49ers got a 16-hour flight to Australia. Here's how my journey compared

Before their season opener across the globe on Thursday, the San Francisco 49ers flew to Melbourne, Australia, a week before kickoff. The team departed San Francisco late Wednesday night and arrived in Australia early Friday morning (local time) in an effort to adjust their body clocks well ahead of game day.

While the 17-hour time difference between California and Melbourne after a 16-hour flight sounds daunting, was the experience actually that bad? Here's what we learned, and here's how my travel experience compared to that of the 49ers.

The 49ers were chartered on a nonstop, 16-hour United Airlines flight from San Francisco International Airport to Melbourne. Players, coaches and executives were treated to luxury lay-flat seats where they could stretch their legs, rest their heads on a pillow and enjoy a semi-legitimate sleeping experience.

That sounds nice. Although maybe not nice enough to meet the standards of certain players. Offensive tackle Trent Williams said Wednesday morning in Santa Clara, hours ahead of the 49ers' flight, that the standard lay-flat seats for players on road trips are not that comfortable for anyone over 6-foot-1.

"Hopefully we get something a little bit bigger than that," Williams said, "or it's gonna be torture."

It appears some 49ers got adequate rest. In an interview with local Australian TV station 10 Sport, offensive lineman Enrique Cruz Jr. (6-foot-5, 313 pounds) and defensive tackle Gracen Halton (6-foot-3, 293 pounds) said they slept 11 hours and "the whole time," respectively.

Kicker Eddy Piñeiro , on the other hand, said on the Australian Football League broadcast that he remained "a little jet-lagged" Friday night after sleeping just a couple hours on the flight.

I dare Williams - or any other Niner, for that matter - to attempt my flying experience. I flew economy on Air New Zealand with a layover in Auckland. On my first flight - a 12-hour trip from SFO to Auckland before another four-hour flight to Melbourne - I slept four hours. I couldn't recline my seat more than two inches. The $15 memory foam neck pillow I bought in the international terminal's convenience store offered some pillow-like characteristics, but my head remained upright the whole night.

The saving grace was that the middle seat in my row remained vacant. My aisle seat suddenly had a decent amount of legroom, and I used it to my advantage, stretching my legs into the open space under the middle seat. The window seat passenger in my row smartly pushed down the armrest and used most of the middle seat as her personal foot rest.

On the first flight, we received two hot meals: one "dinner" early in-flight and one "breakfast" as our 6 a.m. Auckland arrival approached. In case I hadn't eaten enough breakfast, I got another one on my second flight to Melbourne, since that one took off around 9 a.m. local time.

After landing Friday morning, our next big challenge was beating the jet lag. The 49ers seemed to do it better than I did. The team had a training session and a few welcome events the afternoon of their first day (Friday). At night, San Francisco players attended an Australian Football League match between the Geelong Cats and Carlton Football Club at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the 100,000-capacity stadium in which next week's game between the 49ers and Rams will be played.

Good on them for putting in a full day's work in the new time zone. After checking into my hotel and exploring the Southbank Riverwalk in downtown Melbourne in the late afternoon, I passed out at 8 p.m., not long after sunset.

Safe to say - as I write this story wide awake at 5 a.m. Saturday in Melbourne - jet lag is no joke. Although it was a challenging travel experience, one thing is certain: The 49ers will be well-adjusted by game time.

The Los Angeles Rams , on the other hand? They're expected to arrive about 24 hours before kickoff. Best of luck to them.