What's the longest you've ever flown non-stop?

In My Humble Opinion
41

Most of my flights were in coach, and that should add 50% more to the length from biz and 100% more for international first class, especially if you get an inside seat. Even worse was the flight in the middle seat with an obese guy next to me that couldn’t get the arm rest all the way down.

Another fun flight was from Tokyo to some American city with a bulkhead seat. While do you don’t have anyone reclining into you, you also don’t have anywhere to put your feet.

For five years in the last 90s, I worked for an import company and attended countless trade shows in America and Europe (oh, my longest flight was actually from Orlando to Tokyo, 16 hours 40 minutes, and I did that three or four times). I was puddlejumping three to five time a year.

From 2000 to 2010 I worked for the Tokyo branch office of a US company and also went to many tradeshows as well back to HQ, then once a year to visit family with all the mileage I was accumulating. I had my own company for a while after that, and drastically cut down the travel.

A couple of the trips for the first company were biz class, but almost all were economy. Those years were hell.

Fortunately, the US company allowed my level of management biz class.

As others have pointed out, having lots of connecting flights is not great. When I take my family back to the States now, we are three to four hours to the airport by ground transportation, then a flight to either Tokyo or Seoul, then usually another connection in America, putting us 24 or more hours door to door. The first time we tried to save money and stayed overnight in the Seoul airport because they have a “sleeping lounge.” Insane. I was ready to kill anyone to looked at me wrong by the time I got to my mother’s home.

The best international flight I had was a Singapore Airline return from the Orlando to Tokyo. I had biz class tickets, but they selected me to fill out a customer survey on the Tokyo to Orlando flight. I don’t know if that was the reason, but they gave me first class on the way back. The seats go completely flat with your own little compartment and I slept like a baby on the way back.

42

LaGuardia to Athens. Then, eight days later, Athens to LaGuardia. The flight is just about 12 hrs. It might have been a hair over, but I still voted “8-12 hrs.” Took an Ambien and a crapload of melatonin. Slept about 4 hrs. of it, each way. The plane had pretty good movies, though-- Strangers on a Train & A Streetcar Named Desire, I remember specifically.

Also flew JFK to Frankfurt, Germany. It was just under 9 hours, although the first time I flew it, I was only 10 years old. Was in coach, too. Flew it again when I was 18. Both times, Germany was still divided, and both times, I was on my way over the iron curtain, the first time, to Moscow, and the second time to Prague. This was still when they projected a 16mm film onto a wall of the plane, and that was your choice of movie. The choices sucked every time.

43

Yep. Done that money-saving tip once or twice. Usually combined with a flight on Spirit for added hilarity. I imagine it sounds like an even better suggestion if you’ve a family, and might have to book two rooms at a hotel.

I don’t need to save money that badly.

44

On the way back from America, we did book the hotel. My kids were small enough so it only had to pat for one room.

You hit that right out of the ball park. I don’t need money that badly, even if I have to eat instant ramen for three weeks.

45

9 hours from Barcelona, Spain to Atlanta, GA. HATED IT!

I can’t imagine 12 or 14 hours to Australia in Economy without powerful drugs and good alcohol. I drove 13 hours straight and enjoyed it.

46

You drove 13 hours Spain to Australia? Interesting.

47

For sure the subjective duration is huge in the lesser classes. I’ve done many ~8h coach journeys that felt interminable at the time.

Bulkheads leave me plenty of room for my feet. They don’t leave me room to have my briefcase / secondary carry-on readily to hand. That I miss.

My LAX<->AUK flights were actually part of a longer 3-leg itinerary: St. Louis-LAX-AUK-Wellington NZ & return. STL-LAX is about 3.5h, AUK-WLG is about 1.2h, plus the various connection times, terminal changes, immigration, ground transportation, get to airport early, etc. All told about 27 hours from bed at home to bed in hotel or vice versa. With a decent 6h nap during the long leg. Still pretty wasted upon arrival at either end.

48

LAX direct to Bangkok, which was 18 hours or so, as I recall. I think it was the longest planned route at the time. Three meals.

Normally my company allowed business class (as I had enjoyed two weeks before, to Hong Kong) but because this was a large group trip, they made us take Premium Economy which made it a little less pleasant but still tolerable.

50

Technically not non-stop, but Manchester (UK)- Brunei I think was my longest; in the middle of the night it stopped at Dubai, we were all ushered out of the plane, down a level, through a lounge, back up a level and straight back on to the same plane. I can’t remember exact times, but it was approximately eternity (a non-stop would be over 13 hours) and was not aided by the fact that the film I picked to watch (A knight’s tale) inexplicably stopped about an hour in, twice- the second time the entertainment system then stopped working altogether… And yes, it was in the cheap seats.

51

Yeah, it depends how literally you take “non stop”. The longest I’ve been cooped up in an airplane without being able to leave it was flying from the East coast of the US to South Africa. But the plane stopped in Nigeria. They just didn’t let through passengers leave the airplane. I think the longest true nonstop was either flying to Tokyo or to Sidney (starting in NY or Boston). But the South Africa trip was more grueling.

