Fear of flying...please help

[sweetie2980]

Ok first of all i dont know where to post this thread but im kinda stressed out here and needed to let it out my chest.

Im getting married to an American and the US embassy has set up my interview date to be on the 28th next month. Me and my fiance have already talked bout purchasing a ticket for my flight to LAX. My fiance has earned a miles through his frequent fly with Cathay Pacific and its enough to claim that frequent miles for my one way ticket to LAX from Hong Kong. However when we called the airline they said that no seat will be open for redemption till march. We couldnt wait that long as we both decided to fly me on Feb 4 a week after my interview.

So now we been searching for tickets online. Since both of us are financially tight my fiance decided to purchase Phillippine airline as it was the cheapest. I have never fly out for more than 20 years and even more on a long haul flight. I found out that phillipine airlines had history of 21 chrashes and its making me really scared. I wanted to go for Qantas airline but my fiance disagreed as it was expensive. I told him that he need not worry bout purchasing the ticket as i will ask for my parents help. But still wants me to go on phillipine airline.

Im driving myself nuts now and stressing out. Nervous bout my interview and my fear of flying so far away on a flight with a lots of history. Im not afraid of migrating..in fact im happy to be with my fiance. Its just i hate the feeling of being up on the air all by myself...

To anyone whose reading this do give me suggestion...what should i do to make myself more calm

[Plavt]

Just use google there are plenty of sites and plenty of pilots willing to give their time to allay people's fears. Here is one to start with, with a lot more than you asked for, run by former MAS captain Lim;

http://www.askcaptainlim.com/ (use search on opening page and type in 'fear of flying').

Note: Some airlines in certain countries run 'Fear of Flying courses' e.g Virgin and Airtours in the UK, but I am not aware of any in Asia doing the same.

[kiwi73]

is it the fear of being alone up in the air or the fear of the actual airlines safety record that worries you?

I tend to agree that Philippine Airlines doesn't have the best record in the industry, however as pointed out it is cheaper than the premium airlines such as SIA, Cathay, Emirates etc.

The other thing I don't like is the substandard entertainment system on Philippine Airlines. If your mind is racing and your on a ultra long haul flight then having a great entertainment system will help divert your worries.

There are many flight options to US from South East Asia, however if you are bound purely on price then I guess Philippine Airlines is going to be one of your fiance's primary choices, however if this was my fiance I would worry first and foremost about your comfort and well being before scrimping on price.

If you can pull together some extra cash then I would seriously look at perhaps a different option. You didn't mention which airports you were flying between so cannot give specific information but again there are plenty of options to choose from.

As for airline frequent flyer redemption options......aaargghhh don't get me started on that topic.

[Plavt]

is it the fear of being alone up in the air or the fear of the actual airlines safety record that worries you?

Fear of flying is rarely fear of flying but of crashing and dying which statistically for air travel is rare. Pilots who administer the courses mentioned in my previous post have found much is attributed to passenger's ignorance of how an aircraft works and air traffic control procedures. Media hype hasn't helped of course.

[ksl]

is it the fear of being alone up in the air or the fear of the actual airlines safety record that worries you?

Fear of flying is rarely fear of flying but of crashing and dying which statistically for air travel is rare. Pilots who administer the courses mentioned in my previous post have found much is attributed to passenger's ignorance of how an aircraft works and air traffic control procedures. Media hype hasn't helped of course.

Well I can confirm that we overshot the runway today, after the ATC gave clearance to land, while there was a plane on the runway! we was less than 50ft from the runway, when the abort action took place, and i can tell you, with that tonnage and the steep climb we entered into, it was a bloody scary feeling.

I've done air traffic control with choppers and not more than 5 in circuit at anyone time! It is a stressful job though pilots are very well trained for emergency procedures, an overshoot is a controlled action not an emergency, though the ATC was probably at fault for giving the clear to land, when it wasn't clear to land, an investigation into a narrow miss will take place and no doubt a sever reprimand for the ATC.

