Long flight survival guide! Tips for taking international flights

If you're watching this video it's because you want to know how to survive a long-haul flight. I'm talking 9, 15, 17 hour flights like the one that I just did from San Francisco to Singapore back in economy. Shout out row 57. No one is thrilled about spending that much time on an airplane but don't worry I got you. I'm Annie, I'm a frequent traveler and I run the travel account Average Girl Does Cool Things. This video is the ultimate survival guide for long-haul flights. So let's get into it. But before we do be sure to hit that subscribe button for more travel inspo and how-to content. Now the way I see it we've got four main threats on a flight. We've got hunger and dehydration, comfort, boredom, and exhaustion. So I'm going to give you a whole bunch of tips to combat those four things but before we start with that we got to set ourselves up for success by picking the right seat. So obviously if you like to sleep and you're not going to get up a lot during the flight a window is probably your best option. If you're somebody who has to pee a lot or has like restless legs and wants to get up get on the aisle. Just do yourself a favor get on the aisle. And I guess if you're a masochist you could book the middle but like nobody wants a middle seat. Now a couple of pro tips for you when you're picking your seat and I'm talking specifically by the way to people who are in economy because if you're in business class you get your little like lie down pod lay flat seat you're sitting pretty just skip ahead. You don't need to worry about this part but if you are back in economy or even premium economy this bit is for you. Now typically when people book seats they're trying to book as far forward in the plane as they can that way they get off the plane earliest. So that means your most competition is going to be towards the front of the plane. In fact many airlines will even charge more money for you to sit in the forward seats. Now what does that mean for you? That means if you take a chance and book towards the back of the plane you've got a solid shot not 100 but a solid shot at getting a row with an open middle seat. So if you are going to be in economy anyways do yourself a favor and maybe try booking one of the rows in the back of the plane. Row 57. I ended up with an open middle seat between me and the aisle. Amazing. Another thing that I think not enough people do and this works for both long haul and short haul flights is they don't check the seat map. The airline apps will usually have a like a way for you to switch seats right and so when you go in to switch your seat you can see the the seat map of whatever's been filled. So everything that's filled everything that's open and you can still move your seat around in the days prior to departing. So do yourself a favor get in the habit of checking the seat map on the regular and moving your seat if you find that your row has filled up. You can even switch your seat leading right up to departure. You can go ask the gate agent to move you to another seat. In fact my flight from San Francisco to Singapore I went up to go check my documents with the gate agent and he actually said that they were trying to get a hold of me because they had a family that wanted to sit together and two of the family members were sitting in my row. So he asked if I'd be willing to move rows I'd have to move back which was not exciting but they'd still give me a window seat. I said sure no problem and I ended up with an open middle seat. I also had good luck with this on an Alaska Airlines flight coming home from Spokane once where I noticed on the seat map that the exit row was empty and since they're legally required to have an able-bodied person sitting in the exit row but they charge you to sit in an exit row I went up to the gate agent and just asked very politely if they needed an able-bodied person to sit in the exit row because I noticed it was empty and she happily moved me and didn't charge me. The key here is always to be very very nice because the gate agents have a lot of power. Be very nice to the gate agents always rule of thumb. Oh last tip okay last tip if you are traveling as part of a pair a couple I go with my mom whatever this is weird one but it I've heard it works book yourselves the middle and the aisle seats don't book aisle and middle or window and middle don't book the middle seat book yourselves the aisle and the window seat because there's a good shot that nobody's going to book this middle seat in between you and if they do you could probably politely ask them if they would switch with one of you and so you'd end up sitting next to each other anyway unless you don't want to but that's y'all's own business and lastly this tip is for my big spenders you've got a shot at purchasing an upgrade if you go up to the gate agent and ask politely see if there are any upgrades available and they'll let you know if there are and what that cost would be this sometimes works sometimes it doesn't again that flight I took to Singapore I went up and asked if there was an upgrade available there was but it was like $3,700 and I did not want to spend $3,700 on a one-way flight that's silly but I've been able to do this for like $500 on Qatar before so sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't the one caveat here is that when you are booking your economy class ticket be sure to read the fare rules and make sure that you