LOTRHP

Hi All,
I'm traveling with my Mom and noticed that flights are either early morning or evening for NYC to London. And of course there's that pesky time difference which means if I travel in the NYC morning I lose a day and arrive in the late evening in London. Or I can travel in the NYC evening and arrive Early in London and be EXHAUSTED a whole day (probably won't sleep much on the plane). I'm having a hard time choosing and weighing those pros and cons.

Curious what you prefer when you travel and why? Would love some input on this.

J62

From NY, I prefer the am flight that gets into London later the same day. For me, the problem with the overnight is the flight is too short to get any real sleep, you arrive very early into London & are useless the whole day anyway. Just my 2c

Scarlett

We always fly at night/overnight. I like arriving in the morning, having a whole day ahead of me.
I hate flying overnight because I cannot sleep on an airplane!
We flew once in the am, arriving in the pm. You arrive and go to bed, but wake up there and more rested.
It is really a choice of what is more comfortable for you and if you want to pay for a night that is really all about getting to bed.
Flying in overnight, you stay up, have breakfast, walk and take an afternoon nap. You get through that day a little slower but then you are on the same schedule as everyone and the rest of your time there will be fine

tripgirl

I would opt for the day flight; no worries on getting yourself to sleep. You can stay up the entire time, read, plan for your trip and then get into a real bed and sleep.

It makes the next day and the rest of the trip much better.

I've done this both ways( day and night) and for a London trip, we always opt for the day flight.

Sometimes too, we'll opt for the day flight to London, get some sleep in a real bed, walk around London a bit the next day and then go back to airport to get to a final destination in Europe if we are not actually making London our final stop. We purchase a cheap fare ( easyjet) and go off to the final destination after some good rest in London and a chance to spend a few hours in one of my favorite cities.

Hope that helps!

travelatte

Although I usually fly overnight, I flew a day flight once and I did like that by the time we were settled in to the hotel it was night in London. We slept and had no jetlag at all.

On overnight flights I do sleep somewhat, but on day flights I find it hard to sleep very much at all, arriving quite tired and ready to sleep, so that's why the day flight worked well. We woke up refreshed and jetlag free.

rex

An earlier thread: http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34390978

An earlier thread, even more recently: http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34561190

Best wishes,

Rex

sunny16

Interesting question. I've only ever taken the redeye to Europe, but for my upcoming trip I'm taking a morning flight. We don't mind losing a day and, like J62 says, I'd be useless the entire first day there if I took the redeye anyway. My flight takes off at about 10:30am from JFK and lands at 9pm London time. If I can keep myself awake on the flight, I should have no problem getting to sleep when I get there. I'm looking forward to seeing how it works out.

gail

We just returned from London (Boston-LHR) from trip including my 14 year old daughter and 76 year old mother. We opted for day flight from Boston since I could not see arriving in London at 7 AM with my elderly mother - with no sleep, no access to hotel, and dragging our butts thru London for the day.

Day flight worked great - although there is the "lose a day" issue. We arrive at Heathrow at about 7:30 PM, got to hotel, grabbed a light dinner, and off to bed. Even though our internal clocks said it was about 6 PM, we had been up at 4:30 AM Boston time to catch flight - so we were tired.

Next morning up, no jet lag, and off to see the sights. I would do it this way again.