Originally Posted by
StartinSanDiego
Being West Coast based, I feel similarly about stopping on the East Coast prior to a Europe trip. Our ideal is a non-stop, of course, but if we do have a stop, I try to pick one that is an hour or two away from either departure or destination, so the bulk of the flight is on one plane, in one seat. My worst schedule is say, a 4 hour flight to Chicago or New York, then to my European destination. I much prefer one long leg and one short leg, to two that are approximately equal in length. For a flight like that, or a non-stop, I would consider an economy flight over a business class flight, especially if the layover is long.
Originally Posted by
jrl767
when we lived in the DC area we made two TATL trips (IAD-LHR daytime, onward to CDG late the following morning; BWI-EWR-BRU overnight, ~0700 arrival), neither of which were particularly great in terms of either choreography or getting thru the ultimate arrival day
since moving back to SEA we’ve managed to schedule our TATLs as either nonstops or connections over LAX, with only one early morning arrival (SEA-CDG ~0830); returns have been a mixed bag (connections at SLC, JFK, IAD, and CLT as well as nonstops)
I’m not sure Mrs767 would be altogether thrilled about J on Icelandic again; Premium Economy on Condor was far from a memorable experience, but I could probably cope with it if traveling solo
The worst to me when living in SEA was to fly SEA-East Coast-Europe. It meant an early wake-up call to catch a flight that arrived on the East Coast in time for the evening TATL flight. I did this once - SEA-SLC-BOS-AMS-BIO. I was scheduled to do it twice, having at one point had SEA-JFK-LHR-VIE booked because that was all that was available while also getting the 747 with AA miles on BA but then a couple weeks before departure, AA/BA opened the award space on SEA-LHR and we were able to do SEA-LHR on the BA 747 departing SEA in the mid-afternoon and then connect onward on the same flight to VIE but didn't have to get up before the crack of dawn for it (or deal with terminal transfers at JFK).
For the TATL flights I've done recently (or even redeye returns from Hawaii), I've found a like as late of departure as possible so that I am having to push through as little of the day as possible on arrival until I can hit an hour where I know I'll sleep through the night. Unfortunately that's more difficult to do with Hawaii since most of the Hawaii - Midwest/East Coast flights leave in the late afternoon and it's only the redeyes to the West Coast & Mountain states that leave in the evening to late evening. If I'm going to do the West Coast stop, I actually prefer to take a daytime flight to the West Coast, overnight in a hotel and sleep in a real bed, then fly onward the next day but this isn't always practical so we're usually stuck with the redeye in some form.