LA and Dallas, and the list goes on. All 13 hours plus. Earlier this year I flew Dallas - Hong Kong in economy, 16 1/2 hours in the air. I can't imagine 20 hours is really much different from 16 1/2.
Here's my experience: It's not a big deal! The time goes by. You read. You sleep. You watch movies and TV shows and immigration arrival videos. Listen to music. Stare into space. Then you're there.
All of the tips and tricks in this article and elsewhere about how to deal with ultra long haul flights just seem to me like overthinking and psyching yourself out. My advice: marvel at the experience of flying nonstop halfway around the world. enjoy the ride, and let your amazing body take care of itself and adjust.
7
@Stan
Thanks for the dose of reality. I grew up in a working class family in a working class neighborhood (Philadelphia) and fueled my dreams with each new National Geographic. I knew I would never see those places but loved to think about it - a kid's dream. Now, many years later and over a million miles flown, I can't believe my luck. I fly business class on long haul flights and I'm like a kid in a candy shop (and they have actual candy). I've been to so many places it's almost embarrassing. So not only is such travel not a big deal as you say, it's an amazing privilege and even though it has its "moments", I never fail to count my lucky stars, regardless of which row I'm in.
3
As long as it’s business class? Some can’t afford it.
Sarah, I totally loved your article. Hilarious! I am absolutely positive I will NEVER take that flight.
1
I have flown economy from NYC to Mumbai direct...17 hours for many years. My method is 3 movies, lots of sleep to catchup on sleep deprivation in weeks of trip preparations just before departure, without any medication. Exhaustion is a good drug.
A few more hours is not such a big deal. The movies make the magic....and then...you are there..no big deal.
1
You know how divers have to come up from the ocean's depths slowly, or else they get the bends? Yeah. Maybe human beings weren't meant to jet to the other side of the world that quickly. Maybe we're supposed to change time zones a little slower, or else our brains get the bends. Personally, I'd be completely fine with a quick 24 hour layover in Hawaii or Fiji to break things up a bit.
2
Taking the Newark-Singapore-Newark turn a number of years ago, i decided on the first flight that i must stay out of prison. Confinement in a small space with the same people, even in a moderately comfortable seat, for that long was fairly intolerable. If i couldn’t do 20 hours, including a bit of delay, in business class, i certainly could not do real time. Being well-tuned to time in the air with the 16 hour Chicago-Hong Kong flight, i figured “what’s another 4 hours?” A lot it turns out.
Enough to keep me off a an extreme, long-haul flight? No, but enough to keep me out of prison.
1
I actually find the longer Newark-Singapore route more enjoyable than Chicago-Hong Kong, perhaps because Singapore Airlines has a hard and soft product that is superior to Cathay Pacific or United (which suspended service on that route)
1
The real trick to surviving these flights? Water. Keep drinking water all the way through- when your water bottle runs out, fill it up again and keep drinking (the hostess will usually do it for you). I've done the NYC / LA / SYD flight more times than I can count and I swear this is the secret. Other tips: Wear comfy clothes and avoid booze!
3
Air New Zealand is also stopping the LAX layover as has Qantas and for good reason. LAX is a nightmare experience for most passengers, in particular, going through customs. I have not met a more heavy-handed unpleasant customs border experience in the Western world and that includes the famously serious, no humour, German custom airports officials.
I dread going through LAX (which I am about to have to endure again) and I am a US citizen! (I have foreign friends who have nightmare tales of LAX, one including child separation and detention of an infant because they travelled under the parents and LAX was only a layover from London to Auckland).
The attitude is one of resulting in the feeling of being booked for vandalism rather than just coming home to visit family. SFO was a much more pleasant experience for passengers than LAX. One might dismiss if it was a once off, but I have had the misfortune of going through LAX since 1968 over a hundred times and the customs experience and the attitude given by the officers has been consistently chilling and unfriendly.
Now consider the dumb logistics due to the legacy gate assignments of Air New Zealand and Qantas at LAX. Terminal 2 for departure, Terminal 4 (and sometimes still Terminal 2) for arrival. Flight crew have to hang around to move the plane from Terminal to terminal, the cost is absurd!
2
@James Wallis Martin
People here deliberately avoid LAX if at all possible.
I would like to hear a representative of whatever company owns or manages LAX respond to these comments and article. The experience is so consistently awful it must be intentional.
2
Having flown many times between LAX and DXB on 16 to 17 hour flight I don't see what the fuss is all about. If you're traveling in Business it's very tolerable. In Coach you just want the ride to end.
7
This article should serve as a good impetus to revive safe and cost-effective supersonic air transportation so that long trips are not as insanely long as this one.
4
After returning from a 2 week trip to Asia I realized rather quickly it wasn’t the flight that was unsettling; the real nightmare was waking up in my own bed and not knowing where I was.
I called my son and he knew exactly what was wrong.
“ You’ll be fine Mom. Go back to sleep “.
Best advice I ever got.
4
It's a 787. The pressure is a lot higher (equivalent of 6000' instead of 8000'). The author missed this detail trying to clear the sinuses, and should have just gone.
3
Exceptional writing, Sarah, but I'll pass on the flight.
2
As i know that this article is written with tongue firmly implanted in cheek, I have to apologize for thinking things like what John McCain would think of this difficult journey.
1
What a humorous, well-written article.
2
Antibiotics other medication to be in a 20 hour flight ?
First World problem. The whole thing is just plain ridiculous.
Whenever I will travel to the Antipodes, I want it to last at least 20 weeks! Overland! And on a motorcycle!
This just makes no sense... it’s a waste of everything.
When I fly to Asia, I make it a point to eat as many marijuana edibles as I can right before TSA. Certainly i would not recommend this strategy. But it works.
5
The longest non stop flights I have ever taken have been the Tel Aviv to Newark run. Its brutal in coach. The flights typically leave Tel Aviv around 11 pm or midnight and are a little over 12 hours in the air westbound. But you have to get to the airport around three hours early, endure the necessarily tight departure interview process in Tel Aviv before boarding. After the 12 hour in coach, typically packed with people, you have to go through the customs and immigration process in Newark, which after an exhausting flight is tedious and patience testing. The entire flight is in total darkness. You feel like you spent 18 hours in the middle of the night. Which, pretty much, you have.
I think these ultra long flights would be less miserable if they were timed to fly in daylight hours, Rather than spend a full day awake, and then have to go for an 18 hour commercial aviation experience, I would rather check into an airport hotel at 7 pm. wake up at 4 am, go to the airport, and be in the air by 7 am. That way, at the end of a long and tiring aviation day, it would be at or close to a normal bed time at the destination, hopefully.
But aside what the effect is on passengers, what is the effect on the pilots and flight crew? I know there are usually two sets of pilots, and one set can sleep in a bed while the other flies the plane, but they too would be stuck in a tube for 20 hours.
2
The prescriptions and sleep aides are the story here, not the silly flight.
For 25 years I commuted anywhere from 8 to 15 times a year N.Y. ( later Wilmington NC adding an extra leg) to Mumbai. One week then back, except once a year on to Tokyo, 4 more days and back. It was easy peasy.
No ambien or melatonin ever.
Return to NY 1 pm arrival friday. To office until 6, 1 hr in gym. Train to suburbs. Dinner. Up at 8 am, bike ride or golf.
Stay in shape.
Move around.
3 beers max.
What’s the big deal?
7
good God! The 10 hour flight between San Francisco CA and Paris France, leaves me exhausted for two days and I fly "Premium Economy." I remember how brutal "Economy class" was. No thank you Qantas.
3
Hahaha. Try taking it coming back (twice) adopting toddlers from Asia who cried the whole way. China and Cambodia to NYC. It was worth the suffering, I might add.
7
Sarah should have taken a sick day and passed this opportunity along to a colleague who might have done the journey justice.
18
@kris : Not to mention that she should've kept her germs at home instead of potentially infecting the other 48 passengers and the crew during 19 hours of recirculating air. Seems pretty thoughtless.
2
@kris Exactly my thoughts. It was reckless and I learned nothing.
3
Hysterical! I love Sarah's writing!
1
Having flown non stop to Singapore about ten times including a trip for one day (two days in the air) as long as ur in business class it’s actually “enjoyable”. On the Singapore flight which used to leave at 11 pm EST I found the following worked
Eat dinner. Watch movies or read
Sleep
Wake up
Six hours before landing, sleep until you land
U shower and are more fresh then flying the Red eye from Calf to NY or NY to London
Just be prepared to spend a day on the plane and no, u can’t do anyone thing like read or watch movies for 19 hours. Your ears hurt from the headsets and your eyes glaze over.
19 hours is not that much different then the 18 and a half to Singapore and the 787 has much better Climate control then the Airbus 340s
Get on and fly
2
To those who care about the environment , this is a very troubling article.
Flying is the most green house generating transportation per mile and per person .
With that roundtrip , Sarah Lyall, all by herself, added some 3000 Lb of CO2 to the environment.
Europe has words for what you should feel about it: "Flugscham" (German) , "Flygskam" (Swedish)
5
@Woof : Thanks for pointing this out. It's worth noting that there are different carbon calculators out there.
For a one-way flight, I got that this would be 3.5 TONS of CO2 -- which is 7000 pounds. And then she needs to get back, so call it 14,000 pounds.
Here's the site I used: https://calculator.carbonfootprint.com
I did include radiative forcing.
2
@Woof
Americans will surrender their guns before they give up on flying. Too bad about the environment. Sorry grand kids!
2
Europeans might have words for it, but they keep flying like the rest of us!
would love to hear more about how the crew handles these long flights
9
For every article the Times runs on global warming, they seem to run two encouraging me to increase my carbon footprint for fun.
I have been to the Australian Outback a couple of times this week. I went to YouTube and found some young guy who looks like Ethan Hawke who films his trips into the bush. I saw incredible wildlife, scenery, got to hang out with some hot young stud, and visit places that I would not get to visit without some major effort.
No shots required, no passport, no TSA invasion of body parts, no lines, no polluting, no bugs, and best of all, I did not have to give the performance of my life on Australian television for sneaking my dogs into the country. And I get to brag to the global warming people that I have not bought a gallon of gas in 10 years or been on a plane since 1991.
