
Ask HN: What do you do on long-haul flights? - tomglynch
I&#x27;m at a layover with a 14 hour flight ahead. What do you do on your long haul flights? Do you prepare anything before hand?<p>In the past I&#x27;ve pre-downloaded and read PDF&#x27;s of topics that interest me, watched films, done programming challenges, connected to the super-slow in flight wifi and tried to work. What do you do?
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im_down_w_otp
I watch all the bad action movies I'd otherwise never take the time to watch,
and thoroughly enjoy the relaxation that comes from having 10+ hours to myself
in which no other person can have a reasonable expectation that I'm available
to interact or respond reliably.

It is truly one of my most enjoyable guilty pleasures.

~~~
digianarchist
I hate watching movies on the plane. They are edited to remove all violence
and nudity. The Shape of Water was missing huge chunks when I peered at my
wife’s scree.

I prefer to watch Netflix offline. Although Altered Carbon had me cradling my
iPad mini so my fellow passenger couldn’t see all of the erotic scenes.

I’m wondering what the legality of the situation above is.

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somberi
Heavy flier here (100K Kms in 2017 for example). In addition to the
suggestions below, I would like to add:

1\. On 8-12hour flights there is a zone of about 2 hours, where the mind is
clutter free. I usually use this time (use paints a intent, but usually this
auto-flow) to contemplate about things that need sorting in life, and write it
down. On re-read it has a texture that is different than how I think when I am
on ground.

2\. Since I do not have time to recuperate from jet lag (I work on both ends
of the flight), one recent habit that has helped me is starvation in-flight (I
drink lots of water). Some of my flights are 15-hours non-stop. Same rule. I
find this to have helped my jet lag the most. There is some evidence this
works for others too (1). Since my company flies me business, it is tempting
to say know when the cheese and dessert cart rolls in, but I would rather skip
it than suffer a few days of being a zombie :)

(1) [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brain-clock/skip-the-
pret...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brain-clock/skip-the-pretzels-
starving-may-fend-off-jet-lag-idUSN2252042720080522?rpc=64)

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askvictor
Switch to your destination's clock when you board the plane. Then sleep or
wake according to your destination - this supposedly helps prevent jet lag
(another one is apparently fasting - don't eat on the plane - but I haven't
personally tried it)

I usually find anything that involves too much thinking pretty hard on a
plane; instead, watch movies, read, or listen to some music - really listen to
it - undistracted by the other things that often relegate it to background
noise (hopefully you have some good noise cancelling/isolating headphones)

~~~
Gustomaximus
I find the best way when going to reversed time zones;

1) Fly in a couple days early where possible. Sightsee or work remotely before
you hit the meetings etc you're over for.

2) If you have to hit the ground running, sleeping tablets. I use short action
ones so it gives 4hrs sleep (and usually more naturally once you are asleep)
which is a game changer for my brain function getting a >3hr which can happen
without. Obviously speak with your Dr etc. And probably not best if your a
frequent traveler.

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davewasthere
I'll do about 3 hours of coding. Completely offline. I don't bother connecting
to wifi at all.

Other than that, Sleep or Read. I've a ton of books on my Kindle to read.

And when not sleeping, I try and get up and walk around. It's quite nice to
hang around either at the bar, or at the back of the plane if in economy.

My trick for sleeping though, is to plug in and listen to Orbital on my
shuffle. Works really well.

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marssaxman
It's not possible to bring enough of anything to keep me entertained for that
long, so I basically just fidget, fuss, watch bad TV, flip around to watch
some other bit of bad TV, pretend I'm going to try to sleep but never actually
sleep because I'm too tall to fit the seats comfortably, read every word of
the airline magazine, read every word of the book I brought for the flight,
read every word of the other book I brought for the flight home, read the
magazine I impulsively bought in the airport, then watch some more bad TV and
keep fidgeting, until the ordeal ends.

~~~
Gustomaximus
I also rarely sleep on flights but find the best chance is putting on a movie
I wont like (and even better if I've already seen it) and attempting to watch
it.

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seanmcdirmid
Watch everything on the entertainment system, especially foreign films that
you might not watch otherwise. I look forward to my trans pacific flights to
catch up on my Japanese art house films, but I avoid the Korean ones as too
melodramatic.

If you score business class, then it’s easier to just sleep and even get some
work done.

~~~
lozenge
Agreed, always go for the foreign films. They can subvert your expectations in
a way Western films won't.

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Matheus28
Deploy to production the minute before you take off. If it breaks things,
you'll have entertainment for the rest of the flight trying to get it fixed
with the crappy WiFi.

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lathiat
As someone who does quite a lot of long haul flying (maybe 24 trips in the
last 3 years that are usually 20-30 hours each) -- I generally try to sleep as
much as possible because it passes the time and gives me a good chance to be
setup for avoiding jetlag.

The ideal situation for these long hauls for me is to leave the evening local
time - sleep a fair bit of the flights (maybe half at least) but then you
still arrive tired enough in the afternoon-evening of the destination time
that you can sleep most of the night. That seems to work the best for timezone
reset for me.

