In four short months, wife and I will be hopping on a flight out of LA at 11:50pm. Fifteen hours later, we land in Sydney at 7:30am. And of course lose an entire day in the process.
How do you handle these kinds of flights? Are sleeping pills de rigeur? Do you stay awake on the plane as long as possible?
I suppose whatever the case, we should force ourselves outdoors and awake that first day in Sydney to adjust, yes?
Tylenol PM is a must. You will still be a zombie, but you’ll be that much less of a zombie. I knew someone who would save her valiums for long-haul flights for the same reason.
You really don’t want to try to stay awake. And hydrate, but not to the point of needing to go to the bathroom every 1/2 hour.
Now the bad news: coming back from Sydney will probably be worse.
I cannot sit for very long, I usually walk around, read, walk , read, walk, read, eat, walk, read, eat, walk, read. And on the off accasion I can sleep on a plane, I do.
Add repeat. It goes by much more easily than you’d think. Though when we arrived in Capetown for a similar escape, I was so tired I slept for the first 12 hours we were there. I should have slept on the plane…
I’ve done the US to Sydney a few times, from the East Coast, though. I try to sleep on the plane, preferably in the last half of the flight. I do not take any medications and limit my drinking to maybe one glass of wine with dinner. Drink lots of water. If they’ll let you, bring a pack of baby wipes to wipe yourself down a few times (in the bathroom!!). My husband goes into the bathroom and strips naked to give himself an “air bath” (you probably didn’t want to know that).
When you get there, stay out in the sunshine and try to keep yourself awake as long as possible. I can usually make it to about 6:30 or 7 pm on the first day, back to normal by day 2.
Good luck and have fun! We’ll probably be doing the trip again sometime in the next two years and I’m not looking forward to the flight. Just think, though…it’s only one day out of your life (this is the mantra we used when flying long haul with a baby, a 3 year old, and a dog).
A 15 hour flight? I thought it was bad enough to do the US to Delhi haul, and that one has a stopover in Europe. So it’s like 10 hours overseas, and 8 from there, or something…still long but at least it’s broken up.
Bring entertainment, read, bring snacks, music. Also look up online and learn some stretching exercises you can do with minimal movement. Yes, bring Tylonel or some other thing - I prefer Advil because I find it helps better with leg cramps and stuff.
Also, if you’re lucky enough, you may have a funs eatmate! It’s the one flight I make exception for talking to my neighbors…otherwise it’s brutally long.
I get very jittery after about 6 hours, almost to the point of an anxiety attack.
If I had a parachute the last time I flew to South Africa I would have exited the plane.
Next time I am going to make sure I have some valium or something to knock me out cold, or at least make me very relaxed.
The advantage to that trip is that you actually travel within the same timezone, so you don’t get any real jetlag, but I was completely dead the first 2 days.
Gin & Tonic & Tom Clancy.
On the flight I doze, drink plenty of water, watch the film, wear loose clothing and take off my shoes.
Like C3, I have made this flight several times myself, but from the West Coast.
I find that flights from both LA and San Fran leave late at night local time, and arrive early morning local time.
I like to try to sleep from an hour or so after take off (they will usually feed you as soon as you’re high enough up anyway) as long as I can. This has worked for me because:
It’s a 14-15 hour flight to Sydney, if I can sleep for 8 hours, that means I usually get to watch a movie after waking up, have breakfast, fill out my landing papers, and have only a hour or two left before landing.
If I try to stay awake and then go to sleep toward the end of the flight, I find that sitting in the dark watching movies on headsets isn’t fun and makes the long flight seem longer, since I will have long periods of awakeness at either end.
Hi…er…no.
Mistakes I have made include thinking that if I just stay up all night the night before, I will sleep most/all of the flight and it will be less…er…long and boring. In reality, this gave me “overtired child” syndrome at 36 years old. I was exhausted, wide awke, bouncy, over-emotional, cranky and stressed out, and the eventual crash hit I was on flight 2 of my 3 leg flight back to the US. I scared a flight attendant who (not knowing I’d come from overseas, I switched airlines) thought I was sick or drunk because she couldn’t easily wake me up to tell me we were landing.
Another mistake was not drinking enough water, you get really dehydrated.
I find the flight back to the US is worse, even though it is shorter (about 12 hours to LAX), because in general you tend to leave in the afternoon, Sydney local time. This means you are nowhere NEAR wanting to go to sleep and by the time you do go to sleep you are nearly landed and when you get there you’re exhausted. YMMV.
Dress comfortably, bring a toothbrush. It’s a LONG time without a shower. I second the recommendation to try to do some washing up. If nothing else, you’ll feel better and it will kill some time.
