23 In-Flight Essentials (MY MUST-HAVE for Long Haul Flights)

Whether you are a seasoned traveler or new to the game, flying and passing through airports might not be your cup of tea, as it is for me. Because I live on Oahu, anytime I fly internationally, it's going to be a long-haul flight, costing me anywhere from two to three days in transit time. In fact, my upcoming trip to Pakistan, where I will be leading my first group adventure, is going to cost me 50 hours of in-transit time. I'll be passing through four airports, and I will have one 15-hour flight. That's a long time to be on a plane. This is average. Today, I wanted to share my favorite in-flight essentials for a long-haul flight that's going to help keep you comfortable and stress-free when you are on a plane or in transit for as long as I am. Today, I want to share with you 23 of my favorite in-flight essentials that's going to keep you comfortable and stress-free on a long-haul flight. So sit back, relax, and enjoy these essential tips and hacks for your next trip. 23 in-flight essentials for a long-haul flight. Here we go. You have to keep in mind that these are items that I use on a fairly regular basis. I mean, some of it's on a rolling basis because I'm always sculpting for my trip. I don't like packing. I love trying to refine my packing style. The more I travel, the more situations I come across that test me. Okay, I'm gonna bring up my little goodie bag here. FYI, if you are interested in any of the items I talk about, check my description box. I also have a linked blog post where I cover it all. In fact, that blog post came out earlier than this video, but because the response has been so good about the blog post, I thought I'd go ahead and show you inside some of the items I use. Number one, hidden money belts or pouches. Because I'm in transit, there's a lot of important documents and money that I want to keep secure and safe while I'm going through these different airports. I used to use this money belt a lot. You can see it's just already falling apart. Actually, it's a work in progress because I'm still packing for Pakistan, and so I want to figure out what I'm going to take with me. What I will do is I'll have one of these stashed in one of my hidden pockets in my bag. However, this is not perfect. I upgraded to getting this, the Max Top Fanny Pack. Some people like to call it a bum bag. Initially, I bought it to jog my dog, Tinker, where I'll keep her treats. I can also use this as kind of like an in-flight essentials bag. I'll usually put like my vlogging camera, my cell phone, a pen, any little bits that I might need, my passport. I will use this for sightseeing as well. However, because I'm always sculpting, the one thing that I didn't like about this is that I didn't know where to put this because when I'm juggling so many things, I end up wanting to crunch this in here in a rush. I'm like a rushing person. I'm not only carrying one ticket on a long haul flight. I'm usually carrying like three or four of them, and sometimes they're paper thin. I should be upgrading to electronic tickets, but I like the physical tickets. Recently, I got this Hero Neck Wallet. This has been handy because I can easily strap it around my neck. I can adjust the length. You've got this pocket, this pocket, this top pocket right here, as well as a little side pocket here, so I can easily drop my cell phone, my passport, carry pens in here for when I have to fill out immigration forms. It has this secret back pocket right here where I can put my flight tickets. Next is my Mantis Sleep Mask. It's a light blocking mask. You can see these cups right here. They kind of secure around your eyes. They're very soft and comfy and snuggly, and I feel like it hits the pressure points around my eyes to kind of give me a deeper relaxation. Because the flight is so dry, it dries my eyes, and when my eyes get dry, then I feel more tired. I feel like it gives me a deeper sleep because it locks in some of the moisture around my eyes. I have a multi-port plug because I'm always charging a lot of things from my cell phone to my camera batteries. So this has two USB-C charging ports, as well as two USB charging ports, and these come in handy not only at the airport, but also on the plane. Some flights do have plug outlets that you can plug into, and in those cases, I love using these. Very handy, very small, and expensive. I always like to take at least one packing cube with me. Why? Because I don't like to dump everything in one bag and be hunting around for my cables and stuff like that. I always put my scarf in here, as well as my jacket. All the clothing items, I put in here just to compartmentalize things so that when I'm in a rush, I just can grab the things that I need. Usually, the things that I need happen to be this little bag here of batteries and cable chargers and stuff like that. This is the next thing that I wanted to share. This mesh pouch. These mesh pouches have come in so handy for me because they can pack the small items in here. Camera batteries right here, cables, more batteries, my remote thingy, and actually this one goes inside here too. So this is my electronics bag. Next up, I have what I like to call my bum bag or my cosmetic slash toiletry kit bag, and this is strictly for in-flight use. I have my own toiletry kit in my carry-on with more stuff, but this is just for hygiene, for makeup purposes. I want to refresh myself because I'm taking an overnight plane or I'm passing through in