I could've sworn we had a travel thread, and searched, but couldn't find it. So creating this one. If this one is in fact redundant, apologies.

Anyways... Figure we can all use this to help each other out with travel tips and also share reviews or whatever of places we've been.

But for now, I'm creating this for selfish purposes.

Boarding a plane for a direct flight from Boston to Japan in a few hours. If you got any tips for how to survive a long-ass flight and/or things to know, see, do, etc. in Japan — lay 'em on me!

I did 22 hours to Singapore. Really wasn't that bad. I did bring Zzzquil and I would recommend that.

Travelling I always hate the return trip, going there it’s exciting. Flying back you just are tired and want to get home. I don’t really have any tips, it’s just a patience thing at the end of the day :lol:


I was on a flight from NY-LA and the kid in front of me constantly screams and the guy in front of me leans his seat so far back he could fellate me if he turned around. There was 3 seats in front of us and just the guy and his spawn so he could have just sat in the other seat as it was just my gf and I in the row behind him.

I ask him to move his seat forward and the flight attendant guy tells me to basically leave him alone, he has a kid. So? Sit in the other seat and recline where no one is behind you.

Anyway this kid screams constantly for the 4-5 hour flight with his dad doing fuck all about it. And I’m thinking “damn this kid better not be on the LA-Sydney flight as I’m sure you can guess is a long flight”

He was, i just bought sleeping pills and woke up with roughly an hour of the flight left to go.

EDIT: Why I didn’t just move to the other vacant seat I don’t remember, surely there was a reason. God my memory sucks

Fun times


——

Search “Pusha T No Wifi” on Twitter and you’ll find many tweets of him bitching there’s no wifi.

I’ve never been on a flight with Wifi in my life, I was just happy the Qantas flight I was on I could watch movies/games on the screen they had :lol:

My trip to singapore was on a Hello Kitty themed plane and flight. So there was that too.

I’ve done plenty of long haul flights over the last 6 years, flying out of Edinburgh to Melbourne May have been the longest.

The trick is tire yourself out prior. I want to sleep, it’s probably the quickest way you’re going to pass 17 hours in the air. The entertainment systems on those A380s and alike are great, but try to limit your caffeine once aboard the flight and drift off instead.

I never sleep the night before a flight. That way I'll plug in my earbuds and zzzzzzzz.

I've been on lots of flights all over Canada, US, Mexica, Jamaica but the longest flight I've done(and only flight I've taken across the pond)was Edmonton to London, England. 8 hrs. Anything more than that and I don't know how I'd fare. I'd definitely have to have a layover in between if I did attempt a longer flight. I don't like flying as much as I used to since I've put on weight.

Mar 8, 2019 14:52:39 GMT 🤯 said:

I could've sworn we had a travel thread, and searched, but couldn't find it. So creating this one. If this one is in fact redundant, apologies.

Anyways... Figure we can all use this to help each other out with travel tips and also share reviews or whatever of places we've been.

But for now, I'm creating this for selfish purposes.

Boarding a plane for a direct flight from Boston to Japan in a few hours. If you got any tips for how to survive a long-ass flight and/or things to know, see, do, etc. in Japan — lay 'em on me!

There is no good way, just watch movies until you are tired. 
If it's possible I try to get my body in sync with my destination time one... But there are no short cuts with jet lag so sleep if you're tired but don't nap in the afternoon when you arrive or you won't sleep at night. 
I travel a decent amount and I have seen every movie on the plane I want to see, generally I watch a box set or an old movie. 

This year I have already done 5 flights to New Zealand, four trips to Sydney and once to  China,. 
In the next 7 weeks I have Shanghai, Milan and Baltimore

How can I forget to mention noise cancelling headphones and a white noise ap

Made it to the Land of the Rising Sun!

Holy smokes, a non-stop 14-hour flight is grueling.

I couldn't get the in-laws Wi-Fi to work, so couldn't dick around on my phone or puter all that much.

Couldn't dick around too, too much anyway because I think something is up with my USB charger cord, and my phone (even being in airplane mode and not being touched) somehow managed to drain more juice while plugged in than it recharged. So was pretty sure I was going to end up in Japan with no way of communicating or looking things up. Ultimately, phone kept enough charge to be OK.

Didn't sleep a wink on the flight. And being stuck in the middle middle is not an experience I want to repeat... I ended up bracketed by two sleeping Japanese people, who I ended up having to climb over to go pee after making the mistake of trying to stay hydrated. I'm not as limber or nimble as I once was (and even in my prime I was never really that limber or nimble), so my bracketeers ended up with a lot of my dick and/or ass being uncomfortably close to their faces as I tried to delicately exit our row.

Anyway...

