People often ask me how long my flights are when I travel around the world and when I tell them, they wonder how I can sit for that long on an airplane. What do you do on a 14-hour flight? I have to admit, now that I have circumvented the world in both eastward and westward at least twice, I feel like I am in my element each time I am on a long haul flight jet setting to a new destination. There is just something about crossing time zones traveling over 500 miles per hour at 35,000 feet that makes my soul smile. Having the ability to travel around the world in a day or so fascinates me each time I think about it.
14 hours in the air isn’t bad at all. As I write this, I am sitting in a lounge on the 4th floor looking out of huge floor-to-ceiling windows rising at least two stories up from the 3rd floor here at Incheon International Airport in Seoul, Korea, watching huge planes take off outside wondering where in the world they are going. I’m currently on a 7-hour layover, sipping my second Starbucks latte with an extra shot having just ended a 14-hour flight and waiting for my next 7-hour flight to my final destination: Bali.
This is all part of my 43-hour, door-to-door journey to the heart of the island of Bali in Indonesia – a trip completely to the other side of the world. Yes, 43 hours, nearly two full days. For those of you that have never experienced a flight longer than 10 hours or for those of you that have never traveled to the other side of the world – crossing more than 10 time zones or crossing the equator, let me share my experience with you to give you an idea of what it is like.
Bryan, Ohio, to Atlanta
My good friend Dee picked me up at 2pm EST on Sunday from my sister’s house in Bryan, Ohio, USA. For this three month trip (at least that is what I am planning for since I don’t have a return ticket yet), I decided to bring an even smaller bag (55L Osprey Farpoint) than I have taken for long term trips in the past. To compare sizes , the bag I used on my last 3-month journey (September-November 2018) throughout Europe and then to Bali was the 80L Osprey Farpoint and my newest bag is a 30% reduction in size.
The first flight to Dayton was a quick hour and eight minute. I got a great little nap since my eyes were tired from watching the road ahead of me as I drove through the heavy downpour in Dee’s car to Dayton airport for two hours. Thank goodness the rain passed for Dee to head back home.
Hanging out at the world’s largest airport
With a four hour layover in Atlanta, I walked around a little while trying to decide among the large number of food options before finally deciding on sushi to offset the heavy burger and fries I ate at Max & Erma’s in Dayton airport. After some subpar sushi, I settled into an empty seating area with a tv to watch the Sunday night NFL game while I worked on catching up on my journal.
About an hour and a half before my next flight, I went down the long escalator in Terminal C to board the train that will take me to the international terminal, about three terminals away. The train doors had just closed as I stepped off the escalator so I decided to walk underground to the next terminal. It felt good to get a little movement in before my 14-hour flight ahead of me so I decided to continue walking underground to the international terminal, which ended up being about a mile in total.
I came up out of the ground into the expansive international terminal. It was about 11:30pm and it felt strange that the world’s busiest airport was completely empty. My flight to Seoul was the last flight to depart in the evening hours. I looked around the waiting area near our gate and the crowd was a good mix of ethnicities. Mostly Koreans, but many U.S. travelers also.
Can’t be bothered
During the days leading up to the flight, I kept looking at the seat map for this flight since it was one of the longest flights I’ve ever been on. I noticed several seats were empty, mostly middle seats, so I wanted to make sure I sat next to one of the empty seats. We flew on a brand new, state-of-the-art Airbus 350-900 series aircraft which had a 3-3-3 seat configuration in economy class (the back of the bus). I booked my flight using Delta SkyMiles that I had accumulated from my years of business travel, and purchased the one-way ticket from Dayton to Bali for $14.97 (and only had to use the fewest miles for an international flight).
My plan worked. I sat in an aisle seat in the middle section of three seats and the middle seat next to me was empty! This guaranteed that no one would be bothering me for bathroom breaks during the entire flight. For long haul flights like this one, I try to find the seat where I can easily get up to access the bathroom and where I am least likely to be bothered by other passengers, which is usually the seat along the aisle in the middle section of seats.
