FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Red Eyes: Love em, hate em, or just necessary?

Apr 26, 2017, 2:43 am

#59

pudgym29

Join Date: Jan 2006

Location: Chicago, IL., U.S.A.

Programs: Global Entry · WN, UA, AS, DL, NH; IHG, Wyndham, Hilton, Best Value Inn, Marriott, Starwood, Ramada

Posts: 508

It depends.

Quote:

Originally Posted by financialhippie

I think there's a trend here - it's not the red eye flight itself, but the lack of sleep that people hate. Most folks that can sleep on the plane don't mind them it seems.

I love redeyes. You end up getting more time to explore! Though I don't sleep well on planes, I'm usually running on adrenaline for the next day in a new place. I'm sure if I travelled for work (and had deadlines to meet the next day), it might be different. But for now, I love having the extra time wherever I'm going, and saving the hotel cost/points for the night.
Hey, before I got into Flyertalk, I used to roadtrip overnight to avoid traffic. Sleep like 9PM-12AM, get up and drive, be down in DC for breakfast! Sure, I'd get a little loopy by about 6PM the first day I was there, but nothing a quick nap can't fix. Reading a book on a 2 hour flight sure beats driving 8 hours!

Quote:

Originally Posted by sethweinstein

Love 'em. Good time savers; you save on the hotel and maximize the day, and sometimes you can have a good restaurant dinner and then fly.
I wish they existed in the other direction. Leave New York (or western Europe) at 2am, arrive on the west coast (or New York) around 5:30am.

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Aldeborgh

Asian flights from the US are definitely red-eye flights, on the return. Virtually all flights departing Asia involve an overnight and arrive morning or mid-day. I've done over 250 trips to Asia, so I speak from experience. Willpower is the key to surviving a red-eye. You push yourself through the next day and it takes a few days to fully recover from the time change. I don't pretend they are easy but simply a reality of life for me. BTW, my company only buys coach tickets so the only way I'm in business class is by scoring an upgrade.

I selected these three responses because each has an element to which I try to adhere.
I fall asleep on airplanes. There, it is OK. However, I must also inform you that I fall asleep sometimes on the route #77 Belmont bus (and miss my egress stop by miles). That is not OK. So I figure it is something in my chromosomes.

Yes, my flights from Chicago to Tokyo all involve red-eyes. The most notable one was in December 2011 when my route went ORD-LAX-HND. The LAX-HND segment was on NH. It left LAX at 00:10 and arrived HND at 05:40. That was a little too early. I had to waste time @ HND because I did not want to get into the havoc of AM rush in Tokyo | Yokohama. And, I couldn't check into my hostel until 15:00.

{The solution was getting to the hostel, which was in central Yokohama, at the time when people were checking out [10:00] and leaving my carry-on there while I took my satchel and headed back out.}
I've taken red-eyes. I will continue to take red-eyes. Especially if that's the least-expensive flight. As this thread shows, YMMV.

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