MUST-HAVE FLIGHT ESSENTIALS: How to Survive a Long Flight in Comfort (from an Anxious Flyer)

Unlike most of the videos that you're going to see about what to pack for a long flight, I don't like flying very much. In fact, I have or at least have had severe flight anxiety. Now, I've really worked on this. And in fact, over the last year, I have taken 14 flights. Now, that did include, I think it was five or six connecting flights. But these are the things that I pack for a flight to be more comfortable, to be more organized. And I'm also going to share with you some tips and tricks and even things that I do that might help you out if you get a little bit of nervousness about flying as well. Hi there, I'm Elana from the website LifeWellCruise.com. Welcome or welcome back to my channel. Now, this video is quite different for me because most of my videos are usually about cruising. But as cruise travelers, we often do to our destination. So whether you are cruising or not, I think that this video is going to be helpful. Now, by the way, all of the flights that we take have been in economy. So these are also going to be tips to kind of help you survive and be more comfortable. Now, before I get started, I did want to mention that if you like this video, if you find it helpful, informative, or enjoyable in any way, then please do give this video a big thumbs up. I really do appreciate it. And please subscribe to the channel if you haven't done so already. Let's get started. Number one. So before we even get to being at the airport, the thing that I do to really help me to feel more prepared, more organized for my flight is I book and pay for my seats in advance. Now, I know this is not advice that you're going to hear from everyone. It does cost a little bit more. But honestly, the fact that I know where my seat is that I can prepare in advance, this does make me feel that little bit more in control. And it does actually help. I have my passport in a holder. Now I know not everybody does this. But I love this passport holder wallet for a couple of reasons. So firstly, obviously, I can keep my passport here. But what I do here is I can put my boarding passes right here, if they are printed out, I can have documents inside here, everything in its place. And oftentimes, I'm traveling somewhere where I need another currency. So I can keep like extra money that I have all in here. And what I like is the fact that it is a little handle. So it's a wristlet. I keep this on me. So from the time that I arrive at the airport, this is in my personal bag. But when I need to show my passport going through security anywhere I need to be, I have it in here. And I just feel more comfortable that when I need it, I have this on me. Now I do also have this passport folder, I like it, this is pretty new. And this has space for an air tag, which I think is pretty smart. So this is an alternative as well. And by the way, all of the items that I'll show you are mentioned in this video, I am going to leave them all linked down below in the description of this video in case you did want to check them out. I bring a well packed personal bag. Now this is a new bag. It's by the brand Nomad Lane. I absolutely love this bag. I'll show it to you a little bit later. This video, by the way, is not sponsored. But I brought that one on my couple of last recent trips, it was really game changing because of the organizational system in there. But otherwise, I was bringing this longchamp before for a little while. In any case, I did want to show you what I do because I like the organization in a bag. So if you have a bag, something like this, or even just a coat is I have this little organization inserts. And it's just like that. So it's not expensive. But at least this way you have little pockets and places that you can put things just to keep everything more organized on your flight. Now I don't usually fly carry on only but I do bring all of my essentials in a carry on piece of luggage that rolls well through the airport and I do find that that is something very helpful. Now I make sure that it really does have my must have. So if I had to be a day or even two without my checked luggage that I still have everything I need. It does make me feel less anxious. Now don't worry, I'm going to share with you the flight essentials that I do pack and the things that I put like in my personal bag and carry on that you might want to pack as well. But something that I do is I bring well I was bringing an iPad. The last time that I flew, I actually did this just on my phone. But I do think it's a really good idea plan in advance and download some of your favorite movies or if you're somebody who likes listening to podcasts. Something that I found and I don't know if I mentioned it earlier but I did go to therapy for my flight anxiety. So a lot of these things are things that I discussed with the therapist and we came up with some techniques to really help. So basically to be distracted on the plane was something that I really enjoy. So what I do it's going to sound a little bit corny but on my iPad or on my phone, I go to Netflix, I download a series in advance. So something that I can watch one, then the next episode, then the next episode and I download things that nobody else in my family really wants to watch. So it was Emily in Paris at one time. I like that show. It was Selling Sunset. Maybe it's Real Housewives. Maybe it's Below Deck. Maybe it's Love is Blind. Yes, I have watched all of these shows on a plane. So you do you but I really did find that while I'm flying especially that I am using noise canceling headphones, I sort of tune out everything else around me and I actually even look forward to the next episode and it does help time to go faster while I'm away. Now I have to show you the coolest thing to watch videos or to watch anything on your phone. So this is a phone holder and this is magnetic. It attaches right to your phone. I wasn't sure if it would work with my case but I have a clear plastic case and it did work with it and then you just sort of put that right on to the tray or somewhere else. You could even use it at home. This angles and this way you don't have