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Story time :) I have a relative who used to work for American, so I had the opportunity to fly on standby for a few years (D2 for anyone who plays the nonrev g
by nlh 6y ago
Story time :)
I have a relative who used to work for American, so I had the opportunity to fly on standby for a few years (D2 for anyone who plays the nonrev game). They have reciprocal agreements with a bunch of airlines around the world.
I was flying Iberia from Tel Aviv to Madrid once and just barrrrrrrely managed to squeeze on a flight. It was a 6am flight that I assumed would be empty but happened to get overbooked because of another canceled flight, so all those magical empty seats vanished before my eyes.
They managed to squeeze me on in one of the flight attendant jump seats - not the one in the cockpit, but the super uncomfortable vertical half-seats at the front of the plane. The only other standby passenger was the husband of one of the flight attendants.
Right after we took off, his wife came up to both of us and said “hey it’s 6am, you guys look tired - do you want to sleep in the crew rest?” I mean, why not?
So he took the bottom bunk and I took the top one - I think this was an A330 or 340 — it wasn’t nearly as fancy as the 787 here, but it was damn cozy. Pitch black, full lay flat, and I slept the whole 5 hours like it was 5 minutes.
Later a few friends told me this was absurdly against every regulation and that I basically had a once-in-a-lifetime experience. But I guess shrug Iberia Airlines, eh?
- bjarneh 6y ago> and I slept the whole 5 hours like it was 5 minutes That's an experience I've never had on a flight
- skocznymroczny 6y agoI'm so jealous of people who can sleep on long distance flights. When the lights turn off, most people seem to have no issue falling asleep and then wake up several hours later. Meanwhile I have to stare at the window for all those hours. I can try to sleep, but I won't fall asleep anyway, no matter how tired I am.
- bjarneh 6y agoSame here, what a nightmare it is to take those long flights. I once waited 9 hours at an airport for a 12 hour flight; seldom been more exhausted than that. It wasn't even the last leg, so even more airports/waiting when we arrived. Is there a worse place to wait than those airports? The shops sell Rolex watches, Hugo Boss suits, alcohol (let me lug some bottles of vine/booze across the globe to save $12) + perfume. Obviously some overpriced cafe's and restaurants there as well, but not exactly a cool place to "hang out".
- Cthulhu_ 6y agoI've spent some time in a VIP lounge once (it may have been for a train ride to Paris for which the first class ticket was just as expensive as a regular one), came on time on purpose just to sit there for a change :p. It was quiet, empty, you got offered a drink, etc. If it was a long layover, sleeping was likely an option, and with the attendant there you could ask them to wake you up if there was an issue with the flight. But, theoreticals; flying first class is 3-6x as expensive and I'm not convinced it's worth it.
- Scoundreller 6y agoDepends on the airport and lounge, but you can often buy your way in for $30-$40. As the food and alcohol are free, it’s not a bad deal if you’re hungry and thirsty but not picky. Plus it’s a bit more secure so you can feel less worried about sleeping and your luggage going missing. If you’re lucky, there might not even be any babies or children.
- matz1 6y agoI think 3x as expensive is still worth it for long haul flight. One business seat space equal to about 3 economy seat space and you also got lounge access and priority checkin.
- mikepurvis 6y agoAs a regular pleb who has only ever flown coach, I'm feel like first class is mostly people for whom the alternative is private/charter— viewed through that lens, it's a huge discount, and the extra perks are small compensation for hassles like abiding by someone else's schedule, having to use a major rather than regional airport, and needing to go through regular security (even with getting to use the priority queue).
- jedberg 6y agoMost of the people sitting in first class and using the lounge are frequent business travelers on upgrade. I've had lounge access a few times because my father in law used to travel from California to Asia every other month for a large part of his career, so now he has lifetime lounge access and can bring guests. Sometimes when we travel together some of us get bumped up to first. And when my dad was flying cross country every week for work, he was almost always sitting in first class on upgrade. But we're definitely not going to be flying private. :)
- pivo 6y agoPre-pandemic I would fly from Boston to India via Dubai six to eight times a year. It takes about 22 hours or so including layover. I take an Ambian an hour or two into the Boston-Dubai leg and with that I can sleep for seven hours or so. Before that I might be able to sleep for an hour if I was lucky. It really makes a huge difference.
- Taniwha 6y agoYup that's what I do too, better living through chemistry - I also split really long flights in two, spend the day somewhere in the middle and sleep two nights on the plane. Don't make the mistake I did of taking them before take-off ... and then have the plane discover a fault on the runway ....
