Bring a good book. Charge up your ipad or whatever, and see if you can get one of those external battery charges. Other than that, try and sleep?

  If yours is one straight flight, my advice is drop a couple of sleeping pills. My last flight to London was miserable, cramped, surrounded by smelly feet and the only escape was crap movies. Sucked. Nothing could be worse than my brother's visit to Australia though; he's got a criminal record and after flying all the way from London to Melbourne, they did nothing but stick a finger up his bum and send him straight back. That's like the worst, most expensive long distance hooker ever.

Depending on your destination.  My preferred route is to avoid BJ by all means.  I usually fly one of the Korean airlines, have a stop over in Seoul.  Free showers, refresh yourself prior to arrival.  Awesome free wifi.  Good luck.

Drank French red, Ipod and sleeeeep on my last trip to EU few days ago. I had some 'studies' on my puter, which made me sleep even better in my tiny economy isle seat.

Will do the same during my return to Beijing.

get an aisle seat so you are free to move around when you want - and do so regularly, especially if you are flying east to west.

you can also stretch your legs a bit more.

stay hydrated.

bring ear plugs

Stopovers, tablets, smartphones.

Go first class.  You won't want to get off the plane.

I am heading back home later this week.  Two hours to Beijing then 7 hours to Dubai and another 10 hours for the last leg.  What gets to me is not the flying, but the stopovers, and this time I have two very lengthy ones.  I try to walk around as much as possible and do things slooowly, there are lots of time to do it.  A nice book also helps.  On the plane I try to sleep as much as possible, using one of those blow up neck braces, but I also would watch a movie or two and play games.

On the last flight, it is time to relax and bother the stewardesses for a whisky or two.  Maybe three

I sleep, get a window seat so you have something to lean on. I don't hydrate, what crap, it only makes you want to pee and washrooms on a long flight get messy.

Alcohol and then sleep. 

Tablet with games and movies on it. And a spare charger thingy. I utterly hate flying. My previous flights were 50-60 hours, having lived the furthest away from China possible. All the layovers, etc. UGH!

Eh, I actually like the long flights now. It's making connecting flights in between that makes me want to shoot myself (I feel that I am either panicking and on the verge of missing the connection, or bored out of my mind on an hours-long one). I usually bring a book, watch about two in-flight movies, and sleep.

Important note: if you are sitting next to a rube, don't be afraid to be an ass about it. This is far more likely to happen on the flights from China to the US. I once spent an entire 13 hour flight in misery because I was too nice.

Sorrel--that's awful. I only take aisle or window seats now.

Mary--a rube is an uncouth person. I once spent an entire flight from Beijing to dc with a guy and his screaming 4 year old (brat screamed the whole way. She was not an infant anymore, so NO sympathy from me). He was picking his nose, spitting into the barf bag, eating the smelly spam meat that you can buy in China, and hoarding the trash on the middle table tray. Oh, yeah, and he took up half my seat space). That's a rube. If that guy sits next to you, raise holy hell...you will feel better about it after the flight.