This is precisely the sort of well-meant-but-O-so-very-misinformed advice that I've been getting for years, along with "chew gum" and "hold your nose, close your mouth, and push air through your ears". Yeah, like we never thought of that. Lemmetellyasumthin', this thing that I experience cannot be helped by such nonsense. That might work for someone who has a little "discomfort" in their ears, but as for me, I'll try and describe it to you as best I can: Imagine inserting two No.2 pencils into your ear canal (they don't have to be sharpened) pushing them in a little ways, and then shoving them down the shaft of your neck ... and then leaving them there for the entire time of the descent. Then after that, you can hardly hear anything for about 5 hours.

Remember this is about SEVERE EAR PAIN, not merely discomfort. Severe ear pain is the sort that causes grown men to cry ... I didn't do it out loud, but my wife looked at me and said "Never again. We're never flying again". She said this out of pity, not out of disgust, as she knows that I have a fairly high pain threshold. But this is just too much. It's all I can do (even with 4 Bloody Marys in me) to keep from passing out from the agony.