How long is a 'long' flight?

[Aussie Cruisers]

This poll is because I keep reading that "Australia is soooo far to fly to" and I just don't understand why it is so hard for people. Fifteen hours to me is 'normal' if there is a normal.

 

So, I want to know what people think. :D

 

BTW - For me, I would say 19 hours is when the flight becomes "long."

[3some]

I put 8-12 hours, but that's mostly because of the time zone changes, not the flight time. If I were flying north and south, a long flight would be 15 hours or more. If I'm traveling east and west, 6 time zones seems to be the end of my comfort zone. For our flight to Australia in Nov, we're stopping in Honolulu overnight in order to have 2 10 hour legs instead of 1 20 hour leg.

 

Of course, the class of service can make a big difference. Traveling in First/Bus will always be easier than Coach, especially on a crowded airplane.

[Sheik]

12-16 is a long flight in my opinion. Our flight will take 27 hours to Auckland (Auch!!)

[Globaliser]

This poll is because I keep reading that "Australia is soooo far to fly to" and I just don't understand why it is so hard for people.

Different frames of reference. I see so many people posting on CC that they have never flown, or they have only flown twice in their lives, or whatever. And people who can't stand more than two hours in the air.

 

I practically grew up in aircraft. I did my first flight at age 5½ weeks, and I've never stopped since. I think my longest time between flights was about 18 months. And the fact that I have family and friends all over the world means that I am constantly on the move - probably 200 or so hours of flight time a year on average, although I think the current year's travelling will be even heavier than that.

 

My definition of "long" is "more than one sleep".

 

For anything up to about 14 hours or so, it's an easy "one sleep" - get on, take off, go to sleep, wake up, land, get off. Any flight like that isn't long, because the destination is therefore one that you can go to for the weekend - Hong Kong and Johannesburg being my two main destinations for that.

 

But the flights to Australia are "two sleep" flights, and you can't go to Australia just for the weekend. So that's my definition of "long". :D

[SheilaNC]

I checked 8-12 which is plenty long for me. On our trip to Sydney, we booked via Honolulu and spent 2 nights there...that gave us one 8 hour and one 10 flight and made the trip more pleasant, especially on the way back when our trip, thankfully, ended in Honolulu with a pleasant afternoon before our flight.

[M&A]

It's not so much the flight itself but the waiting around airports etc. For intance our flight last year to Aus, get to the airport a couple of hours before the flight - 35 mins to Toronto, 3 hour wait in Toronto - 5 hours to Vancouver, 3 hour wait in Vancouver - stop in Honolulu - everyone off the aircraft for refuel -10 hours Honolulu to sydney.

Arrive exhausted.

[Globaliser]

That, of course, is why frequent travellers will pay more to go on more direct routings. Instead of Toronto-Vancouver-Honolulu-Sydney, you could have done Toronto-Los Angeles-Sydney: 5¼ hours flight, 2½ hours connection, 14½ hours flight. It would have been less tiring.

[kaseyoz]

I have done the sydney to Uk or Italy flight (over 22 hours) many times so flights to the US do not seem that long to me. However I wish you guys were a little closer so we could come more often

[M&A]

That, of course, is why frequent travellers will pay more to go on more direct routings. Instead of Toronto-Vancouver-Honolulu-Sydney, you could have done Toronto-Los Angeles-Sydney: 5¼ hours flight, 2½ hours connection, 14½ hours flight. It would have been less tiring.

 

Yes but I had no choice I was using up my Air Canada frequent flyer miles so I was at their mercy and only paying the taxes.

 

For next years flight it looks like the fastest and cheapest is Air Nui Tahiti, has anyone had experience with them?

[Gsel]

Great Poll! As a former FA any flight that puts me in a seat and not up walking around makes it too long. Once I retired I found it very difficult to sit and watch others work. (No, they don't want me to help!) It is also very hard to "hurry up and wait" at airports, they can be very boring places, you can only do so much people watching. I was trained not to sleep on airplanes, and that is very hard training to break. I am really looking forward to our return visit to New Zealand and Australia, but not to the many hours of flying it takes to get there from Texas!

[cands]

Any distance in Economy is a long flight!

 

Any distance in proper Business or First is something to be savoured.

