You know you are flying a bit too much when you start recognising the passport control officers at your local airport — and that is exactly the stage I am at.

With family scattered across three countries plus the occasional “why not?” holiday, I average around 20 flights a year. Most of them last eight hours or more. Exhausting? Absolutely. But at this point, I am practically domesticated by long-hauls and have nothing left to fear — especially after that 17-hour flight from Tokyo to Amsterdam.

These marathons leave you drained, puffy, disoriented, and questioning your life choices, but over time, I have figured out how to get through them with minimal emotional and physical damage. So, in the spirit of saving someone else from my past mistakes, here is what actually helps me survive a long flight without falling apart.

Airport and in-flight food are a dangerous territory — especially if you have food intolerances and many hours ahead of you. One small misstep and you are stuck dealing with the consequences at 35,000 feet.

I can’t handle dairy, so the moment I book my ticket, I also request a special meal. The catch is that most dairy-free options are vegan, which turns the whole thing into culinary Russian roulette. I have had brilliant vegan meals and some spectacular disappointments — both on the same airline, on the same route.

So here is the golden rule: always pack reliable snacks — anything you know won’t betray you. Even if your special meal arrives, there is no guarantee it will be edible.

I also avoid eating at the airport restaurants unless I know the chain and its ingredients. Let’s just say several tragic “no no, trust me, it’s dairy-free” encounters taught me better.

Next up: packing.

Especially if you are travelling with connections, your carry-on bag should be a shrine to must-haves only. Anything you don’t desperately need goes into your checked luggage.

A lighter, well-organised cabin bag means less chaos during transfers and fewer moments of frantically emptying the entire thing onto an airport bench in search of your passport.

Call me a grandma, but I travel with a small pharmacy that covers everything from allergies to sore throats to potential food poisoning. And I always keep a micro version of it on board — just a couple of pills of each. That is what entering your 30s does to you: you start anticipating disaster like a responsible adult.

Add tissues, wet wipes and sanitiser, and you are essentially unstoppable.

Speaking of staying sane: comfort.

Long flights have a way of exposing every mistake you have ever made, including wearing tight jeans at altitude. Your body will bloat — it is a fact of life — and pairing that with restricting clothes is a fast track to misery.

Stick to loose, comfortable clothing and layer up to match unpredictable cabin temperatures. Think ahead:

A friend of mine who has been a flight attendant for 30 years swears by one simple rule: keep moving and wear compression tights. I trust her advice.

Cabin air is as dry as the Sahara in mid-summer. You will feel it in your skin, eyes, nose — everywhere.

Luckily, there is no need to suffer — just moisturise.

I always pack a hyaluronic sheet mask, hand cream, lip balm, and, if I am feeling extra, eye patches. But the true heroes are hydrating eye drops and a moisturising nasal spray (I love the lemon-oil ones). And don’t forget to drink water!

12 hours trapped in a tin tube can feel like a mild psychological experiment — at some point, even the most cinematic in-flight entertainment suddenly looks unbearably dull.

I am not always in the mood for a film marathon or an obsessive attempt to beat my 2048 high score, so I try to use the time (brace yourselves) productively — reading something I have been putting off or tackling a task I have procrastinated on, like editing a 25-page interview.

Is it the healthiest approach to work-life balance while heading to a holiday? Probably not. But it works for me.

And because I am always curious how others handle this airborne chaos, I asked a colleague who had just returned from her honeymoon in Peru after a marathon of connections — how she managed to survive such a journey.

Barbara Yakimchuk, Editor at the Sandy Times:

My last long-haul trip was to Peru a couple of weeks ago, and the journey was intense: taxi to Abu Dhabi, then flights to Istanbul, Panama, Lima and finally Cusco — and on the way back, a straight 26-hour route from Cusco to Abu Dhabi. A few things helped me survive it.

First, try to book all legs with the same airline. This saves you when delays happen — they rebook you, feed you, and generally take care of everything if you miss a connection.

Second, if you are considering a business-class upgrade, don’t wait until the airport. Contact the airline a few days before the flight (and before online check-in opens). Upgrades are much cheaper this way — for us it would have been $1,000 per person for a 12h 45m Panama–Istanbul leg with a full lie-flat bed. We were too late and missed it, but it is worth trying.

Because we couldn’t upgrade, we used another trick: ask politely to be seated without a third person in your row. If the plane isn’t fully packed, they often help. We got two-person rows on all flights, even though the aircraft was around 80% full.

I also always buy Wi-Fi on flights longer than five hours. It is usually €15–20 for the entire flight, and it lets you stay connected or clear work tasks so you don’t land overwhelmed.

As for comfort: no pillow or gadget works as well for me as simply getting up and walking around. Compression socks also help on long journeys (I forgot mine this time and really regretted it).