Tips to Survive Long Haul Flights and Travel Days

We are giving our best tips for how to survive those long haul flights and long travel days. Because traveling is often the worst part of being a traveler! But while travel days are often going to bring some discomfort, there are things you can do to help make those flights and long travel days go smoother and easier on yourself.
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This channel is for travelers. We are David and Robb, and have been traveling together for 30 years. We’ve been to over 85 countries and territories (so far) on trips that have ranged from a couple of weeks to a couple of years. We are currently taking a four year sabbatical and offer you an unconventional example of what is possible.
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#slowtravel #expat #traveltips #travelday #longhaulflight

[@BlindManTravels]

Really good strategies for a long travel day. On top of staying hydrated I would add that I steer clear of alcohol and caffeine when I fly, mostly sticking to water and juice. The other thing for is I don’t like to use a booking aggregator for flights that are multi leg. Sometimes it takes more work to do, but I prefer to book directly with the airlines, and I try to have more slack time for layovers. That way I can sometimes get a better price for airfare if I’m booking the flights separately. I also like to keep all the airlines on a given trip within the same airline alliance if possible.

[@tendegreeswarmer]

Those are all good tips. Booking aggregators can sometimes work in your favor - when we flew from Tahiti back to Vegas, using Kayak got us free checked bags for both legs of our travel instead of just the first leg. But if anything goes wrong with the itinerary, it is definitely a lot harder to manage, so we usually try to book direct with the airlines as well.

[@snailtravelers]

I like your idea of booking one aisle seat and one window seat. I've never heard of this strategy before, we may try it out.

[@tendegreeswarmer]

If the flight isn't full, it can work nicely, as it did on our last flight to Australia.

[@lilac1941]

Great video! Definitely like (and will implement) the no fault travel days and spreading that patience around. Like you guys, we like getting the airport early and longer layovers.... Better to enjoy a free lounge visit and relax a bit before the flight rather than scrabbling to make it through security and immigration. Thanks for all the advice!

[@tendegreeswarmer]

Thanks for watching, and I'm glad we're on the same page! And yes, no fault travel days are a life saver. 😆

[@ExploreTayo]

Good tips! We go with 2 adjacent aisle seats, it works best for us getting up to stretch and pee. 😊 FYI Brent and Michael came up with the "no-fault" travel days.

[@tendegreeswarmer]

I can see the appeal of two aisle seats. We are always greedy and are hoping we'll get three seats for the two of us. It doesn't always work out, but it has enough times that we keep trying for it. But that doesn't solve the stretch and pee problem. lol You are the second person to give credit to Brent and Michael, so it must be them that started it. I was convinced it was a woman, but maybe it was just someone repeating their rule. Well we owe them one because it really makes a difference!

[@sunflowerfields4409]

Y'all are awesome. Subscribed. I need to find a friend who can get me into a lounge just for the shower. That's all. :)

[@tendegreeswarmer]

Welcome! And yes, a shower can be a real perk. Just note that not all lounges have showers, and some of them charge an extra fee to use the shower - lounges are not all made equal. lol

[@fudpukker]

Nice tips guys, thanks. Just a tip from me, keep the music volume down to the same level as the speech on the videos...

[@tendegreeswarmer]

Thank you for the feedback. Somehow mixing audio levels is harder to do than it seems like it should be, but hopefully we will continue to improve our editing skills. I promise we are working on it! 😋

[@JoseeGill]

Great Video!! love all these tips, 38 hours traveling is a lot of travelling time and exhausting!! I agree with the airport lounge, I love these, so much more restful than waiting at the gates.

[@tendegreeswarmer]

Travel is exhausting, so we have to find ways of taking care of ourselves during the process. And yes, you would love the lounge in Singapore. Good food/drinks and comfortable loungers!

[@gregneil612]

Great video boys!

[@tendegreeswarmer]

Thank you!

[@Dazza19746]

I just did the book window aisle seat tip both ways from LAX to SYD and it worked out both ways, half the flight copied me too

[@tendegreeswarmer]

Yes it is a pretty solid strategy, though in the end it just depends on how full the flight is. But that is great it worked for you!

[@Dazza19746]

On the first flight we arrived at seat and a random dude was in middle seat… I said ‘do you really want to be stuck in middle between us or would you rather swap?’ He got up and left?! It’s my theory he has not holiday ticket for That seat and Chancing his luck he’d get all three 🤷 maybe returning to his paid seat

[@tendegreeswarmer]

@@Dazza19746 I've seen people get a row to themselves, but that is pretty bold to try and claim one before the flight has boarded! lol

[@tendegreeswarmer]

@@Dazza19746 That is an even bigger gamble, sounds like it didn't pay off for him. But glad it worked out for you!