The Times needs to make up its mind. Is global warming really killing the planet? Or should I fly to Prague for a great vacation this year? You can't have it both ways.
I'm 61 and planning my next vacation. I can't decide if I want to ride my bike from Seattle to L.A. down the coast or take up kayaking and paddle up the Northwest Passage. The second one requires a passport which I have not had in about 20 years.
Did anyone notice the high tide in Venice today flooding St. Mark's because of global warming? Still want to book a 19 hour flight to Sydney for fun? A 16 year old girl named Greta is taking this all seriously. She won't be on Qantas anytime soon.
16
Mommy! Mommy! I don't wanna go to Australia!
Shut up and keep swimming.
Seriously.
You need to be careful with all of those pills you are popping. Just the other day my pharmacist was telling me, that if you take four 500mg paracetamol (i.e. four Tylenol) all at once, you can kiss your liver goodbye.
You wrote you took two, for no reason in particular.
I always take only one, and only when I have a bad headache.
In spite of the lethal consequences if you overdose, my pharmacist still recommended paracetamol over any other non-prescription pain killer (to me).
Oh, and don't you ever consider putting yourself out of your misery by overdosing on paracetamol. Liver failure is NOT the way you want to go.
This article was very entertaining to read. Hence my concern for the authors health. But what does it have to do with air travel?
3
So, how was the flight?
8
Flying business class, with real plates and silverware and being able to lie flat, with pajamas and real blankets, doesn’t really compare to the experience most of us will have in steerage. I still don’t have a very good idea of what this experience is like or how to prepare for it.
412
@Dewane Van Leuven Should have made him take the flight back in economy for comparison! lol
18
@Dewane Van Leuven
The part that I have the most issue with is the exercise break. Even business class flyers with flat beds aren't going to have room to stand up and stretch much, let alone move their bodies in a real way in the kitchen!
If there was a place i could go and just loosen up my hips and crack my shoulders without smacking someone in the face, I would have found my flights to and from Australia SIGNIFICANTLY less brutal. I was in economy but am a small framed person, so didn't have the same challenges finding a position I could sleep in that most do. But being still for so long in the same position is not something my body or sanity are capable of tolerating well. This includes the long-haul flights I took at the age of 14.
13
@Tim T : Great idea, except that the author is a "she" not a "he".
17
My favorite part is the bogus science: the special diet, the exercise regime, the lighting. Maybe they should offer acupuncture or hypnotism. Doctors will tell you serving wine is the single best way to disrupt normal sleep patterns, so there goes the gourmet cuisine. Your body inevitably knows it's in trouble if it's cooped up 20 hours inside an airplane fuselage. It's not for nothing they swap out crews.
I'd guess this service is a non-starter unless it goes only twice a week, with all-business configuration; there can't possibly be a demand from ordinary flyers to subject themselves to this agony in economy seats. It's either a headline-grabber from Qantas or it's going to improve their operating efficiency, which doesn't help travelers in the least.
I've flown to Sydney from JFK stopping in LA and it was a relief to get out and stretch a bit. What's gaining three hours worth if you're a wreck afterwards?
204
@Richard Johnston I'm not sure I agree with your conclusion. The non-stop Hong Kong to Boston is always packed.
9
@Richard Johnston Not me. I'm sure like many people, it's all about getting to the destination quicker. I always try to avoid layovers when flying if possible, especially since there's often the possibility of a delay, which could cause you to miss your connection and spend a long time waiting for your next flight.
15
@Richard Johnston You make an important point. A stopover of 3 hours or so makes it possible to get some good walking in, a good meal, and a shower / change of clothes. Over three decades I flew between Washington DC and Asia, stopping in Tokyo or San Francisco or Seattle before onward flights to Bangkok, Manila, or Beijing. We old hands have learned how to plan for the 30+ hour door to door international trips and recover well at the destination. Picking the right airlines is a crucial part of an effective strategy.
29
Australians especially us older ones are used to long haul flights.
In the old days it was a 8 hour flight to Singapore, a layover and then 13 plus hours to London. We drank too much and there was no entertainment except the crime novel bought in the departure terminal. It cost a fortune to fly so we only did it when we were young. It was cheaper and easier to go to New Zealand or Fiji or Bali.
But even in this modern age a trip from say Spain to Australia is from door to door a 28 hour experience.
You realise that we live a long way away from everyone and in some way that’s quite comforting.
153
@Gaz , Neville Shute, ‘On the Beach’
6
@Gaz
Ditto. If you're from somewhere else you don't realise just how far away this is until you've been here for a while. "Oh, cousin Jane is getting married? I always liked her. I'll just pop on over to Wichita for the weekend." Uh uh. Two weeks and $6000 later you wonder what you ever saw in cousin Jane. But like Gaz says, there is something about a little isolation.
9
@Gaz isn't that why the British colonized Australia?
1
A few decades ago, jet lag was explained quite well in the book Overcoming Jet Lag; what to do to counteract/minimize jet lag was explained as well. The regime is a set of simple to carry out changes in daily eating and behavior for a few days before the flight. The process works.
I don't bother with it anymore, though, as I'm retired and can take a few days (or a week) to switch over to the destination time zone before departure - even to Australia, or Singapore, or wherever.
1
We took a flight from BNA (Nashville) to LAX, which was about four hours, had about an hour layover at LAX, and then about a 15 hour flight to Sydney.
First, my main complaint was LAX. It is a sprawling space full of slack faced people reminiscent of purgatory. My second complaint was how swollen my ankles and feet were, regardless of how much I tried to stretch and walk.
Delta did their best to help us transition through time zones by turning down the lights, offering hot face towels, etc. We just took sleep masks, neck pillows, and electronic devices. No medications.
While a 19-20 hour flight isn’t at the top of my list of desired activities, I would rather take it straight than stop at LAX. And the destination, gorgeous Sydney, was well worth the flight.
5
A few years ago I flew from LAX to Sydney on a QANTAS 747. At just over 15 hours it was dreadful and it was a real challenge knowing which way was up or down. On the day that I departed on the 12:30am flight, I remember telling co-workers before leaving for the day that they will go home, have dinner, watch TV, go to bed, wake up, get ready for work, work a full day, go home and I still wouldn't have arrived in Sydney.
The authors reference to “Lost in Translation" was spot on. I too walked around for a few days in a complete daze.
But I will say this about that trip... it was well worth it.
1
My children and grandchildren will be taking that 19+ hour flight from JFK, NY to Sydney, AU. Not me. IMHO this isn't a bigtime great idea to cut out LA and Singapore for a longer one way non-stop flight from NYC to Sydney.
2
I feel I am too old now to consider such things even if I could afford them. I used to travel some from the east coast every year: Europe, Hawaii, Caribbean. Nothing compared to getting to Sidney. Now I don't even think about it much -- the whole annoying process of going to, through, and from airports (to say nothing of intermediate stops, sometimes even to change planes) most of which I remember as things despised, baggage and passport controls, long lines and delays everywhere, car rentals (more delays), worrying about driving licenses, confinement in an uncomfortable tube for many, many hours, getting to one's destination (sometimes an adventure of its own if the end-target has experienced a hurricane or something since you were last there, not one that you went there to have), doing something with the car, and getting used to and often a little disappointed by one's accommodation and almost certainly by strange TV and spotty if any internet, and so on. Dinner reservations issues -- is that old beloved place even still there? More travel to-and-from inconvenience. Did I really need to go through all that seeking enjoyment at the end of the road? No longer. Did that, been there, novelty is always good, but there must be some way to find that locally if you need it without going through all this. There is pretty wonderful ocean stuff and new restaurants right here. Cities and their offerings not yet visited. All closer. No lines!
78
@Percy41 Congrats, yours is the most depressing comment I’ve read yet!
16
@Kelly I have to agree. Flying has become a way of torture from the moment you leave your place. It is too high a price to pay for a few days away.
7
@Percy41 While I completely agree that air travel is a nightmare, I still do it.
However, a few months ago, I drove just 4 short hours from my home to Mendocino, CA, and Calistoga, and had the most amazing vacation! The best thing about a road trip is that you can throw everything in the car with reckless abandon, including your pillow, stop whenever you want, and do whatever you want.
Never underestimate the joy of a simple road trip.
11
Honestly, the writer was glamping. I just took the 19-hour Newark-Singapore flight twice in a week, in economy class , no drugs, with far more than 49 people.
The truth? Leaving EWR inthe morning - fully rested with sun most of the way was fairly easy (and I'm a very athletic/active person who absolutely can't sleep on planes). Coming home at night on a full flight was a bit rougher - partly b/c of the darkness and said inability to sleep. Seeing 8 hrs remaining on the flight tacker was probably the most brutal point. But once it was down to 2 hrs to go, I actually felt like I had to hurry to get through my magazines and prepare for landing. It overall warps your sense of time.
Qantas can study all it wants but if you really want to know what it's like, there's plenty of data already. Just ask the people who have taken EWR-SING.
3
@gumbo
Just posted on that. One of my best flights ever. So much depends on the airport and airline.
I dunno. I flew coach from the east coast to Hong Kong as was totally fine. Got up and walked around multiple times during the flight to keep my blood flowing, caught a few z's here and there, but nothing very extreme. And I felt great when I arrived. Return trip the same. To me, moving during the flight is the secret.
2
I do the NYC to Sydney flight on a regular basis and I'm usually torn between JFK-LAX-SYD option and 'stay overnight in Honolulu' option. The Honolulu option is by far the easiest on the body and puts you in Sydney with no jetlag, relaxed and ready to go. I'd definitely try the direct flight just to see what it's like. At 6'4", I never really sleep on a plane but there's something to be said for just getting on and getting it over and done with that piques my interest. I'm curious what the airfare will be.
2
I've made the 16+-hour Dallas-Sydney run several times in economy and premium economy. It's tedious, but 1 glass of red wine at the first meal and 1 Ambien immediately thereafter are enough to get through it. I like the pajamas, but I didn't want to pay business-class prices to get them.
