000

My personal preferences...

Red eye's arriving early morning mean a full day ahead for me. In J/F I really don't count anything under 12 hours as good enough to get a proper night's sleep (more is fine!). JFK to LHR is far too short! I'd quite happily spend a few more hours in the air to get some sleep.

In Y/Y+ I'd just write off the day and therefore would want a shorter flight.

LTN Phobia

Your comment made me laugh. What spoilt F pax?! I have literally just flown PE this morning, and an overnighter of all things*

However, it is rather rude to say that a personal opinion is rubbish. In the same paragraph I specified "I" - I was not talking rubbish for myself even if it does not apply to others - and I did not purport it to be applicable to anyone but myself. Perhaps an apology is in order from you about calling my personal thoughts about the flight length "rubbish" and for implying that I was a spoilt F pax when I'm not



*Disclaimer. The seat happened to be a business class seat but this was purely by luck, not by design

PITBULL1K

From the states, just go west first, then fly back to the uk!

From Nashville I preferred going to Houston then take flight to London. Longer flight, more rest time than heading to Newark first! Chicago was a better option too but not as good as Houston!

paulwuk

Sorry, I read it as an absolute statement made by someone that barely knows theres a row 42. I blame a week of sleepless nights with my new born {coming to an F cabin near you soon }

Hmm, this happened to a college on the TLV flight overnight once. "upgrade" from a W seat to a club Europe 767

pinkcat

Ferries from Belgium and the Netherlands always used to slow down for the night crossings, it was 8 hrs in the day and something like 11hours at night.
we borrowed my mothers Alfa Romeo for a camping trip, partied too much overnight and overslept to find they had dragged the car off the ship and dropped it miles down the docks!

LTN Phobia

Ha ha, no apologies needed, and congratulations on your new born. He/she'd better be a lovely quiet baby when he/she flies (in any cabin)

I have to tell you that I was a proud owner of OWE earned through discount economy class flying in my first year of OWE. I went straight from "never held any airline status" to OWE in about 10 months, mostly through domestic discount economy but with a bit of ultra-long haul discount economy flying thrown in. That was quite a hard slog! That was some time ago but in not too distant past. Admittedly I haven't done much hard slog since by using MFUs or similar, redemptions and cash bookings etc, except in unusual situations - I flew back economy class during the volcanic ash because anything else was too expensive and there was no redemption options (I suppose that is stating the obvious...) and my insurers refused cover, telling me "People cancel trips with those situation" - well I was mid-trip, so how I would have cancelled my trip, I would never know For that matter I have been known to occasionally fly LCCs except for Ryanair too.

That is almost a downgrade

where2travel

Are the LCY flights really 20 minutes longer than the LHR ones? That surprises me as I'd have thought the usual holding at LHR and time to the gate would make up for the slightly longer distance to LCY.

Writing this I've just realised I don't know what the published "flight time" actually is. Is it gate to gate time or time in the air?

magyaar

...west, even

I used to do exactly that when I worked in Buffalo, NY. Usual options were via either Newark, JFK or Toronto - however I sometimes managed to come home via either Chicago, Atlanta or - due to a cunningly arranged meeting - Phoenix!

zkzkz

Never flown to Accra or Nairobi but...

I would love a longer flight but only if it took off at the same time and landed later. Taking off earlier is of no use to me at all. The problem with sleeping on these flights is precisely that by the time it's bed time there's only an hour or two left on the flight. Unless you take drugs there's no way to force your body to sleep at 7pm to get a decent sleep.

If they took off at 11pm then there might be a chance of getting a few hours sleep. If they flew slower and took a couple extra hours then they could take off at 7-8pm and I would get to sleep those extra hours. But if they took off at 4-5pm instead of the current 7pm timeframe then it would just be more wasted hours bored waiting until I'm sleepy and more lost hours with coworkers and family on the departure day.

But I think your comment about Accra and Nairobi is on point. The problem with slower flights is the same as the problem with later departures. The airlines love the early morning arrivals because it maximizes the connections available. By arriving at 6am (1am Eastern Time, good night's sleep that!) they can put you on any connecting flight they feel like. If they arrived at 11am (6am Easter Time, a short but tolerable night's sleep) then there would be half as many connections available.

PITBULL1K

My bad...just re-read it and realised! Just come back from India so brain still asleep!

destere

Could be to do with the fact that an a318 is about 0.07 Mach slower than a 747 or 777.

papabear

Is there an arrivals lounge in HKG?

johan rebel

I agree on the 54, but not on the meals. Leaving the poor quality aside, I do not have dinner at 11 p.m., nor breakfast at an ungodly hour. I much prefer a good dinner before departure (cheap and lots of choice in SA), retire on an empty stomach (one sleeps much better) and then have a proper breakfast after arrival.

Johan

badoc

I think he meant from HKG-LHR, which BTW is my favourite route/flight time as I always eat first O/B then sleep on board and I/B drink in the lounge then eat then sleep - perfect!

45128

Heartiest congratulations on being the very first human being to sprout wings!

[PEDANT]Please consider the fact that use of the word "literally" may be taken literally.[/PEDANT]