Watched like 5.5 movies: Bumblebee, Sicario 2, Dunkirk, First Man, Wonder Woman, and the first act of the Lego Batman movie. Will need to get my reviews/reactions up at some point in PC. Also, definitely need to finish the Lego Batman movie. So far, it was amazing.

Customs was a bit of a shit show due to high volume of weekend travelers, I guess. But overall problem free aside from the mass of people, line discombobulation, and humid BO reek.

It was a 90 minute car ride from Narita to Tokyo. I was determined to stay awake, but car rides still have a habit of putting me to sleep. So might've napped 60 minutes out of 90.

Got to Tokyo, got to hotel, got linked up with Wife at 7pm Tokyo time on Saturday (no clue what day/time it is for me right now). Had the option of staying in the room and falling asleep, etc. She had a work get-together karaoke thing she had to go to though, so I tagged along to that. Ended up rocking out in karaoke, drinking, getting to see the penthouse of the Ritz Carlton, before finally making it back to our hotel to crash at maybe midnight? I think I did the quick math to understand I'd been up for 26 hours (excluding intermittent car napping) before powering down.

Now I'm up at 4-5am with a hangover headache and confused body. Will probably head back to bed and try to fall back asleep after posting this.

So far though, Tokyo has lived up to every stereotypical expectation I've had of it from movies, etc. But that's not at all a bad thing. Can't wait to start eating food again later today. Bring on the sushi, baby!!~

Fuck yeah 🤯!

And I binge watched all the Lego movies on my flight to Turkey (to connect to my flight to Albania) about a year ago. Those movies are epic! I have no time to tell them, but some interesting plane stories.

In about a month, I’m going to Vegas which is 5.5 hour flight. That’s cake compared to flying to Turkey or Germany.

I’m heading to jamaica for a few days for a little vacay with the missus (no kids), but this October is the big one: We’re going to europe for the first time. Six nights in London; four nights in Paris.

Mar 9, 2019 19:46:30 GMT 🤯 said:

Made it to the Land of the Rising Sun!

Holy smokes, a non-stop 14-hour flight is grueling.

I couldn't get the in-laws Wi-Fi to work, so couldn't dick around on my phone or puter all that much.

Couldn't dick around too, too much anyway because I think something is up with my USB charger cord, and my phone (even being in airplane mode and not being touched) somehow managed to drain more juice while plugged in than it recharged. So was pretty sure I was going to end up in Japan with no way of communicating or looking things up. Ultimately, phone kept enough charge to be OK.

Didn't sleep a wink on the flight. And being stuck in the middle middle is not an experience I want to repeat... I ended up bracketed by two sleeping Japanese people, who I ended up having to climb over to go pee after making the mistake of trying to stay hydrated. I'm not as limber or nimble as I once was (and even in my prime I was never really that limber or nimble), so my bracketeers ended up with a lot of my dick and/or ass being uncomfortably close to their faces as I tried to delicately exit our row.

Anyway...

Watched like 5.5 movies: Bumblebee, Sicario 2, Dunkirk, First Man, Wonder Woman, and the first act of the Lego Batman movie. Will need to get my reviews/reactions up at some point in PC. Also, definitely need to finish the Lego Batman movie. So far, it was amazing.

Customs was a bit of a shit show due to high volume of weekend travelers, I guess. But overall problem free aside from the mass of people, line discombobulation, and humid BO reek.

It was a 90 minute car ride from Narita to Tokyo. I was determined to stay awake, but car rides still have a habit of putting me to sleep. So might've napped 60 minutes out of 90.

Got to Tokyo, got to hotel, got linked up with Wife at 7pm Tokyo time on Saturday (no clue what day/time it is for me right now). Had the option of staying in the room and falling asleep, etc. She had a work get-together karaoke thing she had to go to though, so I tagged along to that. Ended up rocking out in karaoke, drinking, getting to see the penthouse of the Ritz Carlton, before finally making it back to our hotel to crash at maybe midnight? I think I did the quick math to understand I'd been up for 26 hours (excluding intermittent car napping) before powering down.

Now I'm up at 4-5am with a hangover headache and confused body. Will probably head back to bed and try to fall back asleep after posting this.

So far though, Tokyo has lived up to every stereotypical expectation I've had of it from movies, etc. But that's not at all a bad thing. Can't wait to start eating food again later today. Bring on the sushi, baby!!~

Middle seat is for people who never travel!
I get preferred seating being a platinum frequent flyer 

Also, never go to the bathroom soon as you get off the plane, clear customs first, every second you delay is 20 more people in the queue in front of you  

Agreed iNCY. Now that I’m platinum pro, I’m almost always get the first-class bump too.

Just had wagyu kobe beef for the first time tonight.

It was life altering.

All other steak might very well be henceforth ruined for me.

So, if nothing else happens on this trip, at least the 14-hour flight in a middle middle seat was not in vain.

