Thursday, September 6

Flight(s) to Bangkok

The person that made our travel arrangements either hates us or doesn't have children. 

The duration of our flights and total travel time was not made clear to me prior to departure.  The first flight from Fort Myers, Florida to Atlanta was 2 hours. The second flight from Atlanta to Minneapolis was 3 hours. The third flight from Minneapolis to Tokyo was 11 hours until we started to travel back in time. We 'encountered a head wind' and after thirty minutes in the air, the flying time increased to 11 hours and 32 minutes. The fourth flight from Tokyo to Bangkok was 7 hours. We were in the airplane for a total of 23 hours excluding the part when we started to travel back in time.  If you include the layovers, our total travel time was technically over 30 hours; mentally and emotionally it felt like three weeks.

Katrina "loved it" because she got to watch 7 movies. Timmy thought it was fun and held up his hands like he was on a roller coaster every time the plane took off or landed. He also loudly asked questions such as "Mom, if an airplane crashed into a ship, what would happen?" Or, "Mom, if the man driving the airplane crashes into another airplane, will he get a ticket from a policeman?" Or, "Mom, who can go faster, a ship, or an airplane?"  Or, "Mom, which has a bigger engine, a ship or an airplane?"  Or, "Mom, if the ship has a bigger engine, why can't it go faster than the airplane?"  Or, "Mom, if the engine falls off, can the airplane still fly?"  Or, "Mom, what if the airplane flies into another airplane?  What happens?  Will they crash?"  I don't think the other passengers appreciated the crash-related line of questions. 

Tim appeared to be moderately uncomfortable and as miserable as all of the other passengers. I spent the entire time trying to figure out what credit cards I needed to sign up for in order to get enough points to get a business class seat on the way home.

A few travel suggestions:  

If you go into the Delta Sky Club, and you decide to take some of the little peanut butter, jelly and honey packets with you on the airplane, rethink your plan.  If the honey breaks in your carry-on luggage, everything will be covered in honey stickiness. 

If you are traveling with your spouse and children, sit in the window seat.  You have to climb over the kids when you get out of your seat and it's so disruptive.  It's so much more convenient for everyone, for your spouse to take them to the bathroom, get a drink of water, wander around, etc. since he is sitting in the aisle seat. 

45 minutes into the flight, go to the bathroom next to the galley and tell the flight attendants who are reapplying lipstick, chatting or doing absolutely nothing, that you have so much respect for them because their job is so difficult.  You will get great service after that.  To be fair, their job is impossible, but it's hard to have a lot of sympathy for them when they're reading "People" magazine and eating the extra cheese plate from the empty seat in First Class. 
On Flight #3 Happily 'trapped' in the Window Seat

 

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