 

It's going to take 30hrs for me to travel from Melbourne to Rome next month (Melbourne - Singapore - London - Rome), but I don't care in the least. Qantas Business class to Singapore, British Airways flat bed Business from Singapore to London, nice lounges.

Thank goodness for frequent flyer points!

 

Steve.

[Aussie Cruisers]

It's not so much the flight itself but the waiting around airports etc. For intance our flight last year to Aus, get to the airport a couple of hours before the flight - 35 mins to Toronto, 3 hour wait in Toronto - 5 hours to Vancouver, 3 hour wait in Vancouver - stop in Honolulu - everyone off the aircraft for refuel -10 hours Honolulu to sydney.

Arrive exhausted.

 

This is very true. I think if the airport is interesting (I love Geneva airport - go to the caviar shops) it makes it more comfortable. :D

[JAKE3337]

I put 8-12 hours, but that's mostly because of the time zone changes, not the flight time. If I were flying north and south, a long flight would be 15 hours or more. If I'm traveling east and west, 6 time zones seems to be the end of my comfort zone. For our flight to Australia in Nov, we're stopping in Honolulu overnight in order to have 2 10 hour legs instead of 1 20 hour leg.

 

Of course, the class of service can make a big difference. Traveling in First/Bus will always be easier than Coach, especially on a crowded airplane.

 

I'm with you, it is more the time zones that gets me than the time on the plane.....I voted 8-12 hours as well.

 

Angela

[SelectSys]

My definition of "long" is "more than one sleep".

 

That is truly a long flight. For US west coast residents these are the trips to the Indian Subcontinent, parts of Southeast Asia and most of Africa. The mid east is now a "one sleep" flight given EK's new service from LAX and SFO. Dealing with resulting jet lag from an 11 hour time difference is still tough.

 

I put 8-12 hours, but that's mostly because of the time zone changes, not the flight time. If I were flying north and south, a long flight would be 15 hours or more. ... Of course, the class of service can make a big difference. Traveling in First/Bus will always be easier than Coach, especially on a crowded airplane.

 

I agree with this regarding being impacted by jet lag. Going to Latin America and even Australia (especially in our winter) is easy as the time change isn't so dramatic.

 

I learned the meaning of suffering in coach on AOM. It set my record in terms of long haul discomfort. I doubt the seat pitch was greater than 30".

[mochuck]

I guess all the people voting for 8 - 12 hours are American

[JAKE3337]

I guess all the people voting for 8 - 12 hours are American

 

Canadian too! You guys are used to the long flights as anywhere you fly is long where as for us in North American, many lights are under 8 hours when we travel to the US, Canada, Mexico or any of the Carribean islands

 

Angela

[Aquarians]

Canadian too! You guys are used to the long flights as anywhere you fly is long where as for us in North American, many lights are under 8 hours when we travel to the US, Canada, Mexico or any of the Carribean islands

 

Angela

Kia ora koutou katoa,

From NZ, to get anywhere in the northern hemisphere involves a long flight. To fly to Europe usually involves two twelve hour flights (aprox) but depending on conditions etc can take in excess of 14 hours each leg. With airport time at the refuelling stop 30+ hours travelling time is common, which is why we like to break it into two flights with a stopover in between. Even this involves time on the plane of anything between 12 to 14+ hours!

Aquarians

[sayaguru]

Hi, I said 12-16hrs. When you live in Australia you don't have a lot of choice but take long flights. Europe in April. Yeehah! Hoping to incorporate a cruise in there too.

 

I recently began logging my flights on Flight Memory. These are my stats. It's interesting how the milage adds up. It turns out I have circumnavigated the globe 5.98 times. And I only logged from 2003. WOW! No wonder my hubby says I'm never home. :D

 

Longest Flight (distance):7,785 mi, 14:25 h, Sydney (Kingsford Smith) - Bahrain, 04-01-2005 Longest Flight (duration):14:25 h, 7,785 mi, Sydney (Kingsford Smith) - Bahrain, 04-01-2005 Shortest Flight (distance): 98 mi, 0:41 h, Athens (Eleftherios Venizelos) - Naxos, 04-24-2005 Shortest Flight (duration): 0:41 h, 98 mi, Athens (Eleftherios Venizelos) - Naxos, 04-24-2005 Fastest Flight: 540 mi/h, 7,785 mi, 14:25 h, Sydney (Kingsford Smith) - Bahrain, 04-01-2005 Slowest Flight: 143 mi/h, 98 mi, 0:41 h, Athens (Eleftherios Venizelos) - Naxos, 04-24-2005 Average Flight:2,566 mi, 5:05 h

