Should you prioritize sleeping or eating, or both? Should you attempt to exercise in the aisle? Is it ever acceptable to take off your shoes?Kris Major is a British flight attendant with 25 years’ experience. He’s worked short-haul hops and spent 14-hour stretches in the sky. He’s endured journeys with an unenviable number of layovers, and he’s become an expert in refueling via power naps at 30,000 feet.
“The seasoned travelers, after takeoff, you go down the cabin and you can see that they’re gone – they’ve covered themselves up and they’re asleep,” he says. Meal times start to feel a bit arbitrary when you’re crossing multiple time zones, but should you eat whenever food is offered to you? Or should you turn meals down if you’re not hungry or trying to sleep?
Plus, while it’s rare, there’s always the chance that pillows are unavailable – something that could be a big problem on a 14-hour flight. “If we’re going somewhere over, say, 13 hours, we need to have good rest areas,” says Major, who explains flight attendants should typically be entitled to breaks that allow for 90 minutes of sleep. That way, they’ve completed a full sleep cycle before they’re back to work.
Flight attendants will usually opt to get changed out of their uniform and into loungewear before squeezing into the bunks. Major says he always packs a T-shirt and some comfortable lounge pants. “Cleaning your teeth is always the one that freshens everybody up the most,” he says, adding that flight attendants will always have between five and 10 minutes to freshen up before they’re back on duty.Flight attendants will greet a returning colleague with a cup of tea or coffee. Then they’ll head off duty for their own rest period.Sitting in the same upright position for hours on end is uncomfortable, but it’s not always easy to get up to stretch.
“On a night flight particularly, if you put your feet in the aisle and you’ve got dark socks on, we won’t see you, and we’ll trip over you, and it’s a bit of a nuisance for us.”If you’re worried about turbulence, Major advises that you try to sit near the front of the aircraft. While many of us still enjoy watching new movie releases on board flights, it’s less of a novelty than it once was. Many passengers prefer binging a pre-downloaded streaming show on a personal device.Your own devices are also a good back-up in case there are issues with the in-flight entertainment system, which Major admits “might not always be working.”