Try not to stare at the inflight map thing that tells you where you are, unless it is the last couple of hours. It makes the time go really slowly for me. Again, YMMV.
One thing I cannot stress enough is that when you are not sleeping you must get up and walk every hour or so when in the air. Deep Vein Thrombosis can lead to Pulmonary Embolism and that can kill you. I almost died last year from a saddle clot after a DVT (which, in fairness, was unrelated to air travel - or anything else that anybody can figure out, but I can say that they are a Thing To Be Avoided and will surely wreck your vacation.) Walk! Please!!
And hey, Sydney is fabulous, I love it! 
Cheers,
G
I did STL-Lax-Sidney-Perth a couple of years ago. I suggest loose clothing, cheap trashy novels, walking around, noise cancelling headsets (these really help on long hauls), lots of water, and three seats to yourself!!! 
I got the three seat bonus on the Lax-Sidney leg, woot, with lots of dirty looks from a tourist group all crammed into the middle aisles. I’m not too tall so I could basically lie down completely. Not so lucky on the way home.
Psssst…sinjin Sydney…not Sidney. 
Cheers,
G
(But they say it “Sinny” here!)
sweat pants, shoes that are easy to take off and put back on, iPod, a good book. And a massive mallet to knock yourself out. If you arrive at 7:30 am, that means you have a full day ahead of you. Try to get as much sleep as possible (not alcohol induced, btw!). Then what C3 said. Stay awake outdoors (sunlight) and keep busy and alert.
Magic brownies.
Maybe some diabetic socks will help with the DVT.
Stuff to do outside in Sydney:
Walk around Circular Quay
Take a ferry ride
Take a ferry ride…to the zoo
Chinese Gardens
Walk around the Rocks
Eat outside…at a pub, or at one of the take-away places near the Opera House
Thanks for all the suggestions! We’re actually flying out of DFW at 8:55 in the morning (not too early, but OTOH the wife will insist we be out the door by 6 am). Then we land in LAX at 10:10 and enjoy a day in sunny Cali before the 11:50pm flight out.
Result is that we’ll likely be DEAD tired by the time the flight takes off, since that’s actually 1:50am Texas time. So, I’m optimistic about our ability to conk ourselves out.
I’m making an inflight checklist:
To bring: Advil PM, baby wipes, toothbrush, TV episodes loaded onto iPod, comfy clothes
To do: walk, drink water, wash self, sleeeeeeeeeep
Now I’m just getting trivial, but out of curiosity: what do you bring for snacks? (Some gorp might hit the spot, mmmmm…)
Thanks for those suggestions too! You’re spot on; we’re planning to head up to the Quay, enjoy the view, then ferry over to Taronga Zoo. Our hotel’s near the Chinese Gardens so that’s a backup plan.
I have never tried Tylenol PM, but I have used melatonian to some success.
Take an iPod and good books. Take more books than you think you can read in 15 hours. There is nothing worse than running out of reading material 2 hours short of your destination. Murphy’s law of long haul flights is the movie is never one you want to see.
You will need one of these to go with your iPod. it will allow it to play for the entire trip.
I have never had to take food on board with me, long haul international flights feed pretty well in my experience.
If you don’t take an iPod, ear plugs might be a hell of an idea.
Every time the FA comes by with water, drink some.
Almost all international flights will serve you meals, even in coach.
LAX has a large amount of snack shops and restaurants that will package your food to go. The booze is usually free when you fly over the ocean. Which airline are you flying?
Personally, I think it’s worth to see how much an upgrade costs at the airport. Bigger seats, more movies, better booze, better service and I always enjoy the food. kinda starts the vacation off in a fun “I’m spoiling myself” attitude.
I try to stay up late the night before, drink lots of water on the plane, do not drink alcohol and have a strategic mix of reading material: two engrossing magazines like Atlantic Monthly; two magazines with easy to read short articles like the Week; a cheezy novel like John Grisham (this is left on the plane or at the airport, total disposable reading); one engrossing novel or nonfiction book. Change up the reading to keep you from getting too bored with any one topic. I also load up my ipod with backlog from NPR, I find this eats up more time than just listening to music. I stay awake as long as I can and then fall asleep and wake up in my destination.
I just returned from Sydney on Monday and my advice is to buy a video iPod and fly business class. I slept nine hours on the way there and eight on the return.
Once you get there (you will arrive at dawn) stay up as long as possible and sleep with your hotel room’s blinds open so the sunlight will help you wake up the following morning. I found the adjustment returning much worse than the arrival.
The best things I did while there? Sailing on the harbour and the ocean walk from Bondi Beach to Bronte Beach (5km of one stunning ocean view after another, wear comfortable shoes and bring a camera).