the wee hours of the morning. I want to make sure that I have all the essentials that I'm going to need, and I want it to be leak-proof too. Sometimes, I'll be a little nicer and I'll take this little pencil case and I'll put that stuff in it along with some pencils and anything else that I want to put in here. Let me know if you want to see some of my toiletry kits or my first aid kits. Tote bags. I always carry a tote bag with me, and for the longest time, I had this fold-up tote bag that I absolutely loved and I could not remember the brand name of it to buy a new one. This is easy to pack up. It's very easy to pack up like this, but unfortunately, the insides are starting to crumble after almost two decades of use. At the very last minute, when I board the plane and I get to my seat, I'll pop it out and I'll put all my junks in it so that I can put it under my seat and have access to all my junks, but I found this on Amazon. Not the most perfect solution, but still fairly perfect or good enough for my causes. Now, this is a fold-up bag. It's a little thicker than I'd like, but the bag opens like this, first of all. It's a very spacious compartment. The magic part, all the contents that I had in are falling out. That expands. This has been handy for me coming home when I have bought souvenirs. You can obviously put it on your carry-on rest or luggage rest right here. There's another pocket here, so sometimes I like to tuck away. Tuck things. I don't know. Tuck stuff that I need. Where would I be without my external charging devices? Lipstick charger. This is for the quick hits to my cell phone. This is my Anker pop socket charging battery. I showed you this in my other video about upgrading my travel tech. This is super handy. Check it out. It's a game-changer. The only thing that I don't like is that it can warm up pretty quickly, so if you are in a hot environment or a hot country during summer or whatever, monsoon season, this can overheat your mobile phone and your mobile phone will be like, I'm sorry, we need to cool down right now. We can't charge anymore or we can't do anything anymore. This is something that I'm taking with me constantly because it's so handy and useful and I can easily just slap it on and charge. This brick, this is like a 10,000 mah Anker external battery and it's a little on the heavier side. This can charge a lot. It's got two USB ports right here, allowing me to charge two devices. This is for when I can't find any charging ports anywhere in the airport or on the flight, so this helps keep me juiced up and it's super handy if you are taking a long road trip somewhere and you don't have any means to charge or if you're in a place that has like blackouts and the power goes down. Biodegradable baby wipes. I think this is pretty self-explanatory. I'll be passing through different airports over the course of like 50 hours or two to three days. I'm gonna want to take like a mini bath and refresh myself in all the places that, you know, need to be refreshed. I like that it's biodegradable because when I travel to some of the developing countries that I go to, it's biodegradable but it doesn't harm the environment or add to the problems of the environment. I have my portable air purifier. Even though we're easing off of COVID, I still have one of these that I carry on the plane with me and I strap it around my neck just so that I have like purified air in my my little perimeter. Sometimes I'll turn up, I'll reach up and turn on the fan to shoot the air down that kind of like then I don't need this as much because it's kind of like creating this nice windshield around me. However, it gets really cold so I like to defer to this too. I usually put it in my COVID kit and yes, I have a COVID kit with all the essential items that I need. As well as like a little COVID home kit for testing. In the case my flight gets delayed or if I check my baggage, if I check my baggage and it gets lost, then I always want to have a backup. So I'll take a shirt like this. This one is my Unbound Merino wool shirt and I have been falling in love with this shirt and the Unbound Merino products. I even have a travel dress and initially this was like a sponsored item. They wanted me to test drive it and try it out. I fell in love with it and so now I'm ordering another shirt for my upcoming trip. One, it's comfortable. It's classy looking. The fabric is so fine and because it's Merino wool, it doesn't retain odor and you don't need to wash it for a long time. So this is perfect because there are times that when I'm sitting in the plane, my arms are pressed against my body because I'm trying to conserve space and sometimes I get those pity odors underneath my armpits and I don't like that because then it gets into my clothes. With this, it doesn't. That doesn't happen. So this doesn't carry a smell. It doesn't retain any body odor smells and that's why I love it. It also is nice because it regulates the heat in my body. So if I'm in a hot environment, it doesn't add to my heat. It just kind of like is cooling. If I'm in a cool environment, it kind of still keeps me warm. So it's really body regulating. I can't recommend it more. In terms of flip flops, there are two brands that I like wearing. One is my own girl traveler flip flops because they are super comfortable and I don't have them with me right now because they are so worn. I use them like for everything. Then the other one are my Havianas. They're like the slim flip flops because I want something