The Essentials

What Constitutes a Long Flight?

Singapore Airlines

I have many friends who still insist that the transcontinental flights between California and New York are long.

They average around five and a half hours each. To me, that’s not long. Los Angeles to London is 11 hours. In my book, that’s still not long. San Francisco to Hong Kong is about 14 hours and that’s still not long.

To me, long flights go beyond that.

How about Doha to Auckland, New Zealand, or Dubai to Sydney? But the granddaddy of them all is now flying again.

Singapore Airlines Flight 23, departs New York’s JFK at 10:30 p.m. and arrives two days later in Singapore. Try 18 hours plus. One consolation: the plane only has business and premium coach seats. No one could survive that flight in a regular coach seat.