posted by Travel Cat on May 10
Right, you are walking onto the plane now with a steward grinning inanely at you as you step on board. All you will be able to see will be about 100 people fussing around with overhead lockers and blankets - the aisles will be blocked as no-one really wants to sit down - and all you can hear are ‘bing’s where people are already calling over the stewards to help them with something…..
Good Luck……
The plane itself
All planes have the cockpit at the front, the first class section behind that, then the premium section, then economy, so unless you paid extra it’s economy for you!
You are not allowed to walk through the other sections or use their facilities, but there are usually enough in the rear section of the plane for everyone. Some have restrooms downstairs, but most are at the front and the rear of your section. Some airlines supply blankets and pillows at all times, but others you have to ask for these. Only 747’s and the new A380’s have 2 floors, otherwise everyone is sitting in the same tube, with 3 rows of seats and 2 aisles. The airline staff will explain the safety instructions to you before take off, and they are also in print in your seat pockets along with your in-flight magazine and your sick bag!
Nearly all long haul flights have a screen for each seat with a choice of around 5 recent movies, plus some comedy or cartoons. Sometimes these are all shown at once and you just have to choose your channel, some have each channel showing the same film back to back, and other airlines allow you to pick your film and start it whenever you want.
You will also find music channels and games on some flights, as well as the chance to upgrade the package and get newer films or better games. You usually get the headphones for these free or for a small charge, but you can take your own 2 prong headphones if you prefer.
During the flight
In flight meals are not usually the best, but can certainly fill a hole on the longer flights, and they come with free wine or soft drinks, and are followed by free tea or coffee. You can opt to have vegetarian meals or other selections if offered by the airline by asking in advance - usually when booking the holiday itself, or you can opt to not have the meals and save yourself around $34/£17 if you’d rather take your own food. Airlines offer chocolate and crisps etc on board but at bumped up prices, like around $2/£1 for a mini tub of Pringles.
Depending on the airline, they will also offer Tax Free shopping mid-flight, pushing their little carts up the aisles again to get in every-ones way while they are trying to get to the bathroom. The aisles are only about 30cms wide, so it’s a challenge to get from your seat to the restrooms at the best of times. And when you get there, don’t expect too much!!
On night flights, they will switch the main lights off and get everyone to pull down their blinds. You do have personal spot lights you can use and the entertainment will continue, it just means that they will stop trying to sell you things!
If you hit turbulence mid-flight, you normally have to go back to your seat and do up your seat belt. The captain will tell you what if going on and how long it’s expected to last. All the while the seat-belt sign is on you cannot use the toilets either!!
Ready for landing
The staff normally wake you all up around 2 hours before landing to serve you your final meal, and sell a few more drinks if possible! You can normally see places out of the windows now and your captain will usually let you know what they are, but most airlines offer a channel on TV that updates you on your location with a satellite map, time to destination, time left till landing and outside temperature and speed etc.
Now is a good time to ‘freshen up’ as you have probably had a snooze or eaten hot food about 5 hours ago. You will notice women around the cabin who’s styled hair now looks like they have been dragged through a hedge backwards, their mousse has restyled their hair while they were asleep!
Yours could look like that too - so get to the restrooms before everyone else does as they could be in there for some time - as once you start descending, your time is up…..they put the seat-belt sign on. You want to get through customs with a stale mouth too? No - take mints or something to help out.
Once you start descending, you have to stay seated and the entertainment stops. Your ears ‘pop’ at this point and any babies on board start crying! Usually within half an hour you are on the ground, taxi-ing towards the gate, all still seated. Before you ‘dock’ though, everyone else will jump up and start getting their bags ready and block up the aisles.
There is usually a good 10 minutes delay before they open the cabin door and start letting you out, but it takes forever to get out as everyone gets stuck behind some dithering old man who can’t remember which overhead locker he put his stuff in, or some lady who wants to put on her jacket and brush her hair before leaving the plane…….
Arriving
When you finally get off the plane, you need your passport to clear customs, then you need to find your bag. Once you have done these 2 things, you are free to leave the airport and make your way to your hotel.
Think, in 2 weeks time, you get to do it all again………………………
April 8th, 2009 at 11:11 am
wow, very depth explaination, really helpfull for noob like me, thx, bookmark this!