Though throwing around an airbus at 50ft and around 250km an hr, is quite a dramatic feeling even for the hardened aircrew, thank god for the pilots skills.

I would say the less you know about planes the better, my ears are tuned in for mechanical faults, and i hate flying these days because i know too much, so I ask the doctor to pop a pill to take the edge off, and a really dread budget flights.

My advice is pop the pill, I think it was called luxotan you only need one per trip it works a treat, even some pilots suffer from anxiety, when others are flying, I guess we are control freaks and don't like our lives in other peoples hands.

Though it is very rare that planes crash, when you consider how many flights are leaving each day. Air turbulence can be a big problem if you sit in the tail end of a plane, it takes all the shake through the mid section out, but take comfort in knowing that planes get tested in much higher turbulence conditions and can ride out a lot of violent storms.

Actually fears of all kinds are the result of an imbalance of chemicals in the brain, which cause neurotic behavior patterns, you can fight your fears and eventually they may subside, been there and done all that shit. Though I still hate getting into a lift like a bloody sardine, with a bunch of lunatics, you will see them react when the lift breaks down Avoid such silly over crowding of lifts, when you have been stuck in one for an hour, you will not want it to happen again!

[ev-disinfection]

Pop a pill, or start drinking at the airport, and continue drinking onboard,

get an aisle seat (so you don't look out of the windows) where the airplanes wings are at (Middle of the plane),

get a good MP3 player and lots of spare batteries or ear plugs,

buy a cover for your eyes and a good neck support thingee (Samonite has a good one),

stay awake for 12 hours or longer before the flight and sleep thru (Tell stewardess to cancel your meals or save it till later)

Get a vibrating pillow for your back to cancel out the turbulence.

You are safer on a plane than in your car and Phillipine airlines have problems with their domestic flights, cause they use old planes.....
For the International flights, their safety record is almost perfect.

[sweetie2980]

Hey thanks guys for the input...I would say fear of crashing and scattered in pieces is the thing i scared the most. It does not help too knowing that im putting my entire life in someone else hands.

As i mentioned earlier that me and my fiance were thinking of taking Cathay Pacific from Hong Kong to LAX and MAS from JB all the way to Hong Kong with layover at KLIA. However because we couldnt redeem the asia miles so the next plan was to take Phillipine airlines from Changi airport with layover at Manila on the same flight.

As im writing this, me and my fiance have discussed further bout this and i was thinking of getting my mother's help to buy a one way ticket to US. With that bit of help im thinking of getting on more reliable airlines such as SIA. Yeah its a bit pricey but i wanna have the comfort of at least having a peace of mind flying out so far on a good airline.

It hectic when there is so many things to deal with when you are migrating to the other side of the world..with alot of things to bring with you within a limited weight, medical to take (i hate injections) and most of all preparing for my interview and doing the best i can. At least with this airline taken care of my mind will be at ease.

Yeah..i have done some research through different websites such as air disaster.com, asia travel together with several airline websites..and you all have been a great help of course.

To ksl, i will definitely pop up that luxotan so that i dont have to busy worrying bout stupid things while on board. I bet the night before im flying i would be too excited to even sleep. To invest on so many things such as eye mask, neck support and vibrating pillow will run my saving dry as i have yet to buy alot of other things..one thing for sure i know that my butt gonna get swollen after that long hours flight that it might turned flat ha ha ha ha...

So does anyone have a good suggestion on which seat should i choose? according to ksl and ev-disinfection the tail and the middle are not a good choice..so is that means the front seats are the best options?

To Plavt thank you for the suggestion on the websites..for your info, im a tripadvisor member he he..i think the singaporean website you were mentioning probably would be either zuji.com or asiatravel. Mostly i search through asiatravel.

