After my post ‘My first experience on a long-haul flight‘ I thought it would be helpful to write down some tips for surviving a long-haul flight. These are my tips which I found that helped me on this long flight or which I wish I knew before flying:

1. Comfortable clothes – you might like to travel in decent clothes and some makeup (what I like to call ‘to look/feel like a human’), which is all fine however you should pack a change of clothes meaning jogging pants, loose top and even some comfy shoes/thick socks – trust me on a 14 hours flight no one cares how you look!
2. Blanket/layers – I wish I have considered/known this one before, I was sitting in the aisle and I was FREEZING. The airline provides you with a blanket but for me, this was not enough – I was feeling cold most of the flight, which is not a nice feeling for a long period of time. I even had a hoody on but nothing seemed to be enough. So if you feel cold easily (even if you don’t) you should pack some kind of blanket or multiple layers which you can take off if you feel that they are too much.
3. Prepare some entertainment – whether you like reading or watching series prepare them in advance so you can kill time. It is a very long flight and you will get bored at some point and wish you didn’t do this for yourself so be prepared to keep yourself busy as much as possible with things you like doing. You can even use some of this time to do something which you always want to do but keep putting off like editing those pictures from that holiday 2 years ago!
4. Sleep – I dare say that surviving such a long flight without sleeping is impossible. Personally, I found it hard to sleep and was waking up quite often but I forced myself to close my eyes.
5. Take earphones – again like the blanket the airline provides you with a set of newly packed earphones but I guess most people are attached to their fancy rose gold earphones which they find more comfy or are used to. You should also prepare a playlist with your favourite music and possibly some soft music to help you fall asleep.
6. Have things ready so you can refresh yourself – we all know how small and uncomfortable aircraft toilets are but it is important to try and refresh yourself in that tiny space. Take some wipes, face wipes, toothbrush and toothpaste, deodorant and whatever you think you would need/like to freshen up. 7 hours into that flight – you would thank yourself for this! Remember not to pack any liquids in containers larger than 100ml!
7. Pack all the necessary medicines – this is an obvious one but pack some paracetamol and any medicine that you might need or generally take. If you use lenses, it is highly recommended that you take them off and wear your glasses. All that self-consciousness you have while wearing glasses will quickly go away when your eyes start reddening and burning!
8. Pack some snacks and water – I always like to have some water with me on the aircraft, however, this time due to the hectic adventure we had before (see my post My first experience on a long-haul flight) it was not possible to buy water after security so I ended up having no large amount of water. Whenever I asked for water I was provided with such without any problems. The problem was that they only filled up a tiny plastic cup at a time. Some people even had empty plastic bottles which the stewards were willing to fill up with water. You should also pack some snacks even though you would be given meals on the plan. When that sweet tooth kicks in it would be a bliss to have that chocolate handy in your bag.
9. Have all the necessary things mentioned above easily accessible in the hand luggage – it goes without saying that such things you would keep in a hand luggage with you but make sure that you pack them in a way that they are easily accessible. I would suggest that you have small bags for different things e.g. like one for snacks and another for toiletries. This would be very handy when you need to reach for that pack of crackers.
10. Book seats in advance – they might be expensive but oh they are so worth it. You really don’t want to be stuck in the middle of the row having four seats. We booked two seats next to each other in a row having only two seats – so we were basically on our own. We also had them by the side so we had a compartment by the side which we could use as a storage and when it closes we could also use it as an extra small table.

That’s it for my part – let me know if you have some more tips which might be helpful for everyone planning a holiday which requires a long haul flight.