Does anyone voluntarily take NA red-eyes?
 

Just curious: Does anyone voluntarily take the NA red-eye flights?

I don't mind flying and have done 30-60h of continuous travelling on various occasions and am capable of being reasonably productive upon arrival, but taking a YEG-YYZ red-eye (or similar) with 2h of sleep at best followed by a regular, busy day just sucks the life out of me.

As you know, AC 156 is no better, IMHO. My recent batch were 3 hours 39, 3 hours 32 mins and similar for the others. No way did I get more than a 2-hour nap on one of them, barely slept on the others. Just not long enough, for me anyway. Looked around the cabin and I guess the other guys seem to have mastered the sleep-nap thing. A few never slept.

Productivity was -100 for that day. But that's just me. :D

I want to spend the weekend in YYZ.

Option 1: Take Friday off (large monetary cost), which allows full day Saturday and Sunday, optionally with Friday dinner at the expense of waking up super early on Friday for the 7am flight, otherwise the 11am.
Option 2: Take the 7am Saturday morning flight. I have to wake up really early, I get dinner Saturday, and all day Sunday.
Option 3: Take a Friday red-eye, go straight to bed when I land, and I'm good for a late Saturday lunch and the rest of the weekend.

The only way the red-eye works for me is having a few hours of sleep upon landing.

If I had a billion dollars, would I do it? No. But I don't, so I have to weigh my options and choose what works best, which is always the red-eye for a two day weekend, and often the red-eye for a three day weekend.

All the time. ^

Eastbound or westbound? It matters.

OP wrote "YEG-YYZ red-eye"

I assumed the theme was west-east, thus my AC 156. I'm just as bad on red-eye's to Europe. All the TPACs I fly make Europe flights feel like Rapidair.

Good points. I guess the "sleep a few hours upon arrival" strategy works great if you're flying somewhere for the weekend (for leisure).

I could also see myself doing something similar when flying onwards to the Caribbean, e.g. YEG-YYZ-BGI and sleep 2-3h on each flight.

Afaik AC only operates eastbound red-eye flights within NA, e.g. LAX/YVR/YEG/YYC-YYZ/YUL.

Yes, when I'm trying to minimize time away from home. I can do meetings on the east coast and still be home to put my kids to bed if I fly out on 146.

Yes, when I find out mid-day (around 2pm) that I need to be in Toronto Saturday morning it's the only choice.

If my last exam is at night.. yes I will take the red eye back.
I just dont think I will get a good sleep if I have to catch an early morning flight next day anyways.

I do most of the time from YYC or YEG. I will generally take a shower in the MLL upon arrival.

I do it because I don't like burning a day flying east.

I usually take AC156/162 right after taking AC8 from HKG. I find this way I can easily overcome jet lag. I can easily have a good night of sleep on AC8, then spend the "morning" in YVR, then try to take a 3 hour "nap" on AC156. On the following day I can be productive till around 4pm, which is good enough I think. Also, arriving YYZ early in the morning is better than arriving late around midnight for me.

I have seen people somehow managed to put their feet on the footrest with seat in the upright position, and they sleep from gate to gate. If they board early that will get them about 5.5 hours of sleep, that's probably enough.

Also, sometimes I really wish I can sleep on the airplane for a couple more hours after arriving in YYZ. The aircraft for 156 usually becomes AC105 which departs at 10, so I guess it's ok if I stay on the aircraft till 8? :D

Don't forget YYC-YOW :)

I used to do it every second week from Vancouver to Chicago/Milwaukee. Like someone else said (cow?) I found it worked when I did:

YVR-YYZ - shower at YYZ then
YYZ-MKE/CHI - get a good nap on that flight.

That second short nap after a shower and I seemed good to go when hitting the office at 9:30am...

Getting off the YVR-YYZ redeye and trying to work a full day sucks.

I do it quiet often, I would rather be flying and having a good nap than getting subpar sleep in a hotel.

Usually the choice is between a redeye and schleping to the airport at 4am for the first flight in the morning. Neither is particularly enjoyable but at least the redeye gets you there sooner and you still have half the day after a morning nap.

Yeah, redeyes do tend to be eastbound. I'll do it Europe-bound and then just force myself to stay awake on that brutal first day so I can get onto local time as quickly as possible. In North America, however, I think my general rule is, only if I don't have to work the next day.

I would never voluntarily take a North American red-eye, and find that doing it on long hauls (anything from Canada to Europe, Asia or Australia), I do better by being active right from the start, then going to bed at the local bedtime.

