As you may or may not know, we took a trip to Britain last month. We went by plane and I thought I would share with you how it went. I suffer from motion sickness; I am NOT afraid of flying,.....well other than flying anywhere over Asia........they are having a lot of bad luck over there, I just feel ill from the minute the plane takes off until it lands. Gravol doesn't work, so I just put up with it.
We flew with Air Transat which is who we usually use. Cheap and cheerful and gets us from A to B without any detours. It is generally a 6 to 6 1/2 hour flight from Toronto to Glasgow depending on the tail wind. This time we did it in 6 hours straight. We generally set off between 7 pm to 9 pm Toronto time and land first thing in the morning Glasgow time. There is a five hour time difference so we are landing middle of the night Toronto time. So it is a night flight, and they turn the lights down in the plane so people can have a nap middle of the flight if they want; this information is important!!!
For anyone who has flown Air Transat and I guess lots of other cheap and cheerful airlines, there is not a lot of seat room, but I know in our case going from "cattle class" to "club class" the flights were double; and in my case it wouldn't matter where I sat I would still feel as sick as a dog. When we booked the flights there were only two seats left that were together and they were right at the back next to the bathrooms. They got terrible reviews, but it meant me and dh could stretch out and put out seats back.
WE WILL NEVER EVER BOOK THOSE SEATS AGAIN!!!
One our flight we had numerous people with bladder infections as all they seemed to do is go back and forward to the bathroom all night. Oh and every time they had to hold onto the back of my seat; I had the aisle seat.
We had the "Scottish Stretching Team," on board it seems. Half way through the night, three of them got up to stretch, but instead of stretching by their seats at the front of the plane, they decided there was more room by the bathrooms. While they were doing their stretching and hanging onto our seats while doing it, they thought they should make sure the pilot could hear what they were talking about. I turned around and gave them "the look," to my surprise they did not shrivel up and die but carried on with what they were doing. I finally got up to go to the bathroom and said to them, "some people are trying to sleep."
We had numerous little children on the flight the youngest being a 5 week old baby; who by the way we never heard a peep out of. There were two toddlers amongst the kids; a 17 month old who wouldn't go to sleep. Anyone with a child that age knows children get cranky when they don't get their sleep. So the mother walked him up and down and stood behind our seats trying to rock him to sleep. The other toddler was closer to 2 years of age and I am not sure if it was his ears or what but he was NOT a happy camper and screamed on and off throughout the flight. She had another child around 5 years of age with her, who was as good as gold, but she must have been exhausted by the time she got home.
As we got closer to Glasgow the more turbulence we encountered and the sicker I felt. They were having 90 mph winds in Glasgow and lets just say those winds pushed the plane around a lot. Obviously our seat belts were on way before we landed, mine probably even sooner. The landing was that bad all the passengers clapped when we landed as we were all glad to be alive. One of the staff said she had never had experienced such a landing in all her 26 years of being a Stewardess. I did not have a speck of colour in my face dh said until we got through the customs. I did not vomit though, so that's a positive. I did not even speak to anyone until we got through customs as I honestly just wanted to lay down in the middle of the floor and either die or go to sleep I didn't really care either way....LOL
The flight back was a bit better, hardly any turbulence and a half empty flight so everyone got to stretch out. What children that were on the plane we all happy. I still felt as sick as a dog from it taking off until it landed and I was starving for some strange reason. I even asked when they were serving lunch as despite feeling sick to my stomach I had to have something to eat.
First thing we did when we left the airport was find a Tim Hortons for something to eat. Oh and another thing, I have bad ears. I am very familiar with ear infections, so of course my ears pop in the plane. This time however dh was the one who suffered with a bad ear. He went for a couple of days when we got home with reduced hearing in one ear. He is fine now.
I have told anyone who wants to listen, that if I never have to set foot in a plane ever again it will not bother me. I will have to fly again though, as the majority of our families are in Britain, but it is something I am NOT looking forward too. I also get motion sickness in cars, but not to the same degree.
Do you like to fly?
(By the way my stomach is heaving just writing this...LOL)
