How to Work on a Long Flight When Flying in Economy

Have you a long flight to catch? 4 hours? 8 hours? All that time to do nothing so that you can get out of the airplane and have to waste another 4 or 8 hours on working after? How do you work on a long flight? Good question. Let's answer it.

Choose the Right Airline

Who you fly with will determine if you can work on a long flight or not.

Is There Wi-Fi?

If you are going to work on a long flight, do not even consider going on an airline if that airline provides no Wi-Fi. Firstly, let's get rid of any speculations that you can use your cellular data in the air, it won't work.

Some airlines offer Wi-Fi though, and that’s what you need if you are flying and want to work. If you are a writer, you need Wi-Fi for research. If you are a business owner, you need Wi-Fi.  

Comfort Matters 

If you are flying first class, you probably don’t need to look for comfort as all airlines pretty much offer great service at first class. When you are flying in economy, you need to really research airlines. Search on Google for what is the best airline when it comes to your route. On long flights, comfort matters. And bring a pillow and a blanket for comfort with you too.

Where Will You Sit?

Seating matters. But it’s complicated. You can choose your seat with a small fee on most airlines. But the question is, who will sit beside you. A crying baby? Someone bigger? It’s a lottery.  

When it comes to crying babies, you can avoid the noise by wearing earbuds, when it comes to somebody bigger, there’s one trick.

Come onto the airplane last. Everybody always rushes but it’s not like the plane is going to leave without you unless you are actually late.

Here’s the thing. If there are spare seats in a better place if you go in last, the chances are that if you ask nicely, you’ll get them.

Also, when buying your seat, if you pay extra, you can often get a seat with more leg space.

Have the Power That You Need

Majority of airlines don’t have sockets. Our phones got more powerful but the batteries didn’t get much better. You can't work without power. You need a portable charger. But even then, you might still have problems.

When it comes to charging your phone, something like the Zendure A5 is perfect. 16,750 mAh will last you for more than a flight.

But most people want to work on a laptop. Phones are getting bigger, true, but start writing and that screen gets divided by two. It’s not optimal.

Laptops tend to last longer but they also need more power to be charged. And sometimes they don’t have enough power in themselves for a full flight. For long flights, you need a portable charger with power such as the Zendure A8 QC, but you also need a laptop with a USB C cable to charge it. That’s how you do it.

USB C allows you to charge without having to bring big cables that only work with one type of a laptop and require a connection to a socket.

If You Want to Work on a Long Flight, These Are the Essentials to Take Care Of

Long flights can be great, they can also be terrible.

Heading to Web Summit? Check out the post about how to have a great time at Web Summit. Have to stay over during the night before a flight? There’s a post about that too.

Written by Michael Smolski.