red eye flights
Sep 25, 2008 | 7:42 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 172
red eye flights
Say a plane leaves LAX at 1130pm and arrives at O'Hare at 530 am. Does sthat plane usually go out of service for the day or used for the day flights? I know most of the day and evening flight planes either park at the gate overnight or get towed to remote.
Sep 25, 2008 | 8:07 pm
#2
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: The best state in the USA - Florida!
Programs: Marriott Titanium/LT Plat, AS Titanium, Disney AP
Posts: 14,532
They normally turn them around for flights during the day - the redeyes are a good way to increase aircraft utilization.
Sep 25, 2008 | 11:19 pm
#7
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Portland
Programs: HH Gold, Alaska MVP Gold
Posts: 4,074
SFO-ORD is even worse IMHO. at least UA used to put an intl 767 on that route for the redeye so you could upgrade to C and get a couple of hours of rest. i'm not sure if they still do though.
Sep 26, 2008 | 12:10 am
#8
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: DEN, or so it says...
Programs: UA1K/RCC, Avis CHM, NWA Plat, SPG Plat
Posts: 2,991
Sep 26, 2008 | 10:27 am
#9
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: United States
Programs: UA, AA, DL, Amtrak
Posts: 4,647
I'd guess that a plane is more likely to get some "rest" prior to its red-eye flight, not after. That is, an aircraft arrives in a West Coast city around 8 or 9 local time, then gets a two-hour or so break until the red-eye departs.
This cushion allows for some padding to get back on schedule in the event of earlier delays, thus preventing one day's poor ops from spilling into the next day. Certainly this isn't true in all cases, but I think it's far more likely that an arriving red-eye aircraft is immediately turned around to be a part of the first morning bank of flights.
This cushion allows for some padding to get back on schedule in the event of earlier delays, thus preventing one day's poor ops from spilling into the next day. Certainly this isn't true in all cases, but I think it's far more likely that an arriving red-eye aircraft is immediately turned around to be a part of the first morning bank of flights.
Sep 26, 2008 | 10:41 am
#10
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: New York, NY
Programs: BAEC Gold, Delta Platinum, Hilton Diamond, Marriott Gold, AMEX Platinum (US)
Posts: 18,541
Sep 26, 2008 | 10:48 am
#11
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: SEA
Programs: UA Plat, AS MVP, HH Gold, MR Gold
Posts: 1,848
All the redeyes I've done this year (a couple too many) have had full gates of people waiting to board the aircraft as I was deplaning.
I actively avoid the midcon redeyes, including once booking an extra connection so I could redeye LAX-MCO rather than LAX-ORD. The worst is ANC-SEA with a strong tailwind...under 3 hours. I did that once this year, but with $600 in UA travel credits in my pocket.
I actively avoid the midcon redeyes, including once booking an extra connection so I could redeye LAX-MCO rather than LAX-ORD. The worst is ANC-SEA with a strong tailwind...under 3 hours. I did that once this year, but with $600 in UA travel credits in my pocket.
Sep 26, 2008 | 11:25 pm
#12
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: The best state in the USA - Florida!
Programs: Marriott Titanium/LT Plat, AS Titanium, Disney AP
Posts: 14,532
That'll be a real fun Monday...
Sep 27, 2008 | 4:33 am
#13
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 4,651
Try JFK-ICN, leaves at 12:30AM eastern, gets into ICN at 3:45AM . Flight time 14.5 hours. Oh yeah, and the airport buses don't come until 5:40 so you're stuck there until then. I think the plane sits there until it flies off somwhere sometime between 9 and 10. But the last time I flew redeye within the states the plane showed up, offloaded pax, cleaned, loaded pax, and then flew back out. I think the turn was 90 minutes or so, which seems really long for an A320.
. Flight time 14.5 hours. Oh yeah, and the airport buses don't come until 5:40 so you're stuck there until then. I think the plane sits there until it flies off somwhere sometime between 9 and 10. But the last time I flew redeye within the states the plane showed up, offloaded pax, cleaned, loaded pax, and then flew back out. I think the turn was 90 minutes or so, which seems really long for an A320.
Sep 27, 2008 | 9:49 am
#14
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 1999
Programs: FB PLT again afater a decade as plebian
Posts: 22,938
Sep 27, 2008 | 10:52 am
#15
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 1999
Location: ORD/MDW
Programs: BA/AA/AS/B6/WN/ UA/HH/MR and more like 'em but most felicitously & importantly MUCCI
Posts: 19,809
Actually, my evening westbound flights to SEA (usually DL or NW, sometimes UA) typically arrive at 1000p or 1100p, and when we deplane there are gate lice standing right there waiting to depart for ATL / CVG / MSP, etc., so there's no "rest" before the redeye at all.