All of the above. Important items in the shoe is a solid tip and a must. The more you follow habit patterns the less like you’ll screw something up in the fog of fatigue.

On arrival, I always set my 3 hour nap alarm and put it in the bathroom so I have to get up to turn it off. Otherwise it’s too tempting to keep smashing snooze for 5 more hours.

 

Best advice I've ever heard a fed say to a new hire after observing a checkride:

"You have kids? Well my advice to you is never let your wife see you whistling when you're packing your bag to go to work."

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A good way to use the layover is as a scouting trip for the time when you'll get to take your wife with you. The huge tourist traps can be ok, but there's plenty of less crowded places that are lovely.

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Don't ride a bike in downtown AMS until you've ridden around the edges a few times. Seriously. It's extremely well designed for bike traffic, but not in a way that Americans are used to. Between foot traffic, bikes, autos, and extremely silent electric trains, you'd better know what you're doing.

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Many international destinations have much, much stricter flight crew alcohol prohibitions -and stricter penalties. Probably better to buy it and bring it back, if that's your thing. Your experience may vary; as a foreigner, you stick out, and you're under a higher level of scrutiny.

 

Kind of interesting to talk with FA's that have been doing this 50+ years about how the industry has changed. You get to meet a lot of the 2 and 3 digit seniority number FA's doing international.

 

Along those lines, if you're fortunate enough to fly with former Pan-Am flight attendants, you'll get a small sense of how it must have been in the "glory days" of airline flying.

 

The best investment I ever made for the 330 bunk was a roll up inflatable camping mattress. That thing, not full.....but about 1/2-3/4 full of air, with a blanket or 2 over it, makes your 2hr nap much much nicer.

 

Ah don’t get me started. Flew with this one Pan Am guy out of NYC who, while about 100 years old, was like the maitre d at a 5 star restaurant. Classy as heck and made sure the pilots were well taken care of and checked on regularly. Didn’t take any gruff from the cat rancher club either. Must’ve been a heck of a time to be a pilot.

 

Something magical happens at 30W.

Accurate! Still some of our best, most-fun FAs.

 

I don’t mean to derail the thread, but how about Asia layovers for those going to SEA on a widebody for the first time? Someone here said they were easier on the body? I would love any insight into HND, ICN, PEK or anywhere else we go...

 

The earlier departures for west coast Asia flying can make it more difficult to sleep going over, but having young kids usually means 1st, 2nd, or 3rd break and I’m out. The -900 bunk is the best in the fleet now, so that’s also a bonus. You land around 10-11 PM body clock, which is getting to be late afternoon local. By the time you’re at the hotel, a quick shower and change and it’s dinner time. Grab a bite, a few beers, then sleep as long as you can. Again, body clock sleep is from about 2 AM - 10 AM. Wakeup, workout, have a nice buffet breakfast (ICN and PVG are both great in normal times), walk around for a few hours, then a nap before pickup.

You ultimately pay the price on the way home. Short breaks, red-eye body clock flying, early arrival back home… just in time to help mama with the babies! 21/24 hour 3 day trips (ICN/PVG) make it worth the effort.

 

Currently out of SEA on 330 we do ICN and HND. China layovers are nonexistent now. The only China leg we do (that I know of) is ICN-PVG-ICN. I have this trip later this month. It’s a 5 day trip with with sign in being 2335 the day before. It’s worth 32+ hours, has a 48 hr layover before doing the ICN-PVG-ICN then another 24ish hr layover in ICN and then fly back to SEA. On some of the trips you DH either over or back to ICN. Those trips go very senior. Last time I flew ICN a couple months ago we were restricted to hotel grounds because.....Covid. I’ll have better info on this in a couple of weeks. Last time I did HND was last December and there was a restriction to stay at hotel with exceptions.....don’t know what it is now. Layovers are typically 24 or 48 hours.

Personally I find going west is easier on my body. I’m no longer into the tourist thing on layovers. If I’m tired, I sleep. My MO is to try and time a 2-3 hour nap prior to show for the flight home from Asia. (Now this is based on the fact I get 2 or 3rd break) The flight home is typically an all night flight. ICN gets back at 8am currently.

Not much else to say. Destinations to Asia are pretty limited now. The only other one I can think of is DTW-NGO.

Denny