For those of you that didn't get a chance to talk to me before I left, which is just about everyone I know, I wanted to let you know that I'll be gone for a couple months. To the utilities companies, “yeah, um…the check is probably in the mail.” To the rest of you, yes, you’re going to get some stupid trinket for Christmas. Get over it. I’ll try to get you something to match your house(s). A life-sized Golden Buddha looks great in every bathroom, right?

We started planning this trip almost immediately after taking off from Bangkok last May. Timelines moved, budgets increased, jobs were gained and lost (and in some cases turned-down). The original plan was to take six months to travel. A year seemed so irresponsible, don’t you think? I mean, really. In my case, that’s 2 companies that could have gone bankrupt.

In the end, Susanne was only able to get 6 weeks off work without getting fired, or something like that. For me? Well, you know, it’s a funny thing about that … [note : for those looking for an experienced Interactive Producer and Strategist, I’ll be available 9 February 2003. Offers in cash, trade, and other forms of barter will all be considered. Seriously.] Future postings will probably discuss my theory on CLM’s (Career Limiting Moves).

I will miss Christmas, my birthday, New Year's, a birth of a friend’s baby and Canadian Boxing Day. But I won’t miss the freezing cold, shopping mall traffic and snow shoveling. In all, I think I got the better end of the deal.

For those of you that have been keeping track of my flight miles in the past 12 months, it includes three trans-pacific flights. That's 6 full days of flying in the back of an airplane, or the front as was the case the last two times. The more you fly the further up front your seat gets. On this pace, I should be flying in the cockpit sometime early next year. Either way it doesn't make much of a difference where you sit on the airplane. The flight is still long, uncomfortable and eventually you're going to get sick.

Flying does have its perks. Strike that ... flying a lot comes with perks. The last trip we took to and from Bangkok we were able to upgrade our seats to World Business Class (50k miles for both ways). It's a lot of miles, but considering I was never able to book an actual ticket with them anyway, I figure they were kind of like Monopoly money (see rule-buster fares on nwa.com or NWA company handbook under "treat customers like crap when you have total control of their hub city").

I'll take two houses on Park Place and 3 decent meals on an ocean crossing flight, please.

This leads me to the first topic:

Surviving a 24-hour flight: tips and tricks to stay alive

Lesson One: Exit Row and Bulkhead Seats :

Airplane seating is a fierce and competive battle were you must fight the toughest fight of your life in order to get the ultimate seat. And getting the right seat can be the single deciding factor which makes it a successful trip. A bad seat can ruin the whole thing. It becomes especially important on trans-oceanic flights. Think about it from this perspective, you would never check into a hotel room for $1,400 a night and say, “Sure, the broom closet is just fine. So long as someone wakes me up every 20 minutes trying to get past me to go to the bathroom.”

Why we put up with this type of treatment on airplanes is beyond me. On the flip-side, you get what you pay for.

As a somewhat rookie traveler, a good friend and CEO of eBody.com taught me the glorious benefits of “exit row” seating. Here’s the secret: there’s a ton of room in those seats to stretch out. I’m not kidding. It’s like having your own dance floor sometimes. And, get this; all you have to do is ask to sit there. Granted, you have to arrive at the airport a week before your flight, or learn how to kiss-ass real good to the ticketing agents. Both of which I have been known to do.

The second-best option, and one that takes just a little bit of extra planning and a little more flight miles under your belt, is getting a bulkhead seat.

Bulkhead (def):

a. One of the upright partitions dividing a ship into compartments and serving to add structural rigidity and to prevent the spread of leakage or fire.
b. A partition or wall serving a similar purpose in a vehicle, such as an aircraft or spacecraft.

Let’s use (b) and not think about the “fire” element or why they put this divider between Business Class and Coach. Which, I think is actually quite obvious.
They’re the seats at the very front of the plane, behind business class. There is typically an extra 6-12 inches of leg space in front of these seats. The only down-side is that the airlines typically reserve these areas for people with children. This is where I sat on my flight to Tokyo. So too did a small teething child.

Getting the bulkhead seat can be as simple as logging in the night before your flight to use the seat-picker function on most national carrier’s websites. In the case of Northwest, they limit the first 20+ rows of seats to those with Worldperks Elite status. Bummer for Susanne “I’m in row 65 right behind the rear galley” Leighton.