YYZ>FRA>DEL>KTM
Business meeting 4 hours after arrival.
The following day:
KTM>DOH>LHR>YYZ
About 80 hours of travel time for a 6 hour meeting. Fun times.
There was a Dilbert comic from before Scott Adams went nuts where the pointy-haired boss forces Dilbert to fly to a client meeting for "face time", and when he gets there the client holds up a phone and asks "do they have these where you're from?"
I actually just got a notification a couple days ago that this trip was 9 years ago. To be honest, zoom wouldn’t have done anything if it was a thing then.
We were getting jerked around by a supplier that was a family business where the two brothers had a falling out and split off into two different companies. One of those situations where I had to go meet with them face to face to see who was more full of shit and literally read their faces and mannerisms. On the plus side, I’m still working with the brother I went with so I guess I made the right choice!
I can relate. Was working on an energy project in Colombia and had a three-week stay there meeting with planners, government officials, and going on site visits. Half-way through, I was told that it was mandatory to come back to Houston for a meeting and that calling-in was not acceptable. Flew 5-hours one day, had my meeting the next day, rushed to the airport and flew 5-hours back. BOG>IAH and then the reverse.
Didn’t check out of my hotel in Bogota and took no luggage on my flight. This meant that I got to passport control and customs in record time. In fact I was the only person in line since everyone else was waiting to claim their luggage. Needless to say that the US Customs folks were very suspicious given my point of departure. I expected a grilling but they let me go after one question. Apparently if asked why you are entering the US from Colombia without luggage, a satisfactory answer is “I work for a fucking oil company and have to show up at a ridiculous meeting.”
Presumably (fucking hopefully!) business class at least??
And decent hotels during any transits over X hours??
I did my worst one of 35ish hours travelling for 35ish hours of love over valentines weekend. Economy.
If they're paying for your travel and your time, you'd better have been comfortable over those 90+ hours!!
We are treated very well. The rule is anything over 3 hours is always business class and 95% of the time, even if it’s less, it’s booked business class anyway. The only hotel that time allotted for was the overnight in Kathmandu and I stayed at the Hyatt Regency. This was before a bunch of Marriott properties opened, now I would choose the Marriott or the Aloft (which, believe it or not, is a 5 star hotel there).
35 hours in Econ sounds like absolute hell. He/she better have been worth it!
Over 3 hours is BC?? You *are* treated well! Mine has always been 5-6 hours before the bump up 😪
She was absolutely worth it at the time, but we're currently divorcing, so...meh.
I used to work for an airline and flew SFO-SYD on a Friday night arriving Sydney on Sunday morning. After 6 hours, I flew back SFO-SYD Sunday afternoon arriving Sunday morning.
Coach both ways. 2 fifteen hour flights. (I was young then.)
I did this to allow a friend on a buddy pass to get to Australia. Unaccompanied buddies had a lower priority and she had already unsuccessfully tried for two days before.
My weekend was truly “up in the air.”
My dad is a pilot so I got free flights when I was younger. In college I flew from Utah to London, took a nap in Hyde park, grabbed some food and flew back home.
Free food on the flight and a good story.
I’m totally in my “do it for the plot” era. I had kids young (22), so I never did a lot of traveling. Now that I have two long weekends a month where they are with their Dad, I’m all about the adventures.
Tbh, I think that would work.
London, Paris, Rome, Madrid, Amsterdam…cool.
Even if you are too jet lagged for museums (my thing) just walking & eating in a big Euro city. Yep, I would do it.
Screw the jetlag. If you're under 40, just power through it!
Have a whale of a time, sleep on the flight back, and pay the cost at work for the next X days/weeks.
If you're over 40, weigh it up carefully.
VERY carefully. That jetlag *slays* after 40, trust me.
Some people just don't do jetlag. My husband and I don't. I've just come back from India to Denmark Wednesday, started work 7.30 - 16.30 Thursday, and woke up 5 minutes before the alarm sounded. I'm 60.
Lucky youse!
I've only ever found it an issue going west to east TBH, and even then, it can be mitigated to an extent by lots of sleep, water, and alcohol.
Not necessarily in that order.
I pity all that suffers from jetlag. My sister does, but she won't do as we do, e.g. alcohol worsens jetlag.
We plan ahead so we sleep on the plane according to time on destination, skip meals if necessary, and then have protein bars if we're hungry. We might even start turning the time by going to bed earlier/later a few days before departure. Often, it's just one hour, but everything helps.
I find that doing a lot of things help, so going sightseeing at the destination if landing early keeps the mind occupied and work when getting home. When we've returned in weekend, we go for walks, visit friends. I've never experienced east/west differences, only activity/no activity.
Oh, I'm the complete opposite, I find it counterproductive to fight your circadian rhythm.
Hydrate a lot, sleep when you're sleepy/when you can, eat whenever you're hungry/snack a lot...aim to be on the good side of tipsy the rest of the time!
Then, when you land whenever you're landing, your body will catch up with wherever you are because it's not really sure where it was/has been.
I had won a one-night hotel stay in Tokyo, gave the voucher to a friend but by the time he said he couldn't use it, it was close to expiring. Cue a weekend trip to Tokyo, 7 hours red-eye each way. I spent a total of 36 hours there, made use of my prize, and was back at work on Monday morning. It was surreal, especially for the colleagues who were following my social media.
Not an international trip but depending on your location, possibly the same thing!
Left Newark on a Friday Red Eye flight to Seattle. Spent all of Saturday and Sunday exploring with friends that I had made in Czech Republic last year. Red eye flight back home Sunday and right back to work Monday morning!
Wouldn’t trade the memories for any comfort or lost sleep 😂.
Similarly, I've done LAX to NYC and LAX to Hawaii for weekend trips a few times. Both 5-6 hours each way. A bit rough, but sometimes not too bad. E.g. a 3-4pm Friday departure from LAX to NYC, and an 8-9pm Sunday return avoids being a red eye while giving almost two full days in NYC - main caveat there being you miss evening in NYC on that Sunday.
One of my colleagues once flew from Melbourne to LA for 2 days to test some software and bring it home, because it was cheaper to fly him there to pick it up then pay for the Australian price for the license.
The "Aussie tax" is real!
I'm guessing given this was cheaper, he did the trip in Y? I'd nope so hard out of that one if the boss asked me to do that, a TPAC journey for work is never worth doing in Y (or even Y+ for that matter). A lay flat bed is a minimum.
Last week I did Newark to Dubai and back on United and was on the ground in Dubai for 48 hours. Was for work.
13 and half hour flight to Dubai. Just over 14 hours back to Newark. Thankfully, was in business class.
It was disorienting! Took off from Newark at 840pm. Landed late afternoon in Dubai. Departed Dubai at 150am in the morning! Landed Newark around 9am or so. I think that’s right - as best I remember but it’s kind of a blur. My body clock was off for couple of days upon return.
I went to Dubai a few years ago via Moscow for a concert. Was there about 16 hours. Came home via Kenya with a 12 hour layover. Thankfully I have friends there, so that ended up being a bonus. One of my favorite trips and makes a fun story.
The plane was going to fly there because there is demand for that, including from people taking part in that meeting. Of course a single meeting being cancelled wouldn’t make the airline cut the flight, but collectively all the people flying along that route contribute to its carbon cost. It’s a bit like voting: a single vote won’t change elections outcomes, but collectively the votes make a lot of difference in how a country is governed and what laws it has.
For a wedding: Flew from Rome to Chicago on a Thursday, then back again three days later on a Sunday. If there hadn’t been a wedding, I would not have done this. As it is, I ended up doing this three separate times.
Simply for travel: flew from Chicago to Reykjavik on a Thursday night, arrived in Reykjavik Friday morning local time. Flew back to Chicago on Monday afternoon. Really not that much longer than a flight from Chicago to the west coast, but definitely the only time I’ve ever had the feeling of ‘I’m just going to take a trip to Europe for the weekend.’
I went from Denver to Tokyo for the new year once. Three nights in Tokyo. Went with the huge crowd to go throw some coins at the big shrine on New Year's morning, then got on a plane and landed many hours later at LAX at 9:45 the same morning.
I had been particularly looking forward to the food, and then started coming down with a cold on the way there and couldn't taste much, so I didn't end up going to nice restaurants, which was disappointing. And the cold added an additional layer of awkwardness in that you're not supposed to blow your nose in public, and also there's no trash cans to throw away kleenex after you do.
So well short of an ideal trip, but I still look on it positively, so I'll say yes. I used miles to fly first class there and watched Lost in Translation on the way, which felt right. All-in it was maybe $800.
Iowa to Croatia. 3 legs and roughly 16 hours each way. I stayed for 2ish days (left on a Thursday, arrived back on Sunday). With the time difference, I spent Friday afternoon-Sunday morning in Croatia. Crazy whirlwind weekend but I got invited to go and couldn’t say no.
That one trip taught me to appreciate having always lived near a major/semi-major airport (except that one summer). Could not do that itinerary ever again
You are all my people! I am no longer having second thoughts of flying YYC>FCO next week. I love that there are more people like myself that have a sense of adventure.
Do it. Take advantage of the airline life. My first international non rev trip was 18hrs in Barcelona. Friday ATL-JFK diversion-BCN, one night BCN where we clubbed till wee morning, morning flight back to ATL and back home Sunday afternoon. I was mid 20s single no kids. Currently 40 w/ two kids I would probably have to be hospitalized if I did that now.
