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Red Eyes: Love em, hate em, or just necessary?

Red Eyes: Love em, hate em, or just necessary?

Old Apr 29, 17, 3:23 am
  #61  
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By and large I hat them as I do not sleep and get off the plane exhausted, jet lagged and edgy. The only red eyes that I have taken were nit too bad were flights to South America where they were sleeper seats and I was fortunate to be in first, the flight was long enough to sleep and there was only 1-2 hours time difference and alstly they leave at a time you are ready to sleep. I always take daylight flight from JFK to LHR as it has all the wrong cobditions for sleep.
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Old Apr 29, 17, 2:33 pm
  #62  
 
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Just looked at fares from ATL to MNL.. thought that would save me money.. wrong.. was surprised to learn that there's a nonstop from Atlanta to Tokyo though.,
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Old Apr 29, 17, 8:33 pm
  #63  
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Originally Posted by vincentharris View Post
I think the best way to describe red eyes is a love/hate relationship.
This... I don't like them, or any flight with a pre 8am departure time, but sometimes life and economics make it look stupid to take the alternative.

My recent examples:

SEA-IAH: the 10 pm departure on AS was like $110. Wound up with a full 3 seats to myself in Y to stretch out and sleep. Went home and showered and then to the office.

a flight in a couple weeks, I could spend like ~18k SW points for the flight from LGA-HOU on a Sunday at 5pm. Or... 8k for the 6 am flight the next day. I'll do that and Airbnb it for Sunday night and will still be at the office by probably 10.
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Old May 1, 17, 9:44 am
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I would absolutely love them if I could just drop off to sleep. That only happens when I've been on a few planes recently.
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Old May 4, 17, 7:57 am
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I avoid them on transcons. Can't avoid them when flying NYC-Europe, so have to suck it up. Even in J, these flights leave me groggy the following day.
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Old May 4, 17, 11:29 am
  #66  
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I'm doing JFK-LAX tonight: 2100EDT departure, 0015PDT (0315 body time) arrival, and I have to be reasonably functional ~0830PDT for a meeting ... hoping to get a minimum of 3 hrs sleep on the jet (4 would of course be better, and the flat-bed will certainly help too), so limited food and no more than two Woodfords ...

UPDATE
the jet on our gate -- that was scheduled to push 5 min before our arrival -- actually left ~15 min late ... of course this was after we touched down 40 min ahead of our scheduled arrival

it is now 0345EDT and we are just turning from the taxiway into the alley

I did get a solid 4 hours of sleep though

UPDATE UPDATE
it's a tow-in gate

Last edited by jrl767; May 5, 17 at 1:50 am
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Old May 6, 17, 8:49 am
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Originally Posted by SingleMalt69 View Post
This is an extreme no go for me. I've turned down job offers, and switched employers when they've introduced this policy. My time in the plane, my miles that I use to treat my family to nice vacations.
Even within a company, I have seen the extremes. My department SVP is adamant that no employeee should be forced to take a connection, no employee should be forced to take a Redeye, no employee shall be forced to fly a 6am flight, no employee shall be forced to travel more nights than necessary to save on airfare, and while we have to book our class of service authorized, we are welcome to pay the difference to premium cabins if we choose to. And of course, all miles are ours to keep.

Other departments are a lot less generous and force their employees to take all sorts of strange routings and shenanigans, just to save a few bucks.

Guess which department has the lowest turnover and most productivity?
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Old May 6, 17, 10:02 am
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Originally Posted by matrixwalker2012 View Post
Even within a company, I have seen the extremes. My department SVP is adamant that no employeee should be forced to take a connection, no employee should be forced to take a Redeye, no employee shall be forced to fly a 6am flight, no employee shall be forced to travel more nights than necessary to save on airfare, and while we have to book our class of service authorized, we are welcome to pay the difference to premium cabins if we choose to. And of course, all miles are ours to keep.

Other departments are a lot less generous and force their employees to take all sorts of strange routings and shenanigans, just to save a few bucks.

Guess which department has the lowest turnover and most productivity?
Your department's policies are simply what I expect. Violate too many of those expectations, and I'd be among the turnover.
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Old May 7, 17, 6:38 pm
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I usually do CX's red-eye flights from JFK-YVR-HKG.

CX 889 Westbound JFK-HKG-YVR - I love it. Leave around 2200, arrive in YVR 0030, leave YVR 0200, arrive into HKG 0615. Little jetlag which is great so I get to sleep at a almost a regular time. Sucks if terminating in YVR from JFK. I don't mind the landing in YVR for an hour either.

CX 888 Eastbound HKG-YVR-JFK - I hate it. Leave around 0030, arrive in YVR 2120, leave YVR 2250, arrive into JFK 0700. My body is a mess when landing in JFK.

I dunno, my body prefers westbound red-eyes compared to eastbound ones.
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Old May 8, 17, 9:10 am
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Love 'em - whether in F or Y, though obviously F helps. Gives you more time at your destination or gets you home to loved ones quicker.

Key always for me is to find the longest overnight leg, e.g. LAX-ATL go via SFO not ORD to get an extra hour sleep.

Worst red-eye - DEN-ORD arriving 0200 - and then a 0600 ORD-ATL.
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Old May 16, 17, 7:13 am
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They're a necessary evil for me. I'll end up on at least one or two a year mainly when I want to spend extra time in California or Arizona. If I take one on a Sunday then Monday is rough but by Tuesday I don't care any more and I'm glad I had my trip.
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Old May 21, 17, 8:10 pm
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Transcontinental or intercontinental flights are always done in a lie flat seat so I really don't mind. Saves daylight.
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Old May 28, 17, 5:49 pm
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Love 'em -- idea of getting to the airport in the early morning is scarier than a stack of Count Floyd's pancakes!
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Old May 31, 17, 10:29 pm
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For me to sleep on a flight it needs to be at least 9 hours long. So I will not do a North American transcontinental red-eye ever again. Horrible. In fact, I found a lot of the overnights NYC-Europe (especially Ireland and the UK) equally poor for sleeping.
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