Cameron38

I have always flown from L.A. to Asia on a flight that leaves around Midnight and arrives in Asia in the morning (+1). I force myself to stay up all the day of arrival and go to bed that evening to get back on track for the new time zone. My best friend argues that he finds it better to leave L.A. on a morning flight and arrive in Asia Late at night (near midnight), then just go right to bed and sleep in a bit the next morning. He says this works better for Jet lag. What is everyone else's opinion?

CanucksHKG

Everyone adapts to jet lag differently.

One might argue on a morning/afternoon flight ex-North America, and arriving in HKG in the evening might be equally as worse. They might have spent the whole flight sleeping (especially if you're in J/F), and argue that by the time you reach HKG, you can't sleep that night.

Personally, I prefer the midnight flight and force myself to stay up the whole day like what you're currently doing.

YMMV.

Bitterroot

If your body clock is on US Pacific Time when you leave, take the late morning/early afternoon departure from the US, and don't sleep enroute. You will land in HKG between 3 and 4 am US Pacific Time (depending on the season and US Daylight Saving Time): go to your hotel and right to bed. You'll not likely sleep through the night, but your body-clock will re-set itself quickly: like it does after you've had to be up past normal bed-time at home.

Works every time, IME.....over about 30 years of doing it. The midnight departures from the USA only work if you can really sleep on a plane. I'm always in F and I still can't sleep well on the damn things, so the daylight westbound run works much better.

Cameron38

I am usually transitioning on to Bangkok... The day flight would get me there about midnight BKK time. An added benefit of taking the daytime flight appears to be a greater availability of mileage upgrade seats.

Bitterroot

I've found that when I have an onward connection (in my case, Singapore, not Bangkok, but not all that different), the natural fatigue finally catches up, and I'll sleep through the connecting flight. Then, it's wake up, get off, immigrate, travel to and check in at hotel, and go back to sleep.

Doesn't work nearly as well as the routine where HKG is the immediate destination, there's an overnight stop, and the connection is the following day. Straight through is tough no matter which departure bank from the US you take -- it's 24 hours all-in anyway you cut it.

Still doesn't push me back to preferring the midnight departures, but I can see where if you're always connecting at Hong Kong, it might work better off a midnight departure from the US west coast.

Especially if you're in J or F and can actually sleep on the nice beds.............

ANZ787900

I find the eastbound is more of a problem than westbound.

But the question you pose really comes down to what you plan on doing/if taking the day flight requires an extra night in a hotel etc. If you have accommodation and generally stay up onboard, take the day flight. If you are good at sleeping onboard, the overnight might be appealing.

Cameron38

Taking the day flight would not require booking an extra night. I can stay the first night with my friend who would pick me up. I am lucky to get 2 or 3 hours of light sleep when sitting in Y or Y+. I do much better in C with a flat bed.

QRC3288

Yes. Excellent statement.

just my opinions below...inevitably this is subjective, everyone's got their own piece

my strategy
As for the jetlag, just book an insanely busy schedule whenever you arrive. Aka, you have no time to succumb to jetlag. I never have jetlag on trips if I have wall to wall meetings from start to finish. If you land at 10am book meetings all day through dinner and then a full schedule the following day. If you land in the evening book drinks with an associate or client (or even an old friend) before bed so you can't afford jetlag. I've done this for years and never had any problems. The busier I am jetlag declines towards zero.

When jetlag gets me is when I visit family, take a vacation, or arrive on a weekend (Friday night, the worst). It's when I have the luxury of sitting down on a couch, around the dinner table with family or just have time to myself to think. Then, it's game over.

your question
In the above situation where jetlag comes on, I think flying Asia to North America is worse than flying North America to Asia for some reason. And for arriving in Asia, I give a slight tip of the cap to evening arrivals. That's because the Asia morning arrivals tend to be 5-7am (vs North America arrivals of 10am), so you have a longer day to fill and potentially get tired. Unless, of course you just jam your day full of activities, which I think is the best strategy for skipping jetlag altogether. The "adjustment cycle" landing in Asia seems to be just one night, regardless of when you arrive. So it's really a question of do you want to possibly be tired all day 1 (morning arrival, sounds like your normal MO), or only tired for a few hours (evening arrival, which your friend recommends).

fakecd

i always arrive to the destination in morning/early afternoon and force myself up/awake all day and go to bed (local time) around 8 or 9pm... no jet lag following day... but this will end in disaster if you can't stay up and sleep around 3pm and wake up 2am and can't sleep anymore so you stay awake all night, then next day are suffering by 4pm again.

mkjr

disagree. The 1am out of yyz is Way better on jet lag arriving at 5am local than the 10 am arrive 6pm.

cxfan1960

It is a travel topic not related to CX. I am moving the thread to TravelBuzz!

cxfan1960
CX Mod