If you arrive at your destination in the morning to early afternoon - leave
the hotel and walk around preferably outdoors in the Sun as much as possible
until at least about 5PM preferably 7PM. If you didn't sleep much (or even if
you did) and you have a bed nearby there's a good chance you'll end up
sleeping until about midnight and then you're double jetlagged :)

~~~
cimmanom
This worked really well for me recently, though that first day on almost no
sleep was a form of low grade torture.

Got in around dawn; walked around until about 4pm; fast asleep by 6; woke
naturally around 8am. Slept 10 hours again the second night, but was
comfortably on local time for the rest of the trip.

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fphhotchips
Sleep. If not sleep, some combination of podcasts, downloaded entertainment
and more recently Switch games. I'll also download a few things to read for
study, but I generally find that it's a poor quality environment for that.

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bitwize
One time I learned a fair bit of Android programming while in-flight. Of
course that does require beforehand preparation -- you gotta snarf down
documentation, etc. before you get on the plane because the in-flight wifi
doesn't cut it. It's a great time to pull out the laptop and just mess around
with coding stuff -- not necessarily work related. Try learning a new language
or framework and see how far you get.

I also like to watch movies or TV on the little entertainment center (which,
90% of the time, is running some version of Linux -- I know this because of
all the crashes I see) or play video or cellphone games.

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tbihl
Most of my long-haul flights in life were in college, so my answer is 'get
over hangovers', and I cannot strongly enough discourage this
irresponsibility. It's preparation in reverse.

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mrep
If it is a nighttime flight: If you like to drink, you can bring a bunch of
the small 1.5 OZ liquor bottles in your liquid baggy (which you can buy at
liquor stores and bring thru security and are much cheaper than buying drinks
at the airport/on the plane). I then watch in-flight entertainment on the
plane while drinking which makes time fly pretty fast and I usually end up
sleeping half the time.

Also, I recently learned about and used melatonin for sleep aid and found it
very effective at getting me to sleep when I am not tired. I plan on bringing
some for some flights in the near future to help me sleep through them.

If it is a daytime flight: I just watch movies, read books, and play games.
Make sure to plan out battery requirements for your devices.

Note, the few work related flights I have done I was not expected to program
or anything during that time I was commuting so I just tried to make it as
painless as possible using the processes previously mentioned which I do for
all personal flights.

~~~
askvictor
Wow; I forgot that no longer to you get free booze on all long haul flights.
Hopefully you still do on the 'flagship' carriers?

~~~
mrep
You do in first class. Otherwise, it's 7/8$ a drink which honestly not that
bad considering its about the price at a ballgame or bar.

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pasbesoin
I try to get a window seat and look out the window.

The opportunity for this perspective is worth more to me than anything else I
might do.

It helps to have had some earth science and geology and to have some sense of
geography -- to think about what I'm seeing.

Then, there is the magical feeling of soaring and that perspective -- also on
the nature of modern flight.

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gcgutier
I'm bad at sleeping on planes. For years, I would play the original Legend of
Zelda. I'd play half on the trip out, usually thru level 5, and finish it on
the trip back. It provided a nice break from email, was a bit of fun, and
helped me rest.

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amorphid
Dowoad & watch an entire season of some show.

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viraptor
If you use your laptop on the flight, get an app like redshift, f.lux or
similar and force-enable it. I find it much more comfortable in the dim lit
cabin.

Also I found podcasts / audiobooks better than reading on long flights.

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virken
walk around a lot - get your blood moving - do some exercise and move while
you can - get well-hydrated too

~~~
matt_the_bass
Hydration is key. Staying hydrated has the side benefit of forcing you to get
up to use the facilities, and in turn force you to move. During layovers I try
to walk as much as possible.

I like to try and sleep as much as possible.

One thing I’ve learned recently is the business class lounges are really nice
for long layovers. Consider paying for a lounge pass even if you are not
flying business class is you have a long layover.

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some_weirdo
Make sure to keep moving. DVT is a common thing on long haul flights

~~~
BryBran
Good point. I try to get up and stretch pretty aggressively every 3 or so
hours.

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BryBran
Watch cheesy movies, hoping the people next to me won't judge. Followed by a
couple hours trying to code while the kid behind me kicks my chair. :)

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Razengan
For me it's some combination of reading books or playing Dungeons & Dragons
with myself on the iPad, playing on the Nintendo Switch, watching foreign
movies (discovered some good Japanese movies this way), sleeping or when at a
window seat, contemplating about the cosmos above and the world below.

Trying to be productive and do work on a plane doesn't work for me.

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mac01021
Feel guilty about my carbon footprint. And also watch 5 in-flight movies back
to back.

~~~
craftyguy
By using the entertainment system, you're consuming additional electricity,
which requires burning more fuel, thereby making your 'carbon footprint' even
larger. :)

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segmondy
I use to code, but probably a combination of me getting bigger and seats
getting smaller, it's really uncomfortable. So what I do 3 possible things.

1) Tackle a difficult problem in my mind or on paper. 2) Sleep 3) Read a book.

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andrei_says_
Bring earplugs and sleep/meditate as much as I can.

Get a window seat and listen to beautiful music while looking at the clouds
from above.

Sometimes listen to audiobooks or lectures through sound isolating earbuds.

But mostly, try to rest.

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schrectacular
Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup

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BrissyCoder
I put on my eye-mask, earplugs, hoodie, take a double dose of sleeping
medication (usually temazepam) and attempt to remain unconscious for as much
of the flight as possible.

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ngokevin
Download and watch movies and shows on a VR headset, have your own personal
cinema theater and forget you're on a plane.

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twfarland
If you take Air NZ, they are generous with the wine. I get amongst that while
watching bad action movies.

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matt_the_bass
Ear plugs make a big difference for me. The engine noise stresses me
unconsciously.

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guilhas
Think, write about life, read flight magazine, see a movie, sleep

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gumby
Sleep. Read.

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decil
sleep

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draw_down
Podcasts, books, games, movies, repeat.