[Globaliser]

Longest Flight (distance):7,785 mi, 14:25 h, Sydney (Kingsford Smith) - Bahrain, 04-01-2005

As a matter of interest, who was this with? I didn't know anyone had ever operated SYD-BAH.

[pcur]

I checked 8-12 which is plenty long for me. On our trip to Sydney, we booked via Honolulu and spent 2 nights there...that gave us one 8 hour and one 10 flight and made the trip more pleasant, especially on the way back when our trip, thankfully, ended in Honolulu with a pleasant afternoon before our flight.

 

Me, too, only backwards! We are flying Perth - Sydney and staying overnight. That's about 4 hours in the air right there. Then Sydney - Honolulu in business class, over night in Honolulu. Then Honolulu - LAX. Much more relaxing to break it up.

[sayaguru]

Hi Globaliser.

I just looked at my travel book and it seems I made a mistake. Even though it was listed as one flight. We actually had a half hour refuel stop at Singapore so I'll have to change that.

 

It was with Gulf Air. We were supposed to go direct to Dubai with Emirates (14.5 hours) but it ended up taking 23.5 by the time we got there (exhausted).

[charliegirlac]

Hi,

 

I put 12-16 hours because by 16 hours I start needing a sleep. I cant sleep on planes - find it very difficult. This makes the flight to the USA just alright and can do it in one hit (although heading to Canada after it makes it a longer trip but it is a short flight so still bearable) I just did a Europe trip and I decided the way I did it is the way to go. Melbourne to Singapore, spend a night, Singapore to London. Same going back. Breaking it up means I get to spend 15 hours (ish) in a plane and then a nice sleep! I dont think I will ever do it in one hit - I would be in a coma by the time I got there! My father in law has just done a huge flight - melbourne, hong kong, heathrow, belfast. He had a 4 hour lay over in heathrow as well so total travel time was well over 30 hours and he left melbourne at midnight after working all day (it was an emergency flight).

 

Carly

[Globaliser]

We actually had a half hour refuel stop at Singapore ...

Thanks - I was wondering if I'd been having a senior moment! (Plenty of them, though.)

 

I was thinking about this thread when looking at an itinerary for later in the year: Miami-London-Bangkok-Sydney in (almost) one hit; "almost" because we are having 12 hours off in London to drop off one lot of clothes and pick up the next lot before continuing. It had to be booked this way because of packages (one end is a cruise). I think that if it counts as a single journey, it will probably be the longest one for me. (The previous record was Miami-London-Dubai-Male, a true single journey because I didn't go home when connecting in London.)

[bqkali]

I chose 12-16, but my answer is biased because I have never had a single flight that was that long. My longest non-stop flight was 6.5 hours, but I have had several very long travel days with multi-stop flights in combination with several hours of driving/train to or from the airports. I find 14-15 hours of travel to be comfortable, though I can imagine if more of my time was spent in air and less on the train, I might feel differently. More than this I'm sure would be "too long" for me, but I also can't sleep anywhere but a bed - which is quite a hindrance on a long flight! :cool:

[moyaroo]

This poll is because I keep reading that "Australia is soooo far to fly to" and I just don't understand why it is so hard for people. Fifteen hours to me is 'normal' if there is a normal.

 

So, I want to know what people think. :D

 

BTW - For me, I would say 19 hours is when the flight becomes "long."

 

 

Actually IMNSHO the 14 hours to Sydney from the US (average back and forth) isn't as far as the 8-10 hours to Europe from the US East coast. Why? because on the longer flight you can actually eat dinner catch a movie and then sleep. Whereas on the Europe flights they turn the lights on for breakfast just about the time I am ready to sleep. So the longer one is more comfortable than the shorter one! Of course the airline and configuration of seats is a factor as much as time a well.