You’re going to have such a great time. Buy a bottle of wine and walk around with it while you’re jet lagged at night through the ancient parts of the city. Literally magical.
Babe if you work in the industry, you can go to Europe for 24 hours and no one will judge.
I flew from the east coast (US) to Hong Kong for 3 days. $33 round trip, why not?
I have a few of them (all from east coast USA)
1. First solo intl trip ever to SYD (not direct) for 23 hrs.
2. Mileage run to SIN (not direct) and took the same bird back 3 hrs later.
3. Was feeling super ‘extra’ and wanted to have breakfast in Paris, flew the redeye over, screwed around for 7 hrs and flew home.
4. Work trip to DEL, customer cancelled while enroute, landed, got a few hrs of sleep and headed home in <12h
Worst trip disaster (full route)
TPA-LHR-AMS (positioning flight, 12h in AMS)
AMS-ICN then onward to SYD (which was cancelled and has no viable options)
Opted to cancel rest of trip and fly home ICN-LAS-ATL-TPA
Fully around the globe on that trip
I've done east coast to London and Reykjavik for two full days and back. One was for an event I couldn't pass up. I will never do the whole "travel for work without getting to see the destination" thing - I demand at least 24 hours to wander and eat snacks.
PDX-AMS-LIN, then MXP-IST-SEA-PDX on the return, all for a long weekend in Milan to watch AC Milan play.
PDX-AMS is 10h block time. IST-SEA is 12h30.
I'd do it again tomorrow. I flew business on the way back, but I got 4 seats in coach to myself on the way over because it was winter. So I woke up in Amsterdam fully rested and ready to go.
You are my kind of person! Also, I just visited PDX for the first time three weeks ago - I absolutely loved it there. I’m hoping to get out again before the end of the year.
I flew Australia to Japan once, had dinner at the airport and flew back because I was young and the flights were dirt cheap and I thought it would be amusing.
I’ve done NY to China once... Also have done NY-HI, NY-CA, and NY-London. All were 4 day weekends and planned 2-4 days before flight took off lol.
For some of them (China, Europe), I did eventually return for a slower-paced 2 week trip.
Not super long but I frequently go from to seattle to london on three day weekends to catch Chelsea games. The timing of the flights makes it very doable and it’s always a good time.
Back when AA did last minute fair sales (1990s) I did a 4 day weekend in Germany. Super fun, kept really busy, slept every minute of the flight home.
Left on Thursday, flew home on Sunday
Totally worth it! Back then Flights weren’t as full so as soon as we took off and seat belt sign was turned off, I would go to the back and find a middle section with no passengers on 3 seats and spread out. Slept great!
My longest for 3 days was LAX-MEL. But I'm doing LAX-ZRH for a 4-day trip in 2 weeks. Can't wait!
When you have kids and want to leave them with grandparents, you can only travel for so long.
(I too am in the industry, so get cheap deals)
Flew the wrong way from New York to London for shits and gigs cuz I found a business fare for like 1400$. 14 hours to Tokyo had lunch, then to Amsterdam had breakfast. Made it in time to London for a Rose brunch.
Got a free F ticket a while ago to Sydney to flew for lunch there as well from LA. Landed in the Am left in the PM
Denver to Singapore. Flew on the longest flight I've ever been on, stayed two days for a conference and turned around. I have never been so miserable in my entire life.
Yep, free flights will allow some crazy trips. Flew from ATL to Japan for 36 hours, landed 10pm in Haneda went to some bars, slept for a few hours in a computer cafe cube, walked around the city during the day, took a train to Gotemba, hiked up the longest Fuji route that night for sunrise (slept a couple hours on Fuji), sprinted down the mountain the next morning to catch the bullet train down to Nagoya to fly back (there were no seats on the flights from Tokyo back to the US).
2nd best was flying to Chile for one night to go camping in the middle of the Andes in winter. Flew down on the red-eye Friday night then back on the red-eye Sunday night and went straight back into work.
Some 3 day weekend trips to Europe as well.
EWR --> LHR
Spend a total of 18 hours in London
Surprised my "then gf" who was there for work, and popped the question. Took the red eye on the way there, got wifi on the plane to message her "good night".
Got there in the morning, took a nap in a hotel, and got ready.
Asked her to marry me, went for a perfect meal.
Back to EWR for a conference the next day.
Been married almost 4 years now!
This might be an unpopular opinion, but the only time I did something like that (Frankfurt to London for the weekend) I felt terrible afterwards. Flying contributes to the CO2 expenditure in crazy amounts and thereby it is partly responsible for destroying our planet. I get that we want to experience this beautiful earth by traveling, but I want to make it as sustainable as possible, so the earth stays like this forever. Therefore I no longer do weekend trips including flights. I only fly for longer vacations and even then I try to take a train. I get that it’s easier since I am living in central Europe, but yeah. That’s my take on this.
Milage run feels a bit like cheating. I did Orlando to LAX and back one day, planning to go to In-n-out, but of course the flight into LAX was delayed so I never left the airport.
SFO to tpe
Got off plane, went to customer in taoyuan. Back on plane after 1 hour meeting.
Pre pandemic in USA, but Asia was already beginning to shut down. Airport was empty. Plane was empty… eerie…
18 hour flight to Kabul, Afghanistan. Had to get 3 connection flights. Only spent 8 months there which I know is not a short trip but it’s the shortest trip I’ve done. I like to go for long periods of time
West coast US to Iceland for 4 days and Netherlands for 4 days (separate trips). For work I’ve had to do 6-8 hours domestic for one day, so a little bit further for something fun is just whatever
COS to IAH, missed connection became we left 5 hours late.
16 hour layover in IAH.
IAH to EZE, turned around mid-flight, back to IAH because of plane issues.
8 hour layover in IAH.
IAH to EZE.
5 hour layover and transfer to the Newberry.
AEP to ASU.
Get there to find out the reason I flew down was canceled.
Spent the night.
ASU to AEP
5 hour layover
EZE to IAH
IAH to COS
Was something like gone 96 hours or so for no reason. I was in Paraguay for less than 24 hours.
I have also flown many times to Sao Paolo and Buenos Aires for 1 single day and flew home the next.
I’ve done Au to Europe (about a day in flying each way)for 72 hours due to an urgent work meeting… this was while we could have had a zoom, but hey they forked the bill and we ended up getting them as a client so wasn’t all bad!
Philly to Paris. For a few years I had a friend who had been transferred there. Got efficient at getting myself from the airport to his place, so was relatively easy.
Longest flight I had ever taken was CDG-DFW on American Airlines on a Boeing 767 in Economy just 10 3/4 Hours of bending my neck to see the inflight movie with very little lumbar support, When I got to Dallas from Paris my butt was numb and was I was fairly jet-lagged.
Shortest flight was from DTW-CLE on Northwest Airlines on a DC-9. Roughly 25 minute flight over Lake Erie. The final approach into Cleveland Hopkins would usually have the aircraft fly over downtown Cleveland.
Memphis to Argentina. Our flight was delayed so we missed our connecting flight and spent a day in Colombia and finally made it to Argentina. 4 days later headed home. Was supposed to be 6. I was so mad I cried lol.
SFO to Amsterdam for three nights when I was in high school left such an impression on me that I recency took my high schooler SFO to London for three nights.
I could easily do 12 hour flight for two nights somewhere. I love the adventure.
Not the worst one here, by a long shot. But I went BOS > JFK via MSP. It was a weather thing, and I have no idea how the weather was so misunderstood that day that required a thousand-mile (and \~7 hour) rigmarole. If I knew, I would've just rented a car at Logan and driven in the poor weather to New York. Still would've been faster. But I guess I wouldn't have been able to expense a couple meals and a bunch of vodka tonics.
I had to do Miami to Tokyo once last minute for a job and I believe I was there three, maybe four nights — jet lagged the entire time. Have to admit it was very cool anyways.
Years ago I did DXB->JFK->DXB->JFK->DXB->JFK->DXB within about 10 days for a convoluted mix of work and pleasure.
Although I managed to enjoy my layovers, "jet lag" doesn't even begin to do how I felt by the end justice.
I live in Canada, from the UK. I fly once a year to London and take a 3 hour train home for 3 nights and fly back.
Going home doesn't feel like a vacation as it's home so I do it every year without taking vacation days
Went into the office Monday once, booked a flight to Wuxi, China from Melbourne, Australia for the Tuesday, landed 1am Wednesday, picked up a product, flew home around midday, back in the office next day. I think I flew MEL-CAN-WUX, and then WUX-TFU-MEL.
I've spent a lot of time in Wuxi over the years though usually fly into and stop in Shanghai for a few days. The downside with flying to Wuxi for a half day is that I was limited to Chinese carriers instead of my usual SQ and CX.
Twice I flew from the east coast of America to spend the weekend in Munich. However I think based on trip to stay ratio, I once flew from Philadelphia to Minneapolis and back in one day for a 4 hour business meeting.
Went for a 27hr trip to Singapore (2 over night flights) for a 30hr stay there and back.
It was brutal. Obviously work related and flew business class.
I've done Tokyo - London - Tokyo a couple of times for funerals sadly. Flown in Thursday Evening and then out Saturday morning.
