Without fail, a funny thing always happens to me a few hours into a flight: my knees start to hurt. Now, don't get me wrong, my knees normally function perfectly well: they bend like knees normally bend, they get me where I need to go, and I've never had any sort of operation on them or caused them any kind of injury. In all other situations in my life, my knees are about as good as knees can get. When I'm on the plane, though? They ache like nobody's business. Both of them.

My fiance has a similarly weird problem: when he gets on the plane, his feet start to itch. They itch and itch and itch, and he often can't fall asleep because they're itching so much. I have another friend whose lower back always aches when she's on a flight, another who gets bad leg cramps, and another who always gets the worst earaches in the air.

Are we all a bunch of freaks?

Well, probably not. My knee pain is likely due to the cramped quarters and not being able to adequately stretch my legs, and airplane-induced backache is common for many of the same reasons (check out tips for avoiding it here.) Leg cramps while you're airborne can often be explained by dehydration, and it's no secret that the changes in pressure when you're flying can lead to awful earaches (just think back to all those poor screaming babies on your last flight. Or wait, maybe you don't want to think back to them.)

As for my fiance's itchy feet, though? I just can't find an explanation, much as I Google the problem. I think he might be on his own for this one. Any ideas? Any plane pains of your own?