My attention span is suited to short story collections when flying. Sudoku, wordle or similar puzzles are good. No biggie if you doze off or get interrupted. If I tried to tackle a novel I would probably just have to re-read everything later.
2 Likes
Yes, I sometimes read e-books while flying, but tend to doze off, because of the steady background noise.
When traveling, I always buy books about museum collections and history, but I prefer to keep those pristine for reading when I get home. Like I just returned from a month in Italy and came back with about 20 books.
3 Likes
I still hit it off that way with folks sometimes. Like I met a passenger who turned out to work in my first career and we chatted all flight long, maybe five hours. We’ve stayed in touch since.
The mom with an infant and toddler, who was going back to Egypt, asked to stay in touch as well.
6 Likes
I think we’d be able to chat for 5 hours too Maggie8K if I was lucky enough to sit next to you. I’ve met some great people on flights and in that case I prefer to chat than read , watch films etc. Time flies by!
5 Likes
Oh, I wish. Remember when you could have an interesting conversation with complete strangers without being labelled a weirdo.
I once took the Inverness to Manchester flight. It’s a daily flight. Everyone chatted, moved seats to chat to someone else. Speaking over the aisle. To the people behind and in front. I wasn’t local but was included. Loved it
5 Likes
Long haul flights and me don’t get on. After 5 hours I get restless and want to wander around or get off so we try and break them down. Going to New Zealand a couple of years ago we took 10 days to get there and three weeks to get back. Stopped in some very interesting places. Realised we had a change over in Fiji. Never been there before so we stayed for a week. Very disappointed. Think the Australian equivalent of Malaga, (UK citizens will know what I mean). However, the week in Hawaii was wonderful.
I try to sleep, play sudoku, watch movies and look out the window. Then nudge my husband awake “are we there yet.” Nightmare sitting beside me on a plane…. Or so he says.
4 Likes
People still talk on flights, from what I’ve seen. I was just on a flight from Heathrow to the U.S. West Coast last week and two 30-somethings had just met and they chatted nonstop — at least every time I woke up, they were still going. I didn’t have anyone to chat with, though, since I happily had an empty seat next to me. I don’t hear well on planes, so I chat with folks only if they’re sitting right next to me.
Before the pandemic, I had a job where I visited San Francisco monthly, and I’d often see some of the same folks on those flights, because they were headed for meetings for the day in the Bay Area. We’d regularly chat at the airport or on flights if we happened to sit next to each other.
1 Like
To be honest, people always talk to me! 
On the plane, on the train, on the bus. I mean, I talk to them too. It’s very easy for me and somehow hours go by like nothing. According to the movies I should have ten husbands by now.
8 Likes
Planes aren’t as much fun as trains. You are pretty much trapped in a small not very comfy seat. There are etiquette rules o adjust to. Pushing your sit a tiny bit back may be acceptable. Pushing it back as far as it can go will likely earn you telepathic bullets and muttered curses from the person behind you. Then there is the whole matter of the center sit and your right to an armrest!
Frequent fliers often come up with various ways to make the trip more comfy. My spouse will use his collected miles and sometimes cash to upgrade to “economy comfort” or it’s equivalent. Chooses the seat in an exit row which sometimes costs more as well also offers more leg room. Sometimes choosing a sit way back in a wide body jet for a long haul has resulted in my having two or more seats to stretch out on or as I like to think of it “poor man’s first class.”
Nobody appreciates a sloppy drunk on a plane, but I would recommend a glass of wine or a coctail before a flight and I always on a long flight take a little something that might help me sleep but not get me so tired I won’t be oriented when I land. Reading is a highly recommended and underrated flight activity.
2 Likes
Last year I downloaded the audiobook Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. It’s a beautiful story read by the author, and I find it both interesting and soothing, which is nice because I love to travel but do have a bit of travel anxiety. I have dozed on and off through it about ten times so far, it never gets old. On short hops that stay low enough I just love to look out the window and watch the scenery. Flying low over the Swiss/Italian Alps (Zurich to Brindisi) was a highlight of my recent travel experience!