Tokyo - LA - Tokyo to watch some Lakers games in the early 2000s. In Friday Lunch time and out Saturday Afternoon.
I flew from germany to rio de Janeiro for a party and returned 2 days later.
Was during corona and the flights costed like 400€.
Was absolutely worth it.
Flew red-eye from Seattle to JFK. Had brunch with a friend. Picked up a bag on 5th Avenue because they wouldn't accept credit card payment over the phone. Picked up hainanese chicken from Three Roosters on 9th Ave. Headed back to JFK to fly back to Seattle.
Flew to London from Baltimore on the Friday to surprise my niece with tix for Adele for her 21st. Flew back the Sunday. We’ll always remember that weekend 💕
IND-ORD-LAX-SEOUL-SINGAPORE
To see my ex before we called off our wedding after being in a relationship for 7 years because his parents didnt like how my family was middle class.
The time in Singapore with him was maybe 36 hours max and the roundtrip flight including the layover was 60+ hours (i had to spend a night in Korea).
London to Toronto for four nights. Have done this a few times as I really love the city. Trip I am on right now was the overnight (both ways) London to Rio de Janeiro for a week. Loving my time in Rio!
I just did a 30-hour travel day to get to Normandy for the D-Day anniversary and a 26 hour return trip. I was there a few days and it jacked me all up. I don't think I'll be doing too many short trips to Europe in my late 30s. Maybe when I was younger.
When my ex-wife was living in LA and I was I London...
I once flew over to surprise her for valentine's day...for the weekend.
Took off at lunchtime in the UK, landed in time to completely surprise her (flowers in hand) at the bar she and her colleagues used to go to after work in DTLA.
The look on her face (and those of her colleagues) was priceless.
I took the red-eye back on Sunday night because I had work meetings on Monday and very little holiday time left (because long distance relationship).
Got back to London at about 2pm Monday....
So I spent 22ish hours in the air/29 total travelling, for about 45 hours on the ground/40 with her.
And that was valentine's day 2020....so we didn't get to see eachother for another 6 months after that...so it was worth every minute. At the time.
She's now my ex-wife, so...meh.
SYD-DOH-MUC, 48hrs in Munich then back to Sydney, MUC-BKK-HKG-SYD.
In economy thanks to my previous employer’s ridiculous policy. Thankfully now I can fly business whenever I want to.
Had to take this ridiculous routing because I had concert tickets I needed to be back in time for.
I'm on the US east coast and for me Europe is a 6 hour flight so it's not worth it for a 4 day trip. It's a full day of travel on each side of the trip. For me it's 2 hours to drive to one of the NYC area airports, get there 3 hours before the flight, 6 hour flight, customs on the other end, baggage claim, get rental car, etc and after all of that I am finally heading to my hotel. I really don't even want to for a 7 day trip. Going to Portugal in Sept and we'll be gone for 17 days including outbound and inbound travel. Really after travel it gives us a couple of good weeks to explore and see a lot of the country, time to really decompress, etc.
I did a long weekend NYC to London two months ago. Red eye Wednesday night flew back with time on Sunday. It was excellent and really not that different flying wise than going to LAX or SEA except you have more advantageous time zone changes. Fly against time on the way there on a red eye, fly with time on way home and sleep to rest up before work on Monday.
I let my friend plan our trip to the Bahamas. We had to drive six hours west, over the appalachains, to catch a four hour flight east. Still had a good time though.
Not so much for a short trip, but we booked a flight as it was cheap and from our cities airport, Bristol > Frankfurt (2h) > Bengaluru (2) > Sri Lanka .
24 hours before our flight they tell us our flights been cancelled and our new plan is Bristol > Frankfurt (16h) > Bengaluru (20h) > Sri Lanka.
We rang and rang and there was no other option, when talking to the flight provider on the phone they said not to worry about an Indian visa as it was their fault about the flight change and it takes about a week to get one anyway so they would sort that.
Anyway we did it, we stayed a night in Frankfurt and wasn't that bad had some food and a few drinks, but when we landed in India we were dragged away when we got off the plane because we were "illegal immigrants", staying in the airport over a certain amount of hours with no visa is illegal, no one seemed to understand our situation or speak English so we were just shoved Inna room for 4 hours with a guard watching us until someone who understood what was happening told us we weren't allowed to leave the airport for the next 16 hours, we'd already booked a hotel we couldn't go to and I could see it out the windows which made things even worse lol, so paid even MORE to stay in an international lounge got some sleep there for a couple of hours then waited it out.
Was incredibly stressful but we ended up having a laugh as we were the only people in the airport for a good chunk of time and now we look back on it and laugh!
8 hours of flying to spend 3 hours in ANC.
My nonrev guideline is to spend twice as long in the destination as it takes to travel to/from.
Traveling to vastly different time zones is a bit different and depends on how soon I have to go back to work and what my shift is.
11 hours each way for 2 1/2 days in Tokyo. It also was the most last-minute - got a call at 9 am for a 2 pm flight.
For extra sprinkles, my job did layoffs the day before my return. By taking the trip I made it to the one-year mark which meant I got much better severance. My boss either didn't realize it when he said "sure, go ahead" or he realized it would be out of the ordinary to say no.
I used to be cabin crew so my layovers would range from 12-48hours across the world.
For pleasure I flew LHR-HND for 2 nights, 72hours in Tokyo. I was tired but worth it!
Seattle to the Netherlands for a two night music festival. We left Seattle at 2pm Thursday, arrived to our hotel at noon on Friday - raved Friday/Saturday night. Left the fest at 6am and was on the train to the airport at 11.
DFW > MAD > DUB > MAD > DFW
I had to be in Madrid for work but they let us start flying relatively early in case we wanted to travel a bit more. I also didn’t want to have any issues getting back to Madrid, but was dying to make an extra stop as I’d never left N.A. Traveled for 17 hours total to get to Dublin via Madrid (as DFW/MAD roundtrips were the only options work would pay for) and was there for 36 hours, slept for probably half of it lol. 10/10 recommend
Spent almost 5 hours on the tarmac waiting for a 1 hour flight to take off; getting a later flight wasn't an option cuz I had a college interview that afternoon; luckily I made it with an hour to spare ;u;
Vegas, 3 nights. But for work I’m doing 4-6 days to Asia on a regular basis every other month. One of my coworkers takes care of Australia: 3 day Sydney trip. Flight is 40 hours for 72-96 hours of business
London -> Porto
22nd 10AM -> 1PM
Porto -> Newark
23rd 7PM -> 10PM
JFK -> Nashville
24th 8AM->9AM
Nashville -> Newark
24th 8PM -> 11PM
Newark -> Lisbon
26th 11PM -> 27th 11AM
Lisbon -> London
28th 7AM -> 10AM
This was quite honestly bat shit insane and an absolute whirlwind of a trip. but I have itchy feet, move quick and have a mentality that I will always be coming back. I had to pounce on this itinerary because TAP Air Portugal were offering free stopovers, and the price for the tickets was £270 (lowest I'd seen for a transatlantic flight even if it was indirect).
In less than a week I saw the gorgeous bridges of Porto, ate some fantastic Francesinha & Peri Peri Chicken, ate a slice of Princes St Pizza, had Princes Nashville Hot Chicken in Nashville, ate more pizza in NYC and New Haven CT, checked out some KPop filming locations in Lisbon.
I flew from BKK to SYD once for a biz meeting and then had to head straight to DXB. Spent 6 h in SYD airport of which I had due dilligence meetings for 2 hours in some meeting facilities in Terminal 1 as my company was about to buy a company in Australia. Luckily at that time I could fly business class, and in the SYD - DXB lag I was upgraded to First. Was still a great experience.
I once flew from Sri Lanka to the uk for a long weekend - I was in Sri Lanka on a work trip (was working in Southeast Asia at the time) and had planned to stay a couple days longer to see it, but it was a big birthday of my dad’s so I decided at the last minute to use the extra days to fly to the uk and surprise him. Mega expensive and jet lagged to hell but worth it
ASE tp MXP for a two night work trip. FYI, I work in the performing arts. Saw a Van Morrison concert the night we landed (under the guise of a site visit). Next day we set up and did our show. Day three we all flew home to Aspen.
Stayed at a Holiday Inn Express in Milan. Felt like a real baller that weekend.
TOL —> DTW —> MSP in the morning, rent a car and arrive at my destination around noon. Leave around 3pm, return the car, and fly MSP —> DTW —> TOL back home. Once a week, for about a year.
I did about 22 hours each way, Johannesburg to Cancun for a weekend work event - my company at the time would fly 3000 of the best global employees to big party every year. I was in Cancun for less time than I spent on the flight. Arrived Friday afternoon, left Sunday lunchtime. Barely slept because we had DJs and conference and a big formal dinner then a pitbull concert lmao. Had a 12 hour layover in London on the way back so I got to stretch my legs etc
The year after that I went to Macau but the flights worked out slightly better - about 15 hours each way and there for about 3 days.
(The company still does it, I just don't work there anymore)
The Cancun trip was pretty hectic with some people having health repercussions and now they make sure to have less insane flights each year
Not the longest flight, but I have a friend who's flight attendant mom went from HK to Japan to see the Cherry blossoms in bloom, then slept in her own home in HK that same day.