are buying a class of ticket that will allow you to upgrade okay I purchased like a discount ticket for Delta once and somehow I ended up purchasing like a class of ticket where I couldn't upgrade to first class even though I was willing to pay to do so okay now that we've picked our seats let's move on to our four main threats we're going to start with hunger and dehydration okay this is my flight bag this is the North Face Vault Everyday Laptop Backpack I love this bag because it's super lightweight it fits under the seat really easily it's surprisingly roomy and it's got all sorts of little like attachments on here that I can throw a carabiner on to expand the capacity of this backpack so big fan of this backpack this is what I use for my flight bag this is going to be my survival kit for 17 hours on a flight in that bag I use these bags these are Aloha Collection bags they are splash proof and I will categorize these so you'll see as we go through this video but like I'll have one that's like a snack bag one that's a comfort bag one that's a bathroom bag but these just help me stay organized whenever I'm traveling for really long distances okay here are my biggest tips for managing hunger and dehydration first of all if you are traveling on a long international flight they're gonna feed you good news you'll probably get like two meals right you'll get a meal like not long after you board and then they'll give you like breakfast when you're getting close to the destination a few days in advance of departure you should get an email giving you the option to select your meals if you are picky or if you have restrictions this is a must must do okay they don't really have like options on the plane obviously so if there's something specific you need to avoid you need to let them know ahead of time tip number two here is to pack snacks and I highly highly highly highly highly recommend packing protein filled snacks okay you're gonna want candy I know I want to take candy with me too but candy does not help me balance my blood sugar and keep me happy and keep me from being hangry on a flight beef jerky does it's not as much fun but it's a lot better for you so protein filled snacks are a big must have now also on these international flights oftentimes they'll have snacks in the galley which is great so if you're in a pinch or you just want to go see what the deliciousness that they're offering might be feel free to like wander back there and check out they'll usually have like a little table or something set up in the back for you you can also always ask the flight attendants they'll usually be happy to like slip you something tip number three here is to bring or buy a water bottle so typically when I fly domestic I will take my own water bottle when I fly international I tend not to I tend to actually buy a plastic one at the airport and the reason I do this is because it's disposable and because I have had times where I took a water bottle with me I filled it up in the airport and then like at a lot of international airports you have to go back through security again and I ended up having to just like dump it all out I don't know I've just gotten in the habit of like if it's a long international flight I will buy a very large bottle of water that way I don't have to worry about like lugging it around with me everywhere I go the other reason I like the disposable water bottle is because of my next tip which is I bring electrolytes I use electrolytes and if I put electrolytes in my reusable bottle um then my reusable bottle is going to taste like electrolytes so that's why I like to get the like large the largest bottle that I can get of water at the airport buy it and also leads me to my fifth tip which is to start hydrating like two days before you get on this flight okay dehydration is one of those things that like dominoes you can't you can't like catch up okay once you're experiencing the effects of dehydration like you're too far behind already if you're thirsty you're already too far behind and flying is super super dehydrating so you want to go ahead and give yourself a head start maybe do some electrolytes the day before you fly and then keep it up lots and lots of water lots of electrolytes throughout your travels this also means my friends you got to limit the alcohol oh no people are going to hate this part I'm sorry it's true alcohol messes with your sleep it mixes with your uh with your hydration levels it makes you moody and grumpy and you know it also causes a safety hazard if there's ever an emergency on the plane and you're drunk that's a bad situation to be in personally I really try to avoid alcohol whenever I'm flying I might have like a drink but I never get hammered it's a terrible idea you're gonna be miserable and the people around you are gonna be miserable just don't do it just try to like avoid avoid the alcohol just it's okay you'll be fine you're going on vacation you'll be fine okay now that we've covered hunger and dehydration let's move on to my favorite one comfort okay this is where I have learned the most tips and tricks on comfort so the first thing you're going to want to do is pack a bathroom bag okay I will make one of these a bathroom bag this bag will go with me every time I go to the restroom so in that bag I'm going to put like a travel toothbrush and toothpaste I'm going to put some face and body wipes I'm going to put deodorant lotion like a light amount of skincare a lip balm and probably some