to hold the phone in your hand or look down or look up. You can get it at exactly the angle that you want. Now I should mention by the way that I have used the other plastic holder and it just didn't work as well as this one and I'm always trying out different products so that's why I like this so much but I did buy something else that I thought was pretty cool. It gets amazing reviews so this is an alternative. This is like flat like this and then you just bend it into the shape that you need to put your phone or your iPad anything else so I think this is pretty cool and it's super lightweight. It doesn't take up any room so this is a nice alternative as well. So keeping on with electronics for a couple of minutes, I bought this to try on my last flight. I was pretty excited about it but don't you think I was on a flight where they didn't have a tv screen so I could not use it but this is something it's basically a bluetooth adapter so that you can watch the in-flight movie with your own airpods. Now I bring these airpods because they're noise cancelling and they're really so good. It helps me to actually not hear those kind of sounds in a plane like you know sometimes you'll hear buzzes or creaks or different things even sometimes beeps. I start to wonder what is that beep? What is that beep? So having the noise cancelling earphones that I keep in my ears almost the entire flight does actually help. Now by the way while I really like these airpods you can also get the like noise cancelling headphones that are the bigger headphones. Some people find that more comfortable than putting these in your ears. I've noticed actually I think it must be that 70% of the people actually have like the ones that go over the ears. So I do have a pair they are Sony they're a very good quality for the price and I will leave those links down below in case you are interested. Now sticking with electronics this is my new electronics bag. I did have another one before but it was a little bit longer and bigger so I think that this one is more practical and because it has I'm going to show you two sides like you've got this side here and then you've got another side again it just really helps to stay organized especially with things like chargers wires while you're traveling. Now I do have a few portable chargers I bring to me I think it's the worst thing to actually be traveling and not have a charged phone and I don't like to charge my phones like at the airport directly into any of those USB hubs so I'll show you my favorite ones. This one is pretty cool because it has these little cables attached so this is one of my practical ones. Now the one that works the best I have just had this for years is this one it is by the brand Inui and it is the most powerful fastest charging one. So I keep it in my purse like all the time or my handbag carry-on bag whatever and what I do is I just keep my wire attached and this charger by the way can charge two phones on 100% charge from this very very quickly. Now my other favorite charger just for practicality because this plugs right into the bottom of your phone is this one right here I think it's called an iWalk and I actually have this sort of charging station where four of these can fit so they're pretty practical most of the time when we're traveling we're two or three people so we really do need chargers so this helps. What to wear on a flight? Now I want to dress comfortably for my flight and oftentimes that is going to include leggings. I have this black kind of cardigan that is very soft that I often bring for my flights because it does also keep me warm you know how oftentimes on a flight it can get very cool so I bring that but something else is if you don't have like a blanket during your flight and oftentimes you don't you may want to bring something like this this is the Eversnug I actually just bought it to see and I did open it before this is like the coziest blanket so this is something that you might want to bring and it also is by the way like a pillow if you want to use it and it does go right over your luggage with like this luggage handle sleeve so that's pretty convenient as well and it does have this little hook so really good but something that we discussed with my therapist is the fact that just putting something over you wrapping yourself up like with a blanket or a big sweater or a big shawl that that helps you feel more comfortable more contained so that is why I do it. Now when it comes to shoes I made this mistake before by the way I wore some very cute running shoes I really liked them but they were like designer and they were not that comfortable for the long flight so I wouldn't do that again just wear comfortable running shoes that's the most important thing wear a pair of socks and even consider bringing an extra pair of socks if you want to really keep your feet warm now I have a friend and she travels with a pair of like fold-up cozy slippers so she can take off her shoes and then put her slippers on during the flight and I think that is a really good idea. Now the other thing and I really only use these for those long haul flights like if we are going overseas is compression socks honestly I'd rather wear compression socks on the flight and not end up having super swollen legs and ankles when I land so I do think that these are pretty convenient and worth it. Now speaking of going overseas or abroad it's a good idea even though this is not a flight essential but just to make sure that you do an international travel adapter this is the one that I've been using it works really really well and also it's a good idea depending on where you're traveling to consider what you can do just kind of to prevent any sort of pickpocketing any sort of theft so you might want to bring a money belt that stays really under your clothing and I would say in particular if you're traveling solo you still want to even just make sure that you're keeping things like your passport your money you want to keep that on you you don't want to leave that like in your carry-on bag or even your personal bag under your seat if you go to the bathroom or anything so just something to think about. Now the alternative