Ideas for Surviving Long Flight To Venice

[Mylisa]

Yes, I called the FF number for Delta. I'v never been so excited in my life!

 

I called today to see if I could upgrade my 85 year old mother-in-law only to business class. I called the regular number and they put me on a 7 minute hold and then told me that the class of ticket we had was not upgradeable.

 

He told me that I would have to pay a $200 change fee and pay the difference and purchase a Business class ticket. He told me that it would be well over $1,000. He also confirmed that to get a new ticket using FF miles for Business class would take 250,000 FF miles for one way only.

 

 

My son is out of the country right now and changed his return flight back to the U.S. to another day so I had to change his domestic ticket on Air Tran to depart from a different airport in N.Y. and to depart on a different day and time. The charge was $60 for the change fee and $50 for an increase in fare.

 

I just don't get it! They make everything so difficult and impossible!!

[Casshew]

We take our personal DVD player and 4 awesome movies that we love. We know by the time the 4th movie is over it's time to land. lol

[joan24]

We used 50,000 miles and $1,600 each to upgrade to Business Elite on Delta and that was 330 days in advance. I guess you just have to be lucky with upgrades. The Sky Choice awards are 250,000 miles each and are pretty much always available. The mileage and money to upgrade are worth it to us, because my back is really bad and I need to stretch out. We always take two aspirin before flying overseas to help prevent bloodclots. Anyway you travel, the reward is at the end of the flight when you arrive in Venice. We're going for six nights in October. Have a wonderful trip.

Joan

[ChefPeg]

Yes. We are on the Legend. It looks awesome. What a trip for our first cruise!

 

My 3 kids (and hubby and I) are beyond excitment. This is why I don't think it will be easy to get any of us to sleep on the plane!

 

I understand your excitement completely. We leave in two weeks for our first Med cruise on the RCCL Legend. Our itinerary is awesome also.

 

We have a 10 hour flight to Rome and I know I can't sleep on a plane.

 

Someone suggested getting old TV shows to watch and playing them on the laptop, if you are taking one. That's what we did, I bought a boxed set of one of our favorites, so hopefully I'll get tired and drift off for a few hours too.

 

Good luck and safe travels,

Peggy

[snowmouse]

For those of you watching DVDs in flight....Neither our laptop or portable DVD player will hold a charge anywhere near long enough to watch 4 movies. How do you do that?

[mpb43]

Snowmouse,

Depending on the DVD player, you may be able to buy a supplemental battery. For example, we have two Panasonic portable DVD players. They came with a 6 hour battery, and we purchased an additional 10 hour battery separately. We just have both charged up before we go. (I travel with 3 kids, so that long battery time is a life-saver!)

[Casshew]

Yes, we have three batteries all fully charged and rearing to go. We bought the 2 extra direct from the manufacturer.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

I tend to get sciatica, so I pack a mild muscle relaxant. That and along with a glass of wine usually allows me to doze for an hour or two. That makes a huge difference.

[tomko2]

I understand your excitement completely. We leave in two weeks for our first Med cruise on the RCCL Legend. Our itinerary is awesome also.

 

We have a 10 hour flight to Rome and I know I can't sleep on a plane.

 

Someone suggested getting old TV shows to watch and playing them on the laptop, if you are taking one. That's what we did, I bought a boxed set of one of our favorites, so hopefully I'll get tired and drift off for a few hours too.

 

Good luck and safe travels,

Peggy

 

Peggy, looking forward to hearing back from you about the cruise. We are sailing on Aug. 23rd. We are spending 4 nights in Rome pre-cruise to see the sights (we spent a week there in the mid-nineties and just love Rome).

Have a wonderful trip.

Kathy

[TO_HockeyMum]

I understand your excitement completely. We leave in two weeks for our first Med cruise on the RCCL Legend. Our itinerary is awesome also.

 

Good luck and safe travels,

Peggy

 

Peggy, I too are looking forward to hearing of your cruise. I'm also hoping that you report the the Legend of the Seas is spectacular!!

 

Have fun!!

[cruzcat]

On our recent trip to Barcelona I found a great herbal remedy for jet lag called "No Jet Lag". It's available from Travelsmith's and I think Magellan also may have it. I got it from drugstore.com because it was cheaper. You take 1 chewable tablet every 2 hours from the time you board your plane. If you go to sleep, take another when you wake up. I felt pretty good when we landed and was able to stay up until 10 pm that night on about 2 hrs sleep on the plane. The return trip was ok but I was jet lagged for 2 days after I got home. Returning west always affects you worse. I'll second what everyone else has posted; drink plenty of water, use eyeshades and ear plugs, take a light, warm shawl, plenty of reading material or watch movies. Get up and walk when you can and wear compression socks or knee-highs. They really help. Your trip will be worth it if you can get through the plane rides!

[barante]

Don't forget duct tape. LOL.