• neidu2
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    18 days ago

    Frequent long haul flier here.

    This depends entirely on your seat. If you’re flying economy, a travel pillow and a large loose hoodie helps you sleep in a position that doesn’t fuck you up too much.
    Bluetooth ear buds are are really nice to have. I’m tempted to say that noise cancelling isn’t that useful on a plane, as there will be plenty of brown and white noise.
    Depending in how long your flight is, consider bringing a portable charging method. Also, most seats on long haul flights have an USB outlet, just keep in kind that these are pretty low wattage and won’t allow you to charge very fast.

    But by far the biggest comfort you can buy is a seat upgrade. Something as simple as extra leg room is worth it. But if you can defend the price tag, business class is the only way to fly really comfortably.

    • dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works
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      17 days ago

      Hard agree.

      Business class is worth it, and the only affordable way to buy those seats is with points. Business saver on United often has cheaper business seat pricing than premium economy. IMO, this is the best and only way to spend credit card points. As long as there isn’t some goofy card where points expire, keep them for years and spend them this way.

      3 weeks from now I’m doing a long haul and got 5 business class tickets with points (between 800k and 900k points) which is a butt load of points, but the dollar cost was over $12k EACH. That’s like 6 or 7 cents per point, which is much more generous than taking the cash payout.

      Edit: the downside here is if you want to buy tickets now you should have started saving points 2 to 4 years ago lol. Unless you get some sweet introductory offers.

      • neidu2
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        17 days ago

        I fly a lot with the Star Alliance airlines, and sometimes that takes me via United. Whenever the flight is more than 4-5 hours, I start considering upgrading to business, and often I’ve racked up enough points to do this without paying.

        I flew from Copenhagen to Singapore on business class last year, only using points to upgrade, and it’s by far my favorite flight experience so far.