Late to the party but I don’t have much to add anyway. Longest flight I’ve ever been on was LA to Toronto, and I got drunk at LAX and it was a red eye so I slept the whole flight. I literally remember looking out the window during take off then waking up when the seatbelt sign came on for landing in Toronto.

I snore pretty loud and I’m 99% sure the guy beside me was fucking furious hahaha. Whatever dude you should have brought headphones.

Anyway, flying makes me anxious and I need lots of distractions or a way to sleep, otherwise I listen to every little noise and movement and immediately assume I’m about to die a horrible death. If I know I’m not sleeping on the flight (because it’s shorter or for work or whatever), I download stuff on my phone that doesn’t require wifi and just go from there. Netflix shows, movies, music, games, whatever.

Whenever I finally fly overseas and spend more than 5 hours on a plane I’m going to have to do a couple things. Guaranteed I’m drinking on that flight so I have to plan for that. I’ll also need to pick my seat because I like sitting in the aisle. Noise cancelling headphones is a must. If the seats don’t have a built in charger I’ll need to plan for that too, or drink until I fall asleep for the rest of the flight.

The wifi thing reminded me of a story from the last time we flew. Family went to Ontario for Christmas and we had a layover on the way back in Calgary. From Calgary to Kelowna is about an hour flight, maybe less. I think this flight was like 52 minutes from take off to touch down. Literally nothing.

Calgary and Kelowna both have a higher than average number of well off people living in them, Kelowna especially. It’s not uncommon to run into entitled people. Anyway, the wifi wasn’t working on the flight, and since it only works when the plane gets to altitude anyway, this was literally like a 40-minute window to use the wifi.

The lady in front of me was FURIOUS that the wifi didn’t work. She wouldn’t let it go. The flight attendant apologized and refunded her money to her credit card, no problem, but this fucking lady couldn’t go an hour without internet access and made sure everyone around her and the staff working the flight knew it. I couldn’t believe it, and her husband just sat there like a little bitch. I couldn’t imagine this lady on a long flight.

I'll share some more thoughts later when I have a chance to go into detail, but I have only been abroad once really. I do't count two one day trips to France with the school.

Luckily, that once was nearly a month in New Zealand, the trip of an absolute lifetime, and all of you need to go there at least once in your life. It is just the absolute best ever. I love the place and if I could, would move there tomorrow.

Mar 11, 2019 20:35:39 GMT kemis said:

I'll share some more thoughts later when I have a chance to go into detail, but I have only been abroad once really. I do't count two one day trips to France with the school.

Luckily, that once was nearly a month in New Zealand, the trip of an absolute lifetime, and all of you need to go there at least once in your life. It is just the absolute best ever. I love the place and if I could, would move there tomorrow.

If it wasn't full of kiwis  :suspic:

They're a strange breed and I not speaking about their night time proclivities of the wooly four legged variety

Well...

From the highs of wagyu kobe beef last night, we've been brought down by the weirdest fucking experience of authentic sushi okamase-style.

Wife and I can now say we've eaten baby sea eel, sea urchin, baby squids (whose heads pop in your mouth), and bamboo. Jellyfish from years ago might still reign as single weirdest thing we've ever eaten, but man did tonight's gauntlet of oddities bring out some contenders for the throne.

Mar 11, 2019 20:35:39 GMT kemis said:

I'll share some more thoughts later when I have a chance to go into detail, but I have only been abroad once really. I do't count two one day trips to France with the school.

Luckily, that once was nearly a month in New Zealand, the trip of an absolute lifetime, and all of you need to go there at least once in your life. It is just the absolute best ever. I love the place and if I could, would move there tomorrow.

People go on and on about NZ, and I could never understand it. I did 2 big tours of Europe and the UK, then followed it up with NZ, as it was a much quicker and easy travel day, especially from Melbourne. I was able to spend a lot more time in NZ, and it completely exceeded my expectations. Back when the Aussie dollar was worth $1.25 kiwi bucks, I thought about a move just to pick up on that exchange rate.

I think I might have posted this before, it's not the sum total of my travel but it is most of the past 10-15 years or so.



For anyone who is even a relatively infrequent traveler, I cannot recommend the App TripIt highly enough, once you register your email address you can just forward all of your bookings to it and it automatically collates it into an itinerary, it also synchronizes with your calendar on your phone. Flights, Hotels, Hire Cars, Trains it is able to integrate all of them almost completely automatically and I love wherever I go having my reservation number at my finger tips. I pay not much for the full featured version which automatically sends me notifications if the flight is running late... It is awesome as I never end up rushing to the airport for no reason.
My flight tracker I posted above automatically imports from Tripit, but it defaults everything to Economy when it isn't.