Lastly..thank guys for all the suggestions and advice given..i really do appreciate your help. If all of you have any more suggestions and advice dont hesitate..im hoping to see more views on this..cheers

Oh by the way...im thinking of purchasing the ticket by sometime next week. Probably SIA or Cathay..

[ev-disinfection]

"get an aisle seat (so you don't look out of the windows) where the airplanes wings are at (Middle of the plane),"


Get the seats where the plane's wings are, usually at the middle of the plane, those are the best seats and where the plane is most stable....

Good luck with your move,
California has more people from Asia and South America than local Americans... so you will feel at home with a slightly different weather...

Please post here in this thread once you reached there and have settled down, we all would want to hear your views on your new home...
Cheers

[sundaymorningstaple]

"get an aisle seat (so you don't look out of the windows) where the airplanes wings are at (Middle of the plane),"


Get the seats where the plane's wings are, usually at the middle of the plane, those are the best seats and where the plane is most stable....

I'm afraid I'd have to disagree with that. If you are flying 1st or Business you have no options but if you are flying cattle class, unless you really don't care, the last place I will sit is over the wings.

Have you ever noticed that all the "Premium" economy seating with more legroom is always in the section over the wings? Have you ever wondered why? These seats are usually the last to be taken. It's not because of no view due to the wings.

Statistically, if there is a plane crash, the tail section is the safest place to be generally. Especially if it's a crash landing as opposed to a uncontrolled dive type of crash. Why? Normally the tail section of an aircraft will break off (look at the photos of the plane that just overshot the runway earlier this week. See the fracture of the fuselage?

Anyway, guess where the fuel tanks on a plane are? in the wing section of the plane. Any explosion will start there. You odds are extremely low in surviving a crash that has fire if you are sitting over the wings. Not trying to alarm you but that's the facts.

[ev-disinfection]

Well, in a crash, anything can happen, but if you need a stable seat against turbulence, it would be the wings area for me.

[sundaymorningstaple]

What's really neat about sitting over the wings is in turbulence you can look out the window and see the wings flapping up and down like a duck! After a while you wonder what would happen if one of them decided to break off. Big birds of today aren't too bad, but back in the days of the DC-3 (Dakota or Goony Birds) they actually flapped their wings just to get off the runway! You always knew that metal fatigue was gonna happen when you were on the plane!

[Plavt]

Statistically, if there is a plane crash, the tail section is the safest place to be generally.

Only if you happen to be the black box itself, I doubt there is any statistics confirming your statement. Ev-disinfection is correct the wings are where there is least movement.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Yeah, but movement wont kill you. Fuel tanks exploding will. A bottle of scotch or a couple of Dramamines will take care of the movement. All the scotch in the world ain't gonna help you in a explosion. (Course with enough of it, you might not feel the blast).

I've already done a search and found the two conflicting reports (us vrs uk) so you will naturally stand on the uk one that says within 3 rows of an exit, but the majority of sites still seem to favour higher chances in the back of the bus.

[mondaymorningquarterback]

So your post is about fear of flying. Why the long explanation?

[Vaucluse]

As im writing this, me and my fiance have discussed further bout this and i was thinking of getting my mother's help to buy a one way ticket to US. .

I may be wrong but I don't think you can fly to the Us with a one-way ticket unless you are a citizen . . . could be wrong.


A good colleague and friend of mine back in Sydney was a real white-knuckle flyer . . . a bad thing considering he was in charge of SEAsia . . .

Whenever we flew together he would hold my hand and squeeze the shit out of it during landing and take-off . . . and just sit there like a zombie the rest of the time.

A funny sight having a 6'4 burly Yugoslav ex-AFL player and me holding hands . . . I'm sure it cost me some dates with flighties . . . despite repeated explanations and assurances of my heterosexuality.


Easy to say, but nothing will happen that will hurt you. Nothing, except maybe for the food . . . ad you can pre-book Asian vegetarian to get better stuff and be served first.

Pop some pills and ask to hold your neighbour's hand.