As mentioned above, any drug can affect different people differently. I tested Ambien at home before the first time I took it on a plane. I only take it when I'm flying long-haul and have never had any bad side-effects. I don't expect it to prevent jetlag, but to allow me to get about 5 hours of sleep on a trip of often 20 hours or more door-to-door. I'm no more confused or groggy on landing if I've taken Ambien early in the flight than if I've gone without sleep.

On the other hand, I don't like taking Benadryl or Tylenol PM on a plane. The antihistamine in both that makes you drowsy, diphenhydramine, not only makes me uncomfortably dehydrated in what is already a very dehydrating environment, it also tends to make me dizzy without necessarily making me sleep.

There are some important cautions with Ambien,which are spelled out in the info you get when you fill the prescription. For example, you should only take it if there's enough time to allow for 7-8 hours of sleep; you should take it only while, or just before, sitting or lying down to sleep; you shouldn't be drinking alcohol or taking certain other medications. As with any drug, ignoring the cautions is a bad idea.

I'm not a health professional and I'm not saying it's for everyone, but it has worked for me with no problems.

For an idea of what the new business class is on some UAL fights, I just posted a blog entry with picture. It is pretty nice! New UAL Business I think they only have this on 747's now and only a few of these. We lucked out. For the record: we upgraded--didn't buy.

We will be flying Alitalia "Magnifica" class to Italy (Boston to Catania via Fiumicino) in late October thanks to American Express points, 80,000 per ticket. My wife made the arrangements two weeks ago and the agent said she was the first to book for that time of the year (the summer seats were all gone).

I don't know why, but we always get the older planes on Delta. We fly to Italy twice a year, (coach) and never have the entertainment screen on the backs of the seats anymore. We used miles on American three weeks ago to Paris and I was miserable. No matter what I do or what I take, I cannot sleep on airplanes. I cannot sleep sitting up, but my husband can sleep anywhere, including in the standing position. We have plenty of miles to fly Business on Delta, but know we can take more free trips if we fly coach. However, after our last trip, I was so miserable, I don't think I can stand it anymore. We're getting ready to book a trip for next May this weekend and because we now live in Houston, we may try to purchase coach tickets and upgrade on Continental, which has better aircraft for this flight. My husband is a Flying Colonel, Million Miler and Platinum member with Delta and we called with dates for two weeks earlier, just to see what they would do and they weren't very accommodating for free coach seats, which really makes us think we need to do something else. When I tried to look on line, they said they wanted 175,000 miles per ticket. Are they nuts? I called and got a 50,000 quote, but the outbound was a 6:30 a.m. flight, arriving Milan at 10:30 p.m., which would make us drive to the Piedmon area in the dark. That's not going to happen.

Sharon J

As one is able to travel to Europe only after several years of saving for a trip, I find it pretty hard to feel sorry for you! I do offer best wishes for very comfortable flights for you (and everyone).

Betsy

quote:

As one is able to travel to Europe only after several years of saving for a trip, I find it pretty hard to feel sorry for you! I do offer best wishes for very comfortable flights for you (and everyone).

Well, I'm sorry that you find this hard to feel sorry for us. My husband has worked out of state and away from me for over a year. Collecting these miles might seem great, but it has not been a pleasant year while he's been in the trenches trying to help a major mortgage company with their issues. He was retired and they called on him for help, (he had owned his own company). I think, somehow, we deserve these trips after our separations. His work will be done in another week and I think we are due any celebrating we wish. It has not been easy being away from the love of my life five days a week for a year.

Sharon J

Hi,
This is very interesting because it really depends on your priorities.
For me if you traveled for under 1 week or so, I would consider Business or other upgrade if money is no issue. For work purposes and because it was payed, yes I took Business or Premiere. However it was important because I hade to go straight to work or meet clients, so I had to be in shape (relatively). I couldn't sleep on the planes in any case.
For vacation, since we travel for more than 2 weeks usually, I feel that I can resist an airplane trip. Now, that I have a small child continuously moving arround, and with a small bottle of wine, believe me I can fall asleep almost anywhere at times.

Now, for people with health problems, it depends also. I recently spent 12 hours in a emergency department in a hospital under observation seating on a chair really feeling bad, and please, believe me, any plane class is a way much more comfortable than those seats intended for sick people.

So my conclusion on this is yes to Business class if on business trip. And coach otherwise, and have more in my pockets to spend. For the comfort, it depends on AF 747 I felt pretty comfortable in coach. BA had a MD11 or alike, and this was really tight for the legs. May be charter flights with upgrade could be a good compromise with price/room for you?

Andrew and Betsy (Rome25) .... question for you. How did you manage to reserve an exit row seat? I've never been able to do that. Seems the airline always holds those seats back until the day of the flight. Please let me know your secrets. I'm on that Delta flight from ATL to FCO in October.