to a money belt I have found is really having like a cross body bag so it could be any kind you like and by the way this fits right in here so I can bring like a cross body bag or my husband can bring a cross body bag and it can even go into my personal bag and then be taken out on the plane later and wrapped around your waist or just kept on the seat while you're flying because it's a good idea this way you have everything right there and this one I really like because of all of the different pouches and sort of organization so really really good even for everyday use. Earplugs or airplane pressure earplugs now my husband Frank really gets locked ears when he flies and this has really improved since he started to use these airplane pressure earplugs now he does also take since viewers have recommended it he does also take like a cold and sinus medication about an hour before the flight like a non-drowsy one like Advil cold and sinus because that seems to help as well but this way his ears he says they're 90% better than the way that they used to be. Medication now you want to make sure that you have your prescription and your over-the-counter medication on you now prescription medication is even more important because if something happens it's in your checked luggage and that luggage is lost it can be a real medical problem however even over-the-counter medication like Tylenol Advil other things that you might need can really make a difference even Tums so I have a little organizer with all of my different items that I might need from aspirin to Tums to even I bring a little bit of Bonine in it which is a motion sickness medication now I use this if needed on a cruise I think it really helps but if you prefer Dramamine or something else that's okay too but if you do think that maybe you might get a little bit of motion sickness it's a really good idea to have a little bit of this in your clutch bag. My liquid bag now I probably should have mentioned this a little bit earlier but I love these bags I actually have a couple of them I love these bags that are like CSA style see-through clear bags not only to put all of my liquids for when I'm flying but I just think they're just the right size to keep organized even for makeup etc so I really like them but don't forget to bring your disinfectant to be able to use some a travel pillow now I have to admit I don't always bring a travel pillow when we are flying but I did regret not bringing it when we were traveling to Europe because that is a time that I actually really wanted to sleep and it wasn't the most comfortable to be honest so this travel pillow I just think it's been the most comfortable for me this is moldable so this is pretty cool so you could actually like use it however you like and even like if you need to lean a different way one of the things that I like doing is actually like leaning up against let's say I'm up against a window and I can lean it that way it just gives you more flexibility and you can even like share it between two people so it just has a little bit more comfort sort of almost built in and it does kind of attach like this so you can still attach it to your luggage very easily now it's a good idea to bring like a little personal care bag now in my case this is actually part of a hanging toiletry bag it's pretty cool because it's see-through plastic and this velcro actually attaches to the whole toiletry bag and it can hang up in your bathroom but I like the fact that these pouches actually undo so I can take just one pouch put it in my personal bag or carry on etc so deodorant you know like a toothbrush a little miniature toothpaste it's a good idea whether you want to use it on the flight or maybe when you land in between flights at the airport now some other things to pack when you're on an airplane is hand moisturizer now something that I find is every time I fly my hands get really dry so it helps just to feel more comfortable also lip gloss or lip balm maybe even a facial moisturizer sometimes I bring makeup remover wipes just to refresh and also something that I do bring and this is obviously not something for everybody but I do have like a little makeup bag I just bring that with me because especially if I am taking a longer flight that I may not have started with makeup I might want to put a little bit of I like this one because um yeah so it's got like three different colors of you know led light and it's not only good for the airplane it's really good when you do travel and you need a mirror maybe in a hotel room or even on a cruise ship I've been in some cabins that have really yellow light and you do want it I did buy this one I wanted to try it out because I know it's becoming very popular so let me know please if you tried it but basically this one the pretty cool thing is it's got like a sleep mask attached but the really cool thing is you've got these straps and they're going to go on the headrest behind you so if there's somebody who likes to sleep with your head up and the problem for you is that your head kind of leans down and you know your neck goes down and it's really uncomfortable for the neck then I think that you might find this one very helpful to be honest I have not tried it yet so let me know either way what you think down in the comments below now I did want to share a little bit of a tip or even a hack because I like to be able to use things while I'm flying also for when I'm traveling or cruising so instead of bringing a blanket something else you can do is bring a scarf and you know this is not new right people have been doing this for a long time but you can cover your shoulders and in my case because we cruise I like to bring a scarf because I could wear it when we're going to the theater or maybe we are going to the restaurant and sometimes it's cool in the evening but viewers have shared with me a little tip or a hack and this is the sand free towel that actually rolls up really really small but if you like to bring a sand free towel when you are traveling because it is lightweight it dries quickly you can use this and instead of using a scarf to cover your shoulders or to wear as a blanket you can use this instead now