Love to travel Business or First but with air tickets the price they are, not really possible for me this year. My sister and I are going to Italy in October. Flying Delta in October to Rome. Love to have some tips from savvy travelers on how to be comfortable in coach. The plane we're on will have the 2 seats, 3 seats, 2 seats configuration. We'll be in two seats configuration and I know that most of the time you can raise the arm rest between the seats and that gives a little more "spread" room. Anything else we could do?
I don't know if it's possible to be comfortable in coach!
On our flight to Rome in April, we were in a 2 section of a 2-3-2 setup. On the way back, we were aisle and middle of the 3 section, and both of us were surprised to find this flight much more comfortable.
Other than that, I have just the usual tips: shoes off, noise-canceling headphones, walking around at decent intervals, ipods. We used tylenol PM to help us sleep, and I swear by my eyeshade, though dh thinks they're silly.
One word - Ambien. It's a 12 hour flight for us and the only way I can make it in coach is to drug out. If you get the row right behind the bulkhead there is a bit more leg room there. If you get lucky you can get a flight that isn't so full and you might be able to stretch out. If you have traveled 1st class before or have "Diamond" or "Platinum" status with the airlines you might mention that at check in. You could get a bump.
We take a similar flight to Venice and, believe it or not, coach is not that uncomfortable. Be sure you get the two seats and check seatguru.com to be sure you have a good location. The other we do to ensure a comfortable flight is to eat hearty before you get on board and pack snacks. I miss the days when I was able to bring my own wine onboard to have a nice glass before sleeping.
This was the first year that we flew in coach where we didn't have the bulk head seats. I had a window seat and felt really cramped because I was over the wing and there is this large metal box on the floor next to the walls at the wing seats...so, try to not have a wing seat to get more leg space...if you're flying on AA.
I use eyeshades, too. I use an inflatable neck pillow and Bose noise-cancelling headphones. My husband and I share the music on the iPod Touch by having a splitter adapter with separate volume controls.
I like to wear comfy clothes with some give in them and not restrictive. I layer a short sleeve or 3/4 sleeve knit top under a long sleeve knit jacket so that I can adjust for cabin temps.
As for food, I've always wondered if we need to start eating TURKEY before a flight! LOL It seems to make everyone sleepy at Thanksgiving.
While the TV commercials lead you to believe that Ambien will simply give you a lovely night's rest, it is important to understand the other side of this drug.
In the case of any emergency, most people on Ambien will be in severe trouble. A passenger in business class on the ORD-FCO flight took it as the airplane left the gate. The flight was delayed prior to takeoff for mechanical reasons. No one was able to to awaken this passenger while we waited for the plane to be repaired.
We have witnessed other passengers taking a 2nd Ambien in mid-flight. Several of these passengers appeared to be overly intoxicated upon arrival, and needed assistance to leave the plane.
In many Narcotics Anonymous chapters in the USA, Ambien was the #1 drug of choice of new members.
Please be very careful with prescription sleeping drugs, they are highly addictive.
I always ask for extra pillows --- one goes behind my lumbar/lower back and then one behind my head and then I use a small squishy pillow (Brookstone, I think) to shove between the window and my head. Before you fall asleep, rotate your ankles and flex your feet a lot to prevent swelling...took a 12 hour to Sydney once and my feet swelled so bad I could barely walk off the plane.
Originally posted by ashley97: *** Before you fall asleep, rotate your ankles and flex your feet a lot to prevent swelling...took a 12 hour to Sydney once and my feet swelled so bad I could barely walk off the plane.
Travelsox or some similar product will help this problem.
Posts: 657 | Location: Palmyra, NJ, USA | Registered: 29 July 2003
Originally posted by ashley97: I always ask for extra pillows ---
Pillows (along with blankets), are being removed from couch as part of the cost cutting measures for airlines. I don't know if this applies to international flights or not, but I wouldn't count on getting one, much less extras.
Since I stopped travelling for business, I've run out of FF miles. So I no longer have the luxury of first class.
My strategy: Confortable clothing and no makeup. A filling meal just before boarding the plane. I make sure my seat is a window seat so that I can inflate my 1st Class Sleeper. A large bottle of water. Ear plugs, comfy socks, and 1/2 Ambien. I let the flight attendant know that I'm not interested in the evening meal service. I decline the earphones and don't watch the movies. No reading. No conversation. I sleep throughout the flight until time for breakfast.
All of this assures that I arrive rested and ready for a full day without jet lag.
Now... coming back west on a daytime flight is an entirely different kettle of fish. It's torture!
Deborah Horn In a previous life I was an Umbrian sunflower farmer. I want to do a past life regression and stay there. ----------------------------------- www.petsburg.com My blog: Old Shoes - New Trip
Posts: 5026 | Location: St. Louis, MO | Registered: 04 September 2001
I cannot suggest how to be comfortable, but I can suggest a few other things to make the time fly go more quickly: *Lots of carried on food and water. NO wine **An interesting and chatty seat-mate (I have met the most interesting people on planes, some of whom have become friends) ***Appreciating that it is a necessary evil and remembering how many people who may never get the chance to complain (not saying we are!) about it
Posts: 422 | Location: Santarcangelo di Romagna, Italy | Registered: 08 July 2001
Thanks all for the wonderful suggestions. This is what I'll do:
First off, muzzle my "chatty seat mate" (my sister who has a voice like Flo from Mel's Din er), Then I'll take a Tylenol P.M. (no Ambien thank you very much). I'll wear some Travelsox and I'll drink lots of water only to wash down snacks which I'll carry on. I'll use my inflatable travel pillow. Before I board I'll have a great meal - preferable turkey with dressing and all the trimmings. That should do it.