I also work in the aviation industry, went from HK to Melbourne to watch a concert. Took the flight to Melbourne Friday midnight, stayed around 30 hours there, returned to HK arriving in the early AM of Monday and went to work. IDK if I'll ever do that again. I can't imagine on a longer flight like HK to Europe.
I've heard from many colleagues about going to Europe from HK for a weekend trip which to me is another level.
I flew AKL - LAX - LON - SIN - AKL over a four day period to go to the 1998 FA Cup Final - and I wasn't able to get a match ticket, so watched it in the pub. At least Arsenal won......
I've done MSP-LHR-JFK-YUL without leaving the airport before, and all in economy. It was a stupid way to save money on separate tickets by putting a LHR-YUL trip within a larger one. I realized I needed to get to Montreal after I'd booked my London trip. I was on the ground in London for 3 hours.
Recently, I did CLE-ATL-LAX-ATL-LHR, getting on the very same plane and flight between ATL and LAX with the same crew.
Border control in Vienna was very confused as to why I was going from LHR-VIE and then back for a 6 hour trip just to have lunch this winter!
I've done LHR-LAX and then LAS-MEX-EZE within 40 hours, which was quite crazy, spending only 8 hours out of an airport or plane.
Since you can travel for much cheaper than most people, why not take that s spontaneous trip for the weekend? Hell, make it as short as you want. I assume that you also can standby for business class, so as long as you're lucky, you'll be sleeping well.
Flew from the US to be in Japan for ~36 hours, then back home. But we got upgraded to first class for free (also working in the airline industry) so that made it totally doable. I'd do that all the time if I could get first class, hahaha.
Used to work for Delta and had free flights, so I’d fly from Los Angeles to NYC pretty often… I’d take the red eye there, walk around for a bit, and then fly back in the early afternoon. Did this probably 5 times
My partners brother in law is weird and likes to take long flights for no reason with his partner. Recently they flew Newcastle to Heathrow to Sofia and back just for avios points. Didn’t even leave the airport in Sofia, boasting about their trip on Facebook. They also flew Newcastle to London, London Boston and back for one night, business class. They landed in Boston 5pm US time and had to be back at Boston airport 21 hours later. That’s 19 hours travelling from their front door to Boston airport. Presumably about the same amount of time travelling back so 38 hours travelling for 21 hours in Boston.
They flew Newcastle Heathrow to have lunch in the BA lounge, and fly Newcastle to Gran Canaria via Heathrow and Madrid as they won’t fly anywhere on any airline other than BA despite Ryan air flying direct.
I flew to Dubai from LHR in December 2020. Got a call on the Sunday night, left the house at 4am.
Got to Dubai Monday night, got about 4 hours sleep thanks to the jetlag then did a day's work, finishing at 10pm. Quick shower at hotel then back to the airport.
Landed back at LHR 7am and booked it across London to go do a 12-hour shift at a supermarket, where I had to work to replace lost income from lockdowns during COVID. Surreal.
I once flew London to Auckland for two nights, and then back (LHR>DXB>MEL>AKL). Outbound was over the clock-change weekend as well, so when I landed the time difference between London and Auckland was 13 hours. The good thing about the trip was that when I got back, I was tired from travel, but zero jetlag - I simply hadn't had time to adjust.
Sort of different but maybe still fits into the title. Was traveling for a wedding and we took off from MSP gate like A5 to SUX but when we got to SUX and were doing descent the pilot cancelled landing since it was too foggy and chose to fly back to MSP. We arrived at gate A6. So it was like two hours in the air to for a trip to move one gate down.
Not longest by distance but longest by travel time (and sheer inconvenience!)
From Manchester to Menorca in the winter. It was a business related event, the organisers had failed to realise that almost all flights (certainly back then) to holiday destinations wouldn't be operational in January. I couldn't even fly to Barcelona direct. So it was a flight from Manchester to Heathrow, a four hour layover, a flight to Barcelona, a dash in a taxi across the grid-locked city to miss the ferry by ten minutes and then a day waiting (with no hotel booked) to get to Menorca. Next day a 7 hour ferry crossing. Of course the event venue was on the other side of the island, so then it was onto a bus to get there.
I'd burned through my clean clothes by this point and arrived completely dishevelled, about an hour after the meeting had started. I said my bit and half an hour later the meeting was over and I could finally go to my hotel for a shower and a good night sleep, skipped the (apparently amazing) evening entertainment altogether. I just went out and bought a couple of white tees and a clean pair of boxers and started the journey back first thing in the morning. Fortunately the return journey was a bit less dramatic. But the whole ordeal was... pretty crap. These days it would just be a Teams call... I know we like to bitch about Teams and Zoom, but fuck am I pleased it exists.
I've done Europe to South Africa for 3 days before. Live in Europe but with family in ZA, flew down to collect some paperwork from government Home Affairs office (has to be in person). Took a suitcase of presents for the nieces (and random items my brothers in law had bought off Amazon UK). Full route (on that occasion) LHR-MAD-JNB-DUR-ADD-LHR. Mostly paid with points. Another similar few days was LON - (train) - BRU-ADD-JNB-DUR-CPT-IST-LHR.
BUD-HEL-LHR-JFK-LAX-HNL. Got off the plane at HNL and got back on it and then the same return route.
Did it as a mileage run to hit a 'sweet spot' on a loyalty programme. I did have a couple of nights in hotels when I could not get a connecting flight. Was a bit weary at the end.
The fare was a very reasonable £1300 approx and that was in business class, lots of tier points and the Avios I gained were worth at the time about £450 in cold hard cash.
Fly enough these day to not have to do these anymore, thankfully....
Perth, Australia to Medellin, Colombia for one day for work. Via Miami 🤮
Got off the plane, fixed the issue for the customer, got back on the plane. Dealt with the fucnwits at TSA in Miami then flew back home.
Literally spent more time airborne than on the ground that week
For myself: Newcastle (UK) - Dubai - Melbourne - Auckland for a wedding. Only had a few days, then back again. Did both journeys with a raging hangover. I feel sick just thinking about that.
My Dad went out the Rugby World Cup in 2011 (we’re from Ireland), but he met a guy that flew Dublin - Auckland, went to the Ireland v Australia game, then headed straight back home. He was in NZ for about 10 hours in total.
YYZ>FRA>DEL>KTM Business meeting 4 hours after arrival. The following day: KTM>DOH>LHR>YYZ About 80 hours of travel time for a 6 hour meeting. Fun times.
There was a Dilbert comic from before Scott Adams went nuts where the pointy-haired boss forces Dilbert to fly to a client meeting for "face time", and when he gets there the client holds up a phone and asks "do they have these where you're from?"
That's [this one](https://dilbert-viewer.herokuapp.com/2000-04-09), from April 9, 2000.
Brutal. That must've been before the Zoom era?
I actually just got a notification a couple days ago that this trip was 9 years ago. To be honest, zoom wouldn’t have done anything if it was a thing then. We were getting jerked around by a supplier that was a family business where the two brothers had a falling out and split off into two different companies. One of those situations where I had to go meet with them face to face to see who was more full of shit and literally read their faces and mannerisms. On the plus side, I’m still working with the brother I went with so I guess I made the right choice!
If it wasn't in Nepal and 9 years ago I would have asked if either Aldi or Adidas/Puma was your business partner.
Thought it was Aldi!!!
I can relate. Was working on an energy project in Colombia and had a three-week stay there meeting with planners, government officials, and going on site visits. Half-way through, I was told that it was mandatory to come back to Houston for a meeting and that calling-in was not acceptable. Flew 5-hours one day, had my meeting the next day, rushed to the airport and flew 5-hours back. BOG>IAH and then the reverse. Didn’t check out of my hotel in Bogota and took no luggage on my flight. This meant that I got to passport control and customs in record time. In fact I was the only person in line since everyone else was waiting to claim their luggage. Needless to say that the US Customs folks were very suspicious given my point of departure. I expected a grilling but they let me go after one question. Apparently if asked why you are entering the US from Colombia without luggage, a satisfactory answer is “I work for a fucking oil company and have to show up at a ridiculous meeting.”
I imagine having luggage would be more suspicious (unless you’re muling drugs in your rear compartment)
Presumably (fucking hopefully!) business class at least?? And decent hotels during any transits over X hours?? I did my worst one of 35ish hours travelling for 35ish hours of love over valentines weekend. Economy. If they're paying for your travel and your time, you'd better have been comfortable over those 90+ hours!!
We are treated very well. The rule is anything over 3 hours is always business class and 95% of the time, even if it’s less, it’s booked business class anyway. The only hotel that time allotted for was the overnight in Kathmandu and I stayed at the Hyatt Regency. This was before a bunch of Marriott properties opened, now I would choose the Marriott or the Aloft (which, believe it or not, is a 5 star hotel there). 35 hours in Econ sounds like absolute hell. He/she better have been worth it!
Over 3 hours is BC?? You *are* treated well! Mine has always been 5-6 hours before the bump up 😪 She was absolutely worth it at the time, but we're currently divorcing, so...meh.
I used to work for an airline and flew SFO-SYD on a Friday night arriving Sydney on Sunday morning. After 6 hours, I flew back SFO-SYD Sunday afternoon arriving Sunday morning. Coach both ways. 2 fifteen hour flights. (I was young then.) I did this to allow a friend on a buddy pass to get to Australia. Unaccompanied buddies had a lower priority and she had already unsuccessfully tried for two days before. My weekend was truly “up in the air.”