JVP
Deep in the Heart of Texas

quote:

...buying a 3rd economy seat is another alternative

Interesting. How do you work this out? Do you put your name down for each seat? Do they give you two boarding passes?


JVP
Deep in the Heart of Texas

Let's see. .it was a frequent flyer tkt, but doubt if that matters . . . As best I can recall, I set up my seat online when reserving FF seat 6 months out from travel. Then a couple of weeks out, checked on flight in a vain hope of upgrading to Business . .and spotted the exit-row seat open (last open seat listed on the flight) so switched my seat to that one. At least I THINK that's what I did, memory is hazy post-Italy. One downside: it was FREEZING for all of 11 hours FCO to ATL . .if you get the exit seat, take wool socks and ask for two blankets. Seemed the exit door was leaking some really frigid air or semi-air. And I was sitting next to a guy who claimed to be a CIA agent and talked A LOT about his spy activities . . . Was a bit strange in that exit row.

Buon viaggio . .in October!

Betsy

I was surprised to be able to get an exit row seat; on most airlines they're reserved for elites or assigned on the day of the flight, but as a non-elite checking in January for my August trip, I found the exit row as an option on the Delta site.

quote:

How did you manage to reserve an exit row seat?

On AF for example you can get those for an extra 50$, but they hold it until online checkin is possible, which means last minute. It is impossible to reserve months in advance.

Thanks for the exit row info. I'm going to check the Delta site every couple of weeks and see if a seat opens up. And, Betsy, if a CIA sits next to me, I'll start talking about my 14 grandchildren. That ought to shut him up.


JVP
Deep in the Heart of Texas

Admit I was encouraging him to reveal deep dark secrets, rather than trying to shut him up. And he sounded genuine but seemed way too talkative for a real spy. Good luck on exit row and all other aspects of your travels!

quote:

I called and got a 50,000 quote, but the outbound was a 6:30 a.m. flight, arriving Milan at 10:30 p.m., which would make us drive to the Piedmon area in the dark. That's not going to happen.

Sharon, couldn't you just crash at the First Hotel for the night outside of MXP and head down to Piemonte after breakfast? The extra 100-130 euros might be worth it...what do you think? I agree, don't go fishing around for your digs in the middle of the night after a full day on a plane, that would be nasty!

quote:

Sharon, couldn't you just crash at the First Hotel for the night outside of MXP and head down to Piemonte after breakfast? The extra 100-130 euros might be worth it...what do you think? I agree, don't go fishing around for your digs in the middle of the night after a full day on a plane, that would be nasty

Diana, since we can't make our air reservations until this Saturday, I'm hoping to work something out better than when we were just checking to see what we might find two weeks earlier. Our 23 year old son will be traveling with us this time and he can't take as much time off as we can, so our dates are pretty firm and we really want to spend four days in your area, (if we had our way, we'd stay a week).

I'll post what we manage to work out on Saturday.

Sharon J

Sharon, if you send me your e-mail address I'll e-mail you the pictures I took of the Merincanto Hotel in Positano.

Carole

I can't help but point out that no intelligence officer of any nation would make idle chit-chat--or serious conversation--about his/her occupation. There are a lot of wanna-be's out there, wishing for a more exciting life. A captive audience on the plane lets them spin all the yarns they wish.

That's exactly what I thought!

I have two words for everyone: buddy pass! It helps to have frieds who work for a major airline. It can be stressful flying standby but if you have flexible travel dates, it's pretty easy to pick dates that would put you up in the business class for $400 or so round trip, even to Europe.

Couple of stories here:
1. I had just retired and we booked a flight to Thailand. Long flight (16 hours with stop in Japan) so we paid $1,000 apiece extra for business class. It was very comfortable, of course, but the BC section was full. At one point I decided to go and peek at the rabble in coach to silently gloat. I opened the curtains and what did I see? Everyone spread out across three seats sleeping peacefully--coach was only about 1/3 full. They looked more comfortable than I!

2. Happy story: We were going to a wedding in London that was scheduled for late June, and all the really cheap flights were gone. The best we could do was Indian Air, which was ice except the flight going was very full with lots of noisy kids. When we checked in going home it looked just as bad. I asked if the flight was full and the guy said, "yes, so full that we have to bump you to first class." The whole 8 hours back we pinched each other. Why us, and not an Indian, we wondered.

Re meds--5 years ago my doctor gave me a prescription for ambien so that I could sleep on the way to China. It did nothing. What does work every time is benadryl with a drink. Sometimes it takes two pills. I do sleep (and I am a person who has difficulty falling asleep under even ideal circumstances) but the next day I have a "hangover" for about a half day.