I’ve never flown before but I still want to participate.
0voters
Just out of boredom, I thought I’d start a companion poll to the “What’s the longest you’ve driven?” thread, this time air travel related. Feel free to post the route and actual flight time, and whether you were in economy, business, or first class.
The longest for me was Los Angeles to Sydney on Qantas, at about 13 hours 40 minutes from wheels up to wheels down. In economy class. You know you’re on a really long flight when you eat your in-flight dinner, watch a move, take a nap, wake up and look at the moving map, and realize you’re still not even halfway there.
For me, it was a 45-minute flight (Des Moines to Kansas City, and back 2 weeks later) but my sister flew from Stockholm to Oakland a few years ago, and my niece more recently took the Newark to Osaka route.
My sister said she watched “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” and two other movies on that flight.
IIRC, about 18hrs – Los Angeles to Singapore (then onward to Indonesia).
Same on the way back.
Business class, so … heavier on the boredom than on the discomfort. It was actually quite plush. And pre-9/11, so … things were a bit different.
Yeah. Movie, meal, nap … movie, meal, nap … movie, meal, nap … OMFG. Are we THERE YET ?!?
But on the way back, we stopped in a drug store and got a small handful of Ativan for each of us. Toss those back with a few glasses of Moet & Chandon … and … much more pleasant experience.
Seventeen-ish hours, Dallas to Sydney. It’s not too bad after the first couple of hours; my worldview seems to contract to just the plane itself, a nice little bubble. Still much better in Business than Coach, but Coach is tolerable.
I’ve done that flight four or five times - when things get going again, I’ll probably take the Brisbane-Chicago flight, which is more convenient to family, but a couple of hours longer.
16.5 hours, Vancouver to Taipei, after circling HK for an hour or so. We got diverted due to a cyclone. Should have been only 14 hours or so. I’ve been on a few 12+ hour flights, but this was noticeably longer.
Tokyo to New York (then back, ditto for all subsequent flights the return flights are longer so they are given). Several times. 14 hours. Tokyo to Atlanta a couple of times. Also 14 hours. Tokyo to Paris, Tokyo to London and Tokyo to Frankfurt. All over 12 hours.
I can’t count the number of flights from Tokyo to the west coast.
I can’t claim the insane times you all have had. My longest was Frankfurt to Chicago, which was every bit of 9 hours. Thank God for Business class.
I know we’ve military Dopers here. Some of the flights with refueling that I’ve read of, sound excruciating. Like panhandle of Florida to Korea. On a C-130. Or some of the B-52 or B-2 flights. At least on those, the pilots can rest. Some of the fighter self-deployments, like East Coast US to Saudi Arabia or Iraq, OTOH… Ouch.
I’ve passengered Los Angeles - Auckland NZ & return a few times. Very roughly 13 hours each way. About 50/50 first class or biz class. Managed to avoid coach.
Working I’ve done a lot of ~6.5h flights coast to coast US, e.g. NYC<->LAX or MIA<->SFO but nothing longer.
A bit over 8 hours, on a flight from Zurich to Chicago, in '94. I was with my wife, and my in-laws, at the close of a European trip. There was an equipment change at the last minute, into a slightly smaller plane (IIRC, we were swapped from a 747 to a DC-10), and the seating assignments got shuffled. One of us had to wind up sitting separated from the group, in the smoking section at the back of the plane; I jumped on the grenade, because both my wife and my in-laws were having conniption fits about it.
If you include the travelling process as a whole, my first plane trip to Europe took almost an entire two days (albeit, with the time shift, not a whole 48 hours.) I woke up at midnight to prepare to get to the airport at 3 for my 7 am flight since I was told that you needed to get to the airport 3 hours ahead of time for an international flight, but it turns out they didn’t even open their counter until 5am which sort of defeats the purpose. Then, a flight to Canada since the price was cheaper with the layover, unfortunately, I had a choice of a 1 1/2 hour layover or a 5 1/2 hour one, and I again didn’t want to risk it so I chose the longer one. Took naps at the airport. Flew to Gatwick and arrived late next morning for my supposed 4 hour layover for my flight to Madrid (I was spending most of my time in England but went to Madrid for 2 days and then back to England.)
But my Madrid flight was delayed. It took off in late afternoon and didn’t land until well after 8, and I wasn’t in my hotel room until 10pm.