[D.C.]

If you've read my tipping thread you would probably know that I'm going to L.A. later this month. The flight time from Brisbane International Airport to LAX including the two hour stopover in New Zealand is 16 hours... that's too long for my liking. Luckily Qantas has a pretty awesome in-flight entertainment system with some pretty cool movies... usually. The flight to Los Angeles has a pretty stupid selection of movies. (Although The movies on the way back are pretty cool with Master and Commander, School of Rock, and Welcome To The Jungle which I think was called The Rundown in the U.S. ) Also there is a pretty huge timezone difference that is gonna seriously screw with my head.

What's the longest flight you've been on and what did you do to pass the time.

[Curt]

Hm, the longest direct flight I've been on was 13 hours, Johannesburg to London (1986). We (my sister and I) flew on South Africa Airways which was extremely nice. I remember they started an in-flight movie about an hour after take off (Brewster's millions) but I fell asleep shortly after due to the free red wine I'd been downing. I awoke about 3 hours before touchdown in London, chatting mainly with my sister and the South African guy in our row.

The longest journey with stops was when we originally flew out to Johannesburg from London in 1981. The company that my Dad worked for kindly booked us on the cheapest flight they could arrange. It went like this:

Sudan Airways from London to Frankfurt (spent most the journey worrying that the plane would fall apart).
1 1/2 hour wait at Frankfurt for passenger changes.
Sudan Airways from Frankfurt to Khartoum, Sudan (slept most of the way, having overcome my fear of the plane falling apart).
3 hour wait at Khartoum for refuelling, where the temperature was about 35C when we arrived and 0C when we took off again. Refused to use the toilet facilities there after my sister claimed to have seen cockroaches the size of rats in the womens toilet. The floor outside, where we waited, seemed to be full of Sudanese men in long, white robes all fast asleep resting their heads on their hands, on the concrete.
Sudan Airways from Khartoum to Nairobi, Kenya. Looked out the plane window for much of the journey, mesmerized by the amazing African landscape.
2 hour wait at Nairobi whereby I spent much of the time either worrying about the guards with the big guns, looking at all the ivory carvings on sale at unbelievably high prices, or looking out the window expecting to see wild lions roaming the airport (I was 14 and knew next to nothing about Africa ).
Changed to British Airways at Nairobi for the last leg of the journey to Johannesburg.
This last leg was the best part of the journey for a number of reasons:
The plane was half empty and 3 times the size of the Sudan Airways plane. It was utter luxury in comparison. The views of the landscape were even more incredible. The food was palatable. And best of all, the stewardess took my brother and I into the cockpit to meet the crew and look around, including out of the windows as we flew so high, which was absolutely awesome.

We finally touched down 23 hours after leaving London. The amazing thing was, here we were heading from a relatively cool country to Africa, which one pictures as always hot and sunny, and there was snow on the ground. Johannesburg had just experienced her first snowfall in 27 years only 2 days before.

Thanks, SerialFreak, for giving me the chance to re-live my journeys.

[D.C.]

Originally Posted by Curt

Hm, the longest direct flight I've been on was 13 hours, Johannesburg to London (1986). We (my sister and I) flew on South Africa Airways which was extremely nice. I remember they started an in-flight movie

It's cool how these days new planes have individual screens... much more variety. Why were you going to South Africa? Holiday?

Originally Posted by Curt

Sudan Airways from London to Frankfurt (spent most the journey worrying that the plane would fall apart).
1 1/2 hour wait at Frankfurt for passenger changes.
Sudan Airways from Frankfurt to Khartoum, Sudan (slept most of the way, having overcome my fear of the plane falling apart).

Call me crazy... but I don't think I'd trust flying on a non-western airliner. Even if it was cheaper. (I haven't flown enough to even develop a fear of flying but I think flying on one of those airliners would definately create the fear. )

Originally Posted by Curt

looking out the window expecting to see wild lions roaming the airport (I was 14 and knew next to nothing about Africa ).

It could happen... tourists who come to Australia still expect to see Kangaroos and Koalas roaming downtown Sydney.

Originally Posted by Curt

We finally touched down 23 hours after leaving London. The amazing thing was, here we were heading from a relatively cool country to Africa, which one pictures as always hot and sunny, and there was snow on the ground. Johannesburg had just experienced her first snowfall in 27 years only 2 days before.

Guess I shouldn't really complain about 16 hours... but I can and will! There's also going to be the extended security at airports. Luckily Australia is a Visa Waiver country and I won't have to be fingerprinted and photographed. (Although I support the implementation of this security system.)

[Garyos]

Bergen--->Amsterdam--->New York--->Mexico City. I don't remember how long, but I think about 12 hours. I think I slept most of the time, and remember that I woke up at the ending of Shrek, which I hadn't seen yet at that time...

...And I remember that they showed a pretty cool movie on the bus out of Mexico city, which I thought was horribly violent at the tender age of 13... It had Jim (or John?) Belushi as a psychopat who tries to kill some girl for some reason, but she escapes into an underground lab where some scientist just made a time travel machine... And then she travels back in time and Belushi tries to kill her again, only now she knows about it... It was actually a brilliantly cool movie. Heh, I need to check it on imdb...

[Swordmaster]

The longest one I've taken was Helsinki-Bangkok-Singapore. It was over ten years ago and I don't remember much about it, except that we were in business class because it was a business trip for my father. I probably slept through most of it - I was ten years old back then.