that's going to be kind of lightweight also. I don't want to be carrying chunky things with me that are going to expand my travel case or my carry-on case. Next up is my pashmina scarf. This is like an in-flight essential and I don't have it with me. I apologize. It's lost right now in all my stuff because I've been going through my packing list for Pakistan and I don't know where I put that. But I'll need to find it before I go because I never travel without it. It's essential because it's multi-purpose and I know I've done a reel and a short about it. Maybe that was my sarong. But I use them very similarly. You can use it as a shawl, as a scarf, as a blanket, as a towel. One thing I don't like being is cold and sometimes flights don't offer blankets. Sometimes you have a layover in an airport and it's like in the wee hours of the morning and it's super cold. So that's super handy because it's been kind of like my travel blanket as well as a scarf and a shawl. It's just multi-purpose. So I take it with me on every trip whether I'm going to a hot destination or cold one because I know at some point I'm going to use it. It's surprising to me that some people still don't know about trip insurance and that they can claim or get money back. Typically I have two insurance. I double duty on my insurance. One, I will always purchase my flight using my travel rewards card and that rewards card generally has like free trip insurance. A very basic one, it will cover things like you know car rental or cancellations, delays, lost baggage. But if I'm traveling to a different like a destination that's a little bit more adventurous then I will want to doubly insure myself with World Nomads because they handle more adventure destinations, adventure activities. And this is like the when it comes to activities this is where you actually want to see if your trip insurance covers it because a lot of them don't. Sometimes I don't know how adventurous I'm going to be until I get to that destination. Like Thailand is one of those examples where I didn't think I was very adventurous but then when I went there I took a scuba diving class. You know I went caving. I wanted to rent a motorbike and all of these things are not covered under a trip plan, a basic trip plan. They are covered with more extensive coverage and that's where I defer to World Nomads. I also like to protect my gear when I'm traveling to more adventurous destinations. Like I want to protect it from theft, from getting lost or stolen as well as damaged. People who want to be able to pick and choose according to their budget and according to their personal needs what they need coverage there is Travelmaster insurance which is a tool I will link down below. It's already on my blog post as well. I always have to have snacks with me and the best ones that I like taking are like Japanese crackers simply because they're lightweight. They're not greasy or oily and they kind of they kind of satiate my needs until I get to places. Next item is I always bring a water bottle with me, a reusable water bottle. I discovered these Pathwater reusable flasks and it's it's it's not sponsored I promise. Recently I found this water brand Pathwater to have like really cool reusable aluminum flasks that I can take with me. They cost roughly around three to five dollars which is kind of expensive for water. Not as expensive as water in the airport but what I like. This one has a wide lip. All I do is put a little bit of soap water in there and I just kind of like jiggle it and it's good to go. Also if I lose it I will not feel like I've lost a limb because I know I can easily go back to the supermarket and buy a new one. In the past there have been times I needed a pen on me and I couldn't find one and I had to like rifle through my bag but this little miniature key pen is good because one I can tag it on anything and two a pen on the side, touch pointer on another. I don't really use the touch pointer but the pen comes in handy. It's super small and compact. It's come in handy for when I want to obviously when I have to fill out an immigration form or I want to write a bag tag, a luggage tag. When they say okay immigration form time and you're just like oh man and you have to ask the your neighbor if they have a pen and it's kind of like uncomfortable. Usually the neighbors are cool but still I like to come prepared and have my own pen with me. This is by side by side gear and this one was something that I know I've been unconsciously using a lot over and over and over. It's super handy. It comes in a pack so you're not just buying one. It's handy to have. Next one is something that's surprising to a lot of people. No one ever thinks about it is body mints. Whenever I'm trying to film that's when things don't want to work. So these are body mints. They're like chlorophyll tablets is what they are. When I'm traveling I obviously don't have a shower with me. Baby wipes are okay. I've got my merino wool also to keep like odor at bay but these are also good because they are kind of like a internal deodorant. So I'll usually take one or two tablets to kind of keep me fresh inside so that my body doesn't exude a perfume that is uncomfortable to me and my neighbors because we are situated so tightly together. I buy this brand a lot however they're not always the cheapest and I found another brand online Nature's Way that I like just as well. Another interesting trivia thing that I did not know as I've been buying this for years is that