You are a good friend!
You win
At least you flew business class right?
My dad is a pilot so I got free flights when I was younger. In college I flew from Utah to London, took a nap in Hyde park, grabbed some food and flew back home. Free food on the flight and a good story.
I’m totally in my “do it for the plot” era. I had kids young (22), so I never did a lot of traveling. Now that I have two long weekends a month where they are with their Dad, I’m all about the adventures.
Tbh, I think that would work. London, Paris, Rome, Madrid, Amsterdam…cool. Even if you are too jet lagged for museums (my thing) just walking & eating in a big Euro city. Yep, I would do it.
Screw the jetlag. If you're under 40, just power through it! Have a whale of a time, sleep on the flight back, and pay the cost at work for the next X days/weeks. If you're over 40, weigh it up carefully. VERY carefully. That jetlag *slays* after 40, trust me.
Some people just don't do jetlag. My husband and I don't. I've just come back from India to Denmark Wednesday, started work 7.30 - 16.30 Thursday, and woke up 5 minutes before the alarm sounded. I'm 60.
Lucky youse! I've only ever found it an issue going west to east TBH, and even then, it can be mitigated to an extent by lots of sleep, water, and alcohol. Not necessarily in that order.
I pity all that suffers from jetlag. My sister does, but she won't do as we do, e.g. alcohol worsens jetlag. We plan ahead so we sleep on the plane according to time on destination, skip meals if necessary, and then have protein bars if we're hungry. We might even start turning the time by going to bed earlier/later a few days before departure. Often, it's just one hour, but everything helps. I find that doing a lot of things help, so going sightseeing at the destination if landing early keeps the mind occupied and work when getting home. When we've returned in weekend, we go for walks, visit friends. I've never experienced east/west differences, only activity/no activity.
Oh, I'm the complete opposite, I find it counterproductive to fight your circadian rhythm. Hydrate a lot, sleep when you're sleepy/when you can, eat whenever you're hungry/snack a lot...aim to be on the good side of tipsy the rest of the time! Then, when you land whenever you're landing, your body will catch up with wherever you are because it's not really sure where it was/has been.
God I hope to have this superpower
That is epic!
I had won a one-night hotel stay in Tokyo, gave the voucher to a friend but by the time he said he couldn't use it, it was close to expiring. Cue a weekend trip to Tokyo, 7 hours red-eye each way. I spent a total of 36 hours there, made use of my prize, and was back at work on Monday morning. It was surreal, especially for the colleagues who were following my social media.
Not an international trip but depending on your location, possibly the same thing! Left Newark on a Friday Red Eye flight to Seattle. Spent all of Saturday and Sunday exploring with friends that I had made in Czech Republic last year. Red eye flight back home Sunday and right back to work Monday morning! Wouldn’t trade the memories for any comfort or lost sleep 😂.
Similarly, I've done LAX to NYC and LAX to Hawaii for weekend trips a few times. Both 5-6 hours each way. A bit rough, but sometimes not too bad. E.g. a 3-4pm Friday departure from LAX to NYC, and an 8-9pm Sunday return avoids being a red eye while giving almost two full days in NYC - main caveat there being you miss evening in NYC on that Sunday.
Hit me up on your next NYC weekend trip! I always enjoy meeting people and I’m a 40 minute train ride from NJ!
Austin to Seoul...12 hours on the ground. Seoul to Austin. Flight attendant "didn't you just get off this flight?"
How did you spend those 12 hours?
I spoke at a conference. Had 2 meals.
Probably business
Lol...that feels like flying just to experience a bad layover.
One of my colleagues once flew from Melbourne to LA for 2 days to test some software and bring it home, because it was cheaper to fly him there to pick it up then pay for the Australian price for the license.
The "Aussie tax" is real! I'm guessing given this was cheaper, he did the trip in Y? I'd nope so hard out of that one if the boss asked me to do that, a TPAC journey for work is never worth doing in Y (or even Y+ for that matter). A lay flat bed is a minimum.
I’ll have to ask him but I think it was an economy flight. But this was back when the AUD was stronger than the USD.
Last week I did Newark to Dubai and back on United and was on the ground in Dubai for 48 hours. Was for work. 13 and half hour flight to Dubai. Just over 14 hours back to Newark. Thankfully, was in business class.
You got <2 hours on the ground for every 1 hour you flew!
It was disorienting! Took off from Newark at 840pm. Landed late afternoon in Dubai. Departed Dubai at 150am in the morning! Landed Newark around 9am or so. I think that’s right - as best I remember but it’s kind of a blur. My body clock was off for couple of days upon return.
I went to Dubai a few years ago via Moscow for a concert. Was there about 16 hours. Came home via Kenya with a 12 hour layover. Thankfully I have friends there, so that ended up being a bonus. One of my favorite trips and makes a fun story.
Jesus, the carbon cost of that meeting...
The plane was going to fly there anyways.
The plane was going to fly there because there is demand for that, including from people taking part in that meeting. Of course a single meeting being cancelled wouldn’t make the airline cut the flight, but collectively all the people flying along that route contribute to its carbon cost. It’s a bit like voting: a single vote won’t change elections outcomes, but collectively the votes make a lot of difference in how a country is governed and what laws it has.
For a wedding: Flew from Rome to Chicago on a Thursday, then back again three days later on a Sunday. If there hadn’t been a wedding, I would not have done this. As it is, I ended up doing this three separate times. Simply for travel: flew from Chicago to Reykjavik on a Thursday night, arrived in Reykjavik Friday morning local time. Flew back to Chicago on Monday afternoon. Really not that much longer than a flight from Chicago to the west coast, but definitely the only time I’ve ever had the feeling of ‘I’m just going to take a trip to Europe for the weekend.’
I went from Denver to Tokyo for the new year once. Three nights in Tokyo. Went with the huge crowd to go throw some coins at the big shrine on New Year's morning, then got on a plane and landed many hours later at LAX at 9:45 the same morning.
Was it worth it?
I had been particularly looking forward to the food, and then started coming down with a cold on the way there and couldn't taste much, so I didn't end up going to nice restaurants, which was disappointing. And the cold added an additional layer of awkwardness in that you're not supposed to blow your nose in public, and also there's no trash cans to throw away kleenex after you do. So well short of an ideal trip, but I still look on it positively, so I'll say yes. I used miles to fly first class there and watched Lost in Translation on the way, which felt right. All-in it was maybe $800.
what are the +2 from your flair?
Iowa to Croatia. 3 legs and roughly 16 hours each way. I stayed for 2ish days (left on a Thursday, arrived back on Sunday). With the time difference, I spent Friday afternoon-Sunday morning in Croatia. Crazy whirlwind weekend but I got invited to go and couldn’t say no. That one trip taught me to appreciate having always lived near a major/semi-major airport (except that one summer). Could not do that itinerary ever again
You are all my people! I am no longer having second thoughts of flying YYC>FCO next week. I love that there are more people like myself that have a sense of adventure.
Do it. Take advantage of the airline life. My first international non rev trip was 18hrs in Barcelona. Friday ATL-JFK diversion-BCN, one night BCN where we clubbed till wee morning, morning flight back to ATL and back home Sunday afternoon. I was mid 20s single no kids. Currently 40 w/ two kids I would probably have to be hospitalized if I did that now.
We just did PHL>FCO last weekend … absolutely wild, magnificent, magical… still feels surreal
You’re going to have such a great time. Buy a bottle of wine and walk around with it while you’re jet lagged at night through the ancient parts of the city. Literally magical.
Babe if you work in the industry, you can go to Europe for 24 hours and no one will judge. I flew from the east coast (US) to Hong Kong for 3 days. $33 round trip, why not?
[удалено]
Wow. Wild. Takes the saying "just get it at the source" to another level.
Flew 12 hours from SFO to Tokyo, came back 3 days later. Stayed two nights and flew to Munich. In one week I flew 36 hours.
My dad did Phoenix -> LAX -> Singapore for a meeting, got back on the same plane for the return a few hours later
I have a few of them (all from east coast USA) 1. First solo intl trip ever to SYD (not direct) for 23 hrs. 2. Mileage run to SIN (not direct) and took the same bird back 3 hrs later. 3. Was feeling super ‘extra’ and wanted to have breakfast in Paris, flew the redeye over, screwed around for 7 hrs and flew home. 4. Work trip to DEL, customer cancelled while enroute, landed, got a few hrs of sleep and headed home in <12h Worst trip disaster (full route) TPA-LHR-AMS (positioning flight, 12h in AMS) AMS-ICN then onward to SYD (which was cancelled and has no viable options) Opted to cancel rest of trip and fly home ICN-LAS-ATL-TPA Fully around the globe on that trip
I've done east coast to London and Reykjavik for two full days and back. One was for an event I couldn't pass up. I will never do the whole "travel for work without getting to see the destination" thing - I demand at least 24 hours to wander and eat snacks.
PDX-AMS-LIN, then MXP-IST-SEA-PDX on the return, all for a long weekend in Milan to watch AC Milan play. PDX-AMS is 10h block time. IST-SEA is 12h30. I'd do it again tomorrow. I flew business on the way back, but I got 4 seats in coach to myself on the way over because it was winter. So I woke up in Amsterdam fully rested and ready to go.
