This was published 8 years ago
Fun things to do on a long flight: How to pass the time on a 19-hour flight
By Oliver Smith
Passenger shaming, it could help pass the time.Credit: iStock
With Qantas and Singapore Airlines both planning to launch record-breaking 19-hour flight routes, here are unusual ways to kill time at 35,000 feet.
1. Look for opportunities to Passenger Shame.
2. Convince the cabin crew to sanction a toilet paper race.
Be creative - usual game ideas will help make a long-haul flight feel not as long.Credit: iStock
3. Challenge your travelling partner to a paper aeroplane making contest. Persuade the pilot to judge it.
4. Or see who can do the best accent from each country you fly over.
5. Try to write down every US state in 20 minutes. Then every UK county.
6. Then have a crack at these geographical riddles: A) Name the six countries that begin and end in the same letter, excluding the letter "a", and B) Which country has every vowel?
7. An aeroplane drinking game? Consume two fingers every time there's turbulence; order tequilas if someone starts snoring (please drink responsibly).
8. Pretend you've got the same drinking problem as Ted Striker from Airplane!
9. Read the world's longest book: Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu,which totals 1,267,069 words. Or failing that, Tolstoy's War and Peace, which comes in at 561,093.
10. See if you can get an upgrade. Try complaining that you need more legroom or that you have a phobia of confined spaces. Failing that, see how close you can get to the first class cabin before a steward challenges you. Do it as a group, taking turns to try. Extra points for managing to sneak in.
11. Write a scathing review of your in-flight meal. It could go viral.
12. Watch a whole series of 24. Once you've removed the 15 minutes of ads, an entire series actually lasts around 17 hours. Perfect.
13. Organise a pub quiz with other people on board. Geeky aviation questions are a must. Or try these quizzes.
14. Get a willing stewardess to kick off a game of charades (Snakes on a Plane is mandatory).
15. Listen to the world's longest album - four times. That would be Cardiff outfit Quiet Marauder's 111-track, four-and-a-half-hour debut album.
16. Flying in business class? See how many yoga poses you can do on a flatbed.
17. Temple Run! Or one of the other most popular iOS games of all time.
18. Try to start a Mexican wave.
19. Listen to the Serial podcast. It will fill at least half the journey.
20. Live tweet a couple's mid-air row. You'll need in-flight Wi-Fi for this one.
21. Watch the most inappropriate film you can find. Qantas showed Flight, starring Denzil Washington as an alcoholic pilot, last year. What can you unearth? Flight features a dramatic opening scene in which a plane spirals out of control, flies upside down and then crash lands.
22. Try out your Knee Defender (but desist before it causes a scene)
23. Take turns to quote classic lines from Airplane! "Yes, I remember. I had lasagna".
24. Turn you air sickness bag into a piece of art.
25. Pretend you're on a seven-hour rail trip from Oslo to Bergen, courtesy of British Airways.
26. Make paper hats out of the in-flight magazine - and then launch your own catwalk fashion show down the aisle.
The Telegraph, London
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