In 2005 I flew the Newark - Changi route, stopping in Singapore, en route to a relief desk job in Indonesia following the 2004 tsunami. I remember it as one of the best flying experiences I’d had, with spacious seats [‘though definitely not business class size or configuration], decent films and power plugs at each seat. I had noise canceling headphones and a weekend off in Singapore while obtaining a visa before flying to Indonesia.
All of my work-related travel had been in economy and a lot of it involved 8 hour back to back overnight and day flights or an overnight flight followed by several hours in transit and another overnight flight. I’m not sure why experienced international travelers feel the need for pharmacological aids and structured exercise and rest to get through a 19 hour flight.
2
I’d be thrilled to travel nonstop from New York to Australia!
My longest flight so far is 13 hours, and it wasn’t so great in Economy.
As far as health issues, my doctor prescribed one Xarelto pill to prevent blood clots. An aspirin or two would probably have the same effect.
Bottom line for me: I loathe stopovers. Getting off the plane with hand luggage, finding your gate, praying for no missed connections or delays, several hours of waiting, boarding a new aircraft. Nonstop please!
3
Ambien puts you out. Alcohol, seeming a good idea, will dehydrate you and cause bathroom trips, both of which are tough on a plane.
The answer is gummy bears...colorado style. Arrive rested and hydrated to boot.
8
What a a wonderful read this is!
Still, here we are in the 21st century without intercontinental supersonic air transportation --- remember the Concorde, anyone? And we have Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos investing in space travel and we're here on Earth we're celebrating a 19-hour non-stop flight as an innovation.
7
As much as I love my favorite club, QANTAS at SYD,
my alternative avoid-LAX-at-all-costs: I fly HA to HNL (10 hrs),
3 nights Waikiki (2 ocean swims a day) HA to JFK (10 hrs). Then reverse: JFK-HNL-(3 nights)- HNL-SYD. The food and wine is not even close to QANTAS standards, but 20 hrs in one go would drive me insane.
1
We did the Honolulu stopover too and it was great.
Wouldn't it be easier to just do something about LAX?
This flight would still leave some of us with a transfer at Kennedy, not great joy at all even if a tad better than LAX.
And since we always sit in coach, I prefer a stop or two to deep vein thrombosis.
I do like my Qantas PJ's, provided the last time Qantas lost my luggage.
1
Back in 2012, I flew 18 hours from JFK in NY to Joberg South Africa. The key is to sleep on board (Never easy but Melatonin helps) AND plan a day of recovery when first arriving.
I flew on Qantas in February (NYC-LAX-SYD) on a Thursday evening. Our flight was delayed leaving NYC and upon arrival to LAX, we merely had time to use the restroom before boarding the 14 hour flight to Sydney. We arrived in Sydney at 8am on Saturday to beautiful sunshine and after showers at our hotel, we spent the day exploring Sydney. The jetlag was minimal and Sydney was fantastic. While I understand Qantas wanting to eliminate 3 hours and the stop over in LAX, I found the experience rather enjoyable, even without the bells and whistles mentioned in the 19 hour and 16 minute article.
1
The big take-away from this article has less to do with the Qantas research flight and more with the author. Sarah Lyall seemed intent on ignoring many of the suggestions given to her by those coordinating the flight. The result was that she coped with the challenges of a long flight and multiple time zone changes not nearly as well as she would have had she taken the advice of the professionals who arranged the flight to figure out how people can successfully cope with this sort of long-distance air travel.
But seriously, the one thing I think Qantas could do in addition to all its other strategies for easing the strains of ultra long-haul flights would be to facilitate access to the lavatories. Nothing makes it harder to sleep than a not fully emptied bladder!
3
Whenever I read or hear complaints about air travel, I think of my favorite Louis C.K. comedy routine where he makes fun of people who complain about air travel. You travel 10,000 miles in less than a DAY? Does that not amaze you? It took the original English colonists of Australia half a YEAR to make the trip, and a fair percentage died on the way. People just love to complain.
7
First, there is another option than LAX; you can go through Dallas. Qantas, code share with American Airlines, it is 17 hours, 20 minutes. DFW is much easier to deal with than LAX.
Second, if you choose to fly, find a way to fly in Business Class. Yes, it costs much more, but, being squeezed in coach for 17 - 20 hours would drive even the most sanest person; insane.
Third, yes set your watch to Sydney time going and your return city the moment you you board.
Fourth, do not do what this columnist did; fill yourself up with a mixture of medications.
Finally, wear very loose clothing and be comfortable. On a flight like this, DVT is a real possibility.
Any airline that decides to run these super long fights need to rethink squeezing so many people onto a plane. They need to have an area, where passengers have an area to walk around, stretch, exercise, etc. This would require removing about 1/2 of coach seating.
Of course, if people want non-stop flights from New York to Sydney, then maybe it is time to revisit the idea of SST service. Fro example, it is 9939 miles between New York and Sydney. Mach 2 is 1534 miles per hour. The flight would take 6 1/2 hours. Or about the time it takes to fly from Boston to Seattle on a conventional plane.
3
Dn't the seating and walking possibilities make all the difference?
I came late to longer flights, say twelve hours (but not twenty), but was surprised that I did not find them much more uncomfortable than six hour flights and they could be easier depending on time change.
On long flights one can use sleep blinders and bring one's own food to deal with the issues the author writes about. What one can not easily deal with, without a lot of money, is to escape discomfort class where one is unable easily to get out of one's seat, sits closer to one's neighbor than one sits next to one's spouse, and is unable to walk about at all thanks to crowded aisles. For twenty hours, I think one must have premium seating, maybe even super premium seating, where one has room and can conveniently get out of the seat for a walk. A lounge in the plane as a destination for the walk would be nice. Does anyone remember the lounge of a Lockheed Electra or the early 747?
3
I could never do such a long flight. I flew from DC to Australia back in the early 80s, when I was back in my 20s! My body could sustain the stress better then than I could now, for sure. I've been eager to go back Down Under for decades, but dread the flight. That time I did an insane flight schedule: DC to Kennedy, NY to LA. Three hours layover. Bed time for me, but I could not let myself fall asleep. I dozed briefly and almost missed my flight! I was trying the Air Force "jet lag" diet, i.e., set your body to the destination's time zone. So I did not eat necessarily each time they served food. I tried sleeping on the plane. The staff showed movies and served meals. It seemed crazy to me. Some 22 hours in the sky after leaving DC, I arrived. Extremely jet lagged and dopey, I wandered wobbily around Melbourne. A day later I came down with flu. But a couple days later I was fine and absolutely loved Australia. Now that I live on the "left coast," I could look forward to fewer hours in the sky. Oh, and forget the jet lag diet.
I cannot claim to know LAX, but three decades ago I flew from New York to Jakarta, the first leg with Delta to LAX and then with Garuda to Jakarta. Rather than taking the best connecting flight from NYC, in the late afternoon, I chose to leave in the morning, which allowed me to spend the day on nearby Venice Beach -- walking, stretching, enjoying a Mexican lunch -- easily accessible by local bus (ad now a quick Uber ride away) and caught the second leg later. That too was a treat, with a stop in Honolulu during which we were let out of the plane, able to drink in the fresh Hawaiian air in the open-air terminal and enjoy a macadamia nut ice cream cone, and a stop in Irian Jaya (the Indonesian-controlled western half of New Guinea), where were entertained by traditional dancers while looking out at the breathtaking sea. It was a pretty great flight.
My advice? Ignore the non-stops and enjoy the journey.
1
Qantas has historically run a Sydney to London called the Kangaroo Route. The total flight took 77 hours + after World War 2 because multiple tech stops were required. The hours have gradually decreased with each technological advance. When Qantas used 707s (perhaps John Travolta's plane), the journey shrunk to 34 hours # with fewer stops.
I used to regularly fly 16 to 16 and a half hours direct to Dubai from Atlanta. I would stay awake for 48 hours, at least, so I would sleep at least nine hours in the air. Used to get the worst jet-lag though.
1
Many times I've taken the direct flight, via Cathay Air, from Hong Kong to Boston which is only a few hours shorter. I do it for the very reasons expressed in the article: changing planes in the US, no matter what carrier, is a nightmare. I also systematically avoid US carries simply because most foreign carriers I've encounter are far more comfortable, responsible, and humane. A flight like this is an endurance test and I've been on the plane while seated near children, even twins, many times; most passengers and especially the staff, are sensible and polite and with some planning, the flight can be quite comfortable even if you're not in business class. Tip: get the bulkhead seat so you have leg room and can get up whenever you like.
Let’s just cut to the chase, and fund a new Fleet of ultra comfortable Planes, with a Pharmacy counter. XANAX AIRLINES. No Worries, guaranteed.
19
Brilliant essay! I feel I can do anything now that she’s survived this ordeal and managed to write such crackling good prose about it.
2
I suppose this is supposed to be a humor piece rather than informative. It seems odd that you took the longest flight in the world and neglected to discuss blood clots. DVT is a very serious risk of long flights. And flying in coach, there are ten seats in a row nowadays and it's difficult to find space to move. It's recommended you move often and stretch. But how?
6
loved this dry, sardonic, witty writing. bravo sarah!
7
Come on, people. the previous record for non stop air travel is 18 hours and 30 minutes. Singapore air from Newark to Singapore. you mean to tell me that an extra 45 minutes in the air is going to be the barrier between landing in a sane condition and going straight to Bellevue (or the Australian version)??
2
@jaydee the Australian version is a bar.
3
Qatar Airways has been flying non-stop from LAX to Doha for several years. This is a 17 hour flight. And, a majority of the travellers catch connecting flights from Doha to destinations in India, Sri Lanka etc. Why is this 20 hour flight considered such a novelty?
2
I flew on what was the previous longest non-stop flight from Newark to Singapore on Singapore Airlines about 10 years ago. The plane was configured so that the entire cabin was "executive economy" which essentially means it was like flying domestic first class. They had a nice area set up where you could stand, stretch your legs, and have complimentary snacks throughout the flight. It wasn't nearly as bad, or scary, as I anticipated.
1
This sounds like a horror story.
But as a person who has spent 19 hours in a foreign airport going nowhere, which comes with a lot more aggravation and leaves you feeling a lot worse than a time change, I don't think the length of the flight was the issue.
