Flying has turned into an endurance exercise. Seats have shrunk, cabin bags cost money, the air dries you out, and when you finally land there are still forty minutes of taxi queue ahead of you with two suitcases and exhausted children in tow.
The good news is that nearly all of it can be prepared for. This isn’t about paying for business class: it’s about small decisions, made before you leave the house, that separate arriving wrecked from arriving ready. We’ve put together the 14 that actually work, in the order the journey really happens — from packing to walking through the door at the other end. Including the stretch nobody writes about: how you get to the airport and how you get out of it.
Before you leave home
1. Pick your seat deliberately, not out of habit
“Aisle or window” is half a decision. What matters is what you plan to do on board. Sleeping? Window — you get a wall to lean on and nobody wakes you to get past. Long flight where you’ll be up and about? Aisle. Travelling with a toddler? Go for the front rows of the cabin: boarding and disembarking are quicker and the toilet is closer.
Avoid the back row (many seats don’t recline and it sits next to the lavatories) and the row immediately in front of an emergency exit, which usually doesn’t recline either. And if you pay for an exit row for the legroom, accept that everything has to go in the overhead locker for take-off and landing.
2. Build a “cabin kit” instead of hauling a full bag
The classic mistake is bringing a big rucksack and spending the flight with your feet wedged between it and the seat in front. Do the opposite: one small fabric pouch with what you’ll use during the flight, and everything else overhead.
In the pouch: headphones, charger or power bank, eye mask, earplugs, lip balm or hand cream, an empty bottle to refill after security, a snack and any medication. Nothing else. With that at your feet, you still have room to stretch out.
3. Dress in layers and wear shoes you can slip off
Cabin temperature swings and you don’t control it. Three thin layers beat one thick jumper: a T-shirt, a mid layer, and a light jacket that doubles as a pillow or blanket. Nothing tight at the waist.
For footwear, trainers you can loosen without fully unlacing. Feet swell in flight and tight boots turn uncomfortable by hour two. Pack thick socks if you plan to take your shoes off.
4. Start hydrating the day before
Cabin air is far drier than anything on the ground: relative humidity inside an aircraft sits around 10%, against the usual 30-40% at sea level. That’s where the dry mouth, irritated eyes and that hangover-without-the-drink feeling come from.
Drinking water on board helps, but boarding already hydrated helps more. Go easy on alcohol the night before, carry an empty bottle to refill past security and, on long flights, pack eye drops and hand cream.
Getting to the airport: the comfort nobody plans for
5. Book a door-to-door transfer and remove the first problem
Book a door-to-door transfer and remove the first problem
Every comfort guide starts at the departure gate. The trouble is that the stress starts long before: full car parks, a bus that doesn’t turn up, no taxi at six in the morning, or a thirty-minute queue on arrival with the whole family’s luggage.
A private transfer solves that leg with three things an improvised taxi can’t give you: an agreed pick-up time at your address, a fixed price known in advance, and a vehicle with boot space for everything you’re carrying. If you’re flying to or from Málaga, the driver also tracks your flight number: if you land late, the car waits — you don’t lose the booking or pay waiting time as an extra.
It’s worth it in three cases above all: early-morning flights, when public transport isn’t running yet; family trips, where the issue isn’t the price per head but child seats and luggage volume; and groups, where splitting across taxis costs more and leaves half the party waiting for the other half.
If you’ve never used one, we explain how it differs from a regular taxi in → What is a private transfer?.
At the airport
6. Arrive with real margin, not the minimum
The standard industry guidance is to check in around 2 hours before a flight within the Schengen area and around 3 hours for intercontinental flights. Always confirm the exact figure with your airline, since it varies by airport and season.
That margin isn’t red tape: it’s precisely the difference between walking through security and running through it. And whether you sit at the gate with a coffee or arrive sweating is, in practice, half the comfort of the flight.
7. Check in online and think about what you check
Checking in at home saves a queue and lets you pick your seat sooner. On luggage, the honest calculation: if your cabin bag is going to be heavy enough that you’ll be wrestling with it through the terminal and down the aisle, check it in. You get back in comfort what you pay in fees.
One small trick that works: mark your case with something visible. On the belt at Málaga in August there are fifty identical black suitcases and all of them take exactly as long to appear.
