Katherine4

Are flights from JFK to Heathrow almost always running behind schedule?

I have to decide whether to reserve a ticket on a flight that is supposed to land at Heathrow at 10:20 AM or reserve a ticket for a flight that is supposed to land at Heathrow at 9:20 AM. I would like to land at 10:20, so should I be taking the earlier flight if that's my goal?

Thanks!

Katherine4

I forgot to mention that I'd be flying British Airways.

Thanks!

WillTravel

You can take a look at sites like this one:
http://www.flightstats.com/

Given my history with Heathrow, I'd certainly take the earlier flight. And from what I've read, JFK is not exactly known for its sharp performance either.

Weadles

JFK is notorious for takeoff delays. It's impossible to predict on any given day whether you'll have no problem or a delay of between 1-3 hours, which was typical most of this past summer.

Heathrow is horrible, too, so if you need to be there at a certain time, you should give yourself at least a few hours-if not more- between connecting flights.

rkkwan

JFK had the worst delays in the country during the summer months of 2007, beating out EWR across the river. Lots of flights are <b>hours</b> late. If you absolutely need to be somewhere in London that day (or connecting to another flight), you really want to take the earliest flight possible.

Delays at JFK also pile on. Later in the day, longer the delayed duration.

111op

I agree with what everyone has said -- take the earlier flight if there's no room for error.

I use JFK regularly and delays are inevitable. Even the past weekend when the skies were clear there were delays. Both my outbound and inbound were late. But my outbound did arrive ontime (made up for delay enroute).

There was an article about flight delays in Wall St. Journal a few days ago. I think JFK was one of the worst -- worse than EWR, for sure. And I think JetBlue was one of the worst. They use JFK and I think the article said they try not to cancel flights.

nytraveler

Also- getting out of Heathrow early is faster. If you take a flight that lands at 6 am you'll get out a lot faster than if you get a flight landing at 9 or 0 - by which the whole airport if mobbed.

(When going to europe we usually try to find flights that leave the US at 5 or 6 pm - so we'er one of the first flights arriving in the am - fewer delays getting through immigration, picking up baggage etc.)

Gardyloo

Negative synergy.

JFK has late departures, especially later in the day, when the majority of Europe-bound flights are leaving. LHR has notorious late arrivals, but that's not the whole of the story.

In addition to circling London in the LHR &quot;stack&quot; for what can sometimes be an hour or more, the real rub is landing at LHR and then parking on the tarmac someplace waiting for taxi permission to a gate. Or even getting a gate (British Airways is notorious for this in particular.) The &quot;arrival&quot; times need to be amended to reflect actual disembarkation times, rather than wheels-down. This is crucial if you're connecting at LHR.

It's one of the reasons we really try to avoid trips to LHR (the fact that it's a slum only adds to the appeal.) If we <i>have</i> to go there, we really, really try to get on one of the morning departures from the US east coast or Chicago. That way you arrive at LHR in the evening, and seldom have a problem with a direct taxi to a gate and prompt disembarkation. Depending on the carrier (again, pretty much everybody except BA) you can move through immigration and customs rather easily. This approach works in you're not connecting, or can manage to wait for a morning departure to your next stop.

hetismij

Hopefully Terminal 5 opening exclusively for BA will speed things up once you are actually on the ground at LHR, but to be on the safe side get the earliest flight you can.

janisj

you say you want to arrive at 10:20. Why - because you have another plane to catch, or because someone else is arriving around the same time, or you want to get in after the morning commute, or some other reason.

Usually - unless I have an appointment or have to connect to another flight, my precise arrival time isn't so important

Katherine4

Thanks for all of your replies.

Janis, I want to arrive around 10:30 for personal comfort reasons, not because I have a tight schedule to keep. I want to get as much sleep on the plane as possible to be as rested as possible when I arrive in London. I figure that an extra hour of sleep could make the difference between feeling like crap all day or feeling sufficiently rested.

The idea of taking a much earlier flight from NY and arriving at Heathrow at 6:30AM to avoid the crowds is a great idea, but 6:30 AM London time is only just after midnight NY time. I don't think I'd be able to cope for the day with only a couple of hours of sleep.

Thanks for all of your responses!! You've given me some things to think about.

Gardyloo

<i>The idea of taking a much earlier flight from NY and arriving at Heathrow at 6:30AM to avoid the crowds is a great idea, but 6:30 AM London time is only just after midnight NY time. I don't think I'd be able to cope for the day with only a couple of hours of sleep.</i>

Which is why I <i>strongly</i> endorse the morning flights from JFK. Sleep in real beds both nights.

rkkwan

If you want as much sleep and as much rest, then take the very last flight. For BA, that's 10:30p - 10:25a+1. AA has an even later JFK-LHR 11:45p - 11:35a+1.

luv2cthings

<i>Which is why I strongly endorse the morning flights from JFK. Sleep in real beds both nights.</i>

Makes sense to me.

xyz123

The ATC problems at JFK seem to be taken into consideration in the scheduling...the east bound flight from JFK to LHR generally has a tail wind and flight times are around 6 hours from take off to arrival in the LHR area....most of the schedules are for 7 hours of flying...(note you arrive &quot;12 hours later&quot; but the time difference between NY and London is 5 hours...hence the schedules are based on 7 hours of flight time which means an extra hour either getting out of JFK or circling LHR is built into all schedules...in that sense, much of the time, the flights arrive &quot;on time&quot; and even a bit early if ATC is not too bad either around NY or London....of course weather can foul this up completely too.

If you want to arrive around 1020 then by all means take the flight with that listed as the arrival time...

Actually most of the trans Atlantic flights arrive in the AM and I have found the shortest queues at immigration are on the very last flights out of JFK arriving LHR 1100 or later...earlier flights have long queues at immigration..

Possible good reasons to arrive a bit later...

1. Greater chance your hotel room will be ready

2. On a weekday, you want the first trip on the tube to be after 0930 to avoid peak hour very heavy fees on capping on oyster cards...

As far as the day flights, on paper they are very very good everything else being equal....if they are late, you can miss the last tube trains out of Heathrow which might make it more difficult to get to your hotel...also the way I see it, and I can be very cheap, if I do that, my arrival in London at night means there is time for a late dinner maybe (London IMHO in general is not as late night a city as is Paris, Madrid or Rome) so for the large cost of a hotel room, it is a wasted day...I know the next day you're refreshed and ready to go but I wonder how much that is worth...elverybody is different in that regard.....

travelgourmet

&quot;Which is why I strongly endorse the morning flights from JFK. Sleep in real beds both nights.&quot;

I'm with you on this one. Even coach is tolerable if you don't also lose a night of sleep.

rogeruktm

What am I missing here? Are you talking about a 1 hour difference? Also, the flights take the same amount of time allowing for the same number of hours to sleep. What am I not understanding?

travelgourmet

Are you asking about the morning flights? If so, you are not losing sleep because you leave the US at 8 am and land in London in the late evening. You get off the plane, grab a late dinner and go to bed. So, you sleep in a bed, not the plane. BA, AA, and Virgin all offer morning flights from New York. AA also offers one from Boston.

Katherine4

Yeah, it's an hour difference, the difference between arriving at 5AM or 6AM. I'm not usually asleep by 9PM, so the later departure/arrival would give me that much more sleep on the plane. Get it?

Travelgourmet, I'm talking about arriving in the morning.

Thanks, again!

Katherine4

I should clarify that it's the difference between arriving at 5 or 6 New York time.