[photoptimist]

Longest nonstop took 15.5 hours. It was a UA flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong on a 747 that had unfavorable head winds, an FAA edict that prevented filling the fuel tank in the tail, and they had to offload about 100 pax. It was nice that people had room to spread out a bit but the back of the plane was pretty bumpy due to the missing mass back there.

Back in WWII, the Australians had a 27-33 hour non-stop from western Australia to India(Ceylon) to get VIPs and mail between Oz and the rest of the Empire using a stripped-down PBY Catalina seaplane. They called it The Double Sunrise - Wikipedia because the crew saw two sunrises during the flight.

[Just1MoreDave]

I think it was 11 hours from Honolulu to Newark on Continental, the middle leg of a trip, before Continental merged with United, maybe 2004. I used to live on Kaua'i and visit parents in Connecticut once or twice a year. There was never any good route to get there. I think that trip ended up the shortest overall, maybe 14 hours total. I tried to keep it under 18 hours total. From here it's as short as 3 1/2 hours on a Southwest nonstop flight, not only shorter but also no risk of missing a connecting flight.

[swanlefitte]

My worst and very long but not the longest was Atlanta to Joberg. The last row next to the toilets in the middle seat with 2 very large people on both sides meaning I couldn't use either arm rest while smelling the toilets. I think we stopped to refuel on some island which added more than an hour.
The flight from Joberg back to Atlanta is 16 hours 55 minutes.

[monochrome]

St. Louis - London 8.5 hours. A cat nap by comparison to anything in the Southern Hemisphere. It was a Red-Eye equipment shuttle so there was room to fully lay down across multiple rows.

OTOH I was traveling with my two year old daughter who had just received permission to fly after a case of measles and Customs thought I had kidnapped her in some kind of marital dispute, but my wife was already in England for her sister’s wedding.

[Sandy Hancock]

Sydney to Buenos Aires in March 2011. I think it was the last of those flights QANTAS did - I returned via Santiago and Auckland.

To get to Seattle recently we flew Adelaide to Dubai, then Dubai to Seattle. Two fourteen hour flights - much longer but much less complicated than multiple transfers across the Pacific. The return trip was identical, and I went to work the following morning. Business class (and melatonin!) for the win

[MarkJerling]

I've done Sydney to Johannesburg quite a few times. 14h05 flight time. Also have done Wellington NZ to Cape Town but with stops in Sydney and Johannesburg which is minimum 25 hours.
Once, I did the return trip with only 3 days in Cape Town. That was a marathon session.

Auckland - Doha is 18 hours, but I've not flown on that. Auckland to London, with stops, is 25 hours if you go via Los Angeles and 26 hours via Singapore. No matter where you go, New Zealand is far from much of the rest of the world!

[PDL]

2003; Seattle to Los Angeles to Auckland => 15.33 hours LAX to ALK was delayed 4 hours.
Return trip; Christchurch to Auckland to LA to Seattle => 16.66 hours (in the air)
2003 total 31.99 so round it up to 32 hours as this does not take into account no baggage, customs, layovers or TSA.

2006; SeaTac to LA to Auckland to Christchurch 16.66 hours.
Return trip; Christchurch to Wellington to Auckland to LA to Seattle => 17.27 hours
Total 33.6 again, no baggage, customs, layovers or TSA.

Off Topic:
On the return flight in 2006 I was stopped and questioned about how I stored my 300mm lens (straight up in the bag) the LA based TSA guy (domestic security check) said in the future I should send it through X-Ray horizontally. Ironic that the last security check on the trip was the only one who said anything about it. Boggles the mind.

Back when I was a youth (going on 17) my family took a trip in a brand new car with a paper plate. We traveled with the paper plate through; Wyoming (the car was bought in Colorado but I do not remember if we had the paper plate from CO or from WY) Utah, Nevada, California, Arizona and New Mexico were all traversed without incident. However in Colorado we were pulled over about the paper plate a few miles short of the Wyoming border on highway 287. The trooper questioned my father for several minutes before warning him to get "real" plates on the car. Good thing I was not driving at the time. (I did drive down Donner Pass in a snowstorm though, California drivers leave a lot to be desired when driving in snow )

PS: We have been on other flights: Seattle to Munich via Iceland and Seattle to Gatwick but they were not in the double digits. We are going to Norway next year, so we will see how long a single flight will be on that little journey. Long term plans are to go to the Orkneys (Dark Origins Single Malt ) and maybe stop off in Ireland for a beer or two.

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Last edited by PDL; 10-20-2019 at 06:50 PM.

[aslyfox]

.. . . Long term plans are to go to the Orkneys (Dark Origins Single Malt ) and maybe stop off in Ireland for a beer or two.

sound like the trip will be worth it

[ChrisPlatt]

I get antsy on any flight over two hours!

Chris

[arnold]

I had enough flying when doing it for a living, and only do it when obligated. Lost count of the Auckland to Vancouver or Brisbane direct Vancouver, return flights done. None of these compare with the length of multi-stop trips. One I did from South Africa - Amsterdam diverted to Brussels due fog - Amsterdam (delays) then to Toronto and Vancouver.
33 hours from departure to arrival without sleep. Absolute torture.

[OldPentaxFan]

Non stop New York to Bangkok, 17 hours and a few minutes (after that long who counts minutes).


we flew east the outbound and return flights, so on that trip we circumnavigated this little oval ball we call home.

With intermediate stops the total travel time was about 27 hours each way (the return may have been a few hours longer with the layover in New York. I try to forget unpleasant experiences when possible.)

[aslyfox]

I get antsy on any flight over two hours!

Chris

my first air plane trip was in the winter of 1977 - 1978

from the US to Helsinki, Finland then quickly to St. Petersburg Soviet Union

in the Soviet Union, Riga [ Latvia ], Kiev [ Ukraine ] and Moscow [ Russia ]

from Moscow to Copenhagen, Denmark, had to stay the night because fog wouldn't allow flights out, then to US

I was a student at the University of Illinois ( Urbana/Champaign ) at the time

[DeadJohn]

That 19+ hour flight being tested is a combination of medical research and commercial aviation. They are evaluating pilot attentiveness, giving passengers special meals and using special lighting to try minimizing jet lag, etc.

I would rather spend 19 hours on one flight than taking multiple flights with stopovers in airports that just add to the total trip time.

[savoche]

Longest flight non-stop I've done was on a C-130E, Hickam AFB (Honolulu HI) to Little Rock AFB (Jacksonville AR) back in the mid-80s - 12.1 hours.

Aaah, but the quiet comfort of the C130 must have it quite a pleasant flight, I'm sure!

[swanlefitte]

I would rather spend 19 hours on one flight than taking multiple flights with stopovers in airports that just add to the total trip time.

Not me. My Trip to Palmerston NZ from Minneapolis was almost 2 days. Granted there were lay overs but it was the short lay overs that gave me sanity, barely. On the way back I took a day layover in Narita with outings to temples and the city. In LA I had 6 hours to go Into town and eat and hit a gym and shower. It was 3 days but so much better.
Edit on <4 hours the stop is not good. A 2 hour flight to Boston is worth the 50% higher price than a stop over in O'Hare. The risk of missing a connection or the risk of delay is not saving anything. Trapped for 9 hours and you spend more in airport food and drink than the flight cost.