Surviving a 38-Hour Flight

James Reagan
Nov 6 · 8 min read
It’s not often that the boarding gate is this picturesque. But when it is, it’s great to be able to take a pic of it, especially when the sunlight breaks in through the grey and drab of most airport terminals. Photo by kychan on Unsplash

Well, it’s finally happening. I finally received my Chinese visa back from the embassy in Washington D.C. and will be making the long trip back to China later this week. It’s a bit of an understatement to say that this trip of 8,702 miles will be a long one, but now I’ve purchased the ticket and looked over my flight agenda, I’m a little overwhelmed to realize just how long this flight is.

The first leg of my journey starts off with a straightforward departure from Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI), aka the closest airport to my house and the airport that usually serves as my initial departure point. This flight departs at 9:42 AM for a rather brisk 1 hour, 36-minute flight to Detroit. As someone who’s been to China multiple times, I now know that many flights from the East Coast will first go to a northern city in the central U.S. before starting the transatlantic portion of the journey. This makes cities like Chicago and Detroit popular layover options for flights headed to China.

This will be my second time having a layover in Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW). Last summer, I had a lengthy layover in DTW, making for an interesting several hours where I kinda just moseyed around various airport restaurants and bars. This airport is pretty passenger-friendly compared to some of the Asian and European ones I’ve been in, so it felt like a very relaxing final afternoon in the United States. Relaxation is very well appreciated when you’re embarking on a 24-hour+ airplane trip to the other side of the world.

This time though, my layover in Detroit will be a little shorter. After 4 hours and 31 minutes, I’ll be boarding a Delta Air Lines flight all the way across the Atlantic to Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG). This flight covers 7,116 miles and 14 hours and 46 minutes. I’m not entirely sure if this will be my longest flight to China, but it’ll definitely be one of the longest ones I’ve ever been on. Especially when considering that last year I had a layover in Amsterdam before flying to Guangzhou, which essentially ended up cutting that trip in half. The only other time that I’ve directly flown from the U.S. to China was when I flew directly from Washington D.C. to Beijing in September 2014.

The arrival in Shanghai will then lead to one of the longest layovers that I’ve ever had. I’m scheduled to arrive at PVG at 7:35 PM and then depart the next morning at 9:00. So, it’s an overnight layover, which isn’t exactly ideal, but I figured I would likely have to go this route since nearly every flight from Baltimore from Guangzhou is departing during early Thursday morning hours here and arriving during late Friday evening hours there.

A lot of the flights were actually arriving in Guangzhou Friday evening, however I decided to defer to my new employer and not ask them to pick me up at a super late hour. That’s not the right foot to start a new relationship on. With that decision ruled out, my thought process turned to finding a comfortable airport to sleep in. Ideally, one that has either sleep pods or hourly hotels located very close by or even in the actual airport.

PVG has a reputation as being one of the busiest airports in the world and it’s the 9th largest airport in the world, by passenger volume. Enormous airports can be overwhelming at first, but thankfully I’ve gotten more used to them after flying in and out of monoliths like Beijing International (2nd largest by passenger volume worldwide) and Hong Kong International (8th largest by passenger volume worldwide). My online research also indicates that legit sleep options are available both inside and outside PVG, so I’m pumped that I will most likely not be sleeping on the floor like I did during my overnight layover in Boston earlier this year.

The 13 hours and 25 minutes on the ground in Shanghai will give me a very interesting decision. Do I stay put in the airport the entire time or do I brave a trip out into one of China’s most iconic cities? I don’t think it’s fair to count a layover in an airport as having properly visited a city, so I would have to officially exit PVG to count Shanghai as a visited city. Should that happen, Shanghai would then be the fourth different Chinese Tier 1 city that I’ve visited, which according to many lists would mean that I’ve been to every Tier 1 city.

Regardless of whether or not I leave PVG and enter the proper city of Shanghai, there’s still the indisputable fact that I’ll be very tired. Also, no matter what happens, I absolutely need to allow enough time to be prepping for my Saturday morning flight at 7:00 AM at the latest.

This next flight is another shorter one. It should take two hours and 35 minutes for me to fly from PVG to Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport (CAN). That will allow for me to officially arrive at my destination at 11:35 AM on Saturday and then hopefully meet up with a representative from my school about half an hour or so later.

