At the moment I'm half-planning my holidays for this year and memories of trips past pop up. Especially the stranger ones. I've done 38 hour flights twice so far - once Tokyo to Dublin via Bangkok , Milan and Brussels. The second time was Honolulu to Dublin via Tokyo and Paris.

They were ordinary scheduled flights, no unexpected delays. Any worse than that? Stories of days camped out in airport terminals waiting for a plane?

Please try and beat the following:

A friend of mine, back in college days, was going back home to Ireland from Tokyo. The cheapest option back then was with the Russian carrier Aeroflot, connecting in Moscow. But he falls asleep and doesn't get off the flight in Ireland. The same plane then continues on to Miami. He wakes up en route but they're not turning back. So he has to wait in Miami airport until the plane takes off again.... going to Mexico City! And has to hang around the airport there, going back via Miami and getting back to Ireland 3 days after he left Japan.

This is one of my nightmares. I just want to get on a plane and get off.

Longest for me has been 11 hours direct. I don't do connecting flights. I know I will have to one day.

19 hours to rio de janeiro brazil (several times) but i don't mind it too much.

About 8 hours to Amsterdam. I really want to visit Australia, but the thought of a flight that long freaks me out.

6 hours from MPLS to iceland. not bad. even better after popping a xanax.

In this case I love being so hyped to fly; I never sleep on planes.

Anxiety said:

I'm back off to Europe in the next month. How does xanax make you feel?

London to Dallas to Miami to Beunos Aires to Paris and back to London...business related over a period of 4.5 days. I was fucked for a further week.

(I think you might know this story Leo, but Imma tell it anyway)...

My longest flight was from Florida to Manchester in the UK. It was only 9 hours but by God it was the longest 9 hours of my LIFE!

I was pregnant at the time and had started having morning sickness whilst we were in Orlando. I felt fine when we got on the plane but an hour into the flight I started being violently sick, I think they counted 18 bags in the end (ewww). After a while I needed to go to the loo, but when I got there the flight attendant told me that there was someone already in there - at this point I passed out on the galley floor :redface: I spent the rest of the flight on that cold floor, shaking violently, doubled up in agony, with an oxygen mask on my face. My poor 3 year old daugher was sat alone in her seat, whilst my husband saw to me. The staff were so good that they went and looked after her - this didn't stop me worrying though.

All 3 pilots came out to see me (not at the same time I might add! ) and they wanted to turn the flight back, but we were already over the Atlantic so then they wanted to divert to Shannon airport. I begged them to get me onto English soil as I NEVER wanted to get back onto another plane. EVER. They got me back to Manchester and there was an ambulance crew waiting - to help us off the plane they had 3 paramedics, 2 policemen, 4 flight crew, 2 pilots, a member of the ground crew for the airline and not one of them thought to put a blanket on me before taking me out, in my t-shirt into the freezing cold December air (bearing in mind I'd just come back from Florida, where it was 30 degrees!)

Anyway, I spend 4 days in a hospital in Manchester with gastro enteritis. So YEAH, that was one long fucking flight!

I don't think I've ever had a particularly long flight. I think 8 hours direct to Amsterdam, maybe.

I will say, on my way to Miami a couple of years ago we were delayed on the tarmac before taking off for 3 entire hours due to engine trouble. The time inside the airplane was doubled by this. It was way, way annoying.

Vendetta1 said:

gooood.

i can never sleep on planes, and it knocked me right out.

for me, the only downside is that it leaves me with a titch of a "hangover" - kinda like how ya feel the morning after taking nyquil - but it's not a horrible feeling. just fuzzybrained, which i'm all too accustomed to.

London to Melbourne.. I think it was about 23 hours or something like that with just a 45 minute stop in Singapore to re-fuel..

I was ready to kill someone by the time I got off, worst fuckin' day of my life..

Auckland to London, which is 26 hours via LAX with a two hour stopover. It's the longest commercial daily flight in the world. Then an hour and a half coach transfer from Heathrow to Stanstead. Then a 6 hour wait in the terminal then a 2 hour something flight from Stanstead to Ciampino, Rome then an hour on a coach into Rome.

Auckland to London was a lie flat bed in Business Class and we had access to the lounge so could shower and freshen up in LAX. There is no f**kin way in hell I would ever do it in economy!!

I flew with Biman Bangladesh from Bangkok to London one time, stopping in Dhaka, Abu Dhabi, Rome and Paris Orly. Was about 26 hours, I think. The whole trip, door to door, was longer though. Something like...

Taxi to airport = 45 mins
Check-in, wait for flight = 3 hours
Flight = 26 hours
Wait at London Heathrow for bus to Cheltenham = 3 hours
Bus to Cheltenham = 2 hours
Wait for bus from Cheltenham to Bishop's Cleeve = 30 mins
Bus to Bishop's Cleeve = 15 mins
Walk from Bishop's Cleeve to my village of Woodmancote = 15 mins

Total = nearly 36 hours

So many increasingly small bits of travel along the way, and all to return to an empty house (parents were on holiday ). The weird thing is sitting on a little local bus with a backpack, wearing typical backpacker clothes. Most people are just going home after popping into town to do shopping but I'm coming from Bangkok!

So sick of taking flights.

I forgot the last trip too, which was worse because of the problems at Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok. Had to check in about 5 or 6 hours before the flight, the queues were horrendous. 7 hour flight to Abu Dhabi was fine, but then we had an 11 hour wait, sitting on rock hard chairs with immovable armrests, before we could get the 7 hour onward flight to Heathrow. This was my worst trip as I didn't manage to sleep in the airport at all and was ready to kill someone. We were glad to be able to finally leave Bangkok though.

They should've put us up in a hotel or at least let us in the business class lounge. A few years back during a 5 hour transit stop in Amman, Royal Jordanian put me up in a hotel, so I had a nice shower and watched CNN for a bit and it was great.

Longest flight was Brisbane - Kuala Lumpur - London in May 2005

Longest would be Melbourne - Sydney - Hong Kong - London - Barbados - Antigua - Guadaloupe - Dominica - St Lucia.

Upon my return to Oz was Antigua - Barbados - London - Dubai - Singapore - Melbourne.

PanthaGirl said:

hey beautiful

About 26 hours to Sydney, Australia. It felt like a week.

Natisse said:

miss ya gorgeous!!! I'll be in Sydney again for 3 days in the next couple weeks. Will keep ya updated hon' xoxoxoxox

without stopping to refuel?
between Auckland and Buenos Aires which was about 19 hours or something? I'm doing Melbourne direct to LA soon, also 19 hours. From my house to my grandma's place from door to door is about 30 hours, though the flight these days with one refuel stop and one connection stop is about 24-26 hours these days.

London-Tokyo
Moscow-Bangkok
Both about 16 hours, direct.
Loved it: sleep, eat, read; sleep, eat, read; sleep, eat read, etc..
6 days on the Trans-Siberian railway was fun too - although here it's a train/I'm extending the topic of the thread obviously...