Flight Advice

[quote:a91ad3c6ae="Nick & Jacky"]Dont clock watch, just sleep when you feel like it....that worker for us.[/quote:a91ad3c6ae]
This is what we did. I couldn't be bothered to fret about timings, my only concern was that we landed in Auckland roughly on time as we were being met. We didn't have any lengthy bouts of sleep, just naps when we felt like it, but we still emerged at the other end feeling pretty chirpy. We flew with Thai Air and went via Karachi and Bangkok. Breaking the flight up this way added some interest, especially Bangkok, as we had a 7-hour stay there with hotel provided (usually only get one if you stay over 8 hours). Getting out of the airport did away with the feeling that we were tied to the plane by an umbilical cord and we felt somewhat refreshed getting back onto the plane for the final leg to Auckland. However, the taxi driver who took us to our hotel took us to the wrong one. Seems there was another hotel with the same name actually inside the airport and that's where we should have stayed. Because we'd ventured outside the airport perimeter, we were slammed with airport taxes when we went to get back on the plane. We'll have this again when we go back in a few days' time, but this will be a much longer stopover (arriving evening and leaving late afternoon the next day) and the hotel will be outside the airport.

A couple of days before setting off from Oman and during the flight we took an aspirin a day to help combat the threat of DVT. On the plane I also donned a support bandage on one leg and stretchy crepe bandage on the other one (already obtained for use with my broken ankle :icon_biggrin:) . Luckily I was wearing trousers so no one could see this. I was given these by the clinic to suppress the swelling, so that's possibly why wearing flight socks helps. Previously I'd always suffered with uncomfortable, resless legs on long flights, but this time all was well. Don't know if that was due to the supports or the aspirin, but I was very glad about it.

We tried to drink as much as possible (only one alcoholic drink to keep down dehydration) and ate whenever food was offered. We were disappointed that we didn't get a 'goody' bag from Thai Air, as we'd previously heard from other travellers that they'd had all sorts of things, including a nice fan (was looking forward to using this during the steamy Omani summer, as my current one is falling apart).

I would say I was dreading the flight and ensuing jetlag, but was pleasantly surprised that we emerged completely unscathed at the other end. Wouldn't be surprised though if we experience jetlag when we get back to Oman, as it's been said that travelling west to east is easier than east to west. If that is the case it could be that travellers going via LA would have jetlag on arriving in Auckland but not when returning the other way. Tablets to help with jetlag are supposed to be available at Auckland airport, so I'll probably invest in some as nothing is on offer for jetlag in Oman.

On my way back I sat next to a couple that were into accupuncture and the flow of chi and such.

There was this chart we followed to try and help out (we'd hit our pressure points with a ball point pen). Maybe it was psychological, but I felt fine my 2nd day (my first day was just strange, getting in at 6am, etc).

ag28com, I'll be interested to hear your experiences of the Emirates Dubai route.
That's the flight we are planning to use in March/April...

This is no doubt coming too late for Ag28com, but I'll post it anyway as others will soon be following behind.

We?ve now completed flights both ways with Thai Air. I can?t really complain about them other than they were repeatedly late taking off after each stop on both journeys. Some of the food was not quite to our taste, but no major problems. We were never left hungry. The main disappointment was the female cabin crew who, although they looked quite exotic in their colourful Thai outfits, were somewhat aloof and not as warm and friendly as I?d been led to believe. Apart from these minor points, the flights were fine.

The intention, on the way back from NZ, was to test the No Jetlag tablets we?d bought in Auckland airport and also to test the flying east to west versus west to east theory. Hubster started taking the tablets, whereas I abstained so we could compare results at the end. As it turned out, the tablet taking became a bit of a chore because they had to be consumed on take-off and landing and every 2 hours in between. It threw us a bit when we got to Bangkok and had an 18-hour stopover, so the pill-taking went by the board. I felt a bit tired whilst in Bangkok, but this could have been due to disturbed sleep in the hotel room because of an intermittent clicking noise that we later tracked down to the key card for the door, which was in its holder on the wall. Between Bangkok and Karachi we napped quite a lot and by the time we got back to Muscat we felt OK. Once home we unpacked a few things and went to bed as it was quite late at night anyway. Next day I felt fine, but hubster took frequent naps during the day and by mid-evening we were both ready to hit the sack. From all this I can?t really make any helpful comments as to whether flying east or west has any bearing on jetlag or whether the No Jetlag tablets work.

I don?t know if it?s peculiar to Thai Air, but the done thing seems to be to close the window shutters during daylight hours. One reason, on the second plane only, could have been due to problems with daylight being thrown across the seatback TV monitors, but we didn?t have these on the first flight and the shutters were still ordered to be dropped down. With a continual enforced nighttime and without looking at our watches, we never knew whether it was day or night outside. I wonder if this went any way towards releasing our brains from the day v. night battle. It did mean we could sleep in darkness at any time, as the cabin lights were turned off, apart from meal times and during preparation for take off and landing. It was certainly ?the flight of the long night?.

[Pulsarblu]

I would like to add that I normally set my watch to the destination timezone, when it is night time there, I do not bother if the air crew order for shutters down or not.

