Hi everyone. Just wanted some thoughts and opinions or suggestions on the flight over to Thiland. My mother and I are dreading it the most and very nervous about it. What airlines did you all go through and what was the experience like?

The longest I have ever been on a plane was like 6 hours and that wasnt even much fun.lol ) please discuss this aspect of SRS/GRS. Thanks

It's more tedium than anything else, really.

I don't know where you are starting from, but when I accompanied my step-daughter to Bangkok from Chicago, we went, literally half way around the world.  We could not go any farther and not end up closer to home.

We were in the air for 23 hours.  A 3 hour flight from Chicago to Washington, a 14 hour flight over the north pole to Tokyo with a three hour layover, and a 6 hour flight from Tokyo to Bangkok. 

We flew American Air.

My biggest concern was the possibility of cramped seating.  I've been in some real cattle car airplanes and I dreaded a long flight with little leg room.  But the Airbus planes we flew on had very nice seats in economy class.  I'm a tall girl and I worried that my knees would be banging the seat in front of me.  But that wasn't the case at all.

The seat back video had a few movies, but I'd seen most of them (I found out that "Cowboys and Aliens" was a stupid movie!)  I brought my reader with me with several books on it to read so I was able to spend some time catching up with my reading.

Sleeping was hard, but I never sleep well on an airplane.

I walked around as much as I could to keep my ankles from swelling.

There was a fair amount of turbulence on the flight from Tokyo to Bangkok as we were fighting the jet stream going into Thailand, but on the way back it was much smoother, and shorter.

As I said, it was tedious travel, but nothing to worry about.

My advice is bring your own DVD player and movies or other ways to entertain yourself.

-Sandy

Quote from: starbright on January 04, 2013, 10:48:40 PM
Hi everyone. Just wanted some thoughts and opinions or suggestions on the flight over to Thiland. My mother and I are dreading it the most and very nervous about it. What airlines did you all go through and what was the experience like?

The longest I have ever been on a plane was like 6 hours and that wasnt even much fun.lol ) please discuss this aspect of SRS/GRS. Thanks

I never went to Thailand before but I used Thai air to travel to other parts of asia and loved they service every time!

Hi Starbright.

First off, take a tablet or iPod on the flight, so you can read and watch whatever you like. You can download the Skype app and video call peeps back home from your cell recovery bed   

You'll have heaps of time to write letters, short stories, your autobiography, whatever. Download games like scrabble etc and play them with your Mum. Boring isn't a word in my vocabulary. It doesn't exist. Life is too short to waste.

Time your sleep as to mimic a very long or short day. Depending your departure/arrival times. DRINK PLENTY OF WATER in flight. Air conditioning and altitude dehydrates the body quickly and makes getting over jet lag that much harder..

Fortunately in Oz, it takes a minimum of 6 hours to get somewhere half way decent. (My apologies to our NZ and Perth brothers and sisters  )  Although the funny thing is, if I leave Oz for the States at 4:00 in the afternoon, I arrive LAX at 10:20 AM, the same day. Go figure. (Still takes 14 hours non stop to do it though    Cabin crew end up feeling like family  ) Return trip is a bitch. Leave LAX 10:00 pm and get home at 8:00 am two days later. Got to be uphill all the way. 

Sit back, relax, focus on the moment, embrace and enjoy it.

Huggs
Catherine

I flew Korean air. for me they had the shortest flight time from florida to Bangkok. I love the service and food on it. they had quite a few new movies to pick from and classics like jaws. also the food was ok and they did feed you quite often. what I did was bring my laptop, ipad and ipod. along with extra batteries and 3 portable chargers for the ipad. man it really helped.

Galaxy note 2 has a great battery, thing never wants to die.  It will be accompanying me with an extra battery when I decide to go.  Also hope to get a temporary sim card from there

I make the DFW-Atlanta-Joburg trip regularly and one thing I can suggest more than anything on a long flight is getting one of the horseshoe pillow so that your head won't roll when you start to relax. You will be able to sleep a lot better with it and you can get an inflateable one at Wal_mart for $5.  Also, do your check in online as early as they will let you and you can usually upgrade you seats for extra leg room and the seat leans back enough to make a sleeping difference. That upgrade is usually $60-$100 and wll worth it if you can afford it.

Other than that, I try to stay up over night so that I'm exhasuted for my 20 hours of flying and have a good chance of sleeping a lot of it. ALSO, extra baggage is often a lot cheaper if you pay for it online when you check in but make sure you don't go over weight or it may cost you a fortune. A cheap travel luggage scale is worth buying.  Good luck and I am so happy for you that you are finally doing this for yourself!!   hugs, JessicaH

I had it easy since im located in hk, which is just 3 hrs away from bkk. nevertheless i am going business class with emirates...might even consider a further upgrade to first...heard you get whole cabins to yourself...king size bed ensuite with showers...and yes the taps are gold plated...of course...

Without doubt, if you are flying from the EU, Qatar Air is the hands down best airline in the world, esp in economy seating, esp when you factor in their usually very low prices. I always fly Qatar, sometimes stop in Doha for fun.... given the choice, nothing beats them. Other good airlines (I travel a LOT:) are Korean Air from the US, Thai Airways is pretty great, esp foodwise, ANA and Silk are great too. Malaysia is supposed to be as good as korean air, but in my experience, it wasnt. The way out will be boring; the way home, painful but hopped up on tramadol. You'll be fine, and you DONT need to dilate in the airport bathrooms, btw... doctor said so. Good luck!

Starbright,

Sandy's right. It's tiring and very boring. If you had your iphone or ipad bring them on board. And U-Shaped pillow is your best sleep aid. I fly United mostly (to collect mileage). they are fine not the best.