There and Back again.

Eight tips for Air Travel:

1. Travel on a Saturday night. Planes tend to be half empty on Saturday nights, as people normally travel either at the beginning or the end of the weekend (Friday night or Sunday night). Long haul flights especially, as normally a row of four can be claimed so that an adequate sleep can be had.

2. Sit under the "scoreboard" in the duty-free area so that you can see your boarding gate as soon as it comes.

3. Waiting until the announcement "Last call for flight number 401 to Florida Everglades" is a bad idea. The gate may be 1/2 km from where you hear it.

4. At the gate where the plane is boarded, wait until the last moment to go through to the plane. The seat is already allocated so there is no need to queue for it.

5. On long haul flights, if you are seated (see 1) stand up and walk around every two hours. This is to prevent blood clots in the legs.

6. After you have boarded the craft, stand up in your seat space, and lean on the backrest. There will be delay of at least 20 minutes before you need to sit down. On long haul flights, this is really helpful because you will be seated, more or less (see 5) for 10-16 hours.

7. On short business trips, take only hand luggage, as you can use the express check-in counter to waylay the queues at normal check-in.

8. At check-in, when they ask for your seat preference, insist on an "aisle" seat beacause of (1) and (5) above.

Suffice it to say, I have done all of the above at least ten times over! (numbers 4 and 6, at least 100 times!