Low Roller

I like them for west coast vacations since it gives me a full extra day without having to pay for an extra night's hotel. I also hate the alternative of leaving there late-morning and having the sun set a few hours later.

CPRich

Hate 'em. I don't think I've ever slept on one, so the next day is wasted. I'm better off getting a night's sleep then working on the plane the next day.

matrixwalker2012

I'm LAX based and my sister lives in BOS. I prefer taking the Redeye to go visit her as it allows me to from office to airport. I have the luxury to shower on each end courtesy of the AC, which is a huge benefit.

This way, I don't waste a whole day just flying. Once though, I did take an 8am flight to go visit her for thanksgiving, but that was solely because I was going there simply for thanksgiving dinner. However, I did notice it made me just as tired as the Redeye as it meant getting up at 4am.

Lkeade

Love them! I'm one of those people who fall asleep before the plane leaves the runway so I don't lose a day of vacation and feel refreshed enough to hit the ground running.

BostonRobin

I see them as an extra day of vacation, sleeping on my way to some place fun. My vacation days are limited, so this is worth it for me.

Badenoch

Hate 'em. Too many west coast to YYZ flights in my past. Hate 'em on TATL too. The YYZ-LHR day-time flight is a delight!

venomtrilogy

I tend to schedule them only if I can work at home the following day. If I pop a few melatonin I can usually get a decent nap. But when it doesn't work, I'm in trouble the next day.

There was a time many years ago when I'd go to Vegas for a couple days and then go to the office straight from a red eye. Those days are long gone.

sethweinstein

Love 'em. Good time savers, you save on the hotel and maximize the day, and sometimes you can have a good restaurant dinner and then fly.

I wish they existed in the other direction. Leave New York (or western Europe) at 2am, arrive on the west coast (or New York) around 5:30am.

Seth

andrewesque

I grew up in LA but have been living in the Northeast, plus a couple of years in Chicago, for a decade now. As I still have family in LA I fly several times a year at least between LAX/LGB and JFK.

When I was in college, I used to take eastbound red-eyes as it didn't matter too much the condition I was in the next day. But now that I'm working, I avoid red-eyes as much as humanly possible. I don't have to worry about saving money on one last night of lodging, as I'm usually staying with family in LA, and since I don't sleep well on planes I'm normally a total wreck upon arriving in NYC the next day. I once went straight to work and felt completely awful, especially in the afternoon.

Madone59

I once took a DEN-CLT Red-eye on AA, it was awful!

I used to like red eyes, now I don't and will only fly them if I absolutely must.

TheVJOng

I like red eyes, for the very reason you mentioned - not wasting time. I've taken the LAX-ORD red eye quite a few times already. I'm able to sleep on planes, so I'm able to get some rest on the flight and still be able to function in the morning.

One of the things I hate the most is wasting a whole day on a domestic flight when going back east from the west coast.

Fraser

I have all three feelings about them

I live in NYC but all my family are in the UK. I'll always take overnights back for my visits there, I just don't want to waste a day, and because I'll only do J/F longhaul it's not much of a hardship even though I'd rather have a much longer flight time than just JFK-LHR I've done it enough times over the past 10+ years I have a routine down pat. Also helps that my superpower is I don't get jet lag. I have done the dayflight three times (IAD-LHR, when I lived there) because I was either connecting onwards, or one time I was redeeming miles when I was between jobs and premium cabins were only on the dayflight.

My OH's best friend lives in LAX. My preferred way to fly transcon is B6 Mint which has the decent flat bed option and I've done that overnight which works out well, although my last trip there in February we took a 4.30pm departure from LAX back to JFK (on AA in F) and that worked very well, arrived at JFK around 12.45am and we live about 10mins from JFK.

Regular domestic F is pretty grim for redeyes, particularly if you don't have a "premium" route so get the regular (or no) pillows that are only suitable for dayflghts. I've done plenty of redeyes in non-premium transcon aircraft and manage it but always feel pretty crappy for the following day.

I've done the PHX-ATL redeye which was pretty grim. Left around 12.45am and got into ATL at about 5.15am or somewhere. The connected back to VA and went to work. Not much fun

Last year I was flying through CLT during bad weather and IRROPS had delayed a late evening CLT-LAX flight to a 2.45am departure. That would put it in your timeframe

financialhippie

I think there's a trend here - it's not the red eye flight itself, but the lack of sleep that people hate. Most folks that can sleep on the plane don't mind them it seems.

I love redeyes, you end up getting more time to explore! Though I don't sleep well on planes, I'm usually running on adrenaline for the next day in a new place. I'm sure if I travelled for work (and had deadlines to meet the next day) it might be different. But for now, I love having the extra time wherever I'm going, and saving the hotel cost/points for the night.

Hey, before I got into Flyertalk, I used to roadtrip overnight to avoid traffic. Sleep like 9PM-12AM, get up and drive, be down in DC for breakfast! Sure, I'd get a little loopy by about 6PM the first day I was there, but nothing a quick nap can't fix. Reading a book on a 2 hour flight sure beats driving 8 hours!

chollie

I don't mind redeyes. The late KOA-SEA used to be one of my favorite flights.

Proudelitist

I like them, but I used to love them prior to 2005, when you still had good odds of flights being way less than full. These days they seem as crowded as the mid-day flights. Upgrade odds used to be much much better on the red-eyes.

I still like them for a number of reasons though, the main one being slightly lower crowd volume at aiports, although most concessions tend to be closed.