Fear of Flying??

[TerpDO]

No not me, but I thought it would get your attention. Having been on a few flights the past few months I thought I would start a fun thread for us to share our flying experiences and tips. I'm not going to make any set rules for this thread like LisaMD but if you want to share where you last flew to, how long was it, any funny/interesting experiences that happened while travelling, and lastly any tips you have for flying that would be great.

I'll start off, don't leave me hanging here..

Last place I flew to was Oakland for my Touro MI interview, a long 6 hour cross country N/S flight from Baltimore. On the way back I sat close to 4 crying babies and right next to a nice 45 year-young woman who gave me relationship advice for hours. I always make sure to splurge on candy and brainless magazines at the airport to help take my mind off sitting still for hours. My advice is to dress for max comfort while travelling which for me means a hoodie and track pants (it's a nice departure from the suit and tie I have to wear at the interviews ).

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[OlieRow]

On my way to Kansas City the other week the flight attendant asked me if I was an unaccompanied minor.

 

[Sarikate]

On my 12-hour flight back to Alaska, during the last leg, I sat next to a 2-year-old who continuously punched me in the arm. His mother thought it was hysterical (and I pretended to!).

 

[Jamers]

No not me, but I thought it would get your attention. Having been on a few flights the past few months I thought I would start a fun thread for us to share our flying experiences and tips. I'm not going to make any set rules for this thread like LisaMD but if you want to share where you last flew to, how long was it, any funny/interesting experiences that happened while travelling, and lastly any tips you have for flying that would be great.

I'll start off, don't leave me hanging here..

Last place I flew to was Oakland for my Touro MI interview, a long 6 hour cross country N/S flight from Baltimore. On the way back I sat close to 4 crying babies and right next to a nice 45 year-young woman who gave me relationship advice for hours. I always make sure to splurge on candy and brainless magazines at the airport to help take my mind off sitting still for hours. My advice is to dress for max comfort while travelling which for me means a hoodie and track pants (it's a nice departure from the suit and tie I have to wear at the interviews ).

25 hours and 10,000 miles; good bye fear of flying.

 

[HemaOncoDoc]

No not me, but I thought it would get your attention. Having been on a few flights the past few months I thought I would start a fun thread for us to share our flying experiences and tips. I'm not going to make any set rules for this thread like LisaMD but if you want to share where you last flew to, how long was it, any funny/interesting experiences that happened while travelling, and lastly any tips you have for flying that would be great.

I'll start off, don't leave me hanging here..

Last place I flew to was Oakland for my Touro MI interview, a long 6 hour cross country N/S flight from Baltimore. On the way back I sat close to 4 crying babies and right next to a nice 45 year-young woman who gave me relationship advice for hours. I always make sure to splurge on candy and brainless magazines at the airport to help take my mind off sitting still for hours. My advice is to dress for max comfort while travelling which for me means a hoodie and track pants (it's a nice departure from the suit and tie I have to wear at the interviews ).

I'm not sure these are actual tips, but these are a few practices that I followed.

Type out some interview questions and print them out for the flight. You will definitely have some down time waiting for take off, during taxi, etc. Read your answers, don't memorize them. You want to be fluid yet candid with your responses. In my experience, during the flight many travellers would be talkative and ask about what you're studying. Use this as practice as an informal mock interview.

If there is an empty seat beside you or between you and another traveller, feel free to use the empty seat's fold down tray! You can put your drink and mid flight snack there while you use your for your laptop, a book, etc. It gives you more room because we all know that planes can be pretty cramped.

If you see an open seat somewhere else, ask the flight attendant if you could switch your seat. Be comfortable, dress appropriately, (sweat clothing with a tshirt underneath in the event you get warm). Enjoy flying!

One final note, get a frequent flyer mile card. Delta, United Airlines, etc. If you're going to be flying back and forth, might as well reap the benefits, right? Of course, most airlines require you to accumulate 25,000 miles before you receive a free ticket, but you'll find those miles add up quickly. Well, happy flying everyone!

 

[112258]

No not me, but I thought it would get your attention. Having been on a few flights the past few months I thought I would start a fun thread for us to share our flying experiences and tips. I'm not going to make any set rules for this thread like LisaMD but if you want to share where you last flew to, how long was it, any funny/interesting experiences that happened while travelling, and lastly any tips you have for flying that would be great.

That makes me sound like such a stickler I just don't like when people don't write the name of the schools they added/erase the clapping smilies, that's all. I'm just OCD, not mean!!!

 

[MossPoh]

Flying to Tokyo I had a 300 lbs person on one side with questionable hygeine, and a breastfeeding mother on the other. If you don't know me, I'm 6'5" so fitting my legs in economy is trouble anyway, and the japanese lady, like clockwork every halfhour would try slamming her seat into my knees/shins as hard as possible, effectivley managing to wedge the metal part of the chair in the most painful part just under my kneecap. I also had to sit with perfect posture while my head was above the top of the seat, which equals no sleeping.

Anyway out of all my traveling a few things I usually do.

I write for whatever reason.
Read a variety of books. That doesn't last because that looking down thing hurts my neck after a while.
The best investments I have made for traveling have been my iPod, and my nintendo DS. They have have kept me sane for all of my 12+ hour layovers.

Clothing wise I wear the loosest pair of jeans I have, sometimes a belt but that impedes security speed usually. Then I ALWAYS layer with a tshirt and a light fleece or something. I rather be a little too warm and take off my fleece than freezing on the plane with a skanky little blanket they give you. Oh...if it is a really long flight getting drunk is great too, or sleeping pills but not both.