1
There is a serious problem with being confined for more than a few hours without exercise. Keeping still for several hours without leg exercise can potentiate deep venous thrombosis (blood clots), which can serious damage a person when it detaches and migrates to the lungs or brain (causing a stroke). This can be even fatal.
Either such a flight must include an area for exercising, maybe for example a leg ergometer (a mini-bicycle), if one cannot take strenuous walks or jogging, or the flight really has to make one stop midway to allow passengers off to walk about for an hour.
1
That's more medication then I've ever taken in my life. And I'm 45.
4
@Jen Me too and me too.
There are no "good" airports; some are just less bad than others. The author's gratuitous swipe at LAX ignores the fact that the Los Angeles airport is far "less bad" than her three New York-area airports. Maybe this is a hard lesson for someone who travels in kangaroo pajamas.
1
Ha...Having taken the Singapore to Newark flight as well as the Dallas to Sydney flight ( Quantas ), I have a routine that’s works well on 17-19 hour flights. Of course going west is always the easy part, returning home not so much.
Get on the plane, don’t eat the evening meal,take your medication, put on your pjs,eye masks, earplugs,and sleep. Wake up, walk around, drink lots of water, and read a bit. Have a light snack Go back to sleep till breakfast.
Enjoy the sunlight when you land and stay up all day.
It works
This reminds me so much of a Hunter S. Thompson piece. I didn't know a human being could use that many legal drugs on one flight...
6
Reminds me of Hunter S. Thompson’s flight in The Great Shark Hunt. Except about 15 hours shorter and all the medications were over the counter.
2
The longest flight I have ever been on is 5 hours. This sounds like my worst nightmare even if I was seated in business class.
A more realistic test will be flying from JFK to SYD nonstop on an economy class in the middle seat in the back of the plane. I am not sure I can make it. But, worst than non-stop JFK-SYD flight is JFK-LAX-SYD, stopping anywhere on a 20+ hour trip is always the worst. And, by the way, do that in an economy class like the rest of us.
1
My 14 hour flight to Seoul from Detroit was probably the worst thing I have ever done in my life! Thankfully I didn't suffer from jet lag, though.
Oh my good lord, the ending hit me like the best comedy routine ever. Thank you for your candid account of your trip!
I have taken the 15+ hour non-stop flight between Newark and Mumbai.
I was dreading it, but really, it was no big deal.
I brought a sleep mask and earplugs, just in case, napped on and off, and did just fine. I cannot imagine doing it wth a bunch of medications, though.
I haven't gotten lost in a piece of journalism for a long time. Well done Ms. Author. I could feel every bit of the disorientation, dehydration, swimming head and stomach you described! Not sure I'd really want to take this flight, given that I'd be in the back of the bus where the experience will be worse X2. Progress?
I flew the Newark to Singapore flight a few years ago. My client sat business; I sat economy. 19.5 hours in one seat.
The person in front of me insisted in leaning her chair back. I made it uncomfortable for her but she insisted and the flight crew said it was her right.
I have restless leg syndrome and so a few hours in, it was getting pretty bad. But in the big planes, there are areas you can stand and do exercises, and many people were doing that. In international airspace, the fight crew didn't ask anyone to sit down. Some of us were even doing push ups.
Have lots of entertainment options, try to get yourself onto your destination timezone quickly, bring a few snacks that you personally love and be patient. You'll get thru it.
As a resident of Seattle, I feel compelled to point out that a Boeing 787 Dreamliner is made of carbon fiber, and not aluminum.
"No one wants to go crazy in a metal tube 40,000 feet above the Pacific."
2
@Doug Vavrick : This former Seattle resident couldn't agree more. Thanks for posting this.
1
Somehow i don't think that being drugged out makes you want to fly to Australia this way. Personally, I refuse to be in a metal cylinder that long. The article says nothing about what such a journey would be like in a plane crammed with people, limited access to bathrooms and un-affordable business class seats. In short this so-called research flight hardly describes what it would really be like to fly so far under normal conditions.
1
What an awful story. I don't need to hear about your drug intake. I thought I'd be told a story about the flight experience to your body and your impression on how, if the flight goes commercial, one could expect to feel in flight. As someone who doesn't take twenty pills a day, I have no clue whether this would be an enjoyable flight or a torture.
6
Is there a rule against taking all those meds even if you're not on a 19 hour flight?
Asking for a friend.
3
Sarah Lyall describes her non-stop flight from New York to Sydney as a "tiny upscale refugee camp created by the airline."
I have to wonder if the author has ever *read* any first-person accounts of people who have spent time in refugee camps? Or even any third-person accounts of what it's like?
Refugees are fleeing circumstances unthinkable to American citizens who've lived their whole lives here. Circumstances so bad that they fled into the ongoing horror of refugee camps to escape starvation, murder, torture, rape.
Refugees don't get to spend 19 hours at a camp and then go back to their daily live. They spend months, often years, in an anguishing limbo while they wait to see where they can safely settle.
I was recently reading The Ungrateful Refugee by Dina Nayeri. I haven't finished yet, but at one point they are housed not at a refugee camp but at a hotel. Not a fancy hotel, but still "upscale" by refugee camp standards.
I hope the author of this article will consider reading this book to understand the anguish of the isolation and uncertainty and endless waiting that marks the refugee experience.
11
I reckon the writer had a choice: end up with an article sounding like hack publicity for an airline or an attempt at something funny. She got her out because a non-travel related illness.
I look at travel a little differently. I don't use flight time to calculate travel time< I use door-to-door time: the time to get to the airport + the waiting time +the flight time + clearing customs + travel from airport to final destination.
Direct flights are much better multi-stage. It is the waste of time walking or waiting in an airport that fatigues me on an international flight. So I break it up with an overnight in the Asian hotel airport hotel before the last leg into some remote area of a developing country for work purposes. I arrive fresh and ready to work. Others, marching like soldiers to the next available flight, arrive at the final destination bedraggled.
The Quantas service sounds quite amazing, take a direct flight anytime.
1
Like countless others, I made the journey from Dallas to Sydney in one, 17.5 hour flight...in coach. The horror! That said (and considering the whole bathroom situation...disgusting), what's another 90 minutes?
2
Twenty hours?? Forget it. When I have a long-haul to the far east, I stop somewhere in Europe for a day to recover from the 6-7 hour first leg. The next leg is usually around 8-11 hours. Then I rest when I arrive for a day. I've done more direct routes for business travel and it's a nightmare. One long flight seems much worse to me. I start to lose my mind at about the 11-hour mark.
99
@TFD Why not go westward and stop in Hawaii instead? It always seems like the jetlag is easier heading westward.
13
@TFD Right on! Sydney to New York stop over for at least a day in Fiji and Tahiti and then in Los Angeles. Three five to seven hour legs - okay even in economy. London to Sydney stop over in Dubai and Singapore. London to Cape Town - Dubai or Istanbul. New York to Singapore stop over in Tokyo or Beijing. I have flown well over a million miles and haven't slept for more than about ten minutes in total (only a slight exaggeration).
1
@TFD We are the same - frequent travelers from Australia in our late 50s, we are now spending a day or 2 in Dubai, Singapore or Hong Kong on our way to Europe. Although there is nothing for us to see having done it several times, it allows for a walk, a sleep in a real bed, decent food and space.
1
You can joke about going bonkers at 40k feet, but I have been through it and I can tell you it is not funny. I don’t think having kangaroos on your jammies would be enough to flavor such a dire situation with humor. Years ago, on a 14 hour flight to Auckland, in a sickeningly overcrowded coach (steerage) class seat, I was hit with an explosive, blinding migraine and accompanying panic attack. At 40k feet, and with 13 hours to go.
You could’t pay me to get in a 20 hour flight. Even in first class.
132
@Passion for Peaches once upon a time we had enough miles to fly to Vietnam in Business. It was cheaper then, and required fewer miles. Anyway, it was 12 hours to Tokyo and another 7 to HCMC. As soon as we took off, we were notified that the entertainment system on the long NYC-Narita leg was NONFUNCTIONAL. They gave us some lovely consolation prizes (which I think the people in the back of the plane did not get) but that was a VERY long time, in the pre-Netflix years. to have to depend on one's own supply of reading material.
6
@Passion for Peaches my first long-haul flight was DFW-HNL, back in 1991, and the day before, because I had bronchitis, I’d gotten a steroid shot, and although I was in first class, I had an enormous panic attack - my first - after 5 hours in the air. I hallucinated seeing my eyes as snake eyes in the lav mirror. I spent 2 days immobilized with fear and illness in my beachfront hotel room in Waikiki. Long-haul flights shouldn’t be undertaken while sick/on decongestants/meds/etc. If I could go back in time, I would have never gotten on that flight.
8
Years ago, when I was 29, I flew from Houston to Seattle to Tokyo to Bangkok. About 27 hours total, including changing planes at each stop. I avoided alcohol, drank water, tried to sleep. On arrival, like Sarah, I was “throw up” sick for 48 hours, feeling terrible for another 48. 19-20 hours non-stop? No thanks.
66
This is wonderful -- thank you, Ms Lyall!
Ages ago -- and far younger of course -- I took a many-hours-long flight from Singapore to London. When I arrived in London, I asked at an information desk about hotels for that night, citing the date. I got a peculiar look -- I named a date lost forever in time due to the endless hours in the air and the continuous dark we were in as the sun evaded us.
Again, thanks for a lively and properly discombobulated account of the world's first-longest flight from here-to-there, on OTC drugs, dressed as a kangaroo, stoked on sleeplessness, and dedicated to entertaining those of us who would never think of actually taking said flight but love reading about it.
I have twice taken Ambien on an overnight flight, and each time got violently ill/nauseous, and stayed that way for days afterward. It doesn't happen when I take Ambien on land, and my doctor told me he's heard of this side effect before. It sounds like that's what happened to you as well. Now I go old school with an over the counter motion sickness pill, it helps me sleep and battles any potential motion sickness.
38
@JG Yes. Dramamine all the way.
5
@JG
I have also taken sleeping pills on long flights. I should use them on long drives, too. Nothing is more effective at keeping me awake.