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- tgsovlerkhgsel 6y agoA cheap tablet can last for many, many hours on low brightness when playing movies, even without charging from a battery pack/laptop/seat port.
- throwaway189262 6y agoI've got a cheap samsung tab from 2017 with absurd 7000mah battery. Play movies full brightness for 7 hours. I only use it for flights but so worth it
- bitxbitxbitcoin 6y agoThere was a period of time in my life when I could reliably fall asleep before take off and not wake up until after landing. Key points are to not recline your seat and make sure your seatbelt is visibly buckled so nobody wakes you up.
- grugagag 6y agoI sleep better on flying planes than on the ground. It's possibly the humming and the calming effect induced on me. Somehow I think this is a learned experience but I may be wrong. I just imposed on myself to be relaxed as I used to be very anxious and tense when I was flying. A few times of trying this and now I fall asleep as soon as the plane takes off and many times I skip the meals offered on the plane altogether because I'm deeply asleep. I somehow associated the experience of flying with something very relaxing that my such that body anticipates the flight, I already start yawning when I'm boarding the plane.
- rsynnott 6y agoSame. I've never slept on one of these. It makes flying from the US west coast to Europe particularly unpleasant, as those flights usually arrive in the morning/early afternoon of the next day.
- Semaphor 6y agoI usually fall asleep during taxi. It’s one of the reasons I don’t like driving a car, anything that moves makes me sleepy. I can sleep in cars, trains, buses & boats without a problem, even if I wasn’t tired before.
- beisner 6y agoI have this too, and refer to it as carcolepsy.
- strictnein 6y agoBefore kids I would semi-frequently fall asleep while taxiing and wake up when landing. It almost felt magical when that happened, like travel was instantaneous.
- gadders 6y agoI'm normally asleep before take off and sleep the whole flight. My wife and daughter normally just park me up against the window for the duration. I normally wake with bit of a fright when the wheels touch down for landing though.
- chrisseaton 6y agoI once got on a plane in the UK, feel asleep at the gate before we pushed back, and woke up on wheels down in New York.
- throwaway0a5e 6y agoThis is why they have alcohol in airports. If you want to be polite it's probably worth telling the crew to wake you if you snore. And before the anyone tries to swoop in and score virtue points by linking to some study about how alcohol reduces "muh quality REM sleep" I'd just like to remind everyone that the alternative here is not sleeping on your flight.
- dawnerd 6y agoI snore so loudly that I just can't sleep on a plane at all without feeling like a jerk. I fell asleep at SFO after coming back from Paris once and everyone was laughing at me.
- praptak 6y agoYou may get lucky with the anti-snore mouthpiece. I bought a boil-to-fit one for like $15 and it cut my snoring from epic to almost none.
- dawnerd 6y agoFirst I've heard of that, will definitely look into it.
- praptak 6y agoSome random, maybe useful info. The mouthpiece works by preventing the jaw from recessing back. From my pre-purchase research I found out there are 2 main causes for snoring, this works for one of them. Before the first use you put the mouthpiece into very hot water, bite it with jaw going forward, then let it cool down. You can reshape it the same way later in case the fit is not good enough. This was the case with me - I was waking up with a totally sore jaw (too much forward shift). After the reshape it is much better. People report it is possible to make it possible to breathe through the mouthpiece. I found it unnecessary - maybe it even improves the airflow through the nose (I am not sure - could be placebo). Googleable keywords is "mandibular advancement device". Good luck.
- dehrmann 6y ago> When the lights turn off, most people seem to have no issue falling asleep and then wake up several hours later. I have a feeling they're all struggling to sleep or sleeping poorly.
- dkersten 6y agoPoor sleep is still better than the boredom of hours on a plane.
- nlh 6y agoMy friends tease me that this is one of my (few) superpowers - I can sleep comfortably for 5+ hours on long-haul flights in coach. Honestly, it's been a trial-and-error process. I discovered a few things that work for me (YMMV, of course): * Length of flight helps. I NEVER could sleep on international flights to Europe when I lived in NYC, because those flights were ~6-7 hours, which is, I think, the worst possible length for sleeping. By the time dinner service is done and the lights are out, there's about 3-4 hours of solid quiet time before they start prepping for breakfast/coffee service. Not enough. When I moved to SF, the 10-12 hour flights to Europe turned out to be the perfect length. * Time of flight helps. The best possible flight for sleeping for me are the 7pm departures out of SFO that land in Europe 10-12 hours later. That's basically normal sleep time for me, so my body is actually in sync with the flight. * Supplements help. The magic combo for me is 3mg of melatonin + 1 glass of red wine :)
- geoelectric 6y agoRe: supplements, there are a few to stay away from. Ambien has costarred in a few of those "I'm sorry, they did what?" stories. It can make your behavior random if you don't fall asleep quickly or get woken early.