I have to say it is not comfy and cozy the way the ever snug is it's not going to do that but it is going to be a light covering and if that's all you need that's going to be perfect and it is going to do double duty now I'm going to get back to the essentials and what I pack in just a moment but I did want to share with you why I bring coffee onto a flight and this really does help me it was probably one of the biggest things that helped me with my flight anxiety so I bring coffee on a plane because I like the taste and I like the smell so my therapist suggested that we do pick something like that so what I do it's part of my ritual now when I fly is I go pick up about a half an hour before our boarding time I go and pick up a cup of coffee at Starbucks or somewhere else I bring it on the plane you know I drink it a little bit I like coffee and I hold that coffee now I have to say the first few flights I would hold that cup of coffee the entire flight I wouldn't even let it go it was a little bit of an anger for me just like some comfort but every time I would feel fearful worried nervous I would just like smell that coffee and it would put me at ease and also I drink the coffee now I have to say it about an hour into the flight I the coffee's cold and I do throw it out when you know the flight attendants pass with the garbage but that was really super helpful for me if you're somebody with any amount of flight anxiety or if you've ever dealt with this please also share your tips down below because I know that that is going to help other people bringing water on a flight so we usually bring like a refillable water bottle you can pick up a water bottle if you want in the airport or just refill it right there and I bring this when I travel anyway but the other one is this collapsible one so this is really cool and if you're trying to like pack light and you're going somewhere where you don't want to have like a lot of bulky items this is really super cool it can fold up flat when you are finished and I have to show you this it's a stanley I actually bought it because I plan to give it as a gift to somebody this upcoming holiday season along with a couple of other things but I was thinking I have seen people with Stanley cups at the airport this is 30 ounce do we do Stanley for a flight yes or no please let me know down in the comments below now another airport essential and honestly I do not think that this is a must-have but it's definitely a nice to have so it is a sort of hand-free drink holder you can put this right over your luggage handle so like it's like a sleeve you've got a zippered pocket here very very handy and especially if you do have connecting flights or you just have any reason that you want to be hands-free this is very convenient a foot hammock now I have to say I'm a little bit old school so I was like skeptical about this but I have to say if you're flying like in economy in particular oh my goodness the foot room the leg room there just isn't much especially for taller people even for me I am 5'2 and it is squishy so for a long flight very handy I have seen people using this more and more in economy and honestly a lot of my viewers said they use this and the fact that it packs up really light I didn't expect it to be so lightweight and really I do think it could be a convenient item to have now if you're wondering what carry-on bags I use I have a few different ones I will show you the one that I've been using more recently but I love this one this remains one of my favorites it's just this nautical stripe very very good quality for the price available on Amazon by the way and it does have like the zippered compartment that you can put your shoes or what I like to do instead of shoes is I put a packing tube with an additional outfit or two so always I make sure that I have like one pair of jeans a t-shirt maybe even a sundress if we're going somewhere warm maybe even a pair of sandals and always two pairs of underwear two pairs of socks just in case oh and by the way I have a little hat clip right over here so you can put your sun hat right on that and then this way you don't have to worry about it packing up in your suitcase and getting flat now the newer carry-on bag that I have been using I'm loving it is Nomad Lane it's the bento bag and this video is not sponsored by Nomad Lane I have worked with them before and I do have a discount code if you are interested for 10% off but I absolutely love it it actually does sort of separate midway it's got a zipper so it makes it a clamshell style so for a carry-on bag it actually is more of a piece of luggage but it's still a personal bag size and it fits so these days this is really my perfect bag now I'll share a few more flight essentials and then for people that are interested I'm going to share a few more things that I've done really to help with my flight anxiety and some tips and tricks that you might be able to use oh and by the way there is one thing that I don't do anymore that is going to sound very counter-intuitive but I will explain why okay now for some things that people don't often talk about but they're small things but it's a good idea to bring them so I have a pouch that I have like full of candies throat drops etc and if you've ever found on a flight that your throat gets dry you're not alone so make sure that you bring that but I like to bring candies that actually taste good that I like so Werther's for instance those caramels or like maple syrup candies I'm Canadian and those are really soothing by the way so if you find them at the airport even or anywhere do get them a pen honestly you have to travel with a pen you never know when you're going to need one so I even have probably four pens disinfectant for your hands and the other thing that I have been using again I used this during the pandemic and I forgot about it and I started again are these little soap sheets you know you never know you go to the bathroom at the airport or maybe a restaurant and honestly sometimes it happens the soap is not filled up so you want to have that as well and in a pinch you can wash your hands with your bottle of water outside and a soap sheet sleep mask now