831 or 841 in F?
 

Hi, -- I'm trying to decide between 841 (1010-1405+1) and 831 (1455-1855+1) for a mid-August departure using AA miles and an all partner award. Considerations as I see them are:

841: Leaves at a nice time in the morning, but arrives HKG at 2:00 a.m. body clock time based on local time at departure. The onward connection to BKK is good, though, 1:45 connecting time, just about right, IMO. Arrive BKK 1730 BKK time.

Does anyone know if they serve breakfast (i.e., eggs) on this flight? Somehow a large meal starting with Krug and caviar doesn't seem appropriate to me for that time of day, and won't likely work for my stomach.

831: Leaves mid-afternoon, arrives around 7:00 a.m. body clock time based on local time at departure. Much better for managing jet lag, IMO. Onward connection to BKK not quite as good, though, 3:15 connecting time. Arrive BKK 2355 BKK time.

First meal is time appropriate, but then I'll sleep, and the second meal isn't going to be breakfast, is it?

I'd be grateful for input from others who have taken the nonstops from JFK-HKG. Jetlag can be debilitating for me, and if I can manage it properly, I effectively add two days to my stay.

Thanks in advance.

For managing jetlag the key is timing in the arrival zone. So 841 departs at 9pm Bangkok time, 831 departs at 2am Bangkok time.

What I would do is stay awake all night in NYC the night before and then get 841. Get on the plane, take a glass of Krug, and sleep until about 7am BKK time. Then you have 6 more hours on the plane and two meals: breakfast and lunch.

Remember this is First - you can eat whatever you want whenever you want, so just tell the crew what you would like to do before you go to sleep and they will have it all ready for you. I can't find an F menu for 841, but the J menu here shows that they load breakfast type things in J, so presumably they do in F too.

So have breakfast at breakfast time and lunch (Krug, caviar, etc) at lunch BKK time.

I can handle time zone changes of at least 6-7 hours with no problem. (Never been anywhere 8-9 hours from ET). However, when I do the 12h time change to Asia, the jetlag absolutely kills me. IME, the best flight for this is actually the 1-stop via YVR (889); it's easy to get a lot of sleep along the way due to the late departure, and then be up and refreshed in the morning upon arrival. The one time I did this, I continued on to SIN and was surprisingly lucid after nearly 24 hours of travel. :)

The nonstops, whether the morning or afternoon departure, both still cause me significant jetlag. The other benefit of the 1-stop in F is that you get that much more time to enjoy the F suite/service!

As far as staying up all night before the morning departure, I have to imagine that's easier said than done for most people.

Perhaps, but many years of long haul experience says that for me the best thing to do is to behave as if you are on the destination time zone as soon as possible. If you haven't slept for 24 hours when you get on the plane then one glass of Krug and you will be sleeping on BKK time on 841. Once you wake up in the morning, BKK time, the second part is then not to let yourself fall asleep again until the evening in BKK. This shouldn't be hard with some coffee and CX's AVOD.

Surely finding something to entertain you all night in New York can't be that hard?

whats more important no jetlag or filling your face with eggs? I think anyone with any sense who suffers from jet lag will take the sleep option and if they knew about first would know they can tell the creww when they want to eat

Well, when 4am rolls around, it gets a little more difficult, even in New York.

It is kind of silly to stay up all night, then get on a plane dead tired so you can sleep on an airplane seat bed. I imagine that you will be more jetlagged than if you had gotten a good night of sleep, and slept periodically on the flight over to HK.

People take these flights every day, most in coach and J, I suspect you will be fine, if you get good sleep the night before, nap on the plane, eat light, refrain from the krug and other beverages and stick to water and tea.

I am taking CX841 to the connecting BKK flight on June 14 in F. I have done this flight before in F and had no problem with jet-lag. I actually slept the middle part of the JFK-HKG flight for about 6 hours, starting about 4 hours after we left New York. I slept about an hour on the HKG-BKK flight. Arrived around 5.30 pm in BKK, was at hotel and in room by 7 pm. Showered, went to club lounge, had a snack and went out around 8.30 to a few BKK bars. Back in hotel at 12:30 am. Went right to bed and woke up at 8 am without any issues.

To me the key is sleeping just enough on the plane to allow me to stay up to normal bedtime in the jurisdiction. I am always surprised by people flying from LHR to JFK on the evening departures on AA 4:35, 6:30 or 8:05 pm, they sleep the entire flight, so when they get to NY it is around 8, 10 or 11 pm. I imagine thatit is then hard for them to go right to bed or get a true good night sleep.

You can imagine all you want. I speak from dozens of flights of personal experience.

That seems a little harsh. The eggs were a metaphor for breakfast food, which is what my stomach does best with after, say, six hours of sleep. And, yes, because of some persistent digestion issues, I am much happier if I pay some attention to what I eat and when.

Thanks, folks, this has been incredibly helpful. You've certainly focused my thinking a bit differently. Actually, both of these approaches make sense to me, and I think that both will work for me. Actually, in some ways, they seem to be variations of the same approach. I'll have to see what's going on in my life the day before (family in NY), but I know that I'll definitely handle this better for your input. Thanks again.

Well I really hope you are not really thinking about staying up all night (I suspect you are not) the night before, but in any event, I hope you enjoy the flight. CX service out of JFK has been good to excellent recently so you shoud enjoy the flight. Some of the best CX service I have had has been on the CX HKG-BKK and reverse services in F.

I am one of these people. I always try and 'nap' on the way over from LHR to YYZ if it's the 3pm flight. Therefore, when I arrive, I'm not completely exhausted and I can stay up till about 12am/1am local time before I'm out completely.

Cheers,

But that's only a 5 hour time-zone change. Worst case you get tired a little earlier in the evening than you're used to and you wake up a little earlier.

With the 12 hour difference between NY and HKG (the worst possible, since it's exact opposite), it's not just minor adjustments. Even with 5-6 hours of sleep on the flight to HKG, and with staying up until my "normal" bedtime in HKG, my body still wants to wake up at 3-4 am for some reason. Sometimes an ambien will keep me asleep until 7 or 8am. But then when 4pm rolls around, I am beyond exhausted. The only way I have found to mitigate this for myself has been the 889 overnight flight to HKG. But it's still not perfect, so I usually have to make sure to plan my schedule according to the anticipated impact of the jetlag. That means business breakfasts but no business dinners. YMMV.