John

Give me your favorite 5 things to do to battle boredom on long plane flights. Lists for preteens would be welcome too.

Bruce Hayes

All my long plane flights have been overnights, so...

1. Try, unsuccessfully, to sleep.
2. Watch the movie.
3. Stare at the ceiling.
4. Read the in-flight magazine (usually a couple of times).
5. Look at other passengers
6. (I know it is only supposed to be five) Look at my watch every couple of minutes.

Eric

My long plane flights have also been overnight.

1. Take sleeping pills.

2. Go to the toilet every 30 minutes.

3. Listen to audio books.

4. Take sleeping pills and have a
couple of drinks.

5. Go crazy

depends on the airline

If you're doing an overseas flight on a plane that has those little individual screens on the back of each seat~ you're in luck! All kinds of continuously repeating movies, television programs, map showing progress of the flight, etc.

Drinks are free in European carriers. Also Valium is very helpful.

For the kids, the handheld computer games or reading Harry Potter are the two most successful things I've observed recently.

Amy

Numbers 1 through 4 would have to be sleep: what works for me is 1) eating before getting on the plane, not eating on it 2) no caffeine! 3) earplugs and an eye mask {makes an amazing difference} and 4) a pashmina in addition to the airplane blanket.

I just got back from the longest flights of my life--total of 26 hours flying time--and these really worked. #5 is books, particularly something fun and fluffy, like a mystery or romance; airplanes, to me, are not the place for Serious Reading.

Have a great flight!

pilot

fly the plane.

Greg

Since many airlines put in the tv's on the backs of every seat the rides are a lot shorter. But...
Take off shoes
Take a walk once in a while and strtch by the bathrooms
Play numerous electronic games that I have...Yatzee, Whack a Mole, etc
thats about it.

Huh

What the heck is a pashmina?

Bruce Hayes

I think a pashmina is some kind of fancy shawl. I am sure you will get lots of answers.

Tony Hughes

I can never sleep on flights, so my five would be, in no particular order:

1) Remember an amusing incident from the past; replay it in your mind.
2) Stare at the back of the seat in front of you (assuming no small tv screen is there)
3) Think of five places you'd rather be.
4) Worry about your connection and the how to get to the other terminal
5) Stare at someone diagonally opposite. Study their mannerisms.

Nan

If I am really bored, I make up little scenerios about the people sitting around me, how they met, how long they have been married, who the boss is in the family. But I have to be really bored.

mj

In addition to what (some) other posters mentioned, we take the notebook computer and spend time refining our driving routes and viewing saved webpages/pics of the areas we intend to visit. The kids (late teens and if they're coming along) use it for games.

Although a bit geekie, it does make the time "fly" by and keeps your mind on the trip instead of the flight.

animallover

A pashmina is a shawl made from the coat of a very rare and valuable animal (like a yak/goat) from Nepal. It was all the rage a few years back and for just a few hundred dollars you can wear the hair of a rare animal on your back.

Nero

1. worry
2. fret
3. fume
4. worry some more
5. worry about how much I worry.

Dorothyk

The best thing of all if you're traveling alone is to discover that you have an interesting seatmate who doesn't mind talking, and learn all about each other's lives.

Bruce Hayes

Of course the down-side to that is they are boring then you are stuck in an aluminum tube next to them for six or seven hours.

Dorothyk

The best thing of all if you're traveling alone is to discover that you have an interesting seatmate who doesn't mind talking, and learn all about each other's lives.

Gerry K

I always feel that everyone is able to sleep but me. Are they all faking it?

(I'll add mindless puzzles and solitaire.)

Gerry K

eee

Go into the overhead compartment and take something out of your carryon, then put it back 15 minutes later. Repeat throughout the flight. Make sure you stand up in the right spot so that you can block several passengers view of the movie screen.

whackamole

Play Whack-A-Mole (PETA must be howling) but instead of using moles, just sit in the middle seat of a row of five and kick the seats in front of you - as people stick their head up to find out the disturbance, whack'em!