The second longest was last Summer, Helsinki-Amsterdam-New York, which took about 10 hours with a couple of hours of waiting at Schiphol airport. On the way to New York, I mostly watched the movies shown, listened to music on my MD player, read some book and slept a couple of hours. On the way back, I slept most of the way since it was a night flight. It was more painless than I feared in advance.

[D.C.]

Other people must have some flight stories?

[nordic_guy]

I hate flights. Not because I'm scared, just because they are so damn uncomofortable and boring.
I do most in-flights, though. Or whatever it's called when you're flying "innenlands". I'm on a flight the day after tomorrow to Bergen.
Yup, that's my boring flight story.

[Garyos]

Originally Posted by nordic_guy

I hate flights. Not because I'm scared, just because they are so damn uncomofortable and boring.
I do most in-flights, though. Or whatever it's called when you're flying "innenlands". I'm on a flight the day after tomorrow to Bergen.
Yup, that's my boring flight story.

What're you doing in Bergen, Nordic?

[nordic_guy]

Originally Posted by Garyos

What're you doing in Bergen, Nordic?

It's kind of a funny story. Except it's not. No, I'm just doing some competing.

[Erkki]

I've only flown once and even then I jumped out of the plane in mid air

[tabacco]

12 hours nonstop San Francisco to London. That was a two part flight, though. 12 hours to London, 2 hours layover, then another couple hours from London to Rome.

And you've got some good movies... Lost in Translation, Finding Nemo, Seabiscuit (which I never saw, but heard was good), and, if all else fails, Matrix Revolutions

[D.C.]

I've never seen Finding Nemo. I definately don't want to be sleeping on the plane... I know it's a huge flight but I think it would be horrible.

[DustCropper]

Since I lived in the Middle East for 16 years, and because my dad's company paid for round trip tickets back home every summer, I've grown to enjoy those long international flights. It gives me the opportunity to get a lot of reading done. Plus I can drink all the wine I want and nobody can complain.

[tabacco]

Originally Posted by SerialFreak

I've never seen Finding Nemo. I definately don't want to be sleeping on the plane... I know it's a huge flight but I think it would be horrible.

It's a damn good movie. Remember, it's not the highest grossing animated film of all time for nothing

[D.C.]

tabacco: The box office means nothing. Also Pixar is slightly overrated. (I admit the only Pixar movie I've seen is Toy Story.)

DustCropper: How long are the flights?

[DustCropper]

Originally Posted by SerialFreak

DustCropper: How long are the flights?

Well, my most recent trip was from LA to Amsterdam (at 11 hours long), a 4 hour lay over (long, but not long enough to go into town ), Amsterdam to Bahrain (about 7 hours), a 1 hour lay over (they don't let you off the plane for this), and then 45 minutes to Abu Dhabi.

It's nice how they have a direct flight from LA to Amsterdam. When I used to travel from Abu Dhabi to Houston, we had to stop at Minneapolis, which was a really really big pain, because they make you re-check your luggage.

[D.C.]

What airliner did you fly on? I don't mind the fact that I've got a stopover in New Zealand but there's definately not enough time to actually see a little bit of Auckland.

Around NYE (After I watched the Times Square stuff on CNN) I checked to see how long the flight times were to New York City... Look at flight time and the stopovers. http://wftc3.e-travel.com/pl/QFinternational/en/OverrideServlet?EMBEDDED_TRANSACTION=ValuePricerSe rvlet&SO_SITE_PREFERRED_CARRIER=QFAO&SO_SITE_FC_IN CLUDE_AIRLINES=QFAO&LANGUAGE=GB&TRIP_TYPE=R&B_LOCA TION_1=BNE&E_LOCATION_1=JFK&B_DATE_1=200411050100& B_DATE_2=200411061200&TRAVELLER_TYPE_1=ADT&SEVEN_D AY_SEARCH=TRUE&CUSTOMER_TYPE=P&ARRANGE_BY=N&SITE=Q FI&SITE_FROM=6&CABIN=E

[tabacco]

Originally Posted by SerialFreak

tabacco: The box office means nothing. Also Pixar is slightly overrated. (I admit the only Pixar movie I've seen is Toy Story.)

Ah, well then, I'm not sure you're qualified to comment :p

[D.C.]

I'll watch Finding Nemo though... it looks pretty good.

[DustCropper]

Originally Posted by SerialFreak

What airliner did you fly on? I don't mind the fact that I've got a stopover in New Zealand but there's definately not enough time to actually see a little bit of Auckland.

Around NYE (After I watched the Times Square stuff on CNN) I checked to see how long the flight times were to New York City... Look at flight time and the stopovers. http://wftc3.e-travel.com/pl/QFinternational/en/OverrideServlet?EMBEDDED_TRANSACTION=ValuePricerSe rvlet&SO_SITE_PREFERRED_CARRIER=QFAO&SO_SITE_FC_IN CLUDE_AIRLINES=QFAO&LANGUAGE=GB&TRIP_TYPE=R&B_LOCA TION_1=BNE&E_LOCATION_1=JFK&B_DATE_1=200411050100& B_DATE_2=200411061200&TRAVELLER_TYPE_1=ADT&SEVEN_D AY_SEARCH=TRUE&CUSTOMER_TYPE=P&ARRANGE_BY=N&SITE=Q FI&SITE_FROM=6&CABIN=E

Yikes! 34 hours of travel... not including transportation to and from the airport... that's one awful journey

The airline I flew was KLM, though sometimes we take Alitalia.