52

I hear that. When I flew JFK → Heathrow → Ben Gurion (12 hours total on board the planes, and 2 hr. stopover), I paid the extra for comfort+. It’s not 1st class, but the seats recline almost all the way back.

53

Back in the late 90’s, we were taking those Chicago to Tokyo flights (JAL) because if you booked your connecting flights with them, they put you up overnight at a lovely hotel right at Narita! Covered meals, transfers even issued boarding passes as you checked out. It was a sweet deal, (three time’s!) Because it meant you were much refreshed for your ongoing connection and didn’t suffer jet lag nearly as badly at your final destination.

(Our first time when we arrived at the hotel they had us in two rooms as we had different last names. When we checked out, my boarding pass now read ‘Mrs’ elbows!)

54

This February, Seattle to Singapore nonstop - which would be slightly under 16 hours, but we sat on the tarmac for an hour and a half before takeoff, so I’m counting it. Especially as I was in coach. And was flying on to New Delhi from Singapore a few hours later.

I’ve also done a few other 12+ hours over the Pacific. The Pacific Ocean is really, really big.

I don’t miss flying (I don’t get the people who are taking airplane rides to nowhere. To me, the airplane ride is part of the price of being somewhere else.) I do miss being somewhere else for a short time.

55

15 hrs Doha Houston
Pretty empty flight so got three seats to myself and the flight attendents were generous with the wine so plenty of snoozing.

56

When I flew back from Heathrow to JFK after 12 days in Israel, I was seated at the end of a five seat row. Apparently, a family of four had the other four seats, and they didn’t show up. The flight wasn’t full, so the airline didn’t need to move people around to give people more room, and I ended up with the whole row to myself. I’m not even that tall. I put up armrests to sleep lying down on the seats, but I only actually took up three seats. What was nice was taking all my stuff down from the overhead and using the understowage of the empty seats, so I didn’t need to keep getting up to get stuff, or just doing without, because I didn’t want to block the row.

Someone sitting on the other side of the five seats, in a pair of two, asked if I minded if she used the seat at the end of the row for her stuff. I told her I didn’t own the row; it was just my good luck that a bunch of people didn’t show up.

I should have bought a lottery ticket that day.

Oh, yeah-- it was British Airways, and they automatically bring you a glass of champagne when you board (maybe only in Comfort+ and 1st class, but they brought me one). I don’t normally drink, but this seemed like a sign, so I drank it. When you haven’t had a drink in a few years, a glass of champagne hits pretty hard, and I’m a tough insomniac. So the fact that I slept immediately for about 90 minutes was worth a parade, if anyone had offered.

57

Chicago to Mumbai was just shy of 20 hours.

New Delhi to Chicago was about 15 hours.

Chicago to Dubai was 13.5 but the return trip was 15.5 hours.

58

A direct flight from Hawaii to Toronto. I think it was just under nine hours.

59

Modhat on, This is an official warning.

No need to be insulting to other posters. If you really must, take it to the pit in the future.

60

H’m. I was doing longest single leg. My longest full trips were Melbourne to Orlando; between layovers and intermediate flights, maybe 24-30 hours. It’s been a while since I’ve had any reason to do so, so I don’t recall precisely.
I live a couple hours from the nearest international airport. We’ll usually get a room down in Melbourne the night before, especially if the flight leaves in the morning. I’ll often get a room at the destination airport as well, just to get some sleep before driving on to the final destination wherever. For example, the next trip to the States will probably be Melbourne-Brisbane-Chicago, then pick up a car and drive to south-central Michigan. As the duration for the flights is a bit over twenty hours, including layover, I think you’ll agree a nap in Chicago would be a good idea…
Most of these trips have been coach; business is just too expensive for the long leg. I’ve only once taken one leg from US to Aus in business, using points. Coach is bearable, but I agree business is much better.

61

Back in my oilfield days, I made a bunch of trips in the 10-12 hour range. Longest non-stop that I recall was Amsterdam - Johannesburg on KLM, about 11 hours. That was one of the extremely rare times I got bumped up to Biz class, so that was a score.

Longest with stops was Houston-Frankfurt-Dubai-Abu Dhabi, on Lufthansa in coach; 18 hours in the air plus about four on the ground. I was barely functional on arrival.

Most tortuous was Paris-Luanda, on TAAG Angolan’s one ancient 707. Scheduled for about nine hours, the plane had a mechanical fault somewhere over north Africa that somehow required backtracking all the way to Lisbon, arriving in the middle of the night. We sat under armed guard in the deserted terminal for about three hours, then were bundled aboard and successfully attained our destination late that afternoon. So roughly fifteen hours in the air. Oh, and no meal service the entire time, neither on the plane or during our forced layover.

Oh, well, better than a month on a heaving wooden sailing ship, I guess.