Although Asia can be an exciting and affordable destination, flying there, particularly from the United States or the United Kingdom, can be an ordeal. Fortunately, a few small steps can help make the flight tolerable.
Upgrade your ticket. The surest way to make your flight more comfortable is to get an upgrade to business or first class. Most airlines will let you pay to upgrade your economy class ticket to a premium cabin anytime from the point of purchase to check-in. If you are fortunate, you can be upgraded for free by airline staff. Your chances for a free upgrade are enhanced if you are a frequent flier, but sometimes passengers are upgraded for simple operational reasons, such as overbooking of the economy section.
Bring comfort aids. Even in business or first class, your comfort on an overnight flight to Asia can be greatly enhanced if you bring some comforts of home. Some passengers bring their favorite pillow, or at least a neck pillow, which is available for purchase in most travel stores. Other fliers often bring their most comfortable shoes and socks, or even slippers, for the long flight. While most airlines offer audio headsets and music channels for free on their longer flights, the choice is often limited, so you might want to bring your own personal music player, such as an MP3 player. If you don't want your eating schedule dictated by the airline, you might also want to bring some snacks.
Take sleeping pills. Although you may feel tired already on an overnight flight, it can be difficult to sleep on an airplane, so you may consider taking a sleeping aid. If you can reduce the effective duration of your flight by sleeping through some or most of it, your overall comfort level for the flight will rise dramatically.
Request exit row seating. If you can't get an upgrade, your next-best option is to sit in an exit row. While you will be asked to assist others in the unlikely event of an emergency, the trade-off is better legroom, which can make a long flight much more tolerable. In addition to the extra room to stretch your legs, you also won't have any other passengers crawling over you and possibly disturbing your sleep to get to the lavatories, as there will be room for them to walk around you. If you can't get the exit row, you should check out individual seat descriptions at sites such as seatguru.com, as there may be other available seats on your plane with additional legroom.
Choose a seat next to one or more vacant seats. Even if exit rows and the premium cabins are unavailable to you, you can still manage to find extra room on an airplane by sitting in an otherwise empty row. When you check in, choose a seat next to one or more unoccupied seats. If you are lucky, those seats will remain unfilled by the time the plane actually departs, and you can stretch out, or even lay across, the open seats. To improve your chances, you should check with the gate agent right before you board to make sure that your adjacent seats are still unoccupied.