like feminine products okay that way I'm not taking my entire bag with me every time I go to the bathroom it's just a quick grab easy to handle the second thing you're going to want to bring for comfort is a change of clothes I feel like I've learned this one also the hard way bring yourself at the bare minimum like change of underwear but I also recommend like bring a full outfit change like if you're going to be traveling if you're on like a super long flight right you're not just on that flight chances are you're also like a couple hours in the airport if you got a layover you got hours in the airport there and then you got another flight so you might be looking at like a day of travel and you don't want to be in the same clothes for an entire day that's just gross like you feel gross you start to smell it's not a good situation so I always bring a change of clothes also I tend to spill on myself so it's nice to have a clean shirt just trust me and with that change of underwear and for my ladies TMI but panty liners are like your best friend it's like changing a panty liner is like having a fresh pair of underwear just trust me it it's a weird little trick that I've learned that like I'm a fan of okay this is tip number four four yeah four um compression socks your new best friend these they're in my drawer right here these are just Dr. Scholl's compression socks these are from Amazon they are wonderful um I will put these on as soon as we take off and then I put my shoes back on which people think is insane but I loosen them up and I tuck the laces back into themselves wait I'm going to show you okay this is the shoe I usually travel with so I will like loosen these up and then I will take the laces and instead of tying the whole thing back on because I don't want to do that I will just go ahead and tuck the laces back in through the loops here and that way they're up off the floor and if I want to go to the restroom you guys know that the liquid on the floor in the restrooms is not all water right I don't I don't want these in that that's gross don't do that so anyway that's my trick for shoes and compression socks on the airplane okay next up you're gonna take noise cancelling headphones you can get a nice pair like the Bose headphones which I love and travel with everywhere they have an amazing charge like I wore them that entire flight and they never had to be charged which was amazing you could also use the airpods but they have to be like charged quite a bit and then there are other less expensive really nice options as well noise cancelling headphones are just like a must not only for like the obvious if you got screaming babies or chatty seatmates or whatever like obviously they're fantastic there but also I feel like just to generally protect your hearing because like plane noises are very loud and you just get that like in your ears so I'm a big fan noise cancelling headphones I just pop them on anytime I fly another thing I love when I fly is a paper face mask I scared the crap out of a Qatar Airways flight attendant once she came by I put I was in my little q suite right so the q suites are amazing because they have the little doors they're awesome I was in my little q suite I was getting ready to land so I put my my face mask on to like rehydrate and plump and she came by and she opened the door and she literally went I'm so sorry and she ran away so every time I put a face mask on on the plane it kind of makes me chuckle because I remember that so I love a paper face mask or you could use like the Sunday Fridays jet lag mask which I also love I'll throw a link to that in the description big fan of that because it's a mask that you don't have to wipe off but it's great at like rehydrating and plumping your skin again planes very drying so a little bit of skincare it's like feels like a little bit of luxury I'm a big fan and the last tip here for comfort make sure you get up walk around stretch every couple of hours your body's gonna like feel really stiff really sore so don't be afraid to like wander back into the galley area like stay out of the flight attendants way obviously but you can press up against the wall and like do a couple of squats like march in place get the blood flowing right this is gonna like help prevent blood clots along with those compression socks but really important to like get up stretch move keep your body from feeling absolutely terrible for that long long flight let's move on to boredom now the good news is on most of these long-haul flights they have really good entertainment systems so you'll often find great movies on there you can just lay there and catch up on whatever you want to watch I always recommend that you bring some downloaded movies with you so I like to just download them on apple on my ipad and then I've always got like the full harry potter collection with me just so I have something familiar and in case like I don't know the wi-fi is down or the entertainment system isn't working which can happen always recommend have a book on your ipad your tablet whatever maybe throw in a couple magazines again all the electronics go down I like to be prepared I always like to be prepared if you want to be productive you can bring a laptop I usually like to bring my laptop to do a little bit of editing but my favorite productivity tip combat boredom be productive and save yourself a world of trouble is to use some of this time to clean out your old photos on your phone because nothing