Stupid question - we are looking at booking a flight from Seattle to Charlotte, NC. How do I figure out how long the flight is? Not the time it leaves & arrives, I want to know how many hours & minutes the flight lasts. The website (USAirways) says from SEA to CLT it is 4 hrs, 53 minutes. Coming back it is 5 hrs, 29 min. I know there is a 3 hr difference between Seattle & NC.

Thanks for helping this math challenged traveler,
Serendipity42

I believe 4 hours and 53 minutes is about how long the flight is. I flew from Philly to Seattle and it took about that long. It does take longer flying back because of flying against the jet stream (or something like that).

Actual flight time SEA to CLT is about 4:30, sometimes a little less, sometimes a little more.

CLT to SEA is about 5:10, again sometimes longer sometimes less.

Don't worry. Plenty of time for a delicious in-flight meal!

The flight "time" is what is listed. you can also look at the departure time and arrival, and calculate, assuming it is non-stop. Coming east, it is a bit quicker because of tail winds. You may even arrive sooner than that time.

Thanks everyone, this helps. The difference in time is what confused me. Can you tell I don't fly often?

Serendipity42

The time that an airline publishes is scheduled time from door closed at the departure gate to door open at the arrival gate.

That includes flight time, taxi time, lining up behind 20 other planes for take off time, flying around bad weather time, making circles in the air waiting for air traffic control to allow landing time, and so on...

Which is why that time is padded, in order to give you a more realistic time of arrival. Based on what I find on flightaware.com for actual flight time, USAirways put about 25-30 minutes more in the scheduled time than the typical in-the-air time, which itself can vary by 20 or more minutes due to weather and air traffic control issues.

And, yes, it's faster going east because of prevailing wind. Which explains the difference. Also, in some cases, time of day makes a difference in how much time an airline add in to pad the schedule, due to delays. But I see that the two USAirways flight only differ by 3-4 minutes in the schedule.

Another reason is how fast a plane flies. Not all planes have the same cruising speed. On a longhaul international flight, an Airbus can take 20-30 minutes longer than a 747 on a 14-hour route.