Korea - Redeye or Day Flight from US to Asia (ICN)?

Greetings--

Well, the title pretty much says it all but here are a few more details. My wife and I are looking to do a trip from RDU to China next spring and it looks like our transpacific flight will either be ORD-ICN on a redeye or JFK-ICN on a day flight. In either case it will be in business class on OZ.

With neither of us ever having been to Asia, my question is simply whether it is better to take a redeye or a day flight from the US to Asia. Both my wife and I tend to do OK on redeyes to Europe in terms of sleeping and adjusting to the time change upon arrival, but I'm interested to hear from experienced travellers on what to expect going westbound and whether a redeye or day flight is preferable.

Thank you in advance for any replies.

Done plenty of transpacs from the SE USA to NE and SE Asia, usually requiring at least 2 and sometimes 3 plane changes en route. I think it's less a matter of your departure time and more important on the arrival time in Asia. I have always been able to mostly dodge jet lag westbound, by landing at my destination in the evening between 9 pm to midnight local time, then getting a shower, and immediately to bed. Then getting up around 7-8 in the morning and on local time from then on. I don't sleep well on airplanes regardless of service class, so maybe others are different.

Eastbound transpac back to the Eastern USA is a totally different experience--I am jet lagged for days regardless of flight timing.

I would look for an evening arrival to your final destination. Try to stay awake as much as you can and then have a light meal, shower and sleep after arrival.
I am usually good the day after following these steps westbound to Asia. Eastbound Asia to US is the jet lag killer stretch.

That OZ ORD-ICN flight can be brutal if you don't sleep well on an airplane. It leaves ORD around 0100 and gets into ICN around 0530 local. So if you can't sleep on the plane and follow the "stay up until night when you arrive" method of adjusting to local time, you're going to be up for 40+ hours straight.

Agree with previous posters that arrival time in Asia is key. Evening arrival helps you reset your biological clock to the local time, since you will be tired no matter what time it is, its dark outside and far easier to go to sleep , and than be up and going on local time the next day.

I hate to disagree but I love the OZ night time departure from ORD. I sleep well on planes and generally fall asleep after about 2 hours of flight. The next day is a bit long and I fall asleep rather early, but I find that the jet lag doesn't stick around as long on this flight. That being said, if you can't sleep on the plane an evening arrival is probably a better bet.

I do the overnight JFK-ICN a few times/yr, and find that works better for me than the afternoon flt. I do better with the jet lag overall once Im there, and because the flt leaves around 1AM, I am able to sleep on the plane.

I realize this thread was supposed to be about us to asia, but wanted to comment on your potential return times as well. Just returned from PEK-ORD this morning. Thought it would be very difficult to adjust and sleep on a day flight. Flight left PEK at 8am and arrived at ORD before 6am. Actually made it into work on time in the morning and was able to work a full day, and am now catching up on FT. Dont give in to jet lag, and work to keep on local time.

Greetings--

Well, the title pretty much says it all but here are a few more details. My wife and I are looking to do a trip from RDU to China next spring and it looks like our transpacific flight will either be ORD-ICN on a redeye or JFK-ICN on a day flight. In either case it will be in business class on OZ.

With neither of us ever having been to Asia, my question is simply whether it is better to take a redeye or a day flight from the US to Asia. Both my wife and I tend to do OK on redeyes to Europe in terms of sleeping and adjusting to the time change upon arrival, but I'm interested to hear from experienced travellers on what to expect going westbound and whether a redeye or day flight is preferable.

Thank you in advance for any replies.

I like the flights that get in at night v. the ones that get in in the morning. Much easier.