I will be taking my first overseas trip this September (to London for my honeymoon) and I don't tend to nap very well. I'm conflicted about whether we should take the flight that leaves early in the morning so we'll arrive at night, check in late at the hotel and I can head straight to bed or whether it's better to take the 6 pm flight that gets us in at 7 the next morning. Are economy seats on transatlantic flights that uncomfortable that my sleep will be very compromised? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I assume you're on the E. Coast with non-stop service to London. [Because otherwise, a day flight means very early connection from your city or overnight in New York.]

Now, the problem for the night flight from the E. Coast to London isn't so much about the seat; but that it's too short. You get on, wait an hour or so until dinner service is finished, and you only have about 3.5 hours to nap before they wake you up for breakfast - and then you have a whole day in London.

If time is not a real constraint, take the day flight.

I always fly Seattle/London on the British Air overnight flight. I am never am able to sleep on the plane. I still prefer this to a day flight which involved a transfer somewhere in the U.S.

It's brutal either way for me. But different people have different reactions to jet lag and time changes. For some folks it's less of a big deal.

You may not be keen on the idea but have you thought about taking something to mak you sleep? I like taking an early evening flight and after dinner taking a 5mg Ambien. It'll let me sleep for 4 hours then I'm magically awake with no ill effects. When we land the next morning I'm ready to go for a full day.

We love the day flight. We go to bed at a
normal hour (their time) and the next day we get up feeling human and ready to go.

When we take the night flight we consider the day of our arrival as a total loss as we are so wiped out from lack of sleep.

Even if you are a great airplane sleeper,
the most you will be able to get is 4 hours or so as they keep you awake serving dinner, and get you up very early (only about 3 hours later) serving breakfast.

Unless you can function well on three or four hours of sleep, it will be really hard to get through the first day.In addition,unless you take a night flight that arrives close to mid-day, your hotel room probably won't be ready when you get there, and you will have to keep youselves amused wandering around in your dysfunctional state

Clearly most people like the overnight option because you get a "free" day out of it. Thr traveller can leave work and go straight to the airport and be in Europe the next morning. In most aspects of life we leave pulling all nighters behind in university but with travel most of us can function on little or no sleep for a night. If you can get into your hotel on arrival a nap for a couple hours can be good. I am in the minority group who take the day flight from Toronto to London. I hate overnight flights because I cannot sleep in a chair and spend the night fretting because I am not sleeping. The day flight is much more civilized for me.

I find it really easy to nap on a airplane (or almost anywhere else!), so my comments may not help you.

I have traveled to London (from Boston) numerous times, always on overnight flights. As someone referenced above, there is the feeling of getting a full extra day that way.

We have done really well with a nap on the plane, arrival in London (sort through Customs, baggage claim, etc.), short trip to hotel. Drop off luggage (usually can't check in yet) - walk around/kill time for a few hours, return a little after lunch. Take a nap for 1-2 hours, and we're "good to go" for the rest of the evening. At that point, we've reset our body clocks and can function extremely well for the rest of the trip.

However, for a trip this summer (with my Mom and two friends), we've booked the daytime flight. Friday evening was hard for us to get good flights, and we really liked the idea of arriving around bedtime (counting, again, Customs, baggage claim, the trip to our apartment, settling in, etc.).

This sounds ideal to me (the daytime option), but I haven't actually done it yet.

If it were my honeymoon, though, I think I'd opt for the daytime flight and not rush to the airport in the evening, and then go through the whole first-day thing trying to cope with the changing time/jetlag/et at.

Let us know what you decide - and write back after your trip and tell us how the flight worked!

Happy Wedding! (and marriage!)

Gayle