Not sure if there are any others, but I found that TAP Air is flying LIS-SFO 1:20am arriving 6:00am. Being a 12:40h flight, this seems like a great schedule for a full night sleep. Any downsides? Are there any other reverse red eyes from Europe?

Wasn’t aware of this one. Only ones I’ve seen before for TransAtlantic to North America are LHR-MEX, CDG-MEX, MAD-MEX

If I think about taking such a flight, the obvious drawback would be how the scheduled flight times coordinate (or don't in this case) with hotel checkout and checkin times, although this might matter less if occupancy is extremely low due to COVID-19. The reality is that regardless of elite status or FHR/Virtuoso/etc. booking, OP should expect to be required to check out long before the time to go to LIS and similarly should expect to spend hours in the early morning in a homeless state before being given access to a hotel room in the SFO area. You can pay for additional hotel nights (on both ends), but many people (or corporate travel policies) aren't willing to do this.

I hate early AM departures and for the return flight, it would get into LIS around..... 0100-0200 the the next day?

It appears that for this one, the aircraft remains at SFO for quite a while before making its return, so it arrives back in to LIS at a fairly normal time for a Trans-Atlantic flight (8am-ish IIRC)

Not much different than the North/South America flights with respect to the nearly insufferable hardships you describe. Somehow, we've all survived.

Elite status at a hotel might help. I've had lots of European Marriotts and Hiltons check me into a room when I arrived mid-morning. San Francisco hotels will be used to all sorts of odd-hours arrivals from Asia and elsewhere, so maybe this is possible there as well. Obviously pending availability. Even though hotels aren't full, many are more precisely measuring the number of hours a room is empty between guests as part of their COVID procedures, so that could limit things.

We had a discussion about this on the TP forum a few weeks ago. It was originally scheduled this way for Oct and then they rescheduled their Nov flights.

This is due to having the same crew fly the plane there and back, allowing enough time for crew rest. There are probably 2 full cockpit crews on this one too.

There were plenty of such flights from Israel to the US (east coast), also from Spain/Portugal to South America.

The OP asks for opinion on the flight and some people talk about hotels check-in/out. Lots assumptions.... SMH

OP - You can get a good 7-8 hrs sleep. I would follow destination time zone sleep pattern to minimize jet-lag. You can get a good 7-8 hrs sleep

Enjoy your flight!

He/she asked for any downsides?



That would mean staying awake until 5:00am at your origin time which isn't going to happen.

IME when I fly to Buenos Aires, by the time I clear immigration and customs and get to my hotel, it's mid-morning. I've never waited for my room, in Argentina or Brazil, longer than the time it takes to drink a glass of champagne. For the return, it's easy to get a four or five o'clock checkout with status or on a FHR booking; leaving then is very reasonable for a flight scheduled to depart around 8:00 or 8:30 pm. No problem.

OTOH arriving in Europe at 6 am means being homeless for most of the morning. If it's Italy, IME you will not be given a room until the official check in time, typically 3 pm, when all rooms in the hotel suddenly become magically clean and available for arriving guests.

About the flight! People assume hotels at both ends! If the OP worried about hotels, the OP would have asked about that! Many people travel all over the world and never set a foot in a hotel. They stay with relatives/friends. The OP listed Oakland as location. SFO is next to OAK Does the OP need to worry about check-in at destination?

I would consider that a legit downside. As for not happening.... Been there often times with no problems.

If you think about the possibilities of connections, I could see the convenience. Instead of arriving at your scheduled TATL airport from wherever you were in Europe the night before to ensure being there on time for your mid morning TATL, or getting up to catch the first flight to your TATL departing airport and worrying about missing the flight, you could have a good last day in whatever fabulous European town you were visiting, catch an afternoon or early evening flight to LIS and have a nice sleep home, and arrive in SFO in enough time to catch your flight home.

So, I guess it depends on what your primary origin city was and your final destination.

I usually find the best TATL priced biz class flight from the east coast to somewhere on the European continent (usually it’s FRA or AMS), then book much cheaper inter European coach tickets to where I want to go.

But it usually requires at least an overnight stay in my US arrival city, and sometimes an overnight in my departing European city. This schedule could eliminate those expensive airport hotel stays.

Plenty of South America flights arrive 6 to 7 AM, in both directions. Plenty leave at 10pm or later. You have had the best of luck with all the stars aligned. I've had mixed 'early check in" results on every continent I've visited. And 90+ percent of the traveling public, perhaps 95% or more, aren't blessed with status or FHR booking possibilities.

And lest we forget how many people are not going to a hotel, and check in / out is the least of their concerns.

Not the OP, but the possibility of arriving @ SFO a las 06:00h is quite appealing. Home and time for a nap by 8, take a 2 hour nap, and go on with my life, relatively unscathed from the travels.

I bet half the plane will be coming from elsewhere in Europe, and not dealing with the near-death experience of being homeless from noon until flight time.