Washington, D.C. to Munich, about 11 hours.
I enjoy flying in small planes, but that would be a bit much. I went from Seattle to Minneapolis once in the back seat of a Mooney; I think it was 10 total hours in the air, and 2 stops. Mooneys are quick, but cramped.
9.5 hours, Amsterdam to Atlanta. Not horrible, but not real fun. Jet lag wasn’t so bad going east to west.
I once flew Shanghai to Tokyo, Tokyo to Detroit, and then Detroit to Toronto. The bad part: our flight from Detroit to Toronto was delayed by 8 hours (!) due to thunderstorms. Luckily they cleared up before the airport closed.
I could have hitch-hiked from Detroit to Toronto in 8 hours…
San Francisco to Beijing, about 12 hours. Preceded by a 5-hour flight from DC to SFO, a 4-hour layover, and then a 3-hour delay on the tarmac at SFO because of a mechanical issue. It was a very long day. On the plus side, we got into Beijing after midnight and their immigration people had nothing better to do than process us all through quite quickly.
I’ve flown SYD-LAX and SYD-SFO many times: around 20 return trips, so I’m very familiar with the route. One LAX-SYD trip was lengthened by an unscheduled stop at Honolulu, because all the toilets on the plane had stopped functioning, and the captain decided that it was unreasonable for the passengers to survive a 14-hour flight without toilets. We just sat inside the plane while the mechanic fixed the toilets for us.
Yesterday my wife and I had a flight which might be slightly longer: Sydney (SYD) to Doha (DOH) in Qatar. We then connected to a flight to Vienna (VIE) which was delayed by 4 hours, so the total trip SYD-VIE took about 28 hours.
That’s not my longest trip (including delays): that would by the time I flew from Columbus (CMH) to Sydney (SYD) via San Francisco (SFO), and because of delays in the internal flights in the US, I missed my plane at SFO, so I had to wait 24 hours for the next plane. That meant the trip took about 48 hours airport to airport. Still, the airline put me up in a motel near SFO, and I had a day to spend exploring San Francisco, so it wasn’t too bad.
That’s my longest as well. Average time seems to be just under 15 hours nowadays, and yes I did it in economy (but well after smoking was banned on all international flights). If Thai airways ever starts up the direct flight Bangkok -LA route then I’ll end up taking that one at some point, it’s 18 hours. Currently all flights from Bangkok to the US West coast have at least one stop, they dropped the direct flights a couple of years ago.
Looks like that’s close to a 13-hour flight. Sounds about right.
Ditto. Trying to sleep in cattle class when you have no where to put your legs is somewhat annoying.
Looks like Los Angeles to Auckland, clocking in at about 13 hrs. (I could have sworn it was longer). The whole itinerary was Chicago to Los Angeles to Auckland to Melbourne to Hobart (Tasmania, Australia). Can’t remember how long all that took, but it was an ordeal.
Second would probably be the Chicago-Istanbul leg (~11 hrs) of our trip to Mumbai.
Actually, no. Looking it up, apparently Amsterdam to Cape Town edges it out at about 11 1/4 hours. Wow. I don’t remember that flight being that long. I would have thought 8 hours at the most. Well, that’s KLM for you. Make flying pleasant.
Hawaii to SLC with a killer sunburn that made it seem eternal. :eek:
LA to Auckland non-stop. (~14 hrs).
All in a single looonnnngggg day: Raleigh-Durham -> Washington National (then by bus to Dulles) -> London -> Cairo -> Khartoum -> Dar es Salaam. (~24 hrs).
Story?
I used to fly DC to Dubai pretty regularly, that was about a 15-16 hour flight depending on winds.
Wife flew from Nagoya to Detroit last fall - except at the last minute, they diverted to Cleveland because of heavy snow in Detroit. After touching down in Cleveland, they parked and kept everyone on the plane until the weather in Detroit cleared and they could finish the trip.
It was supposed to be about 12.5 hours gate-to-gate, but instead she was stuck on that plane for 16.5 hours.
I didn’t get the notice of the divert until I was parked at the airport, where I was able to check my messages. Detroit’s airport is an inhospitable place to wait for an arrival, as there are no restaurants or stores outside of the secure area (c.f. DEN). But rather than driving home and coming back to the airport later (probably would have been an hour each way in that weather), I hung around at a restaurant just north of the airport slurping coffee until she called and told me they were finally heading out. A crappy evening for all.
Not sure: either Newark-Sao Paulo (or its return), or Madrid-San Juan de Costa Rica. Both were thereabouts of 14h.
The bullets were making BB balls?
The first, at least, seems pretty long. Should be more like 10h. (The second–assuming you mean San Jose, Costa Rica–also shows up as closer to 11h. I was surprised, as well, that my LA to Auckland trip was only 13-ish hours. I could have sworn closer to 16. Unless, I suppose, flight times really have gotten that much faster over the past two decades, but I doubt it, as cruising speeds are fairly similar between craft.)
This one, in reverse. Made worse for having sat on the tarmac in Los Angeles because a passenger who had checked his baggage failed to turn up to board the plane. Just as officials were getting ready to remove his baggage so we could get underway, he made an appearance. Our 16-hour flight became a 17.5 hour flight.
He was also the stinkiest human being I’ve ever encountered and took the seat in front of mine. After that experience, I never travel without a small jar of Vicks Vapor Rub in my purse so I can smear a small amount under my nose to mask unpleasant odors. You know, like autopsies.
I have made the journey several times as well as to NZ, but none were as miserable as that first one.
Frankfurt to LAX was also a long 'un, but what I most remember from that journey was the body search visited on every traveler before they are permitted to board the flight. I’ve had sex that was less invasive. (Not a brag.)
Atlanta to Buenos Aires, Argentina was my longest at ~10 hours. Atlanta to Maui was second at a little over 9 hours. Both time in coach. Way too long to be cramped up on a plane, and I like flying.
Longest single leg was Joburg to Atlanta. I guess if you count the connecting flights to DTW it was that much longer.
Having regularly flown between DTW and PVG the last five years (12 to 14 hours), I will never complain about “long” flights between Detroit and anywhere in western Europe again!