how I travel

[calimac]

John Scalzi has written on things he splurges on for travel. The main point is, "If there's an ocean involved, when possible, buy a lie-down seat."

I've never had one of those, and I wonder how much it would help for me. Unlike Scalzi, I can sometimes sleep sitting up, and in fact I prop myself up as much as possible whenever going to bed, but I can't always sleep lying down either.

On the other hand, I've never flown transpacific either, and I doubt I ever will, because that's too long to spend in a plane whatever the position. Ten-hour transatlantic flights I've managed, but lately I'm finding even a 5-hour transcontinental flight is too wearying. (I lost my bag in the airport due to exhaustion after one of those last year.) My last such trip I scheduled a long layover, and that helped. It would only work when I'm traveling alone, though, because B. has trouble with the schlepping around dependent on any airport transfer.

(Would I, as Scalzi contemplates, leave the airport during a sufficiently long scheduled layover? I did that once, but I think it was pre-9/11. No, I'm not navigating both security and transit. Find something decent to eat in the airport - easier now than that used to be - and spend the rest of the time reading. Much more relaxing.)

My number one travel rule - and this applies to any mode of transportation, car or bus or even foot as well as plane - is: Always spend more time at your destination than you do in total transit. Scalzi says he's on "a week-long trip to Australia" and doesn't say if that includes travel time. It takes the better part of two days to get there, and if that's part of his week that would leave him only 3+ days there. I find it too wearying even to drive an hour if I'm not going to be there at least 2 hours, preferably more, and one reason I don't take the train to the City is that it means a 2-3 hour trip each way. I'm not going to be up there for 6 hours, and even as a passenger that's too much.

Comments

[ckd]

I've done one trans-Pacific round trip (LAX-NRT); it was in coach, but coach in November 2001 when planes were literally flying 2/3 empty and I could stretch out across a set of 5 seats.

I've done three trans-Atlantic round trips in the past 6 months; 5 of the 6 long legs were in lie-flat business class, and one was in Air France's Premium Economy (daytime flight, CDG-SEA). Having a lie-flat bed, and making sure the long leg is as long as possible (rather than connecting on the East Coast, connecting in Europe) makes it possible for me to get a 4-5 hour sleep and therefore make it through the arrival day without completely crashing.

My rule is much like yours: it's not a trip unless I'm on the ground at the destination longer than I'm in transit. This doesn't count layovers that are long enough to leave the airport and visit the city; a few years ago I had an 11 hour stop in London en route to Dubai and took advantage of the time to have lunch with a friend, take a shower, and see some museum exhibits before heading back to Heathrow.

[calimac]

As I was finding, 10-15 years ago, that it took up to 3 hours to make it through security and checkin at Heathrow (it's not as bad now), and it's about an hour by tube to central London, assuming nothing goes wrong on the tube (which it does, often enough to make it worrysome), that eats up half the time of an 11-hour layover, and by my rule I wouldn't go.

[ckd]

This was 2014, and I also cheated. Since I was already checked in for LHR-DXB (avoiding that line) and had left my checked bag in transit (minimizing what I was carrying), I was confident that I'd get through security fairly quickly. I still left downtown about 3.5h before scheduled departure and was back at LHR and through security with more than two hours to spare.

(Also, UK immigration took next to no time since my Irish passport worked perfectly well in the EU/EEA/UK biometric gates.)