Your longest day of travel by plane?

[Dragonmount 5]

I recently took a very very long day of travel from Dublin Ireland, that began at 4 am local time, and finished in Charelston S.C. airport at 10:30 PM EST, I'm honestly not sure how long a day of travel that was, because of the time changes, the day we left Ireland went on DST, which means we gained an hour, and technically we began at 5, but it was really 4 am, etc etc. I think it was around 24 hours of either flying or sitting in an airport. What about you? What's your longest day (or many days) of travel via air?

[Manny 1,293]

Going to Chennai India from DFW westward via SFO or LA thence to Tokyo or Taipai thence to Singapore thence to Chennai used to be 24 hrs

 

The longest direct I have flown is from DFW to Narita (13-14 hr flight).. I was doing this every two weeks for 6 months about 5 years ago... Albeit Business class (sometimes upgraded to first)

 

There used to be an American A flight from Chicago to Mumbai direct 18 hr flying time.

 

I am thinking  going to Australia from the US would be the longest.

[DylanC 181]

First time I went to the Philippines I took the long way.  I flew from Boston at 7 AM arrived at LAX around noon.  I had a ton of hotel points so I booked a room at a hotel since my Flight to Hong Kong was not leaving until midnight.  I believe the LAX to Hong Kong flight was 16 hours due to head winds.  Had a 2 hour layover there and then finally got on a flight to Manila.  When all was said and done I traveled 27 hours.  It was worth it.  The next time I went to the Philippines, I was smart and bought a direct flight out of LAX.  That trip only lasted 18 hours all together.

[Mithras 87]

25 hours, Manchester to Brisbane, in three legs, each around 8 hours long. Boarding for that last leg, at Singapore, the passengers, me included, seemed alot less eager to board than they did at Manchester!

 

Done the trip a few times now. Best part was flying over Iraq back in 2010.

[scott967 62]

Longest day I think was from JB Pearl Harbor - Hickam to JB Charleston (C-17) then an 8 hour layover and another C-17 from Charleston to Ramstein AB in Germany.  The Hickam to Charleston leg was a returning Charleston AC with no cargo so we could stretch out on the cargo deck.  Ramstein-bound AC was pretty full so not quite so comfy.  When we got to Ramstein the ramp was so full we ended up parking way on the other side of the air field so it took about half an hour just to get to the pax term.

 

Coming back not so bad as going west you get the advantage of the clock change.  Took the charter 777 from Aviano AB to BWI via Ramstein then had a day off until I could catch a C-17 from JB Andrews back to Hickam.

 

scott s.

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[l3ubba 16]

I would say my longest time spent traveling was going from Fort Huachuca to Fort Benning. My flight went from Tucson to Atlanta my flight was scheduled to leave at about 12PM, but of course our sergeants were so eager to get rid of us that as soon as it was midnight (the day that our leave started) they had us off to the airport. Got to the airport about 2:30AM then did the 3-4 hour flight. By the time we caught the shuttle from ATL to Fort Benning and got to Fort Benning it was about 11PM.

 

Almost all the flights I had while I was going between training bases when I joined the military were long travel times just because the sergeants wanted to get us out as soon as possible (which usually meant leaving at midnight) so that they didn't have to deal with us anymore.

[alpha117 73]

Brize Norton to the Falkland Islands :ph34r:

[777 340]

Well I wouldn't say longest day but after this even I was sick of air travel lol. Manchester UK to Jeddah - on Swiss codeshare with Helvetica....Manchester - Zurich (Helvetica F100)  Zurich - Riyadh (Swiss-A330) Riyadh - Jeddah (Swiss-A330) 3 take offs and landings is enough for anyone for a 6hr.30 min trip. Next time I'll take Saudi Arabian direct ....

[John_Cillis 2,406]

I recently took a very very long day of travel from Dublin Ireland, that began at 4 am local time, and finished in Charelston S.C. airport at 10:30 PM EST, I'm honestly not sure how long a day of travel that was, because of the time changes, the day we left Ireland went on DST, which means we gained an hour, and technically we began at 5, but it was really 4 am, etc etc. I think it was around 24 hours of either flying or sitting in an airport. What about you? What's your longest day (or many days) of travel via air?

 

My longest day of travel involved 6 hops and three plane changes due to the aircraft I was on and headwinds.  I was on my first flight home from Europe in 1977.  We left around 11 AM local time which as I recall was around 2AM California time, my final destination.  Our TransInternational DC-8-63 first flew from Munich to Vienna to pick up passengers.  Then we flew from Vienna to Shannon to pick up fuel.  Then, Shannon to Gander to pick up more fuel.  Then Gander to JFK.

 

In JFK we changed to an American 707 and flew to Dallas.  Finally, we changed planes to an American 727 for the remaining trip to SFO.  As I recall it was sometime around 4AM when I landed in SFO.

 

A close second was when I flew home from Guam to SFO in 1992.  A three hour flight to Tokyo, an eight hour layover than another 11 hours to SFO.

