It’s a bit mind-boggling, the numbers around the Etihad Airlines nontstop flights from Abu Dhabi to Los Angeles, instituted on June 1 of this year.

They fly their Boeing 777 equipment 16.5 hours without touching ground. On “one tank of gas”, that is. And cover 8,390 miles –making it the third-longest commercial nonstop route in the world, according to this chart.

Now that we have bought tickets on one of those flights, to spend some time in Southern California during the holiday season, the notion of the time and distance in the air … is a bit terrifying.

Many of you have flown from California to Europe. Long flight, right? Something like 11 hours. Seems forever.

But California to east Asia, longer yet. California to Australia … even more miles.

And that much time often translates to misery, for those inside that metal tube for 10, 11, 12, 13 … 16.5 hours without stopping.

We considered changing planes in Istanbul or Paris. But adding a stop also added up to eight hours of travel time, time which comes right out of our vacation.

So, we will get on that Boeing 777 in a few months and stay on it … forever.

The 777 is lauded for its range and fuel-efficiency, but most airlines design it for a 3-4-3 seat configuration, which makes it an instrument of torture for the up-to-400 people in coach — which is where we will be sitting.

The seats are 17.5 inches wide. Get out a ruler and measure how much space that is. Not much, is it? But you will inhabit that 17.5-inch seat for 16.5 hours.

And the 3-4-3 configuration means every row has four horrible seats (people on both sides), four bad seats (the aisles, where people will wake you everytime they crawl over you for a bathroom break) and two unpleasant seats (the windows, where you have to climb over two people to reach the aisle.

So, least-comfortable jumbo in the world, and 16.5 hours inside it.

Progress!

All we can hope for is a lot of empty seats.

More on this, as we get closer.