Anyone have any preferred Hotel chains? I don't stay in super high-end places but I am Spire Elite with IHG and Gold with Accor.
Looking at getting the Platinum AmEx Charge card as it gives you the top tier in a couple of chains among other benefits.

Flights my preference is Qantas, not because Qantas is amazing, but because it is connected to One World which gives me access to carriers with lounge access the world over, including Cathay, BA, AA etc. Qantas also has reciprocal rights with Emirates, being Qantas Platinum I get into the first class lounges. The one in Dubai is rediculous, it takes up the whole top floor of the terminal.

This is a video:




I really like the Qantas first class lounges in Sydney and Melbourne with their free restaurants:

Oh fuck, looks like iNCY KNOWS how to travel.

I like the idea of the Platinum Amex as a quick hack for nicer access. Might look into some Amex option as our next credit card.

We picked up the Capital One Venture Card a few years back and did all our spending on that, trying to rack up points for a bunch of crazy free vacations. After a few years of pretty beaucoup spending, all we got from that was my plane ticket to Japan. No help or love either when we got stranded in Las Vegas for a few extra days due to weather back in Boston in January this year. What's the point of billing yourself as a travel card if you're not going to offer sweet travel perks or support!?

Mar 13, 2019 15:28:27 GMT 🤯 said:

Oh fuck, looks like iNCY KNOWS how to travel.

I like the idea of the Platinum Amex as a quick hack for nicer access. Might look into some Amex option as our next credit card.

We picked up the Capital One Venture Card a few years back and did all our spending on that, trying to rack up points for a bunch of crazy free vacations. After a few years of pretty beaucoup spending, all we got from that was my plane ticket to Japan. No help or love either when we got stranded in Las Vegas for a few extra days due to weather back in Boston in January this year. What's the point of billing yourself as a travel card if you're not going to offer sweet travel perks or support!?

I practically never pay for business class, I can't justify the price tag at up to 7k for Asia and 15k to Europe or the USA.
I warn all my points through credit cards, we funnel every dollar we spend through one of a couple of credit cards that credit my frequent flyer account. Then I purchase an economy ticket and try to upgrade it to business, doesn't always work that I get the upgrade though... Because I am getting old and soft I will often buy premium economy for the long hauls so if I don't get the upgrade it's not too herrible. No comparison to a lay flat seat in business though, they are amazing in the quality of sleep you can get. 

I used to have this sweet perk before Amex wised up, I paid all my tax on my Amex and got points for it, once 300k worth in a month, but they closed that loophole  :suspic:
I always recommend an amex and a visa or mastercard for points  not everywhere takes Amex but the points tend not to be capped, where the visa and mastercard ones tend to only give you points for the first 2k you spend per month and it's the big purchases like white goods and furniture that let you rack up the points. 

When it comes to travel I am a massively spoiled and precious bitch

Time travel loop complete.

Bring on the (continued) jet lag?

iNCY, whats your top 5 cities?

Tattooist just invited sandylea and I to another tattoo convention..this time in the Phillipines in 2021. Accomodation and tattoos paid for, just pay for flights
(which are about $800 AUD each return). Spending money wouldn’t need to be a lot due to conversion rate. Also helps that tattooist is Filipino and speaks the language




I doubt international travel will even be open up by then but that’s a pretty good offer
😳.

After my longest stint at home in more than a decade, I just did 7 days in Sydney, the airport was the most surreal experience.
Long term car park completely empty, two cars on the departure ramp and only one shop opened in the entire airport.

System,where in the Phillipines is the expo? I wouldn't be in a rush to visit Manila... Dirty hole of a city, though I haven't been there in a decade.

Jun 19, 2020 5:45:03 GMT iNCY said:

After my longest stint at home in more than a decade, I just did 7 days in Sydney, the airport was the most surreal experience.
Long term car park completely empty, two cars on the departure ramp and only one shop opened in the entire airport.

System,where in the Phillipines is the expo? I wouldn't be in a rush to visit Manila... Dirty hole of a city, though I haven't been there in a decade.

Cebu

Mar 15, 2019 1:10:58 GMT NATH45 said:

iNCY, whats your top 5 cities?

I only just saw this Nath, sorry.

It's hard for me to nail down cities but here's a few I loved in no order:

Shanghai, China
Bologna, Italy
New York, USA
Valencia, Spain
Lucca, Italy

Jun 19, 2020 9:14:14 GMT iNCY said:

Mar 15, 2019 1:10:58 GMT NATH45 said:

iNCY, whats your top 5 cities?

I only just saw this Nath, sorry.

It's hard for me to nail down cities but here's a few I loved in no order:

Shanghai, China
Bologna, Italy
New York, USA
Valencia, Spain
Lucca, Italy

Better late than never.

New York. Lol. Cliché.