Lessons of a 29 hour flight

The Jewel at the Singapore Changi Airport

Checking in at JFK

This morning we said goodbye to Brooklyn and hello to the world. We embarked on a 29 hour flight to Singapore with layovers in Seattle and Tokyo — 32 hours door to door. Not the most direct, but free with Delta miles…

Reflecting on our first travel experience of the journey we have a few lessons to share:

1. Layovers and adjusting to time zones aren’t as stressful when you aren’t squeezing your vacation into a 1–2 week trip. Although we didn’t sleep well on the flights, we didn’t mind it since we don’t need to hit the pavement tomorrow.
2. With Delta status you have access to their lounges on international flights. This isn’t something that Delta advertises, but feel free to stroll right into any SkyTeam lounge if you have status and are flying outside of the states.
3. Always book an A and C seat, we had 3–4–3 configurations on our first two legs and were successful in scoring the full row both times! And if it doesn’t work out, the middle seat guy is always willing to take one of the better options so you can still sit together.
4. Flying international mid-week really upped our chances of success in #3 — none of the three flights were near capacity.
5. Foot slings. Amazon them right now if you have an upcoming long haul! We saw someone use them on a recent flight and bought them immediately after — they really made the sleep in a seat less painful.
6. And finally, you can’t upgrade at the airport with Delta if you book with points. We tried, twice, and failed.