3
@JG That has happened to me as well. Flying from Atlanta to Johannesburg, I took half and Ambien. I fell asleep quickly, but woke a couple of hours later and thought I was going to lose my lunch. I did not repeat my mistake on the return. I don't get motion sickness, but may try that trick next time I want to sleep on a flight.
3
Ms. Lyall, this is fabulous writing -- I am cracking up over my morning coffee reading this. Thank you!!
56
Beautifully written and also amusing. :-)
26
So amusing and informative. I truly got the sense of the planning Qantas put into this venture, and the writer’s reactions made me laugh. Thanks Sarah!
21
It's early here on the Left Coast, and this piece was the perfect way to start the day in lieu of the impeachment news. Having just finished the last episode of "Fleabag" the night before, I had to crack up about Lyall's fellow traveler discovering the series while on her long-haul flight.
Flying between Atlanta and Johannesburg some years ago, I was in the air about 17 hours each way. Shortly after arriving in Atlanta, I boarded a flight to California. Never had jet lag. Go figure. Maybe I'll take more long flights and donate my body to science. Does Qantas have a waiting list for future volunteer guinea pigs?
33
Yes, funny, I do enjoy Sarah's writing. Glad Sarah arrived in one piece. But ... two Ambiens? That's just crazy! I was worried about her sinuses and hearing the whole article!
I recently flew Seattle to DC. Going there, took Jet Blue which stopped in Boston for a plane change at Logan. Coming back, direct on Alaska. The route with the plane change was much easier on my body, even though it took a bit longer. I'm contemplating a trip to Ireland in a few months and already dreading the hours on the plane.
How will they run the calisthenics for a full plane?
10
Come on, people. This is Sarah Lyall reporting! She’s an absolute NYT treasure and has been forever. Go back and read all her bylines if you like humorous tangential stories on the humdrum reality of long-haul life.
55
@Karen Bergan
I had never heard of her before reading this story. I am not impressed. At all. No one cares about who wrote the story, they care about the story, and in this case, the story was more about the writer than anything else. Self indulgent and narcissistic. I expect better from NYT.
1
This article harks back to an earlier age when flying was considered stylish and fun rather than a destructive and often nonsensical human indulgence. Consider what recreational long-haul flying really is: a bunch of advanced primates digging up fossilized life from thousands of years ago and stuffing it and themselves into a metal tube for the purpose of "fun." It's no coincidence that the author found herself sick and miserable on this flight: long-haul flying is hard on the human body, hard on the environment, and perhaps something that we need to stop doing altogether. This essay was a missed opportunity to explore the advent of yet another decadent long-haul commercial flight route in an era when flying is coming under increasing scrutiny for its destructive carbon impact.
24
I have flown the Qantas and United flights through LAX and SF. The layovers are killers, changing planes, walking through airports to get to international terminals and you are awake again and not happily looking forward to the Sydney leg of the flight. ...Queue the Dallas to Sydney nonstop...heaven. We flew premium economy Qantas flight last November and it was great. You are treated to champagne as you board, a lovely meal with paired wine service and then a fairly relaxing trip. Qantas does not charge for beverages, snacks (bigger than a pretzel bite) or object to passengers moving about. It is the only way to Oz without flying monkeys controlling your trip.
37
20 hours?!? Good grief. I could get on a flight in New York, fly to Rome, turn around, come back to New York and still have more time left over? Medication, indeed.
7
Your trip does rather sound like fun, Ms. Lyall, but somehow many of us do survive the international air travel norm:
My wife and I fly r/t LAS-MNL coach at least twice a year to visit family in PI. I am 6'4 and rather large, and we are permitted no pajamas (accordingly, we are unable to ponder the "psychological ramifications of the sartorial transition" into such), no curling up into a fetal position unless there is a shrieking infant in the row in front of ours, and no "saffrony tomato soup and a lively-tasting sea bass". Instead, we get scratchy synthetic blankets, seats that recline approximately 2 degrees from bolt upright, and a choice between a rather stark bibimbap (which is better than it sounds, at least when liberally dosed with gochujang) or curious Korean analogues of Americanesque food, which is only somewhat edible. We also get a couple of hours each way in Incheon, dark and early in the morning on the way to the Philippines when the concourse it completely deserted, and depart for Manila just as the sun is coming up (we pass through Incheon in the early afternoon on the way home so it's not nearly as relaxing). 20 hours and 10 minutes outbound, 19 and change on the return; if we're lucky, $1,200 r/t for the two of us.
I look upon trans-global air travel thusly: In the immortal words of Elvis Presley, "just TCB, baby." The true award awaits at the other end.
3
If you are flying LAS-MML you are almost certainly flying Philippine Airlines, which from my experience, speaks volumes as to your experience.
1
I medicate myself for every single flight I take (crippling phobic anxiety), and it has meant the difference between having a career with work travel, which I enjoy immensely, and not. I have simply gotten used to fighting my way through post-flight fog, and getting my work done. Cold water face immersion, a jolting triple shot latte, and changing my clothes as quickly as possible post-flight work wonders.
The only moment I regret from a dozen years of this practice is falling asleep in a cab in Mexico City (it was so warm!). That could have ended badly.
I would gladly take this flight. Other options to Australia seem like torture.
12
@John
I too was a fearful flyer with a job that required copious travel. I never took anything just toughed it out...but eventually the fear went away somehow. Thank God. Now I fly without an issue.
3
While watching over and praying for a very sick relative in the hospital which made me have grief , my Internist gave me Ambien to sleep in a short time I was unable to sleep w/o it.
I then became upon waking up after needing it to sleep a sort of
anxious flying of the handle zombie, when I finally stopped it I
was happy and felt this is a very bad drug for sleeping problems,never again!
8
I have family all over the world and I also have a global job - so I have been a frequent flyer for a long time. As a kid, I loved it but now as a middle aged man, I dread it. I went to Australia a few times as I used to work for an Australian co.
The long flights are cringeworthy. Being stuck in a pressurized metal tube at a very altitude and engaging in superficial bonhomie with a whole bunch of total strangers can be very challenging. I have witnessed some really strange human behavior during long flights.
Going through the airline checkpoints can be very stressful specially in certain countries like the Brussels airport. Also I’m not a fan of airline food at all. Over the years, I also got impacted by airline strikes, lost luggage and getting rerouted to different countries because of bad weather.
Notwithstanding my kvetching - lol - my favorite airport is Schiphol airport in Amsterdam. People are so nice and helpful. Heathrow airport in London is a close second. My wife misplaced her passport and we got it back within a very short period.
But at the end of the day, I just love coming home to NJ and as the plane circles over the NJ Turnpike before landing at Newark airport - my heat misses a beat and when the pilot lands the plane - I always CLAP - there is no place like home !!
82
I wonder if the writer could write a follow-up about her return trip, which presumably was made in a "conventional" flight. Hopefully, she was feeling better when she flew back. She could compare the seating, meals, jet lag, etc. and see if it was worse/different than on the experimental flight.
23
I fly to Asia regularly, meaning 13-18 hour flights depending on the airline and the destination. The best — indeed the only — thing to do to make it palatable is to pay for business class or at least premium economy. The delightful Newark-Singapore flight makes that easy for you by having only those options.
9
To the many, many, many commenters who have contributed something like "well, try it in economy class" -- you can't. At least not yet.
The flight INTENTIONALLY carried a small number of passengers who were coddled this way to see if ANYTHING could work in terms of getting people from NY to Sydney non-stop without them falling apart. It also was necessary to see how the crew would be able to cope with the time.
If and when they get closer to commercializing the route, I'm sure they will have research flights with coach passengers. Or maybe they will decide that there's simply no way they could offer the current "industry-standard" coach product on this flight.
It's just a start folks.
15
Curious to hear why or how this person thought she "was no longer contagious" while boarding this long flight ill
24
Because, with an ear infection, after 24 hours on an antibiotic, she no longer was?
3
I feel no compassion towards anyone who has been chosen to be one of the first persons to ride business class in a brand spankin new plane - for free, and then about it. Lighten up princess.
46
@Kurt Pickard She mentioned that. "I am aware that no one wants to hear how a person lucky enough to be an aviation pioneer traveling in the lap of luxury on a historic flight in a brand-new airplane to a continent halfway around the world at no personal financial cost can, in the end, barely make it out in one piece. No one wants to hear how I lost first my kookaburra, and then my breakfast. " Even if she didn't there is no reason for such a petty remark.
4
Eating carbs in hopes of getting a good night's sleep is ill-advised. The spikes in blood sugar don't make for good rest.
15
Come on readers this is so funny. Sarah hope you try being a comedy writer. Thanks for the laughs.
31
This is the wittiest piece of writing I've ever seen in the Times, which is saying a lot
16
I don't think I would be brave enough to lay down in the grass in Australia.
11
@D Todorovic Agreed. I would imagine that even the grass in Australia is trying to kill you.
@D Todorovic
It's actually "lie" down in the grass.
3
As lovely an "experience" as this is in business class, I shudder to think about doing this coach - perhaps nine or ten across with your knees folded up to your chest, and no psychologist advising on how to avoid stress. Makes LAX sound amazing.
19
What's the big deal over 19 hours to Sydney when it's already 15 hours to Seoul?
6
My God! 2 Ambien on top of all the other drugs. You must have been comatose for 8 hrs. My wife and I took a flight 3 years ago from SFO to Auckland. It was only 13 hrs. In economy plus not business. The woman next to my wife took two Ambien. She was so out of it her head would fall forward and hit the seat in front of her or she would roll to the side and hit my wife. Totally unarousable. The attendant did the best she could to strap her into her seat. She woke up very refreshed. Needless to say we didn’t. She got a stern lecture from the attendant. We managed to stay up til 7pm the next day then slept for 12 hrs. No jet lag after that.
Note that you can fly Houston to Sydney nonstop in only 17hrs 20 min. Unfortunately not on Qantas.
15
I wouldn't mind reading an account of the flight by one of the passengers who seemed to deal with it pretty well. I think I'd have a more realistic idea of what it's like to be in the air that long. As it is, Ms. Lyall's article gave me no idea really of what to expect on such a long flight, except for a person who is sick and full of drugs.