I think any hop around the UK would be lovely. Maybe start by flying into a small airport? Inverness is adorable.
2 Likes
There was a point in my 20s where I was on flights 4 times or more a week. Sometimes, NYC to London for lunch, then back, or NYC to Nashville for a meeting and back. Sometimes, NYC/ Tokyo. Long flights, always try for overnight to sleep. You can catch up on some movies you probably wouldn’t have watched, books are good, easy reads. Not Gravity’s Rainbow. Also, I bring my food now. They don’t always give you food. So my sandwich, some cheese, veggies. You need to bring an empty water bottle that you can fill up, or ask them to fill it up when they pass with drinks. Cards are good. So it depends on the length of the flight. Also, make sure you grab the pillows and blankets, they don’t always hand them out.
2 Likes
And when they do, it’s often little, and expensive.
Also, insert very long rant about the price of airport food. My trip photos include some corkers, $20 for a sandwich and a juice?, come ON. I had run out and had to buy something or starve.
I bring what food I can too. But, you have to be careful what’s allowed over borders. Canada/USA has been silly at times for me. Got a sandwich confiscated once because God forbid, it had bacon bits in it. OMG, virulent contagion!!! 
Oranges over the border to the states? Not allowed!! Never mind that they were grown there. 
Another time, I had a leftover apple purchased in Canada, not allowed back into Canada after going to Ireland and then back. I said, F you I’m not wasting this apple, and I stood there at the customs gate and ate it before going through 
…
On long flights, I’ll go to the toilet and do a few yoga stretches in the little space outside it. Get some funny looks sometimes but who cares. On airport stopovers, more yoga. It feels sooooo good to stretch everything out after sitting a long time and not being able to move around much. Also recommend “walking” your heels & toes up & down often while sitting.
1 Like
I also walk the aisles and do my stretches. No one cares. It all depends on the person working the customs. I have had an apple taken away at the gate (there were 5 other apples at the gate beside the guy) and sometimes they don’t care. I have had a customs guy at the CDN border let me go through with a dozen eggs my friend had given me from her hens. Sometimes, they take the oranges. You never know. Usually, I say I have a sandwich and they let me through the border.
1 Like
I came home with a leg of Spanish ham. At Malaga airport the guy said he’d have to take a chunk off as a Spanish tax! Fortunately he was only pulling my leg!
4 Likes
As long as you got it home. They have a reality show with border patrol agents. And sometimes they open up the suitcases and there is all this food. And confiscated. All these older people coming back from Italy and Spain, or south america and the food is all taken.
2 Likes
Yes that must be so painful. I’d be inclined to eat everything on the spot! Airport food prices are crazy and some airports are very shy about where they keep their drinking fountains! I my wife usually buys me food and drink and doesn’t tell me the cost! If I’m on my own I go full on economy lol!
There was a television show that didn’t last very long called “How to Die Alone". It was very good and I wish it had gotten a second season. The main character worked at JFK airport but never travelled. There was a lot of behind the scenes action at the airport. They showed the room where the confiscated was taken to which might not be realistic as I think a lot of it is just destroyed, but in the show the room features a leg of Iberian ham.
1 Like
What a great starting point for a story! Someone’s Christmas must have been spoilt!
I’d have shared it with every fellow passenger! But of course no knife to cut it with..
Confiscating a Ham from a Spaniard at Christmas would have caused a Revolt in Malaga for sure. Their sense of justice and love of meat know no bounds!
There’s been an outbreak of swine fever recently near Barcelona.. now that really is a worry!
On my most recent flight to the Azores, I made friends with - and later visited on the island - my seatmate and the couple behind us!
2 Likes
I’ve watched that. There’s a Canadian version. Ridiculous, suitcases full of meat 
Lots of young people too. One Aussie detailing for the customs agent, his history of arrests for selling drugs and driving drunk – very casually as if he was discussing the weather. And a Texan with a trailer full of guns!! He was going to camp & hunt somewhere, I think. Neither was allowed in; can’t imagine why!
1 Like