to think that if you need to have a lie down on a flight you're a lazy fecker?

[ChaosTrulyReigns]

FFS, a flight is only at max 12ish hours long.

Surely anyone could stay awake for that length of time?

What a great opportunity to catch up on reading, correspondence, or you certainly could be sociable and actually communicate with your fellow passengers.

Do something edifying, you sloths.

And sure Business Class has all those perks so that Very Important People can actually do business, not snore, snort, snuffle and snooze?

If all these large thrones chairs were removed I reckon the airlines could fit on loads more normal seats, thus extra passengers and some planet-saving could be achieved.

One leg of a flight may only be 12 hours long, but you try staying awake for 30 odd hours and umpteen time zone changes with a small child in tow and tell me you don't want to lie down. (I want to lie down just remembering it!)

Expat, did you say you sleep on the floor?

How does that work if the seatbelt signs go on? Do they come and hoik you up onto your seat in your diazepam stupor?

I would love to sleep on flights but never do, beacuse

a. - we're always in cattle class
b. - I usually have small child sprawled across my lap
c. - I seem to attract turbulence on flights, so signs are on/off the whole blimmin' way (to US & back, maybe that's a bumpy route?)

Will someone please tell me where there is room to sleep on the floor in economy? There's barely enough room for my legs and I'm only 5ft!

'How does that work if the seatbelt signs go on? Do they come and hoik you up onto your seat in your diazepam stupor?'

Never once had that happen, so that's how it works.

I expect if the sign came on, they'd wake me.

Diazepam doesn't stupify me, FWIW, when it's low-dose.

'Will someone please tell me where there is room to sleep on the floor in economy? There's barely enough room for my legs and I'm only 5ft!'

Across three seats - each of us has her own seat. So we're usually put on one side of the plane next to a window. I'm 5ft., 3in. and have no problem curling up on the floor and kipping on KLM, BA or Virgin Atlantic planes.

I'm also not a very large person.

Tries to imagine Expat curled up among the rucksacks, dropped sweets and empties that La Famille Wordfactory strew at their feet.

Actually I'm jealous. I can't sleep on planes, no matter how knackered, pissed I am. While everyone around me snores, I stare into the darkness listening for engine failure.

Sigh.

AC no one talks to me.

I look like a freakshow, gripping the armrests and hyperventilating.

DS doesnt need a bed to sleep though, he can sleep through anything and he has never been awake on landing

Pic on profile of him sleeping during landing

YABVVVVVVVVVVU!

Just don't talk to me if you decide to be a sociable passenger. I will be drunk and paralysed with terror. Oh, and in cattle class

YABU. Not everyone has the boundless energy of the OP.

YABVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVU. You've obviously never done the overnight flights (the only kind they have) between South Africa and the UK. Only a moron would stay awake to "catch up on correspondence" when flying between 22:00 and 8:00, or if they have morning business meetings as soon as they arrive. Or, you've never done overnight from Mumbai and gone straight into work (trust me, you need your sleep), or pretty much any overnight flight to save time

Get your head out of your ass

(sorry, last bit is a bit strong, but I LOVE saying that )

And as for speaking to other passengers NEVER

FYI longest sector now is Singapore-JFK.

and how do you know those people are not on the 12th long haul flight that month and therefore totally exhausted? Many people travel constantly for work, and contrary to what many might think, travelling for work doesn't constitute a holiday. It is still work and you are expected to be able to think clearly when you land, even if you body is telling you that it is 3 am.

Ba ha ha @ 12-hour flights.

OP you are deluded. Spoken like a true, long-haul novice.

We are booked to fly with DS 2 years and DD 7 months to NZ in a couple of months time. We've booked a sky-couch and I pray to the sweet lord above that lying flat they will sleep like they've never slept before!

Fleck me - why on earth wouldn't you want to sleep on a long-haul flight??!!

I have done the Heathrow-Auckland flight more times than you've had hot dinners, and believe me - the novelty of movie-watching, mini-bottle-of-plonk drinking, reading and annoying fellow-passengers wears off way WAY sooner than you would imagine.

Well, my boss is flying out on Monday to New York. He's got a meeting Tuesday and then flying back on Tuesday evening. If he didn't sleep on the flight I think he might go mad!

so with that in mind, YABU.

I WISH I could sleep on planes.. try doing a 24+ hour flight to Australia or Japan and then dealing with jet lag without any sleep.. nnngggggg

Oh, and with your point about removing the big seats to make room for more cattle class seats - you'd pay a HELL of a lot more for a small seat, as the flight is mostly paid for by First and Business. Do you know how much a business class flight to the US is?

Borls.. just seen your post about a pisstake

We took our dd to US when she was 17 months. Thankfully we didn't try her with piriton as we had previously discovered it makes her rather more lively. (although as others have found it has a sedative effect on most children!)

We were in economy,and on the way back (night flight) had 2 seats (we had opted not to pay for dd's own seat as she was under 2). There was a nice American chap in the 3rd seat of the row. The steward offered to move him to a nice empty row, but for some completely bizarre reason (perhaps he was being polite) he said that he would rather stay put as she seemed a well behaved child.

NO idea why he didn't want more space for himself.

Thankfully she settled on and off on our laps (and to be fair we had expected this to happen). The crew were lovely, kept offering us choices from a large tray of baby food.

When we flew to the US on BA we were categorically forbidden from sleeping on the floor. I was devastated as DD was fast asleep there when we were shouted at and told to instantly remove 'the hazard'. I thought only we called her that

Oh believe me, I don't think they wanted to touch us with ten-foot barge poles, much less tell us no kipping on the floor! DS is horrible.

You are way too judgemental. People have different circumstances and may need to sleep. I suffer severe travel sickness and a fear of flying so it is better for me to sleep as much as possible. My father is a businessman and would fly a lot when I was younger. Sleeping on a plane was a luxury between meetings in Hong Kong, Britain and other countries that have differing time zones and where he would be working non stop. Besides, travelling can be stressy and tiring so sometimes someone just needs a little rest. YABU