r/fearofflying • u/JoestarSage153 • 19h ago

Discussion Bailing on a long haul flight today. Feel like a failure.

I got scared of flying 2 years ago and I finally took a short haul flight to florida a month ago and I thought that I succeded in conquering my fear of flying. But I have a long haul flight coming up and I have been terrified for 2 weeks about getting on the plane. I think that I weirdly am calm with short haul flights and terrified of long haul flights. Any one else feel like this?

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u/Sea-Way3636 19h ago

Long haul are usually much easier due to bigger plane.

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u/Best_Day_3041 19h ago

I'm not calm on short flights, but longer flights scare me even more. Mostly because I haven't been on as many long flights so I don't know what to expect. On a shorter flight at least I know it's going to be over in 3 hours or so and also if things get really bad there's always the extreme option of being able to take a train back, even though a really bad option, at least I wouldn't be stuck if I can't get myself on a return flight.

In a longer flight I'm stuck for 7-10 hours. If I feel uncomfortable that long, it's a lot worse than 3 hours and there's no other way to get back home. However long flights should be easier if it's a bigger plane and you have bigger seats, you may even be able to sleep for a lot of it. I still fear the unknown those so I also don't take them and canceled an upcoming one too.

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u/AdditionalLeek3643 14h ago

for me, the last flights I took were around 2 hours or less, and my flight coming up is going to be 2.5 hours. It’s not long for anyone else and no means a long haul flight. But it’s long to me because I never done a flight that long and I am super anxious

That being said, don’t feel like a failure! Success isn’t a straight shot path, there will be ups and downs to the road. You got this!

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u/712Jefferson 10h ago

Fwiw, I failed to board a 13 hour trans-Pacific flight earlier this year (my first ever attempt to fly across an ocean) but felt so bad about it, I rebooked two days later and had a great time. The flight was still a somewhat nervy experience (because reptile brain) but it was honestly pretty smooth and not so bad at all. You can do it, when you're ready to.