lwildernorva

I'm on this flight from Boston to Dublin in late May. Historical flight data for April shows the flight generally no worse than on time with some arrivals about 30 minutes ahead of schedule. At that time of the morning, how long should it take to clear immigration/border control and collect luggage? I see there is a flight from New Delhi that is scheduled to arrive at 3:55 a.m. and several other flights from the East Coast of the US that are scheduled to arrive at or shortly after 4:50 so is it reasonable to believe that there will be smooth sailing or some sort of crowding as we get through the airport?

alserire

Shouldn't be much of an issue. Think the Delhi flight is a pitstop so not everyone would be getting off, if indeed anyone. Couldn't see it being more than 30-40 minutes from doors open to out the front door.

lwildernorva

Thanks, that's very helpful. I'm booking a room for a day or two after arriving, and it occurred to me that if we had a quick passage, I could actually add the evening before arrival to the stay and go directly to the hotel from the airport, maybe even getting a little sleep before starting our first full day in Dublin. I believe our hotel holds the room until 7 a.m. the day following check in.

whitewave

We thought about this one, but even if we were out of the airport at 6am, what would be open? What would we do aside from check luggage at the hotel? I guess we could have breakfast.

instead we chose the later arrival from BOS, arriving at 8:35 am. I’m using points for the hotel, so I didn’t want to add another night, as I have whittled down my points from about 800k last summer to 48k now after Dublin.

just chatting…

ajeleonard

In practice they aren't selling the room to anyone else at that point either way. I regularly turn up at 8-9am for previous-night reservations without issue

lwildernorva

I originally wasn't thrilled about the idea of this flight, but then I realized that the early arrival in Dublin means my body clock will feel it's around midnight--and maybe even 11 or 11:30 p.m. if arrival is early, which is normal bedtime for me. Since I don't sleep well on planes, even in business class, I began to like the idea that I could time my arrival in Dublin to my normal bedtime. In addition, I figured that the early arrival also means that immigration/border control would likely be an easy transit, which alserire has helpfully confirmed.

You're right, there's nothing to do at 5:30 a.m., but I figured instead of a day room to catch a nap and a shower, I would simply extend my stay at the hotel I've booked for the first couple of days so that it starts the night before my arrival. Not only do I have a hotel when I arrive, but I don't have to rely on the hotel accepting my luggage for storage before check in, or worse, needing to haul luggage around Dublin until my check in time. I'm hopeful that with a quick breakfast, a nap of three to five hours, and a quick shower, I'll get all of the benefits of an airport lounge while flying economy on a short flight. I think that should allow me to get through my first day without feeling like a zombie.

Before the pandemic, I traveled to Ireland once or twice per year, and I expect to resume that frequency post-pandemic, so if this works out, I should be able to offset some of the effects of jet lag for about the price of a regular day room. If it doesn't work out, oh well!

whitewave

That’s a good idea. I haven’t been abroad yet (at all in my life… we were booking LHR when the pandemic happened) so I won’t know about jet leg until it happens. All I know is in Hawaii, I was popping up at 4 am every morning.

lwildernorva

A delayed report about my experience, but that matches the delayed flight out of Boston that kept me from fully testing my idea. After weeks of departure/arrival times that were relatively on schedule, our flight had computer problems and didn't depart until after 7 p.m.

Of course, no amount of tail wind will make up for that kind of delay, and we landed in Dublin sometime after 6:30 a.m. Quick clearance through border control helped us get to our hotel before 8 where we had breakfast and slept for about 4 hours. Showers and a change of clothes, and then we went to lunch. We had a full afternoon in the city and dinner around 7.

Despite the significant delay out of Boston, I feel that things went well. I'd do this again, but as with so many things travel related, YMMV. 😎