Yeg-Yyz-Lhr going red eye, get in at 6 Am catch 9am get into Lhr @9Pm to is my fav flight I get to hotel get really good nights sleep, body clock is hard reset and I am ready to go.

Have done Yeg-iah red eye when UA offered, worked for me over flying in night before. Yeg-Yyz then work, Sunday night / Monday morning, would do it again

That said always in j , so got some rest

Does anyone voluntarily take NA red-eyes?
 

I do.

Recently flew las-yyc followed by yyc-yow red eye. I've flown red eyes before but it was strange arriving in yow and having the airport busy. (My mind was still thinking it was night time). Took me a minute to remember that it was 5:30am and flights depart starting at 6am.

But to answer the question....If the price is right, I certainly do take red eye flights.

I do YMM/YEG/YYC-YYZ/YUL monthly.

Sleep like a baby on the plane, nap in the MLL waiting for my connection to YQM and fresh for the day.


Did the YUL-CDG red-eye last spring, thought I was going to die. Slept most of the day on arrival.

Redeyes save a significant amount of time. You trade off a bit of sleep but save what would otherwise be a lot of wasted time, especially if you are flying an aircraft without wi-fi to be productive.

I do overnight trains, too.

Yes on overnight trains. They are pretty amazing! ^ :D

Yeah, I prefer them to overnight flights. Much easier to sleep on a proper bed in a sleeper car than on a cramped Y seat. Also, you can get up to some good times on those trains... especially if someone in your berth has a bottle of vodka handy. **Speaking totally hypothetically, of course... that's my story and I'm sticking to it... any photo evidence to the contrary is all lies.

'Course, that brings a whole new meaning to "red eye".

I find the extra 2.5-3 hours of sleep following the redeye really helps when flying YVR-YYZ/YUL-YYT. The feeling upon arrival in YYZ is horrible though, I could not imagine functioning without at least a power nap.

I did my first North American redeye last week LAS-SFO-IAD in UA "F". Had a 20 minute nap on the first leg and slept 2-3 hours on the second. Was OK working the next day but I haven't been sleeping well since.

I took AC198 (YVR-YUL) voluntarily to get to uni this year and I didn't find it as bad as I thought I would. That being said, they left the lights on in Y for the first 1.5-2 hours which really killed any possibility of sleeping for any length of time.

YVR-YYZ/YUL always on the uncomfortable AB 320 series. Sometimes in Y, sometimes in J. Not my choice, but when there are IROPS connecting from an Asian flight in YVR and I cannot get on the earlier flights, I get shunted to the red eye. I dislike them.The AB is not my choice for sleeping. I don't even like the pods because there is such little room.

The one positive is that the FAs want to sleep as much as the pax so they do a quick snack/drink service.

AC198 is probably one of my favorite red-eye flights to take. Late enough departure that I'll be fairly tired, long enough to get a decent amount of sleep and doesn't arrive so early in the morning that I have to find a way to kill time before going to work/out. ^

Is there a red eye in North American flying westbound? There isn't one in Canada.

AC151 somewhat qualifies, leaving YYZ at 2300 and arriving in YVR at 0030.

I've never been able to get over that nasty feeling upon arrival, no matter how well you sleep onboard. Therefore I avoid them if possible, but I have found they can really help with resetting your body clock if you limit yourself to a short nap after arrival.

As others have mentioned, redeyes can be a better use of time, and I'd take one over a 5 or 6 AM departure.

Looking at a number of my flights that were not typical west-east red-eyes....

All of my ANC-DFW flights were 6 hours. Was out cold just after sitting down. Slept either the entire flight or woke up once. And I slept really well on each one. In coach. On a single-aisle 757. Hmmmm, I need to figure this out.....

Yup, trying to delete posts, how??? :confused:

Take that flight 2 to 3X per year. Not even close to a red Eye.

I doubt you'll find many later westbounds, partly due to noise restrictions at most airports.

I spent 9/11 in one of those numbered areas north of Vegas. Late on the Friday we were done with our terrorism training course. After spending 3 days stuck in Vegas after that, I was glad to accept from a different airline (everybody was accepting each other's tickets) a red-eye from LAS to DTW, the closest could get to YYZ (my wife picked me up there). That was a voluntary red-eye I was delighted to take.

Sometimes reality kicks you in the butt and lets you know what is and isn't a hardship...