chlorophyll tablets are supposed to help reduce altitude sickness. So I will be taking this with me to Pakistan as we go up into the higher altitudes where AMS or altitude sickness becomes a little bit more of a concern. I always love to pack extra undies. I will pack at least two. One because flight might get delayed right in you know maybe you have a period leakage you're gonna need if you're a woman you're gonna need extra undies. I usually like to get like a Hanes no odor microfiber brand that's that's you know like seamless bikini but I like the microfiber brand because it does help reduce odors because they're smart they're good value and they're they're comfortable they're breathable. I'm not like the thing I like to take is a fold-up jacket. Usually I like to buy the ones at Uniqlo because they're super lightweight. These aren't waterproof by any means. They say like they're water resistant but basically if you're in a downpour it'll just like flood right through the jacket. However I like them because they're they kind of trap in heat very well so they're lightweight enough to pack when you're going on when you're taking it on in flight. They keep me warm but also they're very easy to pack and fold up and they don't take much space. They're not as compact as this one. This is another Uniqlo. You'll probably see me using this a lot more because I like the long length. This is especially good for when I'm spending a night in an airport for several hours or I'm sleeping in the airport. This comes in handy because it covers me like more of my body. If you are a purse person and there have been times that I have I was a purse person in the past there are times I will pack a purse. Usually within flight I don't but I wanted to give you folks an option because there have been good purses that I or or little anti-theft travel purses that I've used. One I do like you can see I've got a little miniature side-by-side gear pen here too. I do like Bagelini. This one this travel purse I use actually mostly for on a daily basis because it has like all these zipper pockets as well as this secret pocket in the back and compartments in here. This is one of those like minimal purses that just kind of like go around me in a sling form. Bagelini is great because they have like all these multiple pockets. More complexity for pickpockets to to have to deal with. Another anti-theft travel purse which I used to really like in the past and I still like it. I mostly will use it for like um camera crew jobs and my dad has kind of adopted my old one. So you kind of took it apart but it's these Ameribag little pouches or slings. You can kind of sling it over you or behind you. It kind of works like this. This is a similar principle but I like it because it's very handy to carry around like this. Just imagine that with this this. The Ameribags are beautiful because they are a lot more spacious than it seems. Before I had a camera bag I used this as my camera bag. I think to Morocco where I put like a little camcorder in here. You can see there's a lot of organizer pockets in here right along the the spine. You've got you know like organized pockets on the side. You've got pen holders. Then you've got like this little pocket here in the front. Oh yeah stick your phone in here. There's a side pocket here where you can you have like this little flap. Sorry everything's black so you can't really see as much of the detail. You've got this pocket on the side here with the velcro as well as the zipper pocket here. So if you are someone who loves organizer pockets this is going to be your heaven. It can expand. You can even put your your sweater or jacket. So these are two different types of styles. This is a little more fashionable a little more lightweight. This one you can easily pack a lot of stuff into it and sometimes the pockets get to be so much that you you can get confused where you put your things. But they both are good starter anti-theft purses that you can use. I forgot something. The last thing that I always take with me and this is kind of like unconsciously I use it a lot is like my little pill box. I usually take like a few of these Altoid pins up in here. Right now I have my allergy pills in here but when I start prepping my bag I will put like the body mints in here and any kind of vitamins that I know I want to take while I am in transit to keep my energy level a little bit more balanced. So these are super handy to have if you like Altoids or not. These tins are worthwhile. I have a few of them that I stash in different bags just so that I'm always digging in and grabbing it especially for me because I have a dust allergy and sometimes I can get like excessive coughing. I always need to have like my allergy pills in. I always have them. So small so insequential but it works in in such a huge way for me. I don't like packing. I like figuring out how to minimize my packing and choose smart items that can help do double duty. Let me know what you think about this video down below. What you might add to this list as well as check out some of the blog posts that I have linked down below. They're super handy. I'm sure there are things that you haven't thought of and I've already experienced. If there's anything you want me to cover in terms of diving into my toiletry bag or my first aid kit or even my carry-on definitely let me know and I'd be happy to share that with you. Okay until then travel safe smart and fun. Don't forget to like this video. May the GRRR be with you.