will make you better than when you're out there like taking amazing pictures of your vacation and you get that little notification on your phone that your memory is full so this is a great time to go ahead and clean out those photos on your phone so movies reading a little bit of productivity quite honestly it's it's a long time to just be sitting still sleep will help you combat the boredom so we might as well just talk about exhaustion okay exhaustion this is a hard one because everybody's going to react to traveling differently but there are a few things that I've learned that help tremendously whenever I'm flying the first thing you want to do is like try to figure out what your sleep schedule is going to be so how do you like try to get on your destination's sleep schedule as soon as possible so I like to a couple weeks in advance I will use the like world clock function on my phone and I will add my destination to that time so I can start to understand like what the time difference is going to be so if I'm leaving San Francisco at 11 in the morning it's three o'clock in the morning in Singapore so I don't want to go to bed right away because then I'm going to be like sleeping through the morning in Singapore get what I'm saying you want to try to like push your sleep schedule onto the sleep schedule of your destination typically the airline will feed you like not long after you get on the plane and then they won't disturb you they'll dim the cabin lights they won't disturb you until close to arrival when they'll serve breakfast or whatever meal now you're probably wondering how the heck am I going to sleep on this flight especially I'm back in economy because again you business class people lucky ducks lay flat bed so nice so so nice here's how I did it okay and this this worked pretty well so what I did is I took the airplane blanket they give you a blanket they give you a small pillow take your airplane blanket wrap it up and then wedge it on your armrest okay this by the way I'm a window seat girl because I like to lean and sleep so use it as padding on your armrest because otherwise you're going to be like have this awkward gap between your side and the airplane seat so put your blanket here okay small pillow goes in your lumbar okay tip your seat all the way back by the way you're going to have to bring your seats up for meals so don't get comfy before you eat because they're going to come around they'll wake you up and make you put your seat up so wait until the meal has been served you're going to put your your lumbar support here blanket here turtle pillow the turtle pillow is basically like half a neck brace and I am obsessed okay this thing I have never been on a flight before and like that long of a flight gotten off the flight and been like oh my gosh my neck doesn't hurt my shoulders don't hurt I feel great and it's because of this thing this thing works like half a neck brace you put it here and then wrap it around your body yes I'll show you here in a second um and then you can just kind of lean up against yourself and you're super comfortable so hold please I'll show you this it goes like this and then it wraps around okay like so it looks so dumb like seriously it's not you're not going to impress anybody with your cute looks on this thing but it's so comfortable it worked so well for me big fan of the turtle pillow this plus noise cancelling headphones and my eye mask and then I put my feet up on my backpack which serves two purposes one it's a great foot rest to I don't know just on the off chance that somebody wants to like try and steal something it happens I like to keep all my personal items with me like you can loop your foot through the backpack if you're really worried about it but just putting my feet on top of my backpack I think is enough of a turret for anybody who's going to try and like yoink my passport or something so yeah turtle pillow eye mask headphones lumbar support pillow blanket here feet on the on the backpack and then I'm just like and I slept great now the other thing here that you're going to want to be tempted to do is take a sleep aid if it works for you awesome here's the thing I would not recommend you try anything new as a sleep aid so if you've never like taken ambien or something before like maybe test that out before you're in an airplane to just see how you react to that personally I love to take a melatonin supplement I like beam tlc is my favorite the only thing with beam tlc is that it does have cbd from hemp just make sure like if you're bringing it with you just double check the regulations wherever you're going like you don't want to go somewhere that's like hard line against drugs and like have a misunderstanding that ends up with you in jail and honestly I would stay away from things like benadryl or things that are gonna make you really groggy uh again just like know how sleep aids affect you before you take them when traveling and make sure you take them with plenty of time to like have the effects wear off because you don't want to like take a sleep aid and then land in your destination and still be sleepy poor planning that would be poor planning okay that's that's everything I got that is the ultimate guide that I've got for you on surviving a long-haul flight if you have any tips that I missed that you think we need to include make sure to leave them in the comments below so we can all learn together as a community and until next time go create a life you love bye