I read the article yesterday. I did Houston to Dubai direct from IAH two years ago. At 15 hours and change I’m convinced that was probably my limit. Another half hour on that flight and I would have murdered someone.
I did Houston to Guangzhou via LAX & Hong Kong in 2010 but my layover in California was 5 hours and I was in Hong Kong for 3 hours before flying to mainland China. It’s not so much the duration of these trips for me. It’s the time trapped in a fuselage.
That 14 hour leg to the Philippines is about my max, there with stops usually about 32 hours.
But coming back from Rome last month to Charlotte N.C., that was 13 hours, 25 min. And AA totally sucked. With our seats in the last row of sardines, against the restroom. My wife's infotainment screen didn't work. After their several failed attempts to reset it, I asked "Does the pilots?" They advised me before hand that by the time they got to the back, we'd have a 50-50 chance of meat or vegetarian. You guessed, the gluten free glop was atrocious, so they offered me burned thru the plastic 'chicken dinners' that they'd rejected. As did I.
Had our own protein bars and with acute bronchitis setting in, we just sucked it up and got er done in 14 straight, cramped hours. But AA was gawd awful.
I guess they all have team jets now, but NBA players used to log so much domestic airtime that they could test as legally drunk after getting off the plane.
