Help with Asia flight decisions
 

We are travelling from Chicago to Kuala Lumpur (and then the next day to Borneo). We are travelling in business class. I have option of flying via New York-Hong Kong-Kuala Lumpur (leaving NYC at 10:00 AM, which also means leaving Chicago night before to fly to New York where we would spend the night in hotel,and arriving KL at 6:40 PM) or travelling via LA at midnight, i.e. 2 AM Chicago time, and arriving in Kuala Lumpur at 12:30 PM.

My question is which option might be easier on the body and for jet lag. Does it matter? I am eager to enjoy business class and wonder whether it might be more fun starting the long leg at 10 AM versus Midnight).

Any thoughts and experiences?

Thanks,

Daniel

My experience says that it is easier on the body to fly west. That is for my body, others may differ. In a way it is better to arrive afternoon/evening to get a full night sleep and get on a regular rhythm.

Both flights go West I believe.
 

One takes however Polar Route.

It sounds as if your ORD-NYC-HKG-KUL routing is on Cathay Pacific and your ORD-LAX-KUL routing is on Malaysian. Be aware that the Malaysian option includes a forced transit stop and deboarding in TPE. It also includes a LAX transfer obviously, and nobody likes LAX (esp. if you are returning same way and reentering the country there). On the strength of those two points alone I would pick the via-NYC option.

sleep on the earlier portion of your trip (if at all) arrive 6:40PM stay awake till 22:00-23:000 fall asleep dead tired and wake up in the morning after a full nights sleep.


Arrive 12:30 PM dead tired at 1500 need a nap wake up 1800 cant fall asleep till 0330....

NY!

I completely agree with this assessment. ^

I fly LAX - SIN on UA quite often, always could get used to the time different / jetlag on the LAX - SIN as arriving around midnight, so could just sleep, even for 5 to 6 hours, that's enough. But on the SIN - LAX, UA's flight arrive in the morning, or early afternoon and there's still a big half of the day to stay awake before the actual sleeping time, end up sleeping very early (like 7pm) always.

As for easier on body, do you mean the UV radiation thing? I saw a post some time ago saying that UV (or whatever rays that are harmful to the body) is more intense near the poles, so the polar flights are less easy on the body?

ps. I wont heed the UV theory anyway.

I don't know this route but have flown similar distances. Either way it is a very long flight, although Business class and lounge access will help somewhat.

What are the connections like in HKG, and LAX? Basically how many hours it takes you from NYC to KUL in the first route (ORD-NYC doesn't count as you'd be sleeping a night)? From ORD to KUL in the second? My instinct would be to minimize this time, when you are traveling without a real bed.

If you do take the NYC route, get there early enough, leave in the afternoon, to get a real full night's sleep. What you absolutely don't want is to reach NYC at 10PM, hotel bed by midnight, and have to get up at 4AM again!

Both flights are on Cathay.
 

My itinerary is on Cathay with both options. Thus, layover in Hong Kong either way. The LA routing has a layover of three hours between arrival from ORD and departure to Hong Kong and then a 3 hour layover in Hong Kong. The New York routing has a layover of one hour in Hong Kong, but of course I will also have to fly to New York anbd stay overnight to catch the 10:00 AM flight. My arrival in New York the night before my Hong Kong flight would be approximately at 10:00 PM.

Any reason why one wouldn't want to route ORD-NRT-KUL or ORD-ICN-KUL?

The whole idea of having to fly to NYC the night before just seems like a lot of hassle.