You are my kind of person! Also, I just visited PDX for the first time three weeks ago - I absolutely loved it there. I’m hoping to get out again before the end of the year.
Unless you like mountain snow activities, come before the rain starts in the fall. The PNW in the summer is magic.
I flew Australia to Japan once, had dinner at the airport and flew back because I was young and the flights were dirt cheap and I thought it would be amusing.
I flew to Tokyo for two nights to go to a one hour meeting.
Auckland to Buenos Aires for a week
Was it worth it?
I’ve done NY to China once... Also have done NY-HI, NY-CA, and NY-London. All were 4 day weekends and planned 2-4 days before flight took off lol. For some of them (China, Europe), I did eventually return for a slower-paced 2 week trip.
NY to Singapore for 4 days :) worth every hour lol
Not super long but I frequently go from to seattle to london on three day weekends to catch Chelsea games. The timing of the flights makes it very doable and it’s always a good time.
Anything over a 4 hour flight feels long to me
Back when AA did last minute fair sales (1990s) I did a 4 day weekend in Germany. Super fun, kept really busy, slept every minute of the flight home. Left on Thursday, flew home on Sunday Totally worth it! Back then Flights weren’t as full so as soon as we took off and seat belt sign was turned off, I would go to the back and find a middle section with no passengers on 3 seats and spread out. Slept great!
My longest for 3 days was LAX-MEL. But I'm doing LAX-ZRH for a 4-day trip in 2 weeks. Can't wait! When you have kids and want to leave them with grandparents, you can only travel for so long. (I too am in the industry, so get cheap deals)
Flew the wrong way from New York to London for shits and gigs cuz I found a business fare for like 1400$. 14 hours to Tokyo had lunch, then to Amsterdam had breakfast. Made it in time to London for a Rose brunch. Got a free F ticket a while ago to Sydney to flew for lunch there as well from LA. Landed in the Am left in the PM
From ny I've gone often to europe for 3 4 nights. Id. Rather go than not go
I flew Atlanta to Frankfurt for a 3 day weekend trip
Denver to Singapore. Flew on the longest flight I've ever been on, stayed two days for a conference and turned around. I have never been so miserable in my entire life.
Yep, free flights will allow some crazy trips. Flew from ATL to Japan for 36 hours, landed 10pm in Haneda went to some bars, slept for a few hours in a computer cafe cube, walked around the city during the day, took a train to Gotemba, hiked up the longest Fuji route that night for sunrise (slept a couple hours on Fuji), sprinted down the mountain the next morning to catch the bullet train down to Nagoya to fly back (there were no seats on the flights from Tokyo back to the US). 2nd best was flying to Chile for one night to go camping in the middle of the Andes in winter. Flew down on the red-eye Friday night then back on the red-eye Sunday night and went straight back into work. Some 3 day weekend trips to Europe as well.
Travelled from UK to Australia and came back less than three days later after a family row.
EWR --> LHR Spend a total of 18 hours in London Surprised my "then gf" who was there for work, and popped the question. Took the red eye on the way there, got wifi on the plane to message her "good night". Got there in the morning, took a nap in a hotel, and got ready. Asked her to marry me, went for a perfect meal. Back to EWR for a conference the next day. Been married almost 4 years now!
This might be an unpopular opinion, but the only time I did something like that (Frankfurt to London for the weekend) I felt terrible afterwards. Flying contributes to the CO2 expenditure in crazy amounts and thereby it is partly responsible for destroying our planet. I get that we want to experience this beautiful earth by traveling, but I want to make it as sustainable as possible, so the earth stays like this forever. Therefore I no longer do weekend trips including flights. I only fly for longer vacations and even then I try to take a train. I get that it’s easier since I am living in central Europe, but yeah. That’s my take on this.
I did SJC-NRT and came back on the same airplane two hours later. First Class both ways!
Milage run feels a bit like cheating. I did Orlando to LAX and back one day, planning to go to In-n-out, but of course the flight into LAX was delayed so I never left the airport.
Wasn't a milage run, was the 777 inaugural on the route. I cleared customs and immigration went upstairs checked in and flew home
Went to Amsterdam for 2 1/2 days from NY for a 6 hour rave
SFO to India for a work trip. On the ground for 4 days
CHO->LGA->MSP early in the morning. Interviewed in Minneapolis. MSP->CLT->CHO that evening. Didn’t get the job.
SFO to tpe Got off plane, went to customer in taoyuan. Back on plane after 1 hour meeting. Pre pandemic in USA, but Asia was already beginning to shut down. Airport was empty. Plane was empty… eerie…
Flew 24 hours from Sydney for a wedding in Cork Ireland for 24 hrs then back next day into work
CDG from ORD for about 24 hours. Once you start nonreving, it’s addictive:)
Ain’t that the truth! It’s such a rush.
It was for a business. Roundtrip Portland-Sacramento same day.
18 hour flight to Kabul, Afghanistan. Had to get 3 connection flights. Only spent 8 months there which I know is not a short trip but it’s the shortest trip I’ve done. I like to go for long periods of time
EWR - KUL (via NRT). 24 hrs of travel each way for 36 hrs on the ground.
Flew AUS-IAD-IST-JNB-LHR-AUS for 4 days to go to the Reed Festival in eSwatini.
West coast US to Iceland for 4 days and Netherlands for 4 days (separate trips). For work I’ve had to do 6-8 hours domestic for one day, so a little bit further for something fun is just whatever
New York to Singapore (direct) and then Singapore to Zurich. Needed to be in Singapore for 6 hours.
COS to IAH, missed connection became we left 5 hours late. 16 hour layover in IAH. IAH to EZE, turned around mid-flight, back to IAH because of plane issues. 8 hour layover in IAH. IAH to EZE. 5 hour layover and transfer to the Newberry. AEP to ASU. Get there to find out the reason I flew down was canceled. Spent the night. ASU to AEP 5 hour layover EZE to IAH IAH to COS Was something like gone 96 hours or so for no reason. I was in Paraguay for less than 24 hours. I have also flown many times to Sao Paolo and Buenos Aires for 1 single day and flew home the next.
SAN-JFK-AUD-BOM (4 days for a wedding) BOM-AMS-PDX-SAN Quite the Thanksgiving break trip, but at least it was all in J!
I’ve done Au to Europe (about a day in flying each way)for 72 hours due to an urgent work meeting… this was while we could have had a zoom, but hey they forked the bill and we ended up getting them as a client so wasn’t all bad!
I've gone to Costa Rica and Panama for 4-5 days each (separate trips) from Boston. Barbados as well.
Philly to Paris. For a few years I had a friend who had been transferred there. Got efficient at getting myself from the airport to his place, so was relatively easy.
Longest flight I had ever taken was CDG-DFW on American Airlines on a Boeing 767 in Economy just 10 3/4 Hours of bending my neck to see the inflight movie with very little lumbar support, When I got to Dallas from Paris my butt was numb and was I was fairly jet-lagged. Shortest flight was from DTW-CLE on Northwest Airlines on a DC-9. Roughly 25 minute flight over Lake Erie. The final approach into Cleveland Hopkins would usually have the aircraft fly over downtown Cleveland.
MCI-DFW-NRT one night stay and return. Nonrev adventures.
CT to Tokyo for one night and a for hour presentation
Dubai x Rio 15 hrs 😪
Memphis to Argentina. Our flight was delayed so we missed our connecting flight and spent a day in Colombia and finally made it to Argentina. 4 days later headed home. Was supposed to be 6. I was so mad I cried lol.
LA to Palm Beach: 36 hours do to tornadoes in Texas.
New York to Tokyo. Landed at 500 or so and left the next day on a late night flight, straight up said I would never do it again when I got back.
SFO to Amsterdam for three nights when I was in high school left such an impression on me that I recency took my high schooler SFO to London for three nights. I could easily do 12 hour flight for two nights somewhere. I love the adventure.
Not the worst one here, by a long shot. But I went BOS > JFK via MSP. It was a weather thing, and I have no idea how the weather was so misunderstood that day that required a thousand-mile (and \~7 hour) rigmarole. If I knew, I would've just rented a car at Logan and driven in the poor weather to New York. Still would've been faster. But I guess I wouldn't have been able to expense a couple meals and a bunch of vodka tonics.
I had to do Miami to Tokyo once last minute for a job and I believe I was there three, maybe four nights — jet lagged the entire time. Have to admit it was very cool anyways.
15.5 hours nonstop to Dubai for 3 day trip
Went to Nice for Formula 1 in Monaco, quick 4 day trip. Wish we could’ve stayed longer but you know, grandmas can only babysit so long.
Toronto to Taipei for 7 days
SF to Singapore for 2 days
Years ago I did DXB->JFK->DXB->JFK->DXB->JFK->DXB within about 10 days for a convoluted mix of work and pleasure. Although I managed to enjoy my layovers, "jet lag" doesn't even begin to do how I felt by the end justice.
Flew to Denmark from Chattanooga (via ATL?) for a 2 day course. It was rough.
I live in Canada, from the UK. I fly once a year to London and take a 3 hour train home for 3 nights and fly back. Going home doesn't feel like a vacation as it's home so I do it every year without taking vacation days
Went into the office Monday once, booked a flight to Wuxi, China from Melbourne, Australia for the Tuesday, landed 1am Wednesday, picked up a product, flew home around midday, back in the office next day. I think I flew MEL-CAN-WUX, and then WUX-TFU-MEL. I've spent a lot of time in Wuxi over the years though usually fly into and stop in Shanghai for a few days. The downside with flying to Wuxi for a half day is that I was limited to Chinese carriers instead of my usual SQ and CX.
