Travel tips: leave the jeans in your bag

I've been traveling for a long time. I basically live in a perpetual state of travel these days and I am very happy that someone else gave me this idea and encouraged me to pursue a career of remote work long before everyone was doing this.

In the past several decades I have learned a lot about travel, mostly budget travel, that may prove useful for other people that are traveling. Some of these things may seem quite obvious but one thing that I will never forget is the one time that I traveled from a part of the world to a place where it was not so cool and because it was cold where I started the journey, I institutionally reached for my blue jeans to wear on the trip.

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While I have only had the displeasure of flying with them one time, Ryanair somewhat recently took on a "bully persona" as far as their social media is concerned, and even though I do not like that airline and would gladly pay double to not have to fly with them, I feel as though this was a good move on their part.

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The clip that Ryanair posted was a short video of one of their planes landing somewhere exotic with the caption of “It’s 2026, lets stop wearing jeans on flights….. please.”

This resulted in a relative firestorm of people clapping back at Ryanair and asking what is wrong with jeans? To which Ryanair responded with “what’s right with them?”
This was clearly designed to go viral for free advertising and it worked. I am quite certain that the company doesn’t give a damn at all what you wear on their flights but instead just chose a very popular type of clothing and somewhat attacked it in order to start a buzz. It worked and even though I absolutely hate this airline, I got to give credit where credit is due. Well done!

But on a serious side of things I have to say that even though Ryanair was being facetious when they wrote what they did, they are absolutely correct. Jeans are quite possibly the most uncomfortable thing you could choose to wear in an environment that is as cramped at a flight, especially a Ryanair flight.

My own experience was one of getting quite sweating in places that you don't want to get sweaty (on my body) and then getting really uncomfortable. I looked with a sense of admiration and jealousy as I saw the other people on the flight that were wearing loose fitting clothing and even sweatpants. These people had the right idea during this 7 hour flight, my idea was exceptionally stupid. When I landed in hot Mexico things got even worse for me once the powerful air con of the airplane cabin was no longer a factor for me. This was one of those flights where I hadn't yet learned to avoid checking bags and the bag collection area of Mexico City's international hub was deviously hot at that time. By the time my bag made its way to the carousel I made a beeline for the bathroom to get those damn jeans off of me as soon as possible. I was willing to wear literally anything else.

Looking back my decision to wear jeans was certainly not a fashion choice but over the years I have discovered that I can easily spot the people that do not fly on a regular basis because they are dressed up like they are going to the club and need to impress the other people on the plane. The veteran flyers on the other hand are wearing something that looks as though they were on their way to a teenage sleepover party. The people who are dressed in a way that would be borderline inappropriate in other situations are the smartest people on that plane.

These days when I go on a flight, especially a flight that I know is going to be a long-haul flight I wear the most comfortable things I own. I NEVER wear blue jeans anymore. Think about it ok? We have one of the most inflexible materials that clothes can be made of with the pockets that are the most inaccessible when sitting and this is what you are going to choose to wear in a cramped environment for hours on end?

Next time you are on a flight have a look around. I can all but guaranteed that the people that are wearing jeans do not fly very often, and they are going to be the least comfortable people on that flight too.

I suppose if you really want to be part of the living fashion show you could always wear the jeans to the airport and then change out of them in the bathroom. But for me I am not every trying to impress anyone while traveling, so I just leave them in the bag where they belong.