83
Wow, finally something that doesn't include TDS! However, the hypocrisy of flying just for..."research", doesn't set a good example for the New Green Deal or really any responsible action towards climate change.
6
I've flown the Chicago-Sydney route a number of times, usually stopping in San Fran, in my case. Not as many hours, of course, but enough to get a taste.
Honestly, the author sounds like a nervous nellie. I never once worried about what she worries about. I doubt if I would by adding the six or so hours on, either.
I flew coach. Everything, including the wine, was fine!
6
@Brian : Please don't refer to the world's most beautiful city as San Fran. It's name is San Francisco.
1
This was a wonderful read. Also, please take care of yourself.
9
This article misses what should be its main point: how does it feel to fly 20 consecutive hours. The description should be of what a typical passenger experiences during the flight. However, central to the description is the author's problem with her congestion which colors whatever she feels and renders the information almost invalid for people who do not have that problem.
27
great piece! caught all my fears and dread!
4
The New York Times editors appear to have forgotten any commentary on the fact that airlines must fundamentally change how they use fuel and what kind of fuel they use. Air travel is but one of many ways the very rich and corporations are seriously contributing to climate change.
A hyper-loop or ultra high speed magnet train perhaps? What will the future bring? But Airlines and air travel very much needs to start being grouped in the same noxious category as coal mining. Coal is finished. Airline travel using petroleum needs to be. Thats a much more important goal than flying from NYC to Melbourne.
9
The whole article I kept wondering what this flight would be like for the rest of us mere mortals sitting in coach.
42
@megachulo
There is no coach yet. This was an experiment, the very first run ever on the route, and they made it business class only. (When they start flying the route commercially, they may make it business class only, too.)
Sheesh. Business class for 19 hours is a treat.
I'm taking a real-person flight later this month for 17 hours, in coach class. You just deal with it.
21
Very witty writing. I enjoyed taking your journey with you.
9
WAY too many drugs, including excessive dose of melatonin! Do not envy traveller. Zombie time down under!
I have made at least a dozen fourteen hour plus flights. Learnings: 1) The less stimulants and depressants, including alcohol, the better. This requires discipline. 2) Sleep when you are sleepy, and don't stress about NOT sleeping. 3) Walk around a lot to avoid cramping and/or throwing a clot. 4) Start adjusting gradually to your new time zone a week before travel.
787's rock, particularly the enhanced cabin oxygen levels and cabin lighting effects.
23
A bit too much personal drama for me in this article. It's a long flight, but gee whiz, you have pajamas and a bed and hardly any people on the plane plus an attentive staff. I traveled JFK to Bangkok 18hours+ on Thai Air a number of years ago. I was in coach. Luckily the airline is known for service which makes all the difference. A 7 hour flight can seem like an eternity on a bad airline with a skeleton crew. Basic tips; move around cabin, stretch, don't eat all the food (too much salt), remove shoes/wear cosy socks. I'm sure this flight will have excellent entertainment selections as well. Enjoy!
12
Sounds like a good idea and fun with extended seating. Perfect for binge watching TV shows! Such a fuel efficient plane too — go 787! (Can you tell I’m from Seattle?) Plus, literally everyone wants to visit Australia! The land of the beautiful Olivia Newton John!
Of course poor Greta T. will soon board a catamaran headed for Spain which probably will sport two non-catalytic-converter driven diesels. You can imagine the percentage SMOG to passenger ratio on that trip unless they go without the diesels all together. Good luck Greta!
Meanwhile ExxonMobile is busy researching bio fuels which are cool because they have the word bio in them.
Good times!
3
Three prescription meds, Afrin shots, a Sudafed, two Melatonins, and two Ambien tablets (I assume 10mg each) all within, as I calculate it, 7 hours? You're lucky to have made it at all.
100
Hilarious! I second the notion of skipping the stop in LAX, where I nearly lost two of my children on our intercontinental journey a few years back (I sprinted from one gate to the next, confident they were behind me, then had to sprint back to our incoming gate to retrieve two of them before the doors shut on our Sydney-bound flight). The new flights sound especially wonderful because there's no mention (of our experience) of constantly-replaying the Mama Mia! inflight movie for 12 hours.
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@AlisonO I don't think that was the fault of the LAX international terminal.....
2
Excellent review. Next time try EarPlanes rather than a decongestant-allergy cocktail. I’m one of those sinus people who always got a sinus infection from flying, whether or not I had one to begin with. Also painful landings. Found these things reviewed in a health magazine 20 years ago and never looked back. Wonderful that Qantas encouraged you to get up and move. I usually make 2-3 unnecessary trips to the restroom just to stand up. I always wondered why no “for profit” exercise space was available on long flights.
2
No doubt this will end up being like the Concorde with the passengers either very wealthy or are working for companies that are willing to pay in order to reduce the time their employees are out of the office.
As to mixing various medications, as a physician I can tell you this is never a great idea unless a physician specifically prescribe it. It's like playing Russian roulette with your health and at times even your life.
19
@Steve "mixing various medications, as a physician I can tell you this is never a great idea unless a physician specifically prescribe it" I too am a physician, and I will say that we physicians do not have a lock on the proper mixing of medications. I've seen too many times where one Dr. has NO idea what another is prescribing, or when two drugs interact.
1
On Monday I flew home from Hawaii on the trip that took 19 hours. I had three flights, connecting enough San Francisco and Chicago and my way home to Oklahoma City. The trip was longer than scheduled due to a mechanical issue in San Fran and a crew time out due to weather in Chicago. I always need at least two flights to get to most places from OKC and booked this trip with three because of the timing.
I flew business, and the plane part was very pleasant, it was the connections and time on the ground that were exhausting. If I flew business on a 19 hour flight to Australia, it would have been fine. Flying business on a long trip is like spending a day on your couch reading and watching TV while people bring you drinks and food.
I fly business when I can afford it or can get on upgrade on points, but about half the time I fly coach. If the 19 hour flight was in coach, II would much prefer the connections. A long flight in that cramped seat jammed up against strangers is torture. Getting out and stretching my legs with a walk around the airport is a relief.
5
I had the fortune of Flying on said Singapore Airlines flight from Asia to Jersey back when it was first launched in 05'. It was grueling to say the least, if air-carriers are going to be attempting this kind of super long-haul, perhaps the return of an airplane lounge would be nice. Who knows? Time flies faster if you are meeting interesting people over snacks and a drink or two rather than being mandated to remain in your seat for +19 hours like I was.
3
@Gabriel I, too, took that 19 hour flight on Singapore Airlines. I had the last seat in the back, next to the bathroom. I found the food amazing, the service phenomenal, and I was thrilled to be on my way to SEA. I just made sure to get up and stretch my legs every four or so hours, and I enjoyed catching up on lots of TV. To be whisked from one side of the globe to another in less than a day? A miracle, not a punishment.
I've flow 13 hour flights. In economy if feels like it takes 26 hours, in business class it feels like it took 6 hours.
I'm sure the same applies for a 20 hour flight.
7
Traveling non stop between JFK and Tokyo takes over 12 hours. We had to return to JFK once and stop at Anchorage for mechanical problems adding about four hours to the flights. Being on an aircraft you lost confidence in over a frozen wasteland at night is unnerving. Lucky I was in business class and the alcohol was free.
But in all seriousness if you can't handle fourteen hours of boredom and discomfort as time goes on you're going to have to endure.
I rarely suffer from jet lag. However, it is very hard for me to sleep during a flight.
If I am landing in the evening then - the difficulty falling asleep is in itself the solution to jet lag. Land without having slept. An hour or so to get out, another hour or so to get where I need to go. Bed and .. wake up normally.
If however, I am landing with most of a day in front of me I need to sleep on the plane.
I discovered that I could solve insomnia with the very ancient medications "beer" and/or "wine".
Eventually - I will nod off. It may not be the most refreshing sleep but it *is* sleep and I have no problem getting through the day.
Alcohol dehydrates?! Maybe. Gee whiz. I counter that with another ancient drink - w.a.t.e.r.
Even el-cheapo airlines have water.
Eventually, I discovered melatonin. It also works. Better with some ethanol and certainly 1 - 2 mg is not even close to enough but it works well.
I also try to stretch. I wish there were still 747s flying. They made a walk, stretch and conversation easy.
6
Enjoyed reading this article first thing this morning. I've suffered from sinus infections and headaches and totally relate to the need to medicate....and attempts to function. just wish my stories were as funny as the writer's! Appreciate the airlines attempts to research and help passengers cope.
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I’ve flown to Sydney about 8 times, maybe more. I actually appreciate the stopover, always SF not LA. Breaks up the trip and gives you a chance to walk around. Even better was when the stopover would be in Hawaii or some other Pacific island, closer to the halfway point. As for jet lag, it’s always been worse on the return trip from Sydney to NYC.
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@Bello We used to have a relatively brief layover in Guam when flying from the West Coast to SE Asia, and depending on where we are going and the airline we are flying, sometimes still do. A little fresh air, a little sunshine; it really makes a difference.
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@DJ McConnell Yes, and a nice thing about some of those Pacific island airports is that they have open air terminals.
Not so say Sarah's experience with medications is typical but I'm sure it's not unusual. Yet we act surprised at the level of prescription addiction and overdoses in our society. Given how many people share her reaction to physical discomforts - throwing a pill at everything from congestion to fatigue - the only thing surprising is that the level of addictions and overdoses isn't higher.
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@Tim What kills me is the (repeated!) admonition against alcohol in the article vis a vis the cornucopia of pharmaceuticals the author consumes.
I'm pretty sure that this not the longest flight ever. In 2011 or 12, I took a non-stop flight on Singapore Airlines from Newark to Singapore with a flying time of 19 hrs 45 min. The plane was entirely business class, with a seat that became a pull out bed, large flat screen TV, gourmet meals on demand, and bathrooms with marble counter tops and a vase of flowers. No problem.