8. Eat beforehand, and eat light
Boarding a three-hour flight hungry is a bad idea, but boarding on a heavy meal is worse: cabin pressure encourages bloating and a large meal becomes uncomfortable in the air.
What works: something light in the terminal and, on board, fruit, nuts or a bar. Skip the last-minute coffee if you intend to sleep.
On board
9. Move every one to two hours
This isn’t a cosmetic suggestion. According to the World Health Organization’s WRIGHT project (2007), the risk of venous thromboembolism roughly doubles after travelling seated and immobile for four hours or more — by plane, train, coach or car — although the absolute risk remains low, at around 1 case in 6,000 travellers. The elevated risk persists for about four weeks afterwards.
What reduces it is simple: get up and walk the aisle every one to two hours, circle your ankles and do seated foot pumps, don’t cross your legs, and drink water. If you have risk factors — pregnancy, recent surgery, a history of thrombosis, oral contraceptives — speak to your doctor before flying; they may recommend compression stockings or other measures.
10. Use the neck pillow properly
Almost everyone puts it behind the neck, which is exactly where it isn’t needed — the headrest already supports that. Turn it around so the opening sits at the back and the thick part cradles your chin. That stops your head dropping forward, which is what wakes you every twenty minutes.
Memory-foam ones support better than inflatables; inflatables pack smaller. If you’d rather carry neither, a rolled-up hoodie wedged between shoulder and window works surprisingly well.
11. Block out light and noise
An eye mask and earplugs are the best value-per-hour-of-rest kit in existence. A contoured blackout mask doesn’t press on your eyelids and genuinely seals out light; silicone earplugs take the edge off the engine drone that keeps you half-awake without you realising it.
If you prefer noise-cancelling headphones, charge them before you leave and bring a twin-pin adapter if you’re going to use the seatback screen.
12. Set your watch to destination time at take-off
This is the single most effective anti-jet-lag move and it costs nothing. As soon as you sit down, switch your phone to destination time and start behaving accordingly: if it’s night there, try to sleep even if you’re not tired; if it’s daytime, stay awake even on a red-eye.
On landing, get into natural daylight as soon as you can if it’s daytime. It resets your body clock faster than any supplement.
13. Alcohol is the enemy of in-flight rest
The glass of wine from the trolley looks like a good idea and is precisely the opposite: it dehydrates you in an already dry environment and degrades sleep quality, so you sleep without resting. Same for coffee in the hours before you want to drop off.
If the goal is to land rested, water and herbal tea. If the goal is to settle nerves before a flight that makes you anxious, a mild infusion does the job better than alcohol and doesn’t leave you with altitude hangover.
On arrival
14. Have the last leg sorted before you take off
The lowest-patience moment of the entire trip is at the baggage belt: you’ve been sitting for hours, it’s late, and you still have forty kilometres to go. That is exactly the wrong moment to start negotiating with a taxi or deciphering bus timetables.
Booking the onward transfer before you fly turns that stretch into the only easy part of the day: you walk out, the driver is waiting with your name, the boot fits everything and the price is already agreed. On the Costa del Sol it makes a real difference, because many destinations — Nerja, Marbella, Frigiliana, Almuñécar — sit 40 to 80 minutes from the airport with no convenient direct connection.
You can check → all destinations and service areas to see whether yours is covered.
Checklist by flight length
| Short (<2 h) | Medium (2-5 h) | Long (>5 h) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Refillable water bottle | Advisable | Essential | Essential |
| Extra layer | Optional | Advisable | Essential |
| Eye mask and earplugs | No | Advisable | Essential |
| Neck pillow | No | Optional | Essential |
| Thick socks | No | Optional | Advisable |
| Your own snack | Optional | Advisable | Essential |
| Hand cream / eye drops | No | Optional | Advisable |
| Walking the aisle | N/A | Once | Every 1-2 h |
| Transfer booked | Advisable | Advisable | Essential |
Fly comfortably on the ground too
The most stressful part of the journey isn’t in the air: it’s the two hours before take-off and the forty minutes after landing. If you’re flying to or from Málaga airport, Telecabbie covers that stretch with private door-to-door transfers, fixed prices, flight-number tracking and Mercedes vehicles with complimentary drinks.
Book your transfer on → +34 652 132 159, via → WhatsApp or at → bookings@telecabbie.com.