I have that from a flight on Air Transat where they gave that to us so I just kind of keep that it's fine it's practical but otherwise this one is a little bit better it actually does have the little pockets for your eyes so very comfortable but especially if you're on a long flight it is really helpful to have and something that I found is that during a longer flight that's like overseas they're going to shut the lights during the flight for a few hours so that's helpful but if you fly early morning oftentimes they don't shut the lights and if you woke up very early or even during the middle of the night you might need a couple of hours of sleep and the sleep mask really helps a digital travel luggage scale now I've gotten used to for my larger luggage that I'm pretty much under the weight allowance which is 50 pounds most of the time for where I've traveled so I'm okay but it has actually happened to us we were flying carry-on only to Europe and when we had a connection flight they weighed our carry-on bag and we were just over so this could be really convenient this way I could have like redistributed items before they weighed it I didn't have to pay for that luggage but it did mean that I couldn't keep my carry-on bags right in the cabin with me which I wasn't very happy about reading glasses and sunglasses and if you're wearing glasses regularly even consider bringing an extra pair just in case hair ties so I always bring that and I also bring you can see I like to have pouches for everything so I bring a few band-aids even some polysporin with me while I'm on a flight you just never know and I just like to have it for when I'm traveling now there's one more thing that I do want to show you that a lot of people have asked about but I did first want to share with you a few more things that I do for my flight anxiety that have really helped so I visualize so what I do is I get on the flight and honestly I get very very nervous I close my eyes and I visualize something good so maybe it's having an after all once we land at our vacation destination maybe it's seeing friends that we're going to see so I really just envision things going well the other thing I do is I tell myself a little bit of a mantra and basically I always felt like I'm a good road trip person that works for me so now I start to say I'm a good flyer I'm a good flyer and I don't necessarily say it just on a flight but I do try to kind of say it so that I tell myself this is who I am and my full goal with even the therapy for my flight anxiety was not only to be able to get through the flight because I was white knuckling it before but I was really avoiding flying and there's nothing wrong with taking medication if that's something that you do but I really wanted to try to see how could I do this because I fly really almost for a living we have a travel blog and a cruise blog and this is what we do so I didn't want to have so much anxiety every time I fly now the other thing I do is a little bit of a technique and it's that I count five different things and it's really sensory so what I will do especially if I'm getting nervous is I will pick five things to notice on the plane and count so I will start with something visual so for instance I'll look for five things that I see and I'll just describe it in my head and so oh I see a window that window is open I see a light that light is blinking I see a little piece of set of dirt on the floor something very simple maybe I see somebody with a red hat and I'll notice them by the time I count to five of those different things I'm going to be a little bit less nervous but then I can move on to what I hear so I might I might hear the flight attendant talk to somebody and I'll take a moment to listen all of those things when you count those things out it just engages your like sensory experience and somehow it does calm you down now I also normalize the experience and I get very nervous you might also get nervous during a flight now especially if there is turbulence what I do is I look around at other people and I'm still nervous but I look around and I see other people and if they're not freaking out I know that they probably have flown more than me and that this is something normal I watch the flight attendants nobody looks nervous and I try to just tell myself everything is okay this is a normal part of life now I'm going to show you that one other item and then I'm going to tell you the thing that I don't do that is going to seem counterintuitive but I will explain why okay now have you ever wondered should you use a luggage protector for your luggage your carry-on bag etc now I bought this quite a while ago and being honest I wasn't using it and I do use a level 8 luggage I absolutely love it it looks good but I really hadn't been using the luggage protector especially if we were flying carry-on only but we did end up having a piece of luggage that was checked and it did get banged up a little bit now it still looks good but I love my level 8 luggage by the way I do have a discount code for level 8 luggage nomad lane so I'll leave that down below in the description of the video in case you can use that but so what I have decided is I am going to be using luggage protector covers I think that really even though they're not super expensive it is an investment and I do really want them to continue looking good now I am going to leave all of the items that I did show you in this video I'm going to leave them all linked down below in the description of this video in case that can be helpful but I'd love to hear from you please let me know are there any flight essentials that I've missed that you really like bringing on a plane please let me know down in the comments below and let me know as well if you have dealt with flight anxiety if you are dealing with that even right now please share your stories any tips and tricks that you've learned please share in the comments below because I know that that section is gold for helping other people now if you did enjoy the video please do give it a big thumbs up I really do appreciate it and please subscribe to the channel if you haven't done so already happy flying and happy cruising