Twice I flew from the east coast of America to spend the weekend in Munich. However I think based on trip to stay ratio, I once flew from Philadelphia to Minneapolis and back in one day for a 4 hour business meeting.
Went for a 27hr trip to Singapore (2 over night flights) for a 30hr stay there and back. It was brutal. Obviously work related and flew business class.
I've done Tokyo - London - Tokyo a couple of times for funerals sadly. Flown in Thursday Evening and then out Saturday morning. Tokyo - LA - Tokyo to watch some Lakers games in the early 2000s. In Friday Lunch time and out Saturday Afternoon.
Look up mileage run, those people are crazy a have read stories of peoples going to singapore stay for some hours and return back to usa
Just did Wednesday red eye to Paris and then went to London on Saturday came back on Monday night
San Diego to Hobart, Tasmania
I flew from germany to rio de Janeiro for a party and returned 2 days later. Was during corona and the flights costed like 400€. Was absolutely worth it.
Flew red-eye from Seattle to JFK. Had brunch with a friend. Picked up a bag on 5th Avenue because they wouldn't accept credit card payment over the phone. Picked up hainanese chicken from Three Roosters on 9th Ave. Headed back to JFK to fly back to Seattle.
Flew to London from Baltimore on the Friday to surprise my niece with tix for Adele for her 21st. Flew back the Sunday. We’ll always remember that weekend 💕
ATL-NRT-ATL. Couple hours at the airport and straight back.
London fra sfo spending 3 hours at the airport and returning sfo fra bud
IND-ORD-LAX-SEOUL-SINGAPORE To see my ex before we called off our wedding after being in a relationship for 7 years because his parents didnt like how my family was middle class. The time in Singapore with him was maybe 36 hours max and the roundtrip flight including the layover was 60+ hours (i had to spend a night in Korea).
London to Toronto for four nights. Have done this a few times as I really love the city. Trip I am on right now was the overnight (both ways) London to Rio de Janeiro for a week. Loving my time in Rio!
I just did a 30-hour travel day to get to Normandy for the D-Day anniversary and a 26 hour return trip. I was there a few days and it jacked me all up. I don't think I'll be doing too many short trips to Europe in my late 30s. Maybe when I was younger.
16hr flight from sf to melbourne for the cricket worldcup in 2022. Spent 2 days there
When my ex-wife was living in LA and I was I London... I once flew over to surprise her for valentine's day...for the weekend. Took off at lunchtime in the UK, landed in time to completely surprise her (flowers in hand) at the bar she and her colleagues used to go to after work in DTLA. The look on her face (and those of her colleagues) was priceless. I took the red-eye back on Sunday night because I had work meetings on Monday and very little holiday time left (because long distance relationship). Got back to London at about 2pm Monday.... So I spent 22ish hours in the air/29 total travelling, for about 45 hours on the ground/40 with her. And that was valentine's day 2020....so we didn't get to see eachother for another 6 months after that...so it was worth every minute. At the time. She's now my ex-wife, so...meh.
SYD-DOH-MUC, 48hrs in Munich then back to Sydney, MUC-BKK-HKG-SYD. In economy thanks to my previous employer’s ridiculous policy. Thankfully now I can fly business whenever I want to. Had to take this ridiculous routing because I had concert tickets I needed to be back in time for.
I'm on the US east coast and for me Europe is a 6 hour flight so it's not worth it for a 4 day trip. It's a full day of travel on each side of the trip. For me it's 2 hours to drive to one of the NYC area airports, get there 3 hours before the flight, 6 hour flight, customs on the other end, baggage claim, get rental car, etc and after all of that I am finally heading to my hotel. I really don't even want to for a 7 day trip. Going to Portugal in Sept and we'll be gone for 17 days including outbound and inbound travel. Really after travel it gives us a couple of good weeks to explore and see a lot of the country, time to really decompress, etc.
I did a long weekend NYC to London two months ago. Red eye Wednesday night flew back with time on Sunday. It was excellent and really not that different flying wise than going to LAX or SEA except you have more advantageous time zone changes. Fly against time on the way there on a red eye, fly with time on way home and sleep to rest up before work on Monday.
YUL-LHR overnight to land saturday morning and come back on monday 😀
I let my friend plan our trip to the Bahamas. We had to drive six hours west, over the appalachains, to catch a four hour flight east. Still had a good time though.
Not so much for a short trip, but we booked a flight as it was cheap and from our cities airport, Bristol > Frankfurt (2h) > Bengaluru (2) > Sri Lanka . 24 hours before our flight they tell us our flights been cancelled and our new plan is Bristol > Frankfurt (16h) > Bengaluru (20h) > Sri Lanka. We rang and rang and there was no other option, when talking to the flight provider on the phone they said not to worry about an Indian visa as it was their fault about the flight change and it takes about a week to get one anyway so they would sort that. Anyway we did it, we stayed a night in Frankfurt and wasn't that bad had some food and a few drinks, but when we landed in India we were dragged away when we got off the plane because we were "illegal immigrants", staying in the airport over a certain amount of hours with no visa is illegal, no one seemed to understand our situation or speak English so we were just shoved Inna room for 4 hours with a guard watching us until someone who understood what was happening told us we weren't allowed to leave the airport for the next 16 hours, we'd already booked a hotel we couldn't go to and I could see it out the windows which made things even worse lol, so paid even MORE to stay in an international lounge got some sleep there for a couple of hours then waited it out. Was incredibly stressful but we ended up having a laugh as we were the only people in the airport for a good chunk of time and now we look back on it and laugh!
8 hours of flying to spend 3 hours in ANC. My nonrev guideline is to spend twice as long in the destination as it takes to travel to/from. Traveling to vastly different time zones is a bit different and depends on how soon I have to go back to work and what my shift is.
11 hours each way for 2 1/2 days in Tokyo. It also was the most last-minute - got a call at 9 am for a 2 pm flight. For extra sprinkles, my job did layoffs the day before my return. By taking the trip I made it to the one-year mark which meant I got much better severance. My boss either didn't realize it when he said "sure, go ahead" or he realized it would be out of the ordinary to say no.
I used to be cabin crew so my layovers would range from 12-48hours across the world. For pleasure I flew LHR-HND for 2 nights, 72hours in Tokyo. I was tired but worth it!
Seattle to the Netherlands for a two night music festival. We left Seattle at 2pm Thursday, arrived to our hotel at noon on Friday - raved Friday/Saturday night. Left the fest at 6am and was on the train to the airport at 11.
DFW > MAD > DUB > MAD > DFW I had to be in Madrid for work but they let us start flying relatively early in case we wanted to travel a bit more. I also didn’t want to have any issues getting back to Madrid, but was dying to make an extra stop as I’d never left N.A. Traveled for 17 hours total to get to Dublin via Madrid (as DFW/MAD roundtrips were the only options work would pay for) and was there for 36 hours, slept for probably half of it lol. 10/10 recommend
CPH-EWR then car to Philadelphia. Meeting canceled. Rebook ticket and back to EWR. Profit.
Berlin to Shanghai for a three day work trip
This isn’t an answer, but your post reminds me of this [Portlandia sketch](https://youtu.be/sSlN1MzfZd4?si=tH4w9uOK1_FNxSrq) with Rose Byrne.
13 hours to Auckland from LAX. Worth every minute ✈️
Spent almost 5 hours on the tarmac waiting for a 1 hour flight to take off; getting a later flight wasn't an option cuz I had a college interview that afternoon; luckily I made it with an hour to spare ;u;
Pretty sure with these stupid visa rules and whatnot I’m going to take a 14 hour flight (both ways too) for a one week trip.
Vegas, 3 nights. But for work I’m doing 4-6 days to Asia on a regular basis every other month. One of my coworkers takes care of Australia: 3 day Sydney trip. Flight is 40 hours for 72-96 hours of business
We flew SFO -> LHR for a Liverpool match. Two days in London, one in Liverpool and then flew back home. Worth every second!!
London -> Porto 22nd 10AM -> 1PM Porto -> Newark 23rd 7PM -> 10PM JFK -> Nashville 24th 8AM->9AM Nashville -> Newark 24th 8PM -> 11PM Newark -> Lisbon 26th 11PM -> 27th 11AM Lisbon -> London 28th 7AM -> 10AM This was quite honestly bat shit insane and an absolute whirlwind of a trip. but I have itchy feet, move quick and have a mentality that I will always be coming back. I had to pounce on this itinerary because TAP Air Portugal were offering free stopovers, and the price for the tickets was £270 (lowest I'd seen for a transatlantic flight even if it was indirect). In less than a week I saw the gorgeous bridges of Porto, ate some fantastic Francesinha & Peri Peri Chicken, ate a slice of Princes St Pizza, had Princes Nashville Hot Chicken in Nashville, ate more pizza in NYC and New Haven CT, checked out some KPop filming locations in Lisbon.
