The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Airplanes are essential if you want to get to a place quickly, and since I have been traveling for a while now, I have noticed a few things. Sometimes this can be good, but we humans tend to see more negatively to things, plus, I have to make the topic a bit more entertaining, so I have written more negatives than positives.

 To start, here are the positives!:

  1. Number of bathrooms. I never really thought about having many bathrooms in an airport as a good thing, but in case of emergency, having bathrooms within 30 seconds of reach is extremely useful – especially if you’re about to puke. 
  2. Movies. It’s not all bad, though. Depending on the airline, (especially when you’re on a long flight) you can watch movies! This is usually my highlight if I’m going on a plane especially because I usually never get to watch movies in my free time. Although, some airlines, typically cheap ones require you to buy the movie.

Now for the less appealing ones – the negatives:

  1. Cost. Even if you want to get a cheap bottle of water, the prices are way higher than usual. It makes it quite hard to find a nice last meal in the country if you’re on a tight budget. Even the ticket for the airplane is expensive. 
  2. Airplane windows. This one always annoys me. Sometimes when you’re on the window seat, instead of windows, the row of seats you’re sitting on can be facing the wall bit of the plane; the part in between the two windows. Even if you get a window, it’s never perfectly aligned and off to the side. For the people on the plane that get the walls instead of windows, I’m sorry for you – unless you get two windows.

3. Food. The food on airplanes always bothered me. I understand that you’re many thousands of feet above the air, but even so, they can try to make the food nice. No one likes to eat soggy spinach, mushy beans and rice, weird white stuff, the list goes on and on. 

4. Delays. If you’re on a time crunch, you might be at risk from airplane delays or even cancellation in severe cases. This may be because of the weather, technical difficulties, or air traffic. I’m sure many of us have experienced this before and it’s never that fun. 

To help you get through airport travel, here are our top tips for survival, including packing, getting to your plane, and making it through a long flight.

The Key to Packing

Packing can be difficult for lots of people, usually because they can’t decide how to use their space wisely. Some people might pack their sewing kit and run out of space before even packing their clothes. This might be avoided if you first knew how much space your key essentials will take up along with knowing your priorities because as a matter of fact, your ball of yarn is less important than your toothbrush. One way of keeping track of space alongside weight is to assign different bags or suitcases for your different categories. For example, you will separate your important luggage with your perfumes and spare socks. 

If you don’t have enough space with your checked luggage, you can always resort to carry-on items like I do. Although you can only bring significantly less in your carry-on luggage, they usually will not care about the weight of your bags, as long as it is not too big. If you have any heavyweight items, I recommend packing them all in here instead of paying extra for check-in luggage. You can also hold things or have a handbag as well.

Navigating the Airport

Another thing some people will struggle with is navigating through the airport. All of the different stages of security can drive someone insane! But fear not, for this cannot have been any farther from the truth. After checking in your carry-on items, all you need to do is to go through security and that’s basically it, although depending on the airport the location of the security can change. Some will be earlier on so you can enjoy the food after going through but others can be a lot later, some just before the flight even. 

Navigating through airports takes no skill at all even if the airport layout is way different. Once you have enough practice, it can take less than 30 minutes to get from the entrance of the airport and onto your plane, which happened to us once here.

Surviving the Flight

Having the right equipment is essential for surviving your flight whether it’s by bringing snacks, entertainment, or doing something productive (e.g. reading). If your plane comes with movies or other sorts of entertainment, no problem, you can certainly survive the flight by doing so. The problem only starts if you take a short or cheap flight, such as on easyJet, because they usually don’t have mini TV screens attached to the back of a seat to enjoy. In this case, I usually read, play games such as card games, or do some of my other interests such as drawing. Maybe you could also try to solve the Rubik’s cube you’ve been tirelessly working on for the past year. It’s probably worth researching in the place you’re going to as well unless you’re going back home. 

Going to an airport and flying somewhere new might be a tiring experience and might take all day, so don’t get too tired as you still have the process of getting to your accommodation. As sitting down on a not-so-comfortable seat for hours upon end can ache your back, even if you don’t want to go to the lavatory, I suggest standing up every so often, unless the seatbelt signal is on. Neck pillows can also make your sitting-down experience more comfortable, too. If you don’t have enough space to fit such a big pillow in your luggage, you can make you’re own by stuffing jackets into a bag or you could invest in an inflatable neck pillow (this is what I use).