10 Long Flight Travel Hacks That’ll Make You Feel Like a Genius (Most People Have No Idea!)

A lot of people feel exhausted with long flights and it’s because they often don’t know the tricks. I’m telling you, I’ve traveled quite a bit, including many super long flights, since I’ve spent a lot of time between Asia and Europe. Here I’m sharing my best travel hacks for long flights!

And these aren’t the typical travel hacks like downloading movies or taking off your shoes and using slippers. These are more specific hacks, some that few people know from experience or hear from flight attendants 🙂

Here are these hacks that’ll help you have a much better flight:

Hack 1: EU Flight Delays = Up to €600 Compensation (Yes, Really!)

This is my favorite long flight travel hack.

Did you know that if you’re traveling to or from Europe and your flight gets delayed or cancelled, you have huge benefits? Depending on whether your flight is delayed more than 3 hours, gets cancelled, or you can’t travel because the flight is oversold, you can receive up to 600 euros in compensation! NOTE that the airline won’t tell you—you have to ask for it and do the process yourself! Of course this compensation is completely separate—if it gets cancelled they still have to put you on another flight for free.

I had already read about this several years ago, so once when I was in Europe traveling with my boyfriend and we had a flight to Asia and we couldn’t check in because the flight was oversold. At the counter I mentioned to the girl helping us that we were going to request the 600 euros compensation.

Result? To avoid paying the 600 euros, they upgraded us to first class!

Note, this is only valid if the flight is direct to or from Europe without stops.

Hack 2: Hotel Hack, FREE Stays on Long Layovers (Airlines Will Pay!)

Here I’m sharing another travel hack that I’ve also used a couple of times traveling to Asia. Did you know that depending on the airline, if you have a very long layover (like more than 12 hours), many offer you a FREE HOTEL?

You have to find out beforehand which airlines offer it, but there are quite a few. For me both times it was with China Eastern Airlines. When you arrive in the country they give you a long list of hotels to choose from and they give you transportation too.

Other airlines like Turkish Airlines also give you hotels in Istanbul, Icelandair in Reykjavik, and Ethiopian Airlines gives you free tours in Addis Ababa and Qatar Airlines in Qatar.

There’s no need to sleep at the airport!

Hack 3: The Empty Water Bottle Power Move

This travel hack is BASIC. Bring an empty bottle (it can be a collapsible plastic bottle if you want something smaller but it can be any bottle) to get through security. After passing through security, you can fill it up easily.

In some airports there are water fountains where you can fill them, or you can also fill it in the bathroom with regular tap water (depending on the country, if you can drink tap water).

This way you save on super expensive airport waters.

Hack 4: Look for the “Secret Menu” Items in the Airplane

Not everything the flight attendants offer you is the only thing they have available to eat or drink 🙂 Especially on long flights. Many times, if you ask nicely they can bring you some snack that’s not part of the menu.

Also, depending on the airline, on long flights there are snacks in the airplane galleys (for example at the back of the plane or in the middle). Several times I’ve eaten ice cream (popsicles) or cookies from there. Or even ramen soups! One of the best long flight hacks I have to say.

Hack 5: The Airplane Seat Gap Trick

If you’re sitting by the window, right from the moment you arrive, you can roll up the blanket they give you and put it in the small gap between the seat and the window. This way you avoid things falling through there and your phone or Kindle disappearing mid-flight.

Hack 6: Set Your Watch to Destination Time Immediately

From the moment you get on the plane, change the time on your phone or watch to the time of your destination city.

This brings 2 benefits together. The first is that this way you don’t forget to change it when you arrive which can be terrible especially if you have a connection (I once desperately ran accross an airport only to realize I was actually way on time, but it can also happen the other way!).

Or if you don’t have a connecting flight, you can start trying to adjust your sleep to your destination city’s time right from the plane itself, preparing yourself for a little less jet lag.

Hack 7: Sleep With Your Seatbelt On

If you want to sleep or feel like you could fall asleep at any moment, don’t forget to put on your seatbelt, even if the seatbelt lights are off. This way you avoid being woken up mid-flight if at some point they turn on because of some small turbulence.

Hack 8: Wet Your Hair Every Time You Go to the Bathroom

On airplanes there’s quite a bit of static and you feel it a lot on long flights! You might not realize it, but you’ll be super messy-haired during the whole flight, with your hair kind of standing up. If you wet your hair well every time you go to the bathroom, your hair will return to normal and you won’t be so messy-haired the next time you fall asleep.

Hack 9: Switch to an Empty Row

When boarding and before takeoff, check if there’s any empty row on the plane. After takeoff, when the seatbelt light is already off, ask a flight attendant if you can move there. Normally there’s no problem!

Hack 10: Ask If You Can Get an Emergency Row Seat… For Free

Especially on long flights, you want to have more legroom! But sometimes you don’t want to spend extra paying for seats with more legroom 😊 Life’s contradictions 😂 Sometimes those seats haven’t been reserved, so if you check in at the counter (not from the app or website), you can ask if maybe there would be one of those seats available.

If you’re nice and you get a nice agent they’ll give it to you without problems (it’s happened to me, they’ve even offered it without asking!).

More Life and Travel Hacks

A long flight doesn’t have to be terrible at all, especially if you know these tricks! Seriously, just the hack about the flight to or from Europe—if you have the luck (or bad luck, depends how you look at it) of them delaying your flight a lot or cancelling it, you could win yourself a nice travel fund!

If you know of other travel hacks for long flights that I haven’t mentioned here, write in the comments so we can help each other out!

Save this pin to remember these travel hacks!