We almost flew over the North Pole
Our flight departed Atlanta at 12:20am Monday morning. Those 20 minutes into Monday would be the only time I was on the ground for that entire day. Since the flight was 14 hours long combined with crossing the international date line, we ended up landing at 3am on Tuesday in South Korea.
Our flight path took us straight north from Atlanta, over Chicago, into Canada and up north of Alaska. We ended up flying over the Arctic Ocean and passed very close to the north pole before entering Russia airspace from the north. As we approached Korea, our plane veered west slightly to avoid flying over the country of North Korea.
During the flight, I had time to watch a movie while eating dinner for first two hours, then I slept for five hours, I woke up to have a mid-flight snack and did some goal setting for two hours followed by 3 more hours of sleep before watching a final movie until landing in Korea. The window shades of the plane automatically shut for the entire 14 hours of flying time. There was no need open the window shades anyway because we never saw daylight during the entire flight since we flew through the night and landed very early in the morning. I never saw daylight on Monday!
Thank goodness for the ‘Nap Room’
When I landed in Seoul, I felt great because I got a total of eight hours of sleep. The trick is to get acclimated to new time zone which was a full 11 hours ahead. I walked around the stunning airport, that was now empty, before getting sleepy again. I found a ‘Nap Room’ at the transfer area of the airport with beds to lay down in for free. This was such a nice amenity for someone like me who had a 7-hour layover.
After sleeping a couple of hours, I decided to try a Korean beef meal for breakfast since Koreans don’t typically eat the breakfast foods that westerners are used to eating. Luckily there was a Starbucks near my gate and I got two different cups of coffee during the last few hours of my layover.
The final 7-hour flight
I tried to change my seat at the gate since I was unable to select my seat during booking for the last leg of my journey which would be on Garuda Indonesia, one of Delta’s SkyTeam alliance members. The gate agent told me there was only one aisle seat left which was located in the last row of the plane. I reluctantly took the seat, however it ended up being a great seat that reclined. Also, no one knew there was a bathroom at the back of the large aircraft since it wasn’t marked so no one congregated towards the back. It was such a peaceful seat.
I was able to watch one movie and sleep several hours during the 7-hour flight to Denpasar, Indonesia, the largest city in Bali. We landed around 5:50pm local time (which was now 5:50am on Tuesday morning). The owner of the homestay I am staying at picked me up and we began the hour and a half drive up to Ubud. At exactly 43 hours since Dee picked me up in Bryan, Ohio (USA), I arrived at my homestay in Bali, completely wiped out. I flipped on the air conditioning, took a shower, and felt fast asleep in my comfortable bed!
I’d love to hear from you: Have you taken a flight over 10 hours? Where to and what was your experience.
Bali is definitely on my list of places to travel, hopefully I can cross it off in the next few years! In May of 2018, I took a trip to Thailand; and boy, was it amazing! I flew Qatar Airways and it was one of the best flight experiences of my life. Such a clean airline, amazing food, and great entertainment options. I flew from Chicago to Doha, Qatar, which ended up being around 12 hours. I slept whenever I wasn’t eating the dinner, breakfast, or snack; as my flight left at 7pm- perfect time for a snooze. The flight path took us up over Greenland and Iceland; then over cross Lithuania, Ukraine, Turkey, and Iraq before landing right off the water in Qatar. Hamad International Airport is such a pristine airport, and the nicest I’ve ever been in. I explored the airport and checked out one of the international lounges during my 4 hour layover, as it was early in the morning local time. I then hopped on another 6 hour flight to Bangkok and landed at 7am local time- just in time to start my first full day in Thailand. It was such a great experience and I would highly recommend flying Qatar any chance I can! The flight was longer on the way back, due to going into the wind. It was a long 14 hour flight back from Doha to Chicago, but partially because I was exhausted from an amazing 10 days in paradise. I could’ve done without the 3 hour drive back to Northwest Ohio from Chicago after sitting for 14 hours..
Can’t wait to read all about Bali!