barella

Hi, I'm planning a trip to the States later in the year and wanted to see what you thought was the best time of day to fly to New York, and back to London?

B.

Supersonic Swinger

LHR-JFK - treat it as a very long day because of the time zone change. I prefer evening departure flights around 6:00 pm, which get you in around 9:00 pm and mean you can collapse into bed when you arrive at your destination.

JFK-LHR - all overnight flights with the exception of one each on BA and AA which leave 8:30 am and arrive LHR 8:30 pm (referred to as the Pensioner's Flights where they can avoid an overnight). Regardless, be prepared for jet lag as the time difference works against you.

Thumper

Just speaking for myself, I like the 2330 (time, not flight number) flight from JFK, as it allows me to get on board and get right to sleep.

Part of this is the ability to avoid rush hour traffic to JFK. Just another thing to consider.

barella

Cool - I was look at LHR-JFK on AA131 (Dep 1645, Arr 1945), and AA116 (Dep 2350, Arr 1135) on the return.

Dave Noble

I would take AA142 for the JFK-LHR ( dep: 0805 arr 20:25 ) for the most civilised eastbound option. No need to worry about sleep on the plane, just watch a cpl of movies and arrive into Uk in the evening

For the LHR-JFK sector, I would take the AA105 11:55 service . Not too early a start and arrives into New York for around 3pm. 2nd option would be the 16:45 service

Dave

mxlondon

I'm a big fan of the daytime JFK-LHR flight (AA142). I don't sleep well on planes and would rather spend a day reading, working, or watching movies than a day forcing myself to stay awake once I get home as I didn't sleep on the flight the night before.

An extra bonus is that in my experience this flight is often empty. For example last time I took it Y was only 25% occupied - so many people had the 5 middle seats to themselves and could move the armrests up to sleep.

Of course it depends on where you need to get to from LHR: I'm only a 20 minute cab journey away.

Oh, and as for them being 'pensioners' flights -- I'm 32 and didn't feel particularly young last time I took this.

gemac

I also prefer the daytime flight eastbound. I note that the OP does not specify which cabin (s)he will be flying in - if it is coach, the daytime flight is vastly preferable, IMO, unless the OP is quite small. I find it is most convenient to stay the night before at one of the airport hotels, and they are available at reasonable rates via Priceline.

For the westbound flight, I would allow three hours to clear immigration, wait (and wait some more) for bags, clear customs, take transport into the city, and check into a hotel. If the OP takes AA 131, this puts them into a hotel room at about 2300 (0500 London time). Whether that is a good idea or not depends on how OP deals with westbound time change.

If arriving on a flight at this time, we would again stay at one of the airport hotels - it shaves an hour off. The next morning, we would be up early (of course), have a leisurely breakfast, check out and take a car service into the city, drop our bags at our hotel there, and start enjoying our day.

holbiho

I perfer the daytime the flight from JFK to LHR. 142 I dont have to sleep on the plane... watch some movies/read... and if i get seat 31 B/A... perfect....

I dont feel the need to pay for biz class on this flight---- however on an evening flight--- i will try to go biz or upgrade in order to get as much sleep as possible....

Supersonic Swinger

I think the term Pensioner Flight is less related to the age of the travelers, but that corporate travelers wouldn't spend a full business day in flight if they could do it overnight, and backpackers would take overnight flights saving them one nights accommodation.

Dave Noble

Some of us do. Why would I want to travel in my own time rather than during business hours when Im travelling for business

Supersonic Swinger

I guess if you don't have to bill your time out per hour or in six minutes increments, then you may have that luxury.

skye1

It depends on what basis you'd like to make your decision:

Evening flight to US--after a full day in London, then a flight to JFK, you arrive at JFK at night, tired from the long day and ready to sleep.
Daytime flight to LHR--after a day on the plane, you arrive in LHR at night, ready to sleep.

Morning flight to JFK--you arrive in JFK with still time to spend seeing NYC on that same day.
Morning flight to LHR---you arrive in LHR in time to catch dinner in London and get a few things done at home before going to bed.

Overnight flight JFK-LHR---IMHO, it's too short of a flight to get a decent night's sleep. When I do JFK-LHR, I feel like I've gotten just enough of an extended nap to make me realize how really tired I am the next day.

Now, you're on Flyertalk, with much ado about miles, so you may want to take whichever departure times give you routings which yield you the most miles (example---going LGA-ORD-LHR, or JFK-DCA-ORD-LHR, vs. JFK-LHR, something like that ).

Now, you're on Flyertalk, where there's also much ado about upgrades, and if you're using eVIP's or miles+copay to upgrade yourself, the decision may come down to which depature times have upgrade space that would clear at booking.

Dave Noble

When I travel I bill the travel time; the travel is not for my benefit but for the company's. I have a general policy of not working for free

dstan

Thanks to FlyerTalk, I am a daytime JFK-LHR flight convert! I'm travel weary when I arrive at LHR and able to get to sleep after dinner with no trouble. The redeyes from the East coast are just too short for me.

gemac

I usually connect to the daytime ORD-LHR. My first segment pushes back from STL at 6 AM, so my alarm is set for 3:30. I can get to sleep pretty easily at LHR, and jet lag is minimal.