Originally Posted by jfish26 (Post 31762449)

DL 171 (MSP - ICN) in June. 2pm departure, 520pm arrival. Flying Z.

Any idea which side window to take (left [B] or right [C]) for best views?

Originally Posted by eneq (Post 31762503)

Both sides would probably be very similar. The majority of the flight will be nighttime, so the sights will be limited.

Originally Posted by Duke787 (Post 31762563)

Flight should be roughly 50% daytime for the 2pm departure (until sunset over the US and then will be daytime when you break over Alaska into Russia/China going into the evening as you land) -- sun will be mostly out the left window early and out the right window late ...

For this flight the "good views" are over Canada when you see the big snowy expanse of land which is equally visible from either side.

Originally Posted by jrl767 (Post 31763260)

actually, a westbound flight will be chasing the sun the whole way

here's the track from 10 Nov (similar timing -- 1245 departure, 1645 arrival); note the day/night boundary (i.e., sunset) near the west coast of the U.S. at the midpoint of the flight

Originally Posted by Duke787 (Post 31763582)

That's what I originally thought (based on looking at similar tracking) but per the OP the MSP - ICN flight apparently is being re-timed to 2pm (at least for the day in question) so I believe there will be more nighttime than the existing 1245pm tracking (I was recently on DTW - ICN which left around 1230pm ET and that one did have daylight the whole way)

Originally Posted by mot29 (Post 31763558)

Might you have a chance to see the northern lights if you are on the right (north facing) side of the plane?
https://thepointsguy.com/guide/how-t...-from-a-plane/
I think I saw them once on a polar flight. Or maybe not, some other phenomenon?

Originally Posted by jrl767 (Post 31763651)

don't forget OP is traveling in June, so northern hemisphere daylight will be much more prevalent (and Daylight Savings Time means departure will be an hour later on the clock, so 1345CDT)


I was going to mention that before realizing that it's basically a daytime flight (plus it's in June, so solar activity will be more likely to affect the southern hemisphere)