2
The flight you took was the flight that Singapore Airlines terminated a few years ago for economic reasons and reinstated about two years ago. They were able to switch from the four engine A340 (all business class) to the two engine A350 (business and premium economy). The current flight runs 18 to 18.5 hours depending on winds and direction. We actually flew eastbound both times in the round trip, thus completing a circumnavigation in two flights.
1
Singapore Airlines had a nonstop Newark-to-SQ flight about a dozen years ago that was scheduled for 18 hours 45 minutes on an A-340. I was lucky enough to do that run twice, and found it enjoyable, on the whole. Once was in a slightly-larger economy seat, and then a few years later it became an all-business-class flight, which was terrific.
The only real drawback came during the last couple of hours of the return flight, when a young and inexperienced parent with a baby (to be fair, how many of us are experienced at making such a long flight with infants?) in our cabin decided to keep waking the child rather than let it sleep. The loud crying that resulted was not welcomed by our little sample of the Great Traveling Public. But then, that sort of thing could happen between ORD and JFK...
2
My prescription for a long flight: two glasses of red wine, some cheese, 2 Advil PM, and an 8 hour playlist on my iPhone. Even in coach this works fine.
1
Thanks for the grins... and travel commentary!
16
Ambien is cheating. However, a glass of port with cheese service is not.
While Qantas makes its money up front, next time for the sake of the article try this in coach!
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I like LAX. At least, certainly no less than JFK.
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@Jeff I agree. If we're talking about flying Qantas, calling it a "hellhole" is a bit dramatic. I find the Bradley International Terminal a pleasant enough place to spend a couple of hours waiting for a flight.
1
@Jeff
You don't have to change planes there.
Still beats swimming.
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The author scoffs at folks having some wine but has no problem popping pills all flight long? Let's review: unnamed decongestants, sudafed, 2 ambien, melatonin. And these are what she admitted to...so, I recommend she talk to her PCP.
And, you can prepare for this type of journey many ways but if you have seatmates that are loud, watching TV all flight, have a screaming child...nothing will provide relief.
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@Patty Elston I had the same thought about all the pills, good grief!
I occasionally take long-haul flights, sometimes in coach, sometimes in business class. I try to look at them as an unexpected opportunity to read without interruption. It usually helps with sleeping on the plane, too.
11
Story could have been reassigned to someone healthy so readers might imagine such a trip without a horrible cold, too many chemiclas, etc. And the writer could've taken a sick day in her own dreamt-about bed. As is, the piece seemed overly focused on battling the misery.
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Now try the same flight in coach . Welcome to my world .
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A fun read! I fly to Asia a lot and the flights are 14-16 hours. All I can say is that the only way to endure the journey is to fly business class and cocoon in your pod.
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@Vanessa I've done the 19 hour flight coach, Newark to Singapore. Last seat in the back of the plane. I am grateful I could get halfway around the world in a mere 19 hours, and not 6 months like it would have taken by ship for much of recent human history. Some of us seem to know how to endure much more than others.
1
Recently flew from Vancouver BC to Guangzhou on China Southern crammed in economy with, it seemed, more people than seats. The flight took, with delays, 14 hours. Never again....
20
It's a total game changer for those of us who fly to Australia from the US that Qantas is trialing this long haul offering but disappointed in the focus of this piece. I'm sorry your reporter was ill for the flight, but this was such a missed opportunity for readers to truly get a sense of what this offering is all about (I have a lot of sympathy as I unknowingly overmedicated myself on the same medication on a long-haul flight years ago). Let's face it, this was an awesome assignment and a privilege to report on.
I would have loved to have heard more about this new model Qantas is experimenting with regarding the bright lights, spicy food, and other innovations to combat jet-lag. I've been flying long-haul most of my adult life having previously spent over a decade living in Australia and Asia, and I've never heard of this approach.
Also flying business class, especially in long-haul, is a privilege and a joy. Definitely nothing to complain about. That said, given most travelers will not have access to this exclusive offering, I'd suggest sending future reporters to brave economy or premium, to give readers a better sense of what they're in for.
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@Jenny
There have been other reports on this flight (which, by the way, was business class only) from other outlets.
2
Poor pitiful travelers, having so much to endure going from one place to another. After all these years of air travel, it is still somehow a traumatic experience to get on an airplane. It is after all just a ride to a destination.
Try traveling by horse and wagon, 19 hours in a comfortable seat in a controlled environment with food served to you won't seem so bad. Or, ride the subway for 19 hours, Soft Americans.
11
A 10 hour flight from Rome to DC is my limit.
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@DCQuilter
A direct flight from Rome LDV airport to IAD is less than 9 hours, while a flight from IAD to LVD is at least and hour less because of the Jet Stream.
Depending how strong the Jet Stream is on a certain day, flight time will vary quite a bit.
Very useful reporting, mostly on what not to do on a long flight. Sarah, someone else should have done this story. Flying with your congestion was very risky and I am glad that you apparently did not suffer any long-term damage. I flew with a bad head cold over 30 years ago and ruptured an eardrum and have had issues with that ear ever since. Your use/abuse of pharmaceuticals was excessive and definitely must have contributed to your post-flight coma. The food sounds great and I hope one day I will have the courage to take advantage of this flight.
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Nineteen hours non-stop is easier than twenty four hours through a hub. It gets you to a place to truly unwind quicker. You avoid the second process of boarding planes which can involve passing security twice too. What I find most difficult- the layover between flights which can be painful because you are exhausted BEFORE you even board the second leg. Nonstop rules.
21
Aren't all these 'research articles' just sharp marketing by Qantas? More than a decade ago I flew in tourist class on SQ's EWR-SIN and on Thai's BKK-JFK and seem to have survived similar duration flights. I can't imaging how much of a non event it must be with premium food and beverages and a lie flat bed!
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In 2006 Thaiairways had inaugurated a JFK NY to Bangkok Thailand non-stop, a little over 17 hours straight flying. The planes were new, service great, food acceptable and it shortened the usual trip by 4-6 hours. I made several round trips and loved it. Lost luggage and missed connections no longer a problem. How to survive a 17 hour non-stop flight? Eat three or more meals, drink lots of water, make two circuits around the plane every 3 hours, doze off if you can, and try to hit the bathrooms often as early in the flight as you can. It seems that emptying bathroom trash and cleaning are not the job of flight attendants. Unfortunately, after a few years, oil went thru the roof and the airline ended non-stop service from NY.
I would have much preferred to pay an oil surcharge of a few hundred dollars to keep that non-stop. Other routes on different airlines through Hong Kong, Narita, Seoul were ok but changing planes in Narita and going thru passport control to make my next flight was always a nightmare. The trip ballooned to 21-23 hours, with a 1-3 hour layover and the route changed so instead of going over the North Pole it added to flying time.
10
@woody3691 I took that flight a few times, mostly for the novelty as I was starting in MIA. The novelty wore off. Back to MIA-(ATL, DTW,ORD, SFO,SEA,MCO, or IAD, depending UA,DL, or AA) through NRT or ICN, then on to BKK. Door to door quicker, at about 28 hours.
The best flight experience? A DL-KAL flight, ATL-ICN, with flight attendants happy enough while serving meals to be singing or humming to themselves.
The worst? A bumpy flight over the South China Sea, a storm raging outside, learning on CNN the next day several passengers and crew were injured, including one broken neck, when another carrier's flight experienced the same turbulence.
The most interesting. A near empty UA flight, MCO-NRT, with plenty of seats to lay down on. A panicked look and whispers among the flight crew was bit disconcerting. An in-flight message had informed them UAL was bankrupt, them not knowing what was to happen when they landed. Would they have to find their own hotel? Would the plane be confiscated? How would they get back home? My offer, taken up, was a rear-of-the-plane 15 minute talk about USA bankruptcy law and what UL was doing to protect its own, their's, and my interests. 2nd place? Waiting at the DTW, delayed while Fukushima unfolded.The flight was re-routed away from the plant, with an over-the-Pacific descent into a damaged & mostly empty NRT.
It's quicker now MIA through Dubai, if your sense of morality allows you to fly Dubai's national carrier(mine doesn't).
4
Another fine piece by Sarah. Shows her humanity and wit.
13
I am assuming this is a humorous piece? No one in their right mind would take that many different stimulants and sleep aides in a 20 hour period and expect to feel even remotely OK.
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@Jean / right?!
I'm like, I would be a wreck in my own house, much less stuck in a plane for that long...
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@Jean I actually feel like this article is irresponsible.
The amount of medication consumed is absolutely ridiculous and, for some, not very safe.
13
@Jean
It is a BIG mistake to take concurrently or sequentially all the meds the author did without the guidance of a physician; no wonder she felt awful during and after the flight.
The drug potpourri seems to have colored the narrative, too, which reminded me a bit of interviews of people who were under the influence of single or combined street drugs.
Bottom line: Consult a physician before mixing OTC and/or prescription drugs, especially if you are going to be more or less trapped on a plane for 8 or 10 or 20 hours.
9
Qantas has offered a 17-hour non- stop from DFW to Sydney for many years. My blue-eyed bride and I have flown it three times, in COACH. Try sleeping in an airplane seat and not the beds offered in biz class.
How do you do it? Qantas has built in “foot nets” under the seat in front of you so you can get your feet off the floor and stretched out in front of you.
I typically take 2 Tylenol PMs, downed with a red wine and sleep for about 6 hours. (Biggest annoyance was my feet swelling.) The meals are surprisingly good, and Qantas offers unlimited snacks and booze (in coach!!!).
The main issue for us wasn’t jet lag but losing an entire day. We left Wednesday and landed on Friday. (Thursday never happened.)
I would like to see a story on flying coach, because most of us don’t have the expense account to fly business class,
PS Our daughter lives in Sydney so it’s worth it.
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The airlines don’t invite travel writers in coach. They comp them in business class and get what they bargained for in publicity.
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@Suburban Cowboy About those feet swelling, on our return trip I had to walk through LAX terminals barefoot because I had taken my shoes off during the flight. There wasn't a traveler's aide to be found. It was like a ghost town. We barely made it to the final lap in time. What a nightmare that was. What a wonderful place Sydney is! All worth it.
8
@WesTex -- This particular test flight didn't have a coach offering. That will come later in the process.
