Word: flighted
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...glasses of water to stay hydrated, a guy two seats away started coughing and didn't stop for 10 minutes. I thought, Can I handle 18 hours of this? Should I have bought that surgical mask? I was still getting adjusted to my surroundings when a beautiful flight attendant in a traditional Singapore kebaya handed me a hot towel. I got up, stretched and walked around, which every long-haul veteran knows is necessary to keep your blood moving. I chatted with a few folks who were doing the same. I started one of my books, Jarhead, by Anthony Swofford...
...they are on all trips and especially the long hauls, the flight attendants are trained to keep an eye out for passengers who aren't handling the flight well: then the crew will engage them in conversation, offer them a drink or something to eat--all designed to lower the travelers' stress level. My stress was so low I decided I had to sleep. I easily dropped off and caught a four-hour nap. The cleverly designed seats have a headrest that bends to form a kind of a pillow: no embarrassing head drops onto your neighbor's shoulder...
...first meal. I had brought a bunch of stationery with me, thinking I'd use the hours to return to the glorious age of letter writing. Nah. Back to Jarhead. Then another inspection trip to the bathroom--which remained remarkably clean to the very end of the flight. As Flight 19 finally touched down in Singapore, some 9,000 miles and 18 hours and four minutes after takeoff, the passengers broke out in enthusiastic applause: a little celebration of man and aluminum. I was dehydrated from the dry cabin air, despite all those glasses of water. But I felt pretty...
...Malaysian resort town of Kota Kinabalu. But there's no plum seat waiting for him. Even top managers at no-frills airlines don't get any frills. Fernandes treks through the crowded plane searching for an empty chair, ending up in one of the last rows. When flight attendants appear with a cart of sodas and instant noodles for sale, he plunks down 80¢ for a can of Milo chocolate drink. Fernandes then spends much of the two-hour journey chatting and shaking hands with each of the 140 passengers. After the plane touches down, he stands on the tarmac...
What makes the budget carriers such ornery opponents is their relentless cost cutting. Fernandes, who has dreamed up all kinds of ways to save money, claims AirAsia is the world's lowest-cost airline. He pays his flight attendants to clean planes instead of hiring special crews, which not only lowers costs but also chops the time spent boarding at terminals to 25 minutes--about half that of the major airlines. His pilots are trained to land at a farther point on the runway and at a slower speed to conserve fuel and reduce wear and tear on tires. Half...