What to Bring on a Long Flight

I'm not ashamed to admit my mama got me started on Wet Ones wet wiping down my entire seating area immediately after boarding the plane. She gave me one of these smaller 20-count packs and guilted me into doing it the first time with talk of kids' dried snot on the armrest and layers of unwashed hair grease on the headrest.

And I'm almost sorry to report, after what came off on one of those Wet Ones after the first time, I've used them every time since.

From the tray table to the armrests to the air vent control knob overhead, every single component on an airplane is dirty. Visible dirt dirty. Go ahead and try a wipe-down yourself. See what your Wet One looks like when you're done.

I like to have a water bottle with me on short and long flights for a few reasons. The main one is that my thirst does not always coincide with the beverage cart's presence, and from check-in to boarding to getting up to use the john I'm sick of doing everything on the airline's time. I fill my bottle outside the gate, and I drink when I want.

Or, for longer flights, I wait for the cart to come around and ask the flight attendant to fill my bottle with my beverage of choice (note: this has only worked for me with water and sodie, not vodka.) That way I don't have to choose between chugging my drink or keeping a wide open plastic cup of liquid sitting on my tray table as I doze off, just itching for turbulence or someone's ass to hit it.

Having your own water bottle also obviously allows you to have more water with you, increasing your chances of staying hydrated during the hours-long haul.

I like the Hydro Flask Wide Mouth Water Bottle in particular because it is a master at keeping liquids cold (or hot if you prefer.) An up-to-24-hour master on the cold end (and up to 6 on the hot.) So you can have the flight attendant throw some ice in there too. Or...or...you could buy a little somethin'-somethin' at the duty free and get some mixer from the magazine stand and some ice from the Starbucks, and do your own bathroom stall bartending pre-flight.

Hydro Flasks do come in 40-ounce sizes.

As character-building as breathing a couple hundred strangers' recycled exhales for half a day is, FitAir's portable air purifier gives you the option not to. And I will one hundred percent find room in my carry-on for the stack cylinders the next time I fly.

I know we all have germs and we all have bodily functions, but if we're all on the same plane we also all have somewhere to go, and who wants to get there all doused and infected with someone else's germs and bodily functions?

The FitAir was designed to cleanse 25 square feet of indoor or outdoor air around you of viruses, smoke, bacteria, allergens, and other harmful microbes. The cylinders come fitted with a medical grade H13 HEPA filter able to remove microbes as small as 0.3 microns, and stave off common allergens including pollen, mold, pet dander, dust mites, smoke, and pollution.

The purifier weighs just 5.6 ounces for packing and pulling out anywhere, plus comes with an armband you can split and attach the FitAir to to provide constant filtering while you're walking, cleaning the house, or otherwise on the move.

I used to stuff a wad of clothes I knew I'd need during my trip in my carry-on backpack so that I could use it as a footrest on the plane. But recently I discovered that if I put the overstuffed backpack on my open tray table, and top it with a wadded-up sweatshirt, it makes an even better sleeping wedge (unless its weight breaks the tray table, but luckily that's only happened twice so far), and I'm way more comfortable leaning forward to sleep than I am against the window or, worse, trying to balance against the 2-inch folded-out "wing" of my seat's headrest, and falling off onto the dude next to me.

Anyway, now that I use my backpack as a head bed, I need a new footrest. This hammock-style one with memory foam, which also recruits-and-hopefully-doesn't-break the tray table, is a serious contender.

Soft and cozy, the portable footrest weighs only 7 ounces, and rolls up to the size of just a little more than nothing. More importantly, it has an adjustable length of 17.7" to 23.5", both for people of various heights, and to accommodate 2 different leg-cradling positions: arches of feet down; or calves draped through.

To put this armrest extender and divider on my airplane seat the next time I fly somewhere do I need the person next to me's permission? I mean, it's not like the Knee Defender, aiding in my comfort at the expense of my neighbor's. These adjustable plastic wings benefit both of us.

Soarigami's Portable Armrest Extender and Divider attempts to settle the battle for the armrest by dividing an existing armrest in half, and then making it bigger on both sides. Slip the center over most armrests ranging from 1-1/2" to 2-3/4" wide, and fold out its side flaps. Flaps are tapered so the extended ledge won't gouge into your side.