Religious Travelers - How close to shabbat do you travel?

I'm wondering if other shomer shabbat FTers have personal hashkafa/policies on how late you allow yourselves to fly on Friday afternoons. Or any horror stories of getting stranded/close to getting stranded for shabbat?

While I'm fortunate enough I can usually avoid travelling Friday afternoons, this time it looks like I'll be cutting rather close with only 2hrs between my flight landing at LHR from Milan (6:55pm) and shabbat (9:00pm). Usually my real door-to-door transfer time is just over an hour as it takes me no more than 30min to zap through Heathrow (I have only carry-on and I use Iris) and I live only 15min from Paddington. On the other hands, odds against me is Heathrow congestion, and Italian (Alitalia of all airlines!) punctuality.

Fortunately, I'm travelling with another person, so can probably use him as a shabbat goy (well, for the lack of any more PC word). LOR also advised I should hire a car service as a back-up.

Any other things I need to consider? Staying over shabbat at LHR or Milan is not really a viable option...

Anything concerning Friday travel can turn into a nightmare.
Last year, with no other choice available, I booked Swiss from Chicago to TLV
connecting in Zurich
The flight was to leave ORD at 2 PM and arrive TLV at 9 AM (Shabbat was at 6 PM)
As you can assume we were parked on the tarmac for almost 3 hours, I of course missed the connection in Zurich, was placed standby on EL AL leaving 11 AM, after begging Swiss for a solution. They originally wanted to fly me via Budapest arriving TLV 11PM.
I got the last seat on the plane and that only after another Swiss passenger who was not religious volunteered to give up his seat for me and then fly via BUD
We landed at 4:45 PM, I ran thru the terminal, passport control, (have biometric card) by some miracle my suitcase was there, grabbed a cab and got home 10 minutes before Shabbat

Moral of the story- if you don't want ulcers, a nervous breakdown, or worse, never fly on Friday and if possible never fly out of ORD

Shabbat Shalom

I live one hour from the airport (in Waterbury CT).

During the summer, I try to book flights that land by 5PM if I have to travel on a Friday. After noon on Friday, any flight in the US can be subject ot delay.

In the winter I tend to take a red eye on Thursday night if I'm traveling from the West Coast.

Flying to Aaretz, I would have never scheduled a Friday arrival later than 5AM. Too much lachatz! And of course the terminal is jammed at that hour with arrivals. Good thing I can get into the Israelis line at customs - I can push people out of the way all I want there, and no one is surprised. :p

This depends, in large part, on where I'm heading. If I'm heading home,I'm more comfortable cutting it close, since I know there's always tuna in the cabinet and bread in the freezer (and wine in the cabinet and scotch in the bar...). If I'm going where someone else is making shabbos ["making shabbat" sounds wrong...], then I'm willing to cut it close too.

But if I'm heading to a hotel for the weekend or something similar, I try to allow lots of cushion.

I'm actually more comfortable heading to Israel for shabbat than to other places, because I know that as long as I make it to the hotel for the start of shabbat, I don't have to plan for meals etc. A couple of years ago, the only way we could make a trip to Israel work out was to take the late CO flight, arriving TLV 4:10pm Friday We were actually on time, and there were no delays at the airport, so we were in the Inbal by 530p with an hour+ to spare...we even made it to shul!

I have left Asia many times Friday morning and arrived a few hours before Shabbat. As long as the flight takes off on time I am not worried.

Depends where I'm flying to, on what carrier, whether I have checked bags (can't offload myself if I do, and the flight is delayed at the gate), time of year, alternative flight options etc etc etc.

I would always plan to arrive at the destination location at least four hours before Shabbos, and probably 6-8. Ideally on Friday morning.

Going to Singapore from here in London (in the summer) to be there on Monday is is a real pain 'cos I have to leave the previous Wednesday. Can't leave Sunday 'cos arrive in SIN early morning Monday (at best) / can't leave Saturday as Shabbos goes out too late / can't leave Friday 'cos flying on Shabbos / can't leave Thursday 'cos the BA flights arrive only 1-2 hours before Shabbos. Yes, I could take SQ on Thursday morning or late afternoon, but really prefer BA.

FF,

I know it's a bit of back-tracking but you can fly BA LHR-HKG Thurs morning, that gets you to HKG early pm. Spend shabbat in HKG, fly HKG-SIN on Sunday.

I always have similar issues with having to be in Taipei or Seoul or Tokyo for Monday morning client meetings, my default option is to spend shabbat in HKG. I have to do this even in winter as motzei-shabbat LHR-HKG doesn't connect to the last HKG-ICN/HKG-NRT on Sunday.

I know it's a bit of back-tracking but you can fly BA LHR-HKG Thurs morning, that gets you to HKG early pm. Spend shabbat in HKG, fly HKG-SIN on Sunday.

... and HKG is a good place to spend Shabbos as well!

FF,

I know it's a bit of back-tracking but you can fly BA LHR-HKG Thurs morning, that gets you to HKG early pm. Spend shabbat in HKG, fly HKG-SIN on Sunday.

I always have similar issues with having to be in Taipei or Seoul or Tokyo for Monday morning client meetings, my default option is to spend shabbat in HKG. I have to do this even in winter as motzei-shabbat LHR-HKG doesn't connect to the last HKG-ICN/HKG-NRT on Sunday.

Much prefer to spend Shabbos in Singapore, where the shul (a really lovely one) is about 3 mins walk from the Carlton Hotel and 6 mins from the Raffles. And the food is much better - assuming you like Iraqi / Indian / Singaporean specialities, which I definitely do. And Rav Abergel is one of my favourite people.

That's apart from the significant extra cost of going via HKG. I buy my Asia tickets ex TLV and TLV-LHR-HKG-LHR-TLV is about £3900 in F on BA, whereas TLV-LHR-SIN-LHR-TLV is about £2700. Plus I need to get a HKG-SIN return and ~8 hours of extra flying.

Mind you, I did do SIN-MEL-HKG-LHR last month to get extra SQ/BD and CX/BA points and miles - but that was at zero extra cost. The HKG-SIN return would be about $600 for a UA cheapo and much more than that for CX/SQ in J or F.

Hope that explains it all - yes, it is rather complicated....

I guess it depends where I'm travelling to. My usual trip are either MEL-SYD where there's flight almost every half hour, so i don't have to worry about cutting it too fine. My other usual trip is MEL-JFK, which means no matter which direction i'm travelling, I'm never going to cut it too fine.

goodo

Depends how far I have to go, where Im going, and what the weather and driving conditions are. I do hate coming in minutes before shabbos.