In a sense, air travel is the great leveler - many who travel in first class still find the experience of long-distance air travel extremely unpleasant. Instead of accepting uncomfortable air travel as part of the price paid for traveling the globe, why not aim to reinvent the experience? To that end, here are some air travel tips designed to make those long flights much more pleasant, from the Luxury Reporter team member who claims to NEVER experience jet lag - Joseph Foote. Though he doesn’t practice medicine these days, Joseph originally trained and worked as a medical doctor, so there’s some science sprinkled in behind his jet lag beliefs.

Some background
It really is true that I never experience jet lag - last month I got back from a six-week tour of six continents, covering goodness only knows how many miles in all directions, and I never once had any symptoms of jet lag. I’ve traveled from New Zealand to Los Angeles and back many many times (a 12 hour flight), and I always hit the ground running and get into working or holidaying as soon as I touch down. I’ve tried here to set out the things I do that contribute to this. It’s a wonderful thing to look forward to long flights instead of dreading them.

Have a routine, not a series of tips you heard once…
As an overall point, I think it’s really important to have a set of things you do every time you take a significant flight, not just a smorgasbord of things that you might or might not do for a given flight. Find a routine that works, use it every time, and refine it over time.

Plan ahead
Jet lag really isn’t any fun, so I believe it’s worth investing some time planning in order to avoid it. Take the time to plan out the timing aspects of your flights, as discussed below, and give yourself the very best chance of having another great flight.

Get things off to a good start - don’t accept jet lag
I am consistently told that I must ‘hate’ all the flying I do, and that the jet lag must be awful. I make a point of always explaining that I never get jet lag, and that I look forward to long flights as an opportunity to sleep in, or to do some reading. Don’t make the mistake of conditioning yourself to expect or accept jet lag - expect to have wonderful flights, and then do what’s necessary to make that happen.

Sleep on the plane!
I’ve been told by many people that they just can’t sleep on planes. Well, I’m sure that some people have a tougher time than others - I’m not too tall, I have no physical challenges, and I’m slim - but I’m convinced that 95% of these people CAN sleep while flying. The question is why they generally don’t. The answer to this problem is the same asnwer I give people who suffer from insomnia at any time - when you really need it, you’ll sleep. To sleep soundly for 8-10 hours of a 12-hour flight, you need to time your sleep before the flight, so that you really do need to sleep. Traveling in business or first class helps, of course. Some other things that can help:

• Aisle seats have more potential for stretching out, and make it easier to get up to walk around
• Move immediately after the seatbelt sign comes off, if there are two or more empty seats together. The extra room is great. I’ve gone as far as to put items of clothing or books on the empty seats, so as to ‘reserve’ them.
• I always take off my shoes and socks as soon as I get on the plane, and if I’m traveling to or from a temperate climate I board the plane wearing leather sandals. I find that this little step improves my comfort level significantly.

Get in synch
This is the most important point, in my opinion… Look at the time you’ll arrive at your destination (in their timezone, not yours), and figure out which hours of the flight you should spend sleeping. For example, let’s imagine that I’m leaving Place A at 6pm Friday and flying for 12 hours to Place B, where it will be 11am Friday when I arrive. I’d choose to be awake from 2 or so hours before we arrive (i.e. 9am in the destination timezone) - counting back 8 hours, that means I’d like to get to sleep about 2 hours after the flight begins. (This works very nicely with the timing of meals, incidentally.) Sleeping 2 hours after departure means I need to be ready for sleep at only 8pm in the departure timezone. I’ll then time my sleep the night before so that I’ve had a long day by the time I get on the plane e.g. I’ll stay up very late, or rise at 3am if I need to. Make sense? Good! I can’t emphasize enough how important I think this is. I should mention that my strategy (sleep or stay awake) depends entirely on the timing of the trip - sometimes I do choose to spend the flying time working and reading.

Set your watch to the destination time when you board
Another aid to getting yourself in synch - highly recommended.

Exercise on arrival
This is a softer one for me - that is, I don’t think it’s an essential part of avoiding jet lag. It’s something I do anyway, but I do think that exercising helps get us back on track after a challenge such as a long flight or too much alcohol the night before! Actually, I highly recommend walking and stretching as much as possible on the plane, too.

Make corrections if necessary
The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry - if you travel often there will be times when your carefully planned sleep schedule is foiled, or when a flight just doesn’t lend itself to ideal sleep patterns. The end result will be that you arrive at your destination and you’re still not in synch. My preference in this case is to stay up as long as I need to in order to get back in synch - it’s much easier for me than trying to sleep for an inordinate length of time.

My secret weapon - the First Class Sleeper
Before I get started, let me make it clear that I don’t own shares in the company that produces the First Class Sleeper - aside from wishing I had invented it myself, I have no special connection with the company. On my last trip, though, I purchased a First Class Sleeper from www.1stclasssleeper.com, and tried it on a few long flights. I’ll write a full review and explanation another time, so for now I’ll just say that I won’t be traveling without it in future. It’s less than $40, and makes more of a difference than upgrading, for me. If you buy one, read the manual carefully and experiment as they suggest. For me, it’s much more comfortable to use very little inflation. If you’re more than a few inches taller than me (I’m 6′ / 183cm) you might not find it all that useful, as you really do need to be able to get your feet under the seat in front. I also recommend placing a piece of thin fabric of some kind between you and the First Class Sleeper - before I started using two layers of fabric between my skin and the nylon surface, it tended to make me sweat.

The First Class Sleeper in action - a slightly idealized image!

Other points
Here are my opinions on some of the other tips commonly given for avoiding jet lag.

• Take care with alcohol - if my plan for a flight involves staying awake, I avoid red wine. If my plan is to fall asleep immediately after the meal, I might just help myself to a nice Pinot Noir…
• Take even more care with coffee and other stimulants - remember that this can have a big impact on your ability to get to sleep.
• Drink plenty of water on the plane - this isn’t much better than the mindless ‘keep your fluids up’ advice we’re given all the time, but I do find it helpful. I find plane cabin air can really dry out my skin, so I like to use some kind of moisturizer if I remember it. Not vital, but one more little thing that helps me to feel in good shape when I arrive.
• Get some sun once you arrive - for me, this is par for the course if I’m arriving in the day time. I just get started on an ordinary day.
• If a trip is very short, consider staying on your local time - this is the best option sometimes, and is part of my pre-trip planning ‘toolkit’.
• Consider changing flights - if you have some flexibility with your itinerary, consider shuffling things slightly to optimize your trips on the basis on what you’ve learned from this article.

That’s all, folks!
I hope this advice will help you to travel with greater ease, and enjoy your flights much more. I’d love to hear any thoughts, comments or questions, so please feel free to email me on joseph.foote@luxuryreporter.com

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