[@gregmiller9437]

New subscriber. We are wondering; do you keep a U.S. cell phone number when you travel? If so, any carrier comparisons? Everyone we follow talks about the SIM vs E-SIM, but no one is really covering what their base plan is. We are planning a 10 month minimum trip to Europe in 2025, and are researching all that we can. Thank you for any time responding. We appreciate your videos and they are very helpful.

[@tendegreeswarmer]

Welcome to the channel! And yes we recently talked about SIM vs eSIMs as well, as there are pros and cons that we had to figure out on our own. Maintaining a cell number from home is a much harder question to answer simply because it keeps changing. We used to love Google Fi, but then we got "fired" for spending more than 60 days outside of the US. Some people have luck with other carriers for a time (until just recently Mint Mobile was a good choice), but ultimately if you spend a significant amount of time outside of the US, the reality is you are not a financially attractive customer base for a US-based phone service. We maintain our numbers on Google Voice, which so far is working for us, but while many will, some financial institutions won't send 2FA codes to Google Voice, so it depends on where you keep your money. We've also talked to others who have had this free account cut off without warning and with little chance of appeal. So I don't expect it to be a forever solution either. (The rumor is that sending group texts can get you banned for spam-related reasons?) With a year to go before you leave, I don't know that I would recommend an answer yet, but definitely join some nomad Facebook groups and listen to what others are saying, and when you are a few months away from leaving you can make the best choice possible at the time. Just know this is an ongoing headache for long term travelers, the rules are not evenly applied to everyone, and the landscape changes frequently, so no matter what you end up with you have to be ready to pivot to something new. Still, if this is one of the hardest areas to cope with as a long term traveler, I'd say it is still very much worth it! 😀

[@lilac1941]

Recently wrote this for a friend and thought this might help you. Assuming you have eSIM capabilities (iPhone 10 and newer as well as the most current iPhone SE) you could follow a similar plan as us. We travel full time and change countries often so here’s what we’ve figured out. My US number is on Mint ($15 per month with 5 GB of data monthly to use in the U.S. and is prepaid for the year) and my husband's U.S. number is on Tello ($8 per month with no US data though we can cheaply upgrade to add data if we head back to the U.S.). Note, I’ll switch to Tello when this prepaid year of Mint is done for me. We both kept our numbers and transferred them from our prior U.S. carrier service to Mint and Tello. Both US numbers are on eSIM on our phones (I'd suggest setting up before you leave the U.S. but can also set up abroad if needed). While on WiFi abroad, we both can WiFi call and text (make sure "WiFI Calling" is turned on in your phone’s settings -- it's under "Cellular" and under the specific eSIM for that U.S. number). iMessage seem to come through all the time as long as we have any sort of data reception. This should work for any of the US cell carries I believe even if you do not get any international data package. You can also have a physical SIM for your U.S. cell instead of eSIM. But there's only 1 physical SIM slot and many eSIM slots available. So I like to leave the physical SIM port open in case we want to get a local SIM for a local number but most of the time we don’t need it. Then for data, we get an eSIM from Flexiroam (Airalo does similar plans). The last one I got was their global plan 20 GB (works in almost every country worldwide and is good for almost a year). It’s regularly priced at $69 but using a promo code I got it for $55. You can get a much cheaper local plan (like the Netherlands only) or regional plans (like Europe only) if you are just traveling to specific countries for shorter periods of time. For instance 1 GB for a week to use in Europe is $5 and 5 GB for a month in Europe is $20. They run promo codes often so likely even cheaper with a promo. If you are traveling with someone, you can each buy a Flexiroam plan or you can share the data from your plan with another phone. Here's some additional info that's specific to an iPhone so not sure how it works with other phones. I can have two lines active at one time and select which one I want to make phone calls / text messages from (I keep this the U.S. number) and which one I want to use data from (I select the Flexiroam SIM unless I bought a physical SIM in the country and then I'll change it to the physical SIM). Make sure "Data Roaming" is turned on for Flexiroam and turned off for your U.S. SIM (especially important if your U.S. plan isn't a prepaid plan and they charge you for international data). I also turn off the "Allow Cellular Data Switching" option since I only want it pulling data from Flexiroam and not my U.S. carrier while abroad.

[@tendegreeswarmer]

@@lilac1941 That is a lot of great info, thanks for posting! We still haven't used Flexiroam for eSIMs but know lots of people who do and who like it. We've had good success with Airalo, although we are currently in Europe and have been using Mobimatter to find regional eSIMs that have been even cheaper (and still reliable across five countries so far.) After almost a year and a half we are still doing well with Google Voice, but have been eyeing Tello as probably the next alternative we will move to, so glad to hear it is working well for you. (We always like having a Plan B worked out!)