The Flight
Your carryon should hold your fragile items, electronics,
and valuables. Important paperwork, ID, cash, and other items that you will
need immediately should be at hand. 
At your seat you should bring support items. I had a pillow
that was compact and I could fill with air at my seat and lean my face on and
put my arms in. Magical! I will link to one like it HERE. My flight was 5hrs
with a 2hr layover in Texas and then another 5hrs to London.
Unless you wear a watch regularly, don’t bring one. It isn’t
that important just for two flights. Instead prepare yourself to have a dead
phone battery. Bring portable batteries! I brought three of them and I could have
used an extra (because of all the time I kept having to waste making sure they
were all plugged in because I used them up so quickly). Make sure they are as
compact and large capacity as possible. You won’t want to carry bulk around
every day. Slim charger in your pocket is nothing however!
Apps. For London I recommend
WhatsApp or Kik (if you want to hide your real number) to talk over Wi-Fi for
free. To travel City Mapper is perfection, you can search for walking, bus,
tube, or Uber routes and times. I would recommend using widgets on your screen
to keep track of your HOME time. It is easier than counting every time you want
to know; you can check in the same time it would take to check your foreign
time. This will also save you during your flight to calculate travel times
while crossing time zones.
Don’t bring things specifically for your flight. You will
have to drag these items all over your foreign country and unless you will be
travelling extensively for your entire trip, don’t coddle yourself. You can
survive a flight with your ear buds instead of heavy duty noise cancelling
headphones that will be cumbersome and added weight on your way home. Your ear
buds may get annoying but you can handle it, I promise.
Tissues. Virtually weightless and for some reason, I swear, everyone’s
noses run on planes. These can double as toilet paper as well!
Comfortable clothing (be aware of weather)
Charge everything before you leave!
Bring an empty water bottle (TSA will stop you for carrying
liquids but there are loads of places to fill this passed security). Keep
hydrated and eat a balanced meal before travelling. It is tempting to eat taco
bell as a quick option but it will come back to haunt you mid-flight. You don’t
want to be in and out of the toilet with embarrassing issues. Be prepared with
Beano, heartburn, or diarrhea medication!
Get up and stretch during flight. Blood clots are a worry
even for those of us without circulation problems. I personally wore
restriction socks (like diabetics wear) to ward against them because I had a
window seat). Sitting for long periods of time can be dangerous, because you
risk of DVT (deep vein thrombosis) rises. It isn’t going to hurt anything or
anyone for you to do a couple laps around. If you are worried about bothering staff,
ask them for a route and best time to accomplish this during flight.
The woman sitting across from me during my flight clearly
had circulation problems because she would constantly stand up next to me and
stomp her feet… she was in pain! It was horrid.
My flight to the UK and back (and flights while I was there)
weren’t bad. I watched movies, tv shows, and such on the flight over.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask any
questions in the comments below.
Happy Travels,
Elle
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