4
I regularly flew 22 Hrs from Atlanta to Bangkok (15.5 Hrs ATL-ICN + 6.25 Hrs ICN-BKK) in economy for a year in 2006. It was fine. Eat, drink, watch movie, nap, walk.
Making a business class trip with a lie flat bed sound like a gulag experience is the height of self-indulgent melodrama.
503
My mother is Australian. We used to travel for over 24 hours with plane changes, etc., to get there when I was a kid. I don't see why this wouldn't be better.
Sure, the trip is brutal, but it's brutal no matter how you slice it.
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@FLT
I've gone to SYD. I want to try a break with at least 24 hour layover in Hawaii both ways. The total flight time is still 20 hours. The cost may be $2000 more, but the toll on my psyche cut in half.
2
I have to wonder about the flight crew, the original and the replacements who would take over and how fresh and keen they and their mental acuity are. They're flying this tortuous route too.
11
@MIKEinNYC Such long flights usually have three flight crews.
@MIKEinNYC
On our recent JAL flight from Seattle to Tokyo (10 hours) I noticed that in the rear of the plane by the attendants' station there was a compartment for them to sleep/rest. One or the other would indeed pop out occasionally looking fresh as a daisy. There were plenty of attendants on that long flight and service (in economy) was impeccable.
1
Having traveled to Australia several times and putting up with Lax, future trips to Australia will include a two day stopover in Seattle, San FranSisco or other interesting cities. Nineteen plus hours in a plane is just too, too, too long.......
34
@Telos Yes, that is the way to do it. When we have flown to Hong Kong we have stopped over in SF for a couple of days before and after, making it much less stressful.
2
Vancouver-to-Sydney is another option. Plus, there are flights from mainland North America to Australia that stop in Hawaii.
@Telos
Don't forget to try Vancouver and Honolulu.
Besides all the unappealing food and beverages, how did they handle the changing of clothes and storage of clothes? Does the plane include gym locker rooms for men and women?
25
@Bob Garcia
It is standard on First and Business Class flights to provide pajamas to all passengers. You typically change in the bathrooms and store your clothes at your (very spacious) seat which has several areas suitable for it. Some First/Business class seats even have closets!
2
Flying today is like medieval torture especially in long flights.
Yes it is the most efficient way to get around to travel long distances but you pay for it big time with torture.
As a senior I made a vow never to fly more than a few hours in a plane.
47
This isn't a article about a long plane trip. It's an article about how your body reacts when you've taken a large number of different medications in a short period of time. Three different unspecified prescription medications, plus an allergy tablet, a powerful decongestant, a decongestant nasal spray, melatonin and two sleeping tablets? Who would think this was a good idea? I would be interested in reading about someone's experience on the Quantas flight who wasn't heavily medicated.
794
@Ron, I agree with your comments.
I read the article thinking it would help me as I research different ways of getting to Australia with my family (three children), and it has not added any relevant information about the trip.
The reporter would still have felt the same discomfort at home, under the effect of that many drugs.
I wish the NYT publishes an article from the perspective of a different reporter, one that was not sick at the time of flight and provide informative reporting.
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@Ron
Exactly correct. The more medications you take to get through a long flight, even things like Benadryl to sleep or a drink or two, generally the worse you will feel.
The best thing is to consume as much water as you can, get up and walk around every hour or so, and sleep only if it comes naturally. But no matter what you do you will feel some degree of jetlag after arriving, and there is no way around that for most of us. There's nothing that can instantly convince your body and brain that it is 7:00 a.m. when it thinks it is midnight. That just takes time to adapt.
54
@Virginia NYT Travel often focuses on experiences not relevant to the "average" traveler. Their "36 Hours In..." pieces are that way, describing great dining experiences at the expense of seeing the city.
10
Qantas' Research Flight is a nice first step in non-stop travel to Australia. Being coddled in all business class seats, a chef preparing meals in real time (not cooked by a contractor hours earlier and delivered in bulk), and psychologists leading exercise classes is not likely to be the average traveler's experience once this flight is routine.
I fly Qantas to Melbourne from JFK twice per year to visit my daughter and her family, about an hour longer travel time compared to Sydney. Wheels up from LAX, it's over 15 hours until you land Down Under. Qantas gives great service - the meals and snacks are good for airline fare, and staff are very pleasant and helpful. But it is a really long time in the economy section, and I'm not a great sleeper on planes. The best you can do is just to tough it out, and I've gotten used to the trip. It's surprising what you can put up with when you have to, and another 4-5 hours in the air will become similarly routine.
19
I have flown from Houston to Narita, Japan, at least 15 - 20 times. Flight time: 14 hours. My sensei (Japanese classes) is 80 and just came back from a trip to Nagoya (15 hours to Taipei, 2 hours on the ground, and 3-1/hours from Taipei to Nagoya. I've met ladies in terminals who have spent 24 hours getting back to Houston from New Dehli and took 24 hours to get from A to B.
What's all the fuss about? It beats what my grandfather went through to get from a village in Sicily to Ellis Island!
(P.S. I'm 73. Yeah, younger than Carl Fredricksen. And no, I'm not planning a trip to Paradise Falls in a balloon-powered house. I'm going to Narita again shortly, though. I'll survive.)
6
@tbrucia
While your uncle might have endured a multi-day journey from Sicily, it was done on the surface of the earth at a speed not very different from what we perceive to be the earth's rotation. Although he might have been physically uncomfortable if he was in steerage, your uncle probably experienced no jet lag as the sun rose on him each day while at sea and set only a little bit sooner than had he been at home in his Sicilian village. He went through 6 time zones in about as many days, not 14 zones in only 20 hours. He might have had a difficult journey, but not for any of the reasons of a 20-hour jet plane flight.
2
Yes, the horror of enduring this flight in business class must be awful. Imagine how pleasant it will be for those fortunate souls who will be in cattle-class at the back of a FULL the plane.
I've flown 16 plus hours from Doha to Houston in such economy seats. It's no picnic, to say the very least. I have no desire to try 19 hours to anywhere. Pointless for the sake of being pointless. A layover, as annoying as it may be, at least allows a chance at real movement and exercise and airport food.
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@David
"A layover, as annoying as it may be, at least allows a chance at real movement and exercise and airport food"
Exactly.
I did that eons ago. It was good to have that stopover.
As far as the writer's experience is concerned: How many of us can pay for business class for that trip? There are only 30 lay flat business class seats on that plane. Let us hear the experience on how the other 200+ passengers can expect to feel.
11
@David YES! I've done LA to Sydney (in economy) and I almost cried when I boarded the flight to return home as I knew what horror awaited me.
7
@David Pointless to you, but not to everyone. I'd rather sit on the plane a couple more hours and go directly to my destination.
1
The idea of being in a plane for 19 hours isn’t near as disturbing as being forced to listen to the Macarena and not being able to kill myself right then is. Cue Stephen King to start a new book.
43
Ha. Stephen King did write a book about this subject. It was called the Langoliers Everyone woke up in another dimension ala Stranger Things. They even made a movie.
10
This is a mean less test. Sit back in economy for a twenty hour flight and let me know how you feel.
262
"...the Concorde showed that it is possible, though perhaps not advisable..."
"Perhaps not advisable" or "perhaps not profitable"?
8
I flew about 19 hours from China back to Newark. I did this twice (round trip). And trip back home was with two, 15 month old babies.
Yes, it was difficult and tiring of course. But it didnt drive me crazy.
7
@Ben M, adopting* two toddlers is a great reason to take such a trip! I hope the toddlers did as well on the flight back, as you did. Hopefully they napped. :)
*OK, I'm presuming that was the purpose of your trip. Wishing you and family great happiness.
3
@Ben M, adopting* two toddlers is a great reason to take such a trip! I hope the toddlers did as well. Hopefully they napped. :)
*OK, I'm presuming that was the purpose of your trip. Wishing you and family great happiness.
1
I feel like I experienced more of the author’s illness than the flight itself.
226
That's a lot of brouhaha for a flight that's only one hour longer than the current longest. Seems like Qantas is doing these 'research flights' for the sole purpose of garnering media attention.
124
I flew from Sydney to Vancouver.
Was jet lagged for weeks and haven’t been on a plane since( 5 years ago).
11
Thank you for this review! I have flown about 8 times to Australia through LAX and I wanted to know how this went. I have felt like tossing my cookies even after a 14 hour flight. My husband tossed his cookies ON a 14 hour flight and I had to run back and forth to the bathroom with the airsickness bags because flight attendants will not touch them (seems like a reasonable rule). Please write more reviews - your writing is stellar.
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@lkmassey28 The writing is great. The insight conveyed, non-existent.
6
Everyone of those folks in the photo is stretching the quads incorrectly. The better technique is to use the left hand to hold the right foot to the buttocks and vice versa.
This correction reduces the torsion applied to the knee when the same sided hand pulls the foot outward.
I'll be headed to New Zealand for December... thanks for the article.
NFE
6
@No False Enthusiasm That is the preferred method however this old-fashioned stretch is not advisable, no matter what hand is used to hold what foot. Proper method is to flex knee and rest foot on a surface behind you about 18" to 24" off the ground, making sure to stabilize yourself while one leg is planted; then point the stretched leg's knee toward the floor slowly until you reach the end-range of the stretch.
At this very moment there are thousands of people going through the same "experiment." Only instead of the relative comfort afforded by Quantas, they are under water in submarines. Our sailors leave their families on their local time and enter a world referenced to GMT often not seeing daylight for months. Having made seven 75 day patrols under water during the Cold War, I can assure the writer that you'll be fine after only 20 hours.
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@John Thank you for your service to our country. And, thank you to all who risk danger on the sea, in the air, and on land for our country.
15
@John
Yes, but on a submarine, you’re moving around and working. It’s really interesting work. Yes, a submarine is a small place but much bigger than a seat on a plane. You have a real bunk to sleep in with a curtain.
Once you’re underway, there is a rhythm. Lights are turned down low in berthing spaces. The control room is darkened at night.
It’s an odd, artificial environment but nowhere nearly as disorienting as crossing so many time zones at once.
I’ve done both - a boat’s more comfortable.
4