Reg hack survives world's longest commercial flight

Sixteen hours aloft

But enough of the business spiel. What's the flight like?

The DFW-SYD leg leaves Texas at about 10pm. Dinner was served not long afterwards and sleep came easily. It's a night flight all the way, which helps, as did the fact I'd booked an exit row in the small economy cabin at the rear of the A380's top deck.

Partly due to the fatigue induced by a silly itinerary – which saw me fly Sydney-Miami-Sydney in 90 hours – I nodded off quickly and stayed asleep for about five hours.

After a couple of episodes of Breaking Bad I nodded off again before being woken for breakfast, two hours before touchdown.

I've never been one to moan about air travel, because it seems to me that complaining about being cramped in a small seat eating unlovely food is pretty churlish when you can cross an ocean or a continent in a day for a few weeks' pay.

It's only two centuries since we had to sail everywhere, with a high risk of death or disease, so a few hours in a nasty chair doesn't bother me. And I say that from a height of 190cm.

Even so, more than 16 hours in one hop is stretching the friendship. Even with extra legroom, good sleeps, noise-cancelling headphones, the light scarf I find keeps me warm in the sky and in-seat USB and laptop power, this was a very long, hungry and tedious haul.

It's also an oddly life-affirming thing to do, as after sixteen hours of airborne darkness my first glimpses of Australia's East coast in the early morning light somehow confirmed the transformative power of technology.

It's great to be alive at a time one can travel 13,000km on the bounce, in more-than-decent comfort.

Would I do it again? Better to ask if accounts can spring for an upgrade next time around. ®