Really, thanks so much for all your comments. Can't wait for October to get here.
Eastbound, my wife and I do pretty much what Cameron does (inflatable neck pillow, eyemasks, iPod and noise-canceling headphones, etc), except that we add a lightweight travel blanket and generally take one-half to a whole Benedryl before trying to sleep. Tried Ambien once and will never touch the stuff again. We think the trick is to block out light for as long as possible, sleep to the extent you can (and doze/zone out in the dark when you are not asleep). Water and travel socks help. Also helps of you can snag two seats on the side where there are just two seats, to minimize the number of folks who have to climb over you (or you have to climb over) en route the the WC in the middle of the night when you have just managed to get to sleep, and if someone must do that, it's your spouse, so somehow that's more OK.
Westbound is another matter. Hard to do much other than sleep a bit at first, then read/listen to music/watch dumb movies.
I vote for the Ambien, cut down to 5 mg or less. I've actually been able to clonk out with 2.5 mg! Just be sure to take it when you know you'll have AT LEAST 5-6 undisturbed hours of sleep. Hey, if you're flying from west to east across the big pond, you'll want to be asleep if anything happens.
Posts: 466 | Location: Massachusetts | Registered: 11 April 2006
This once happened to me when I was traveling with British Airways, which was very good really, as I was traveling from Tokyo to London, which is loooooong haul.
I've had very good results with Ambien. If you haven't taken it you could ask your doctor for a sample and try it at home before you go. I generally take it only on the flight over and on the first night in Europe. I get some sleep and feel great the arrival day and I use it to get to sleep on European time the first night there and then I'm on good for the rest of my trip.
According to FlightMemory I have flown 416.000 miles and spent about 884 hours in the air...most of them in coach class I'm afraid. As you I would love to fly business class but it is not really worth the money. To be comfy in coach class you should try to get up often and walk to e.g. the bathroom to stretch your legs and choose an airline that has a seat with a personal TV screen (I love it when they have games). But apart from that...I think the most important thing is to take the ride with a positive attitude and think about the fact that you are going to the wonderful city of Rome :-) Have you been there before? I was blown away when I went there a couple of years back. Here is my trip report http://gardkarlsen.com/rome_italy.htm and I hope that you can find some useful info there :-)
One way to get comfortable with Coach may start with initiating a friendly self-introduction with your neighbor(s). In my experience it has been very helpful in terms of space-sharing - or just being supportive together or complaining together in solidarity - to have freindly contact around one.
Having just completed a very comfortable flight in economy on Air Canada, I'll share with you what worked for me this time that didn't work last time I flew to Europe:
~ Day flight! I will now swear by them, having made this trip a day flight going over. We boarded at 8:00 A.M., departure was at 9:00 A.M. and landing at 9:05 P.M. in London Heathrow. Actually, I also felt very much better during the flight, with no worrying about what was waiting on the other end in the way of gigantic jet lag. I had none of my usual 4 day's worth of groggies when we arrived! A good thing, because we had to navigate a 1.5 hour trip on the tube at the end of the day, as well. I wouldn't want to do that, juggling my luggage and trying to figure out where to go and how to get there in my usual semi-stuporific condition that normally knocks me down after a night flight.
~Take lots of snacks. Please leave the junk food at home...take only healthy stuff. We had a stash of fresh fruit, dried apricots,dried cranberries, cashews, pecans, pistachio nuts, homemade trail mix, peanut butter and cashew snacking bars from our local health food store...that kind of thing. I find the bigger the variety of my snacks, the more likely I am to nibble away on them! It also helped when the 2 in-flight meals were 54 degrees north of being dogfood on this flight. Aiiiiyyyyyyai!
~Ask for bottled water, water, water from the flight attendants...no ice, though! I carry a small travel mug and just ask them to fill 'er up repeatedly. I also hydrate with a couple of tonic waters with lime. For some reason, that helps me not to feel thirsty. It also ensures that I get up a few times for a potty break and a chance to walk up and down the aisles, do a few knee bends in the galley area and get those red corpuscles flowing through my veins again.
~Take a couple of new magazines and one or two great books. I took the newest Vanity Fair and a couple of books I'd been saving for this flight. I read all of the magazine cover to cover and 3/4 of one book on the flight and I didn't need to sleep at all.
~Inflight movies! Watch 'em! They help me to pass the time, even if they are awful. This time, I watched Charlie Wilson's War. Not a thriller but interesting enough to keep me watching until the end. Might have been seeing Tom Hanks as a womanizer of sorts that kept me glued to that tiny screen! That was a change of pace for him!
~Bulkhead, bulkhead, bulkhead. Book it, if you can. We were seated a couple of rows back of bulkhead and one of the flight attendants was asking several people to change seats to allow a young family to be seated together. No one would do it, and then we volunteered. We were given the 2 side seats, 12A and 12C in bulkhead, that the mom and her little guy had been sitting in. Her husband and other child moved to our previous seats. Too cool!
~Make friends and be kind to one or two of the flight attendants. They'll love you forever and give you the world for being nice to them. It's not a fakey-bakey thing for me to do, just a way of letting them know that I appreciate them being there to help me and it most often pays off if I ask for a second or third dessert or a 5th bottle of water.
Hope this helps! I have a return flight, leaving Paris on 20th of July, so I'll be stocking my little carry-on with all kinds of delicious snacks and great magazines...
"Airline food is not intended for human consumption. It’s intended as a form of in-flight entertainment, wherein the object is to guess what it is, starting with broad categories such as 'mineral' and 'linoleum.'" ~ Dave Barry, 'Only Travel Guide You'll Ever Need.' Brenda