 

[musiclink213]

I was flying to Ft. Lauderdale and my dad came with me. The doors were about to close, and we were sitting in our seats. He in the aisle, and I in the middle. This obese, 400 pound woman comes and is about to sit in the empty window seat next to me. Thank goodness the flight attendant was right there. She offered to let her sit a couple rows back where there were 2 empty seats next to each other.

Flying to Erie, I had to connect in Cleveland to get onto the teeny plane. The copilot was telling us to move because the plane needed to be balanced for takeoff, adn then he told me I needed to tighten my seatbelt because he didn't want me to fly out of the seat and hit my head.

I agree on the frequent flier thing, but it hasn't really worked for me. I try to find the cheapest flights, and rarely am I on the same flights. To Ft. Lauderdale, I went on JetBlue, Erie was Continental, Des Moines is North Western, UNECOM is Jet Blue. So I tend to have a bunch of frequent flier things lying around from a bunch of different airlines.

Don't tell anyone you're traveling for a med school interview. My seat neighbor asked me why I was flying, and I said for a med school interview. She starts telling me all about her irritable bowel syndrome, and the supplements she takes and all that. Even when I took out my mp3 player and put on my headphones, she still kept yakking.

 

[MedStudentWanna]

I was never scared of crashing, but ever since I was a kid I had an irrational fear of being hijacked. I blame scary hijacking movies my friends and I used to watch. Anyway, when I went away to college, I decided it was time to get over it because I didn't want to drive 2,000 miles to visit my parents at Christmas. So I went to a hypnotist. Didn't work. I went to a psychic on a friend's recommendation for some reason. Didn't work. I finally went into therapy. I didn't make it home for Christmas, but by Spring Break, I flew for the first time by myself, having conquered my fear of being hijacked.

Then that whole 9/11 thing happened several months later. So yeah, I'm scared of flying.

 

[DoctorMom78]

There is a reason I drove 16 hours to Tennessee...Sorry, I DON'T fly.

 

[rub1003]

i had an AWESOME experience on the way to baltimore from ft. lauderdale. i was sitting in the airport minding my own business when i look up and i am suddenly surrounded by a sea of italian men. GORGEOUS italian men. apparently, they were all from the italian military taking a little trip around America. Though I only spoke to one guy (one of the only ones who knew english well), it made me sooo happy!

 

[dr.z]

Cincinnati was the last place I flew (from LA). I always sleep a lot on the plane so I don't have anything exciting.

 

[NjD00]

On my way back to Minneapolis from my LECOM-E visit I first had to fly EAST to philly, and then connect to chicago. Our plane got all the way to chicago where there was a monstrous storm dumping hail and making O'Hare lose power. We tried dipping into the storm a few times but after seriously almost getting fried by lightning a few times, the pilot told us we would circle for a bit. After 1.5 hours of circling over chicago, the pilot goes on the loudspeaker and actually freakin says "Folks, I'm afraid we've run out of fuel and can't land yet due to the storm...we've only enough left to fly back to CINCINNATI before we're totally out" WTF...you don't tell a whole plane full of people at 33,000 ft that you are out of gas. LUCKILY, we got to cincinnati before crashing but had to sit there on the ground...in the plane w/o food, for 2 hours. Finally went back to O'Hare, made it through the lightning, and landed at a shut-down O'Hare airport. All the seats were already taken, so we all got to sleep on the pristine floor of O-Hare for the night. Woke up with a new scratch on my hand...I'm still not sure if it was from a rat or my suit hanger. Waited in the customer service line for 2 hours with 100+ people to get a new ticket in the morning, and finally got to Minneapolis.

Erie -> Minneapolis: 17 hours

 

[TerpDO]

On my way back to Minneapolis from my LECOM-E visit I first had to fly EAST to philly, and then connect to chicago. Our plane got all the way to chicago where there was a monstrous storm dumping hail and making O'Hare lose power. We tried dipping into the storm a few times but after seriously almost getting fried by lightning a few times, the pilot told us we would circle for a bit. After 1.5 hours of circling over chicago, the pilot goes on the loudspeaker and actually freakin says "Folks, I'm afraid we've run out of fuel and can't land yet due to the storm...we've only enough left to fly back to CINCINNATI before we're totally out" WTF...you don't tell a whole plane full of people at 33,000 ft that you are out of gas. LUCKILY, we got to cincinnati before crashing but had to sit there on the ground...in the plane w/o food, for 2 hours. Finally went back to O'Hare, made it through the lightning, and landed at a shut-down O'Hare airport. All the seats were already taken, so we all got to sleep on the pristine floor of O-Hare for the night. Woke up with a new scratch on my hand...I'm still not sure if it was from a rat or my suit hanger. Waited in the customer service line for 2 hours with 100+ people to get a new ticket in the morning, and finally got to Minneapolis.

Erie -> Minneapolis: 17 hours

well i didn't start this thread as a contest for the worst experience ever but if I had, you would be the winner! after an episode like that I'm sure you're bound for some good luck right?

 

[Orthonut]

On my way to Kansas City the other week the flight attendant asked me if I was an unaccompanied minor.

lol.

I always dress nicely.

Cause then when the inevitably overbooked flight is boarded...they bump O'Nut to first class (doesn't happen as often when I'm wearing hoody and track pants)