Where “premium economy” is what used to be called just regular seats, until they shrunk everything?
And those numbers still mean that half of the people on the Sydney flights will be economy.
Okay, so I’m flying economy in the back of the plane, with 97 other people, berhind a partition. In front of that partition are four other partitioned sections and 140 other people that I had to walk past to get to my seat. And II’m still stuck there for 24 solid hours.
The few times I’ve taken an international flight, the boarding door has been in between the business class & economy cabins. You’d turn left if you had an expensive seat and right if you didn’t, and the rich folks didn’t have to studiously ignore the proles walking past them.
I do work for a certain client that is jokingly rumoured to apply a certain hiring test - they walk candidates down an airbridge toward a plane. If they turn right on reaching the plane, they aren’t quite the right sort to be working for them.
I have the pleasure of flying Australia-UK every few years. I really just prefer to get it over with.
Layovers just tend to be limbo - not long enough to get any sort of real break but long enough to just add a good many hours to the journey.
Maybe if/when I do the 24 hour straight through flight I will regret it, but that’s not my expectation.
If you ask “Hey, where’s the stairs to the other level”, do they offer you the job on the spot?
I’m thinking a two-day layover midway in between.
Or the hell with complimentary drinks - I want my complimentary propofol.
The way it goes though is: say you have 14 days for a trip to Europe. As it is, 3 days approx of that is spent on planes and short layovers, so you are down to 11. If you have two day layovers both ways, that’s six days travelling and you are getting close to half your European vacation just spent getting there and back.
I’ve done a couple of long flights. Mostly NYC to far away, like Tokyo, Sidney, and Capetown. I agree with you. I fly non-stop if i possibly can.
I’m mostly retired so I have the option of taking my time. Unless I get the propofol.
East coast US to Asia a few time. It’s mostly Mrs. Martian who has trouble on these long flights. I did get business class once and it made an enormous difference.
Manchester to Vancouver crippled me. I had to overnight in Toronto to survive
I’m semi-retired, too. But it’s longer away from home. It’s longer away from my cats. Sometimes it’s longer away from my husband. And it’s still traveling. I hate airports. I’m always feeling stressed about the security, and that i might miss my flight.
(I have nearly missed my flight by getting lost in a book. A friend did miss a flight by falling asleep at the airport.)
Also, the odds of my checked luggage being lost are much higher if there’s a transfer.
I always take the direct flight if i can.
99% of the time I will take the direct flight. But when we’re talking about over 20 hours on one flight (which I admit I haven’t done) I start thinking that there must be some place interesting I can visit along the way to break it up. I would never deliberately opt for a typical layover if I can avoid it.
I will never be so eager to get somewhere in as short a time as possible as to subject myself to a 20+ hour non-stop flight. And I love flying! Much better to plan a trip to include a stopover at some other destination along the way.
No, on most long haul international flights Premium Economy is a wider seat than regular Economy, with greater recline and some sort of footrest. IMO it’s closer to what Business Class was like in the 1990s before Business Class turned into fancy pods with lie-flat seats.
Well, back in the… 1970s, all the seats were roomier than today’s economy. But i feel like a lot of that shrinkage happened shortly after deregulation in the 80s, which is a long time ago, now.
I’ve bought up to premium economy for long flights, and enjoyed having enough room that i could stretch out my legs. I’m not usually crowded side to side unless the passenger next to me is very large. (I’m fat, but my shoulders and hips fit in an economy seat, and those are my widest parts.)
The longest I sat on a plane was 22 hours from Los Angeles to Da Nang, RVN. There was a stop for fuel in Guam, but we weren’t allowed off the plane.
But the layovers are part of the holiday. When I went to Vancouver I had a two day layover in Toronto which allowed me to go to Niagara. Falls And on the way back two days in Chicago with a rail trip to Milwaukee
Then you won’t be in the market for the 24 hour straight through flight. Quite obviously it’s for people who want to get from Australia to Europe quickly.
Where would you go that would take 24 hours? I flew NY to Cape Town with a refueling so in Gambia, and i think that was less than 24 hours.