Surviving a long, budget flight

Long flights of more than a couple hours are no picnic. The space is tight. The air is stale. The restrooms are bad.

If you travel on a budget airline and you need to save every dollar, other considerations emerge. You may not get a meal or even a snack without paying extra. You may not be seated with your friend or family member (although I’ve found that airlines do try to seat members of a group together). You may not get earbuds, a pillow, a blanket, or any in-flight entertainment or trip information. It feels like you're being held captive, in the dark, with nothing to eat, drink or keep your sanity.

You already know, of course, that with a budget airline, it is cheaper to order amenities ahead of time if they are important to you, rather than at the last minute as you start boarding. But you don’t need most of these things, and if every dollar matters, here are some work-arounds:

• take snacks (purchased at the airport, after clearing security) in your personal item. Yes, airport snacks are expensive, but they’re less expensive than food on the plane. Bonus: you can eat whenever you want

• take a water bottle and fill it (after clearing security); hydration is critical to avoiding jet lag

• just before you leave, download a few movies or your favorite TV series onto your phone. It’s probably better than the in-flight entertainment anyhow

• update your phone’s playlist with some new songs you like, or download a new playlist so it’s all available offline

• download some new books (e-reader or audio) to brush up on basic language skills you might need, review your travel plans through guidebooks or escape from all of it with your favorite genre

• when you board, set the timer on your phone for the length of your flight; even in airplane mode, your phone can keep time, and it will help you track the flight so you can see how much progress you're making

The biggest factor to improve a flight like this is to adjust your attitude. Try to look at that eight- or nine-hour flight as a typical work day.

Instead of sitting behind a desk or shuffling between meetings, your “job” is to travel someplace exciting and get along with your colleagues. Instead of submitting a report by mid-morning, you'll travel 1,000 miles across the Atlantic. Instead of struggling through three boring meetings, you'll know you’re almost to Vienna.

Yay you!