So therefore, my flight to China will be a 38-hour ordeal, with one long flight and one layover sandwiched in between two short flights and a moderately timed layover. It makes me exhausted just thinking about it, but I still think this plan is very doable. There will be no rushed layovers for any of my flights and both the 14-hour flight and the 13-hour layover should at least in theory, allow for me to get enough time to sleep.

But oftentimes, a plan is one thing and the execution of said plan is an entirely different thing. So, here’s some of my quick tips for how to get through this flight without suffering severe jet lag during my first couple weeks in China and without spending too much money or having any serious problems that threaten to ruin my trip.

Wear my sleep mask and neck pillow when trying to sleep.

This is one lesson that I’ve learned from past experiences. Sleeping in an upright position is not easily done when you’re so used to sleeping in bed. I think for when I want to sleep on the plane, I’ve got to utilize these two useful gadgets. The sleep mask should prevent my eyes catching other passenger’s movie screens/phones and should also compensate for the lack of complete darkness in most international flights. The neck pillow while not the same as a head pillow, will at least provide some comfort and support for when I do finally doze off.

Avoid tons of alcohol and caffeine while in the air.

The alcohol tidbit is one that I’ve heard from many frequent fliers. While at first, you may think that knocking back a few shots will make you fall fast asleep faster, this is actually a terrible idea. Your throat is likely going to be feeling very dry after several hours flying in the air and alcohol actually causes you to be dehydrated. Therefore, my plan is to be very careful if I choose to have alcohol on the flight. Caffeine is also something that’s good to avoid since it could lead to frequent toilet trips and could also cause me to have trouble falling asleep.

Don’t wait too long to go through the terminals.

I’ve learned this lesson the hard way after having missed several flights, due to not allowing enough time to get through the terminal. It’s insanely stressful to be either driving/running at top speed when you know in your heart, that it’s basically impossible for you to make your flight on time. I cannot let this happen again. Even if it seems really early at the time, I went to pass through security and get to my departure gates at the soonest possible moment. This is especially important when I have three flights and missing just one of these, could cause a horrifying domino effect where I also end up missing the latter two.

I guess in a pinch, I could pay motorbike or regular bike riders for some short rides near the airport. Though, the language barrier would make that difficult. Photo by Raymond Tan on Unsplash

Don’t trust the Shanghai cab drivers just outside the airport.

This factor right here is the underlying one that will decide if I can leave PVG and do some exploring in Shanghai. Chinese cab drivers are notorious for ripping off foreigners who are in a hurry. Therefore, if Shanghai is anything like Guangzhou and Foshan, it’s almost inevitable that any cab driver I meet directly outside PVG’s doors will greet me with a smile, try to show off their English skills and then once I’m in their car, set their ticker so that it goes up at speeds that would make Usain Bolt jealous. I’ve made this mistake too many times and I want no part in trusting these “fake” Chinese cabbies. The only way I’ll feel good about leaving PVG is if I can get a DiDi car (Chinese Uber) or find some kind of shuttle service.

Got to do my best to avoid laptop/phone screens before going to bed too. That’s like a lifelong struggle at this point. Photo by Matthew T Rader on Unsplash

Drink Emergen-C and try to keep normal sleep hours during my first days in China.

This last tip is mostly about my first two weeks after arriving in China. In my experience, jet lag is at its worst during this time period. The Emergen-C drink is very helpful for helping to replenish Vitamin C levels and also for enhancing energy without having to use caffeine. The sleeping during normal hours tidbit is almost impossible to follow through on your first days in a new time zone, but I’ve found that it does help get your body used to the new time schedule. Believe me, the one-hour time drop with Daylight Saving’s Ending in the U.S., is nowhere near as confusing and exhausting as the 13-hour time increase you get when you fly to China.

These tips are just some of the ways that I plan to make the most of my flight and hopefully not be a total zombie during my first couple days in China. If any reader has frequent flyer advice, feel free to pass it on. It’s taken trial and error for me to get to this point, but I now feel hopeful that I can embark on a long flight like this one without having any major problems.

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