Asklemmy

For games, my suggestion is that you try a whole bunch of them; get Google Play Pass and, if you have a Netflix subscription, browse through the list of Neflix Games and try anything that looks remotely appealing. None of these are gambling or freemium - they have no way to make money from you except for your continued subscription - and there's something for pretty much every conceivable genre.

If you can give any guidance about the specific sorts of things you like from games (action, story, puzzles, building stuff) I'm sure people can recommend some specific titles.

Anything interesting like a museum in the area around the airport? I had an 8 hour layover once and I just left the airport and went to a nearby Air Force museum of some sort. It was nice to walk around instead of just sitting in the airport, and I got to see a B-24

Uhh, start drinking?

Get a notepad and pen and learn to draw

I would say get a hotel room, but it has uh, been 6 hours since you posted this so…

Do you like Roguelikes? Slay the Spire is really good and it's on Mobile.
It's a port from PC, so no microtransactions or garbage like that, one purchase and done.
There's also Mindustry. It's a mix between Tower Defense and Factory game. This one also has no MTX since it is a Open Source game. Free on Android, 2 Bucks on iOS.

Buy books? 20 hours man, I could burn through at least two.

Watch MentourPilot on Youtube since you are gonna be on a plane, it fits the theme.

First, watch this: https://youtu.be/ePDl1JNqjpM and learn how to land a plane in case of crew incapcitation. Now you can just daydream about becoming a hero that saves the day!

But um... safety tips... Make sure you count the rows to the nearest exit, if there's a crash landing in water, please do not inflate your life jacket until you left the plane.

Then, watch all those plane incident/accident videos (https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiNyr6QSO28P2bKMcv2O_lK83jsR0A9-W) on MentourPilot so you can be thinking about your demise, the meaning of life, etc... for the entire flight and not have time to be bored.

(But seriously tho, MentourPilot's series of incident/accidents videos is very entertaining and informative)

The best advice of keeping moving has already been suggested, but buy a real book, and maybe a crossword or other such like. Avoid technology.

Twist your thumbs

I wouldn't get wasted, if you're in your 30s that can give your worst headache ever. If the wifi is good enough, maybe start a series? Possibly something with short episodes, a well-selected anime will easily kill something like 10 hours. And if possible, try to get as much sleep as possible

There are very good mobile games without subscriptions, virtual coins, loot boxes and shit. Some examples on iOS:

• Sawblades
• Ollies Arcade
• Knotwords
• High Rise

If you’re an iPhone user and intrigued by mobile games, go subscribe to Apple Arcade for a month. There are a ton of fantastic games without the bs freemium shit. Monument Valley and Alto’s Adventure (and their respective alternative titles) are great starters. I’m also a big fan of Good Sudoku which will teach you techniques to get better at solving them.

I’m sure you can get a lot better recommendations on current Apple Arcade games from social media or hopefully here on lemmy.

No advice, but I sympathize. I once sat listening to music while waiting for my flight to board. When there was no activity and fewer passengers in the area than I expected, I discovered that while I had been waiting they changed the gate for my flight. I ended up waiting in Chicago Midway (this was before their big upgrades in the early 00s) for 12 hours. It was hell.

It may sound stupid, but try learning some card tricks or play solitaire with some playing cards?

Vampire survivors and random lore vids.

The Lahey link made me laugh way to hard, I've been sick as fuck the last 2 days and I'm laying on the couch watching trailer Park boys with a decent buzz so it's fitting.

The most addictive and a complete experience in your pocket kind of game is Crashlands. It's amazing if you're into games where you have to craft things to survive. Definitely recommend giving it a try.

If its your thing try kearning a language on Duolingo or something like that

Play some chess on chess.com

You could watch The Terminal 9 times back to back, and have just enough time left to be disappointed by some overpriced meal at the Wolfgang Puck.

It's a damn shame that you can't go to a pharmacy in the airport, tell this tale, and get some xanex to zonk out and time travel to your destination.

Have a 2 hour phone chat (with spouse?)

Buy a note book and write a diary to remind yourself of everything that has happened in the last year.

Unsure of your preferences with games, but Shattered Pixel Dungeon is free, offline, no ads, and the only purchases are for aesthetics to support the app. It's an 8-bit rogue like, and never the same game twice.