I will then put on my eye shades (block off light), ear plugs (really helpful to block off noise - engine, fellow passengers and wailing babies sometimes), reject any meals and doze off...

I just arrived in US (New York) from SG with a 13 hour behind using my method and it worked so far...well almost..but not too bad... This time it was because I am homesicked and miss my family immediately I board the plane. I am going to be in US for a month!! ARRghhhh!

pulsarblu

[Pulsarblu]

[quote:f2e92eec8e="Mother Bear"]I don?t know if it?s peculiar to Thai Air, but the done thing seems to be to close the window shutters during daylight hours. [/quote:f2e92eec8e]

Not only on Thai airlines, Singapore Airlines does that too...

[ag28com]

The flight with Emirates was very good. It could have started badly, as we were told by Expedia that our luggae allowance was 32KG. This is actually only 20KG, though Emirates say that they allow 28KG, We had about 12KG over the 28KG limit between us, but the check-in desk staff let us off the excess baggage charge.

The flight was only about 50% full, and the service was good. We got hot towels o take off (at every stage of the journey) and small booklet dieplaying the menu for the inflight meal, which was a nice touch. It was all pretty standar airplane food, but each meal was around 5 courses, with a nice variety of courses.

Flight time was 6hrs 45 mins from Heathrow to Dubai, which was OK. The change at Dubai airport was OK, but the airport was really busy, and it was hard to find a seat for all 4 of us in the departure gate lounge. I think there was probably a more comfortable area to sit in, before the gate area, but we didn't know any better!

Dubai to Bankok was just under the 6 hour mark, and was a daytime flight, which wasn't too bad. However, since Bangkok is 4 hours ahead of Dubai, it was night time again, after only 6 hours, which was very disorienting.

Bangkok to Sydney is a mind numbing 9 hours and is by far the most tiring stretch. There is only so much entertainment you can take, and I found it almost impossible to sleep on the plane except for a few 15 minute snatches.

Sydney to Auckland is only 2 hours, so thats really the best, not only because it's short, but also because you know it's the final stretch.

In summary, a very long and extremely tiring journey was actually quite good, and the service from Emitrates could not be faulted in any way. I think they really do deserve the excellent reputation they have, and would fly with them again.

Finally a word about Oz & NZ customs.

You have to destroy all food items when you land in Australia, and MUST put ALL food and drink items in the quarantine bins. If you don't abd you get found with any, you could land in serious trouble. Unfortunately we had to leave the aircraft at Sydney (we could stay on the plane in Bangkok), so you must obey this rule. You also get shown a video of that Australian Crocodile nutter warning you of the consequences of getting caught.

Before landing at AKL, you have to fill in a passenger form, declaring whether you have any food items, plus items such as used camping equipment, hiking shoes, football boots and other items that might contain 'foreign' matter. We had our son's footie boots in one suitcase and these were taken away for a thorough cleaning.

Again you risk very serious trouble if you infringe the quarantine rules, so don't do it!!

[MotherBear]

[quote:496128403e="ag28com"] We got hot towels o take off (at every stage of the journey) and small booklet dieplaying the menu for the inflight meal, which was a nice touch. It was all pretty standar airplane food, but each meal was around 5 courses, with a nice variety of courses. [color=red:496128403e]Same as our flight with Thai.[/color:496128403e]

Dubai to Bankok was just under the 6 hour mark, and was a daytime flight, which wasn't too bad. However, since Bangkok is 4 hours ahead of Dubai, it was night time again, after only 6 hours, which was very disorienting. [color=red:496128403e]I don't know if continually keeping the cabin as a twilight zone, with shutters down and lighting dimmed, helped us overcome the difference between day and night. Unless we opened the shutters we never knew whether it was dark or light and preferred it this way as our brains didn't have to cope with it.[/color:496128403e]
Bangkok to Sydney is a mind numbing 9 hours and is by far the most tiring stretch. There is only so much entertainment you can take, and I found it almost impossible to sleep on the plane except for a few 15 minute snatches. [color=red:496128403e]Bangkok to Auckland was about 12 hours for us and seemed to go on forever, but we realised it would be like that and just settled down for a long wait. We couldn't manage more than snatches of sleep, but seemed to get by on it as we've had no particular problems with jetlag.[/color:496128403e]

Finally a word about Oz & NZ customs.

You have to destroy all food items when you land in Australia, and MUST put ALL food and drink items in the quarantine bins. If you don't abd you get found with any, you could land in serious trouble. [color=red:496128403e]I'd read the warning about bringing food into the country and found it didn't mention sweets (I had the remainder of a packet of Polo mints). To be on the safe side I declared them and it was fortunate I did as they questioned me closely, but didn't confiscate them.[/color:496128403e][/quote:496128403e]

[nattydread]

thanks for the info ag28..

From what you've said I think we'll stick with them for our flights too.

Cheers for that

[cUnDaLl]

When i fly out i try to get one stopping somewhere else first, this time i am doing a RTW ticket though last time i went via Hong Kong with Virgin and Air New Zealand.