21 thoughts on “Airline Travel Tips”

  1. The air that is pumped in isn’t pure oxygen either, it’s mixed with nitrogen, sometimes almost at 50%.

    The cabin air is 50% oxygen? No wonder they don’t want people smoking.

  2. She’s an idiot and quite serious and unfortunately somewhat influential. She browbeat Subway into changing an ingredient on preposterous pseudo scientific grounds.

    There are signs that her 15 minutes of fame are just about up. She tried to twist Starbucks’ arm (metaphorically, of course) with no results.

  3. Idiot or not, some of her advice is sound — that related to dehydration and DVT, in particular. I once did a marathon three round trips from California to DC in the space of 10 days (it’s a long story), and wound up so dehydrated that when I went to an ER doubled over in pain, the first thing they did after taking my blood pressure was order a massive IV. I was so dehydrated that my kidneys were in danger of shutting down. Fortunately, I bounced back. The DVT thing is very real, as well, and can be lethal.

      1. Which gives reason to the old adage that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

        I also had some minor heat stroke and dehydration issues a couple of times and what I did back then was get in the shade and then use a water soaked towel on my face and my chest. It wasn’t perfect but it more or less worked.

        1. I also had some minor heat stroke

          There’s no such thing as “minor” heat stroke. What you probably had was heat *exhaustion*.

          Heat stroke is completely different. It is a serious medical emergency in which your body’s cooling system shuts down completely.

          1. My body felt heavy, I did not sweat, I had increased heart rate and palpitations. Is that bad enough for you?

  4. That was pretty pathetic. I think I stopped reading on the 3rd paragraph or something. The cabin is pressurized so your are under pressure and it shrinks your organs? Man I need to move to mount Everest so I don’t get all this pressure at near sea level. Pathetic. The cabin is pressurized precisely so people can have a somewhat normal and more constant pressure. The humidity level being low is quite true. The A/C in airplanes is regulated for a low humidity level. Part of the reason or so I heard is to help prevent the propagation of germs in the air. Still some more recent airplanes have higher moisture in the air standard. If they do this with improved filters for the germs or whatever I don’t know. This is why I drink a lot of water and juice when I am in the airplane. As for the embolisms its just from being sitting still in a cramped place for too long with a bad lipid profile. It has nothing to do with the pressure.

    1. The humidity isn’t regulated.

      Everything that’s in the cabin is what went into the front of the engines.

      Air is bled off from the engine compressor, before fuel is added at the combustor, and sent to the Air Cycle Machines.

      High tem and pressure are changed into low pressure and low temp. Ambient humidity is typically lower at altitude, and the temp/pressure drop experienced in the ACM’s causes more water to condense out.

      That water is recovered and sprayed at the heat exchangers to make the ACM’s even more efficient.

      If anything, the humidity level in the cabin is higher than outside because over 50% of the air is filtered and recycled, ensuring passing microbes have a better chance at getting ya. That filter almost NEVER gets changed.

      Why the recycling? you kill your fuel economy when you steal air the engine worked hard to prepare for burning.

      Sincerely,
      A 15 year airline mechanic.

  5. “Additionally, the pressurized cabin reduces the humidity by 40% of what humans typically thrive at. The Sahara Desert has more humidity at ~25% than your airplane does at ~10%. Remember your body is made up of 50% water, if the humidity is reduced by 40%”

    I live in the high desert, I’ve seen humidity at 5%. *shrug* I just drink more water.

    Now this “4.Do not drink alcohol or caffeine on long flights” screw you lady, the only thing that makes flying tolerable is alcohol & since I live at 7000 feet it doesn’t hit me as hard as it does flatlanders.

  6. Did she take down the post? It redirects to her main page and a search for “airplane” or “airline” doesn’t bring up a numbered list of travel tips.

  7. 1. There is a charge for checked luggage, fuggetabout getting in on the Great Bag Rush to fit anything into the overhead bin, so you are basically going on the trip with that small plastic duffel bag that fits under the seat in front. As you are travelling to your destination and back with at most 2 changes of underwear, the airline industry has a name for this: ETOPS. It is an acronym for Expect The Older Passengers to Smell.

    2. Since you are putting something in the space your legs go, expect to sit bolt upright for the duration with your arms tucked in off the armrests with your feet flat to the floor. However long and miserable the trip, just think of our “boys” on the B-2 crews who had to fly from Little Rock, Arkansas, to Novi Sad, Autonomous Province of Vojvodina and back, 14 hours round trip.

    3. When everyone rushes to get off the plane, no one is going anywhere because it takes much time jockying that “air bridge” before they can even open the door. Just sit back and enjoy this part of the air travel experience.

    4. The Catholic Religion has a doctrine regarding the meaning of suffering in this life. If you are travelling halfway across the country on a CRJ, think of it as a Catholic Experience.

  8. Knowledge of what goes on in airliner cabins isn’t all that common. About 20 years ago, one of our current affairs TV programs here in Australia did a program segment called “bitumen Boeings”. Seems some of our freight companies had been charging Air freight rates for shipping packages between Brisbane – Sydney and Sydney – Melbourne overnight. Someone put the show’s producers on to us as we were making a digital recording pressure vs time device for sailplanes at the time. They shipped some in packages and we got nice vertical profiles of the highways between the cities and could tell when the drivers took a meal break. So they put one of their employees on a plane with one of the devices in her handbag and got a different result. Of course it showed a rapid climb to around 7000 feet and a descent at the other end. I got the question ” I thought planes flew higher than that?”. I pointed out that the cabins were pressurised.
    Would have made winner of some TV current affairs award except that that idiot shot 35 people at Port Arthur shortly afterwards.

  9. Upon inspection her entire website needs a good Fisking.
    I wonder if she’s buddies with Jenny McCarthy….. two peas in a pod.

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