 

Finally, honorable mention goes to a trip home from Europe in 1984.  Left from Vienna, flew to Frankfurt, and instead of landing after the traditional 7 hours we circled for three hours over a stormed drenched JFK before diverting to Philly.  I was stranded in Philly's from 2PM in the afternoon until 6AM the next morning, then picked up a flight to JFK where we picked up passengers, then flew non-stop home to SFO.  Technically it was my longest period of transit where I was either in an aircraft or in an airport.  Total time to get home--almost 40 hours, with no sleep.  But since 14 hours was spent hanging out at Philly, how can you call that flying?

 

John

[dgraham1284 92]

Cairns, AU->YSSY->KLAX->KJFK

 

6 Hour layovers at each stop. 

[brucek 38]

My longest trip... I used to live and work near Melbourne, Australia (Shepparton), worked for a television station. I had to attend a training course in Salt Lake City, and the station used what was called a "contra-deal" that traded air tickets with an airline for free advertising. The airline that the station was doing these deals at the time was KLM.

 

The trip consisited of: Shepparton (AU)- YMML (small commuter airline using a C310). YMML-Colombo-Dubai-Instambul-EHAM (Amsterdam Schipol). Overnighted at Amsterdam, then the next day EHAM-KORD-KSLC.

 

Then I did it in reverse going back home, other than Instanbul which was an emergency stop.

 

YMML-EHAM, and EHAM-KORD were on KLM, B742. KORD-KSLC on American, B722.

 

The stop in Instambul was an emergency diversion, a passenger was having a heart attack and needed to get to the nearest hospital.

 

Bruce.

[zmak 331]

That longest trip title goes to my ex wife. Flew out of new Zealand for the USA when the plane developed a technical problem and turned back. After many hours they were transferred to another plane , that developed a technical problem and had to turn back....LOL...true story

[TheNerd 12]

My longest day(s) of travel took probably longer than a day. It was about 8 years ago with my mom who decided that it would be a good idea if we had more stopovers so we could see some new places. We were headed for the Philippines for a family visit.

We took off from JFK in one of Delta's sub-airline things around 5 in the morning and headed for CMH which took about a hour and a half or so. We had a 2 hour stopover there, so we just waited in the airport. Then, we flew to DTW which took about another hour. Finally, we flew to Narita on a Delta 767(?) which took about 12 hours or so. It wasn't the best plane... seats were kinda tight, there were some "electrical problems" so the TVs weren't working. Food was alright. Then, we had a 2 hour stopover in Narita. It took us forever to find the gate for our next flight... mainly because the people there spoke broken English (although, they did speak better English than the people in S. Korea). Anyway, we finally boarded the 747 headed for the Philippines. It was beat up, the seats were cramped, and smelled like something was burning. They served us "breakfast" which was some weird anomaly that to me tasted like garlic bread with tainted mayo and sauerkraut. We somehow made it to the Philippines intact.

Heading back to NYC, we went the same way. Now, our flight from CMH to JFK was scheduled to depart at 9 in the morning. My mom and I stayed at a hotel overnight. When we got there (6 in the morning...), the airport was nearly abandoned  . We actually had to wait for a TSA employee to come inspect us. The gates were pretty much empty, the Starbucks was open... with no cashier, and the lights were still off in some areas. At JFK, the airport doesn't "close," so to us, this was so weird! There was a 2 hour delay because the plane was behind schedule, but we finally got to board the tiny ERJ 145 with a few other people. Jetways apparently don't reach, so we had to use the back exit. The smell was the first thing that bothered me. It smelled of rotten salami  . The seats were cramped and the overhead bins were tiny, aut, the FAs and the pilot were all pretty happy and energetic.

We ran into the first problem... the left flaps wouldn't come down. Well then... We had to wait about 45 minutes for that to be fixed.

The next problem: a huge storm over PA that caused another 2 hour delay. Note that this plane has no in-flight entertainment, just me and my Nintendo DS, which was almost dead. Meanwhile, there was a crazed man cursing in Russian, presumably complaining about the delay. It got so bad, that the pilot got out of the cockpit and threatened to kick him off the plane if he didn't sit down. WE DIDN'T EVEN HAVE FOOD D:

The storm passed, but we ran into another problem: the "radar was broken and ha[d] to be changed." ANOTHER 2 HOURS! 

Finally, it was replaced. But, we had another problem: ANOTHER STORM! That added an extra hour.

The storm was over apparently, but (as expected) we had another problem: the plane was giving a decompression warning. After that was sorted out, it was finally time to depart... 7:30 PM. Only a 9 hour 30 minute delay (gg Delta :Applause: ). The cursing Russian was still standing and ranting as we were taxiing. I don't know how the plane made it off the ground...

We took off and there was massive wind shear and turbulence. The plane was just shaking like an empty can. At this point my mom was all like  . 

 

We somehow made it back in one piece...although we had a very rough crosswind landing.

 

-Phil

[Groovy_Kincaid 71]

FAPP ->FAJS->GOOY->KIAD->KORD->CYVR. Longest day of my life. Left Hoedspruit at noon local time arrived Vancouver 4PM local time same day.

[Sesquashtoo 2,846]

14 hours, from Detroit, MI to Ben Gurion, Israel---church tour.

 

We stopped in Athens for a passenger debark/reboard and fuel.

 

That was about all I could take....sheesh....