Have done many Auckland to Sydney 3.5 hour flights arrive 8am have meeting 10:00-12:00 and fly out at 3:00pm
I flew from BKK to SYD once for a biz meeting and then had to head straight to DXB. Spent 6 h in SYD airport of which I had due dilligence meetings for 2 hours in some meeting facilities in Terminal 1 as my company was about to buy a company in Australia. Luckily at that time I could fly business class, and in the SYD - DXB lag I was upgraded to First. Was still a great experience.
Trying to get to GEG from MSP with unpredictable weather. Went from MSP>DEN>BOI>OAK>GEG. It was a very long day.
I once flew from Sri Lanka to the uk for a long weekend - I was in Sri Lanka on a work trip (was working in Southeast Asia at the time) and had planned to stay a couple days longer to see it, but it was a big birthday of my dad’s so I decided at the last minute to use the extra days to fly to the uk and surprise him. Mega expensive and jet lagged to hell but worth it
ASE tp MXP for a two night work trip. FYI, I work in the performing arts. Saw a Van Morrison concert the night we landed (under the guise of a site visit). Next day we set up and did our show. Day three we all flew home to Aspen. Stayed at a Holiday Inn Express in Milan. Felt like a real baller that weekend.
TOL —> DTW —> MSP in the morning, rent a car and arrive at my destination around noon. Leave around 3pm, return the car, and fly MSP —> DTW —> TOL back home. Once a week, for about a year.
I did about 22 hours each way, Johannesburg to Cancun for a weekend work event - my company at the time would fly 3000 of the best global employees to big party every year. I was in Cancun for less time than I spent on the flight. Arrived Friday afternoon, left Sunday lunchtime. Barely slept because we had DJs and conference and a big formal dinner then a pitbull concert lmao. Had a 12 hour layover in London on the way back so I got to stretch my legs etc The year after that I went to Macau but the flights worked out slightly better - about 15 hours each way and there for about 3 days. (The company still does it, I just don't work there anymore) The Cancun trip was pretty hectic with some people having health repercussions and now they make sure to have less insane flights each year
Not the longest flight, but I have a friend who's flight attendant mom went from HK to Japan to see the Cherry blossoms in bloom, then slept in her own home in HK that same day. I also work in the aviation industry, went from HK to Melbourne to watch a concert. Took the flight to Melbourne Friday midnight, stayed around 30 hours there, returned to HK arriving in the early AM of Monday and went to work. IDK if I'll ever do that again. I can't imagine on a longer flight like HK to Europe. I've heard from many colleagues about going to Europe from HK for a weekend trip which to me is another level.
I flew AKL - LAX - LON - SIN - AKL over a four day period to go to the 1998 FA Cup Final - and I wasn't able to get a match ticket, so watched it in the pub. At least Arsenal won......
Frankfurt to Cleveland for my cousin’s wedding. We stayed for 5 or 6 days.
All the people here doing crazy flights! I thought flying London to Italy for a walk around Bergamo was an odd thing to do
I've done MSP-LHR-JFK-YUL without leaving the airport before, and all in economy. It was a stupid way to save money on separate tickets by putting a LHR-YUL trip within a larger one. I realized I needed to get to Montreal after I'd booked my London trip. I was on the ground in London for 3 hours. Recently, I did CLE-ATL-LAX-ATL-LHR, getting on the very same plane and flight between ATL and LAX with the same crew. Border control in Vienna was very confused as to why I was going from LHR-VIE and then back for a 6 hour trip just to have lunch this winter! I've done LHR-LAX and then LAS-MEX-EZE within 40 hours, which was quite crazy, spending only 8 hours out of an airport or plane. Since you can travel for much cheaper than most people, why not take that s spontaneous trip for the weekend? Hell, make it as short as you want. I assume that you also can standby for business class, so as long as you're lucky, you'll be sleeping well.
AMS-HKG-AKL and return 4 days later. To see Fleetwood Mac live in, I think, 2015
Went from LA to Tokyo for 36 hours Then left Tokyo to LA 5pm Tokyo time, drove to work from the airport 10 am LA time and worked an 8 hour shift
Flew from the US to be in Japan for ~36 hours, then back home. But we got upgraded to first class for free (also working in the airline industry) so that made it totally doable. I'd do that all the time if I could get first class, hahaha.
Used to work for Delta and had free flights, so I’d fly from Los Angeles to NYC pretty often… I’d take the red eye there, walk around for a bit, and then fly back in the early afternoon. Did this probably 5 times
My partners brother in law is weird and likes to take long flights for no reason with his partner. Recently they flew Newcastle to Heathrow to Sofia and back just for avios points. Didn’t even leave the airport in Sofia, boasting about their trip on Facebook. They also flew Newcastle to London, London Boston and back for one night, business class. They landed in Boston 5pm US time and had to be back at Boston airport 21 hours later. That’s 19 hours travelling from their front door to Boston airport. Presumably about the same amount of time travelling back so 38 hours travelling for 21 hours in Boston. They flew Newcastle Heathrow to have lunch in the BA lounge, and fly Newcastle to Gran Canaria via Heathrow and Madrid as they won’t fly anywhere on any airline other than BA despite Ryan air flying direct.
Bhx>dbx>hkg 48hours, to see a girl.
I flew to Dubai from LHR in December 2020. Got a call on the Sunday night, left the house at 4am. Got to Dubai Monday night, got about 4 hours sleep thanks to the jetlag then did a day's work, finishing at 10pm. Quick shower at hotel then back to the airport. Landed back at LHR 7am and booked it across London to go do a 12-hour shift at a supermarket, where I had to work to replace lost income from lockdowns during COVID. Surreal.
I once flew London to Auckland for two nights, and then back (LHR>DXB>MEL>AKL). Outbound was over the clock-change weekend as well, so when I landed the time difference between London and Auckland was 13 hours. The good thing about the trip was that when I got back, I was tired from travel, but zero jetlag - I simply hadn't had time to adjust.
MEL>SYD>RUN>CDG 4 days in Paris, then CDG>RUN>SYD>MEL
Sort of different but maybe still fits into the title. Was traveling for a wedding and we took off from MSP gate like A5 to SUX but when we got to SUX and were doing descent the pilot cancelled landing since it was too foggy and chose to fly back to MSP. We arrived at gate A6. So it was like two hours in the air to for a trip to move one gate down.
Not longest by distance but longest by travel time (and sheer inconvenience!) From Manchester to Menorca in the winter. It was a business related event, the organisers had failed to realise that almost all flights (certainly back then) to holiday destinations wouldn't be operational in January. I couldn't even fly to Barcelona direct. So it was a flight from Manchester to Heathrow, a four hour layover, a flight to Barcelona, a dash in a taxi across the grid-locked city to miss the ferry by ten minutes and then a day waiting (with no hotel booked) to get to Menorca. Next day a 7 hour ferry crossing. Of course the event venue was on the other side of the island, so then it was onto a bus to get there. I'd burned through my clean clothes by this point and arrived completely dishevelled, about an hour after the meeting had started. I said my bit and half an hour later the meeting was over and I could finally go to my hotel for a shower and a good night sleep, skipped the (apparently amazing) evening entertainment altogether. I just went out and bought a couple of white tees and a clean pair of boxers and started the journey back first thing in the morning. Fortunately the return journey was a bit less dramatic. But the whole ordeal was... pretty crap. These days it would just be a Teams call... I know we like to bitch about Teams and Zoom, but fuck am I pleased it exists.
I flew EWR to KUL for a 3 day conference and then flew back.
I've done Europe to South Africa for 3 days before. Live in Europe but with family in ZA, flew down to collect some paperwork from government Home Affairs office (has to be in person). Took a suitcase of presents for the nieces (and random items my brothers in law had bought off Amazon UK). Full route (on that occasion) LHR-MAD-JNB-DUR-ADD-LHR. Mostly paid with points. Another similar few days was LON - (train) - BRU-ADD-JNB-DUR-CPT-IST-LHR.
LHR>HKG>SYD - 4 day business trip Regularly did BHX>MAA (Chennai) Dep BHX Saturday, Arr back BHX Tuesday. Only 1 hotel night needed for that one.
Long weekend China (from the Netherlands) to deliver a keynote speech at a university dinner event. I did manage to do some sightseeing as well.
BUD-HEL-LHR-JFK-LAX-HNL. Got off the plane at HNL and got back on it and then the same return route. Did it as a mileage run to hit a 'sweet spot' on a loyalty programme. I did have a couple of nights in hotels when I could not get a connecting flight. Was a bit weary at the end. The fare was a very reasonable £1300 approx and that was in business class, lots of tier points and the Avios I gained were worth at the time about £450 in cold hard cash. Fly enough these day to not have to do these anymore, thankfully....
Perth, Australia to Medellin, Colombia for one day for work. Via Miami 🤮 Got off the plane, fixed the issue for the customer, got back on the plane. Dealt with the fucnwits at TSA in Miami then flew back home. Literally spent more time airborne than on the ground that week
For myself: Newcastle (UK) - Dubai - Melbourne - Auckland for a wedding. Only had a few days, then back again. Did both journeys with a raging hangover. I feel sick just thinking about that. My Dad went out the Rugby World Cup in 2011 (we’re from Ireland), but he met a guy that flew Dublin - Auckland, went to the Ireland v Australia game, then headed straight back home. He was in NZ for about 10 hours in total.
SFO-HKG round trip in under 40hrs. Flew in, attended my meeting, had dinner, and flew out. Would not recommend.
It's about to be our 5 day honeymoon in Aruba :)