How To Survive A Long Haul Flight

Sometimes I marvel at the fact that we ever even made it to France. At the time we booked our very first trip we’d barely flown anywhere, we were anything but savvy travellers and Scott had a pretty large fear of flying. But somehow we managed the 24 hour flight relatively well…

We’ve come a long way since that first trip. Scott is a seasoned veteran now and flying no longer bothers him. And we’ve worked out all sorts of tricks to make the flight more comfortable – you kind of need to when you fly economy class (sadly, our budget doesn’t stretch to any upgraded classes yet).

So how do I survive the flight? Well apart from indulging in movie marathons and catching up on a whole stack of reading, there are a few very simple things I take with me to make the flight as comfortable as possible.

1. I always pack baby wipes in my hand bag. This is actually true whether I am flying to the other side of the world or driving down the road to work.  These little moistened pieces of cloth are indispensable. Use them to wipe down your tray table and remote control before you fly. Use them to clean your hands after your meal. Use them to wipe up slops and spills that inevitably occur when you are flying for hours. As an aside, they are great for getting the jump on all sorts of stains – coffee, lippy and lunch stains immediately spring to mind. Seriously, I never leave home without them.
2. I bought a cot pillow and blanket specifically for travel. They are small enough to pack in my Longchamp carry on bag and make it so much easier for me to sleep on flights. And they are much nicer that plane blankets and easier to carry than neck pillows.
3. Speaking of sleep, on that very first flight, the lovely flight attendant gave me a pair of ear plugs. And I’ve been a fan ever since. Some people, including Scott, can sleep using noise cancelling headphones. But I’m not one of them. I prefer the squishy ear plugs that block out all the noise and that don’t see me all tangled up in cords!
4. And finally on sleep, I highly recommend a decent eye mask.  We hunted down moulded eye masks online. They block out the light but don’t touch your eye lids! Brilliant. I can’t tell you how much my in flight sleep improved after I bought these.

These are my big four, absolute must haves for a pleasant trip. I also pack fragranced facial water sprays, travel drops and saline nasal sprays, to keep me clear, fresh and calm throughout the flight to France.

Until next time – au revoir.