- junkrat002 6y agoI seem to have developed a Pavlovian reflex. About 30 seconds after takeoff, I can't stay awake to save my life. My wife hates flying with me.
- davidw 6y agoNo kidding. On the other hand, if it weren't for people like me holding the plane up by the armrests... bad things would happen, right?
- atombender 6y agoIt's magical. I once fell asleep before takeoff (which I've never been able to do since), and woke up exactly as the plane landed, some 7 hours later, and it felt like I had been teleported. It's the reason that I fantasize about planes one day offering real beds — or at least seats that can be put (in economy class, mind you) into a flat position.
- PaulDavisThe1st 6y agoI managed this once on a 14hr long-haul from London to Vancouver (refuel in Goose Bay, because it was a a cheap flight!). Other than the refuel land/takeoff, I slept the entire flight. But only because I had only just started my paid career as a software engineer, my boss had gone on vacation leaving me to run the computer systems at a multinational research facility, and I had worked for 72 hours without any sleep right before leaving :) I don't think we'll ever get bunk planes as long as revenue maximization is at the core of the airlines' operations.
- benjohnson 6y agoBunks would let airlines cram more people into the same volume. Sadly, the requirement for everybody to be able to leave a burning plane quickly gets in the way of that particular dream.
- Scoundreller 6y agoThe trick is to fly trans-oceanically during a pandemic: then you can snipe 3 seats to yourself in economy. It can also happen if you fly into an airport that was closed for the week before because it was bombed.
- prpl 6y agoI flew Chile to US in April (last flight out for a month). There was about 50 passengers on a 787
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- zentiggr 6y agoMy separation flight, returning CONUS from Pearl Harbor, was a late night 747 to SFO. New Years Eve of the millenium, so most people were already where they were going to be on earlier flights. I had an entire mid-plane six-seat row to myself, threw on two seatbelts since I know I roll when I sleep, and caught 9 hours over the Pacific. Still remember that one twenty years later.
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- jedberg 6y agoThe flight from Hawaii to SFO is only five hours...
- dotancohen 6y agoHe woke up in New York, and had to hitch a ride back...
- zentiggr 6y agoTwenty years makes it feel longer :) Maybe that was how long it took to get out there.
- Kipters 6y ago8 years ago I flew PMO-LIN on an (Alitalia) A320 at 6 am, only six passengers on board including me. Just before falling asleep I managed to see the sun rising on the quietest flight I've ever taken. Just one and half an hour, but it felt like I had never slept before :D Incidentally, that was the trip that actually started my career as a developer.
- lozaning 6y agoPoor man's business class, and entire row of economy to yourself.
- ben509 6y agoManaged to sleep once on a flight. I was fairly drunk and exhausted boarding, put some Mack's earplugs in and passed out. That was magical.
- yardie 6y agoHoly shit! I hoped no one ever mentions it again. Corporate would have complete shitshow if they figured out who gave access. There is a reason they don't even allow non-working crew back there and crew safety is the #1. Could you imagine the shitshow if any passenger got back there and assaulted one of the crew.
- tgsovlerkhgsel 6y agoMy guess is nobody from the crew was planning to use the crew rest for the 5 hour flight?
- yardie 6y agoEither the crew director didn't know or they didn't care but letting anyone into the crew rest area 100% get's you fired in most airlines. Airlines already have enough problems with passengers fornicating in the lavatory, if they knew there was a dark, secluded room with beds aboard just adds a whole other layer of liability.
- markdown 6y agoAside from smoking or something that requires a flight attendant to clean up a mess after, how exactly is what goes on in the lavatory a problem?
- rtkwe 6y agoIt ties up the lavatory which is a pretty limited resource on a large long flight for one.
- dotancohen 6y agoFor another, it they're doing it right (not just for a checkmark on a list) then there is a non-insignificant chance of being heard. That makes other passengers uncomfortable.
- 6y ago
- wilsonrocks 6y agoIberia Airlines were scary when I had to have two extra flights with them including unplanned stops in Madrid and Cairo
- footballnate29 6y agoMan that's luck!
- hourislate 6y agoThis would never have happened on AA or any other US Carrier. You were flying Z fare not D2.
- nlh 6y agoYes you are absolutely correct. I meant D2 as in that’s what I flew when I flew AA.