Caphck

I AM A ROOKIE GOT THE TITLE WRONG, SHOULD BE IAD-HKG

First post to this website, great website, was really helpful is choosing my C seats to HKG. Going to HKG from IAD next week for business, trying to figure out best sleep plan. Been to HKG before for pleasure (10 years ago) so being functional when I arrive was not really important. I have a 7:00 am flight out of IAD and then am on the 12:55pm out of SFO (gets into HKG ~6:00pm). I am thinking stay up late the night before, sleep as much as possible on the IAD-SFO leg (and the 3 hour layover) and then stay up for the SFO-HKG leg. Any advice.

Loving the DEQM promo, this flight will put me within 5k of 1K. On that note, does the DEQM include the full C fare 150% EQM or is it only for actual miles flown? Think the terms say actual miles flown.

Thanks in advance, will post my experiance in the new 747 UD C configuration, I am 6'3" so will see how it goes. Generally fly VA Upper Class on my IAD-LHR trips and enjoy those seats.

mahasamatman

It's supposed to be on base miles flown, but some people have reported getting the bonus doubled as well.

fastair

Take 2-3 naps on the overwater leg, wake up 90 min b4 landing, get last meal in, freshen up, and get ready for your body to reset to the new time zone. SInce the circadian rhythms are all messed up and the sun is not where your body expects it to be, I just try to completely mess up it during the flight so it resets to a new time zone faster. In any case you will be rested, but not fully and you will be able to sleep at your new normal bed time.

DEN

I agree with Fastare. I do better not sleeping as much heading to Asia since you usually arrive in late afternoon or early evening. Get some exercise when you arrive and stay up till 10 or so. Also, in the last few years I have cut back on how much food I eat in-flight, skipping usually the last meal (if not all of them). For me, it seems to work. I leave for HKG this weekend (DEN/ORD/HKG) and probably will skip all the meals.

DEN

bostonpilot

I think everyone on FT probably has a different opinion on this, but here's how I handle it.

I normally go to bed at my normal time the nigth before, because I typically have to be up at ~4:00am for my BOS-ORD/SFO-HKG flights. I try not to sleep at all on my domestic flight and then I grab a drink in the RCC (I like the bloody marys in the SFO int'l RCC btw).

On the transpac flight, I stay awake through the meal service and maybe a movie and then try and sleep for as long as I can. I will usually wake up somewhere around the north pole at which point I will have a noodle bowl for a snack. I will then stay awake for a few hours working, wtaching tv, etc until I start to feel tired. I will then take another shorter nap until they start passing out the pre-arrival meal.

As stated above, I will use that last ~90min to wake up, eat something small, freshen up, etc prior to arrival into HKG.

The most important step for me is that upon arrival is to stay awake. I take the airport express into town, check into my hotel, take a shower and head out for dinner (mandatory for me so I don't fall asleep). I grab a good dinner (Din Tai Fung in Kowloon is my favorite arrival night choice) and stay out until semi late, 10-11pm ish. At that point, I am exhausted so I crash and end up sleeping soundly until 5am or so and I am pretty much adjusted to HKG time.

Works great for me. Have a great trip to one of my favorite cities. Welcome to FT btw.

777Brian

For most flights to Asia I go to bed my regular time the night before travel and wake up accordingly. I try to stay awake the majority of the flight - sometimes all of it. The drinks and boredom usually catch up with me somewhere around Japan (~4 hours outside of HKG). I may cat nap from that point, but try to limit it to an hour or so (I make a point of telling the FAs to wake me for the final meal in case I sleep to long). By the time you go past immigration and get to the hotel in HKG it is 8:00-9:00 so I usually just go to bed (or a really light meal and relax for a bit), wake up 4:30 the next morning and then go for a run/workout (I think the physical activity the next morning is key). This lets me adjust pretty well to the time change. I find that the hardest part of travel to Asia is usually the return; I'm usually a wreck for 2 or 3 days.

CarlTheWebmaster

Slightly OT but I'm interested to hear what others say. I"ve been IAD-NRT dozens of times in the last few years, and I usually follow this plan:

• Stay up very late the night before the flight
• Enjoy a drink in the IFL
• Enjoy a glass or two more on board and stay up through the main meal
• Sleep as long as possible -- usually waking up 1-2hrs prior to landing
• Have a light meal (the small sandwiches used for the midflight snack)
• On arrival in the afternoon in Tokyo, force myself to stay awake until 10pm or so in hopes of sleeping through the night.

I have done modifications of this that avoid alcohol entirely (little effect except I wasn't as dehydrated and slept less soundly on the plane), using ambien (swore off the pills because of side effects), and other approaches/schedules but the above tends to work best for me.

This same plan works for me on the IAD-PEK nonstop as well. To the OP, for a connection in ORD or SFO, I would try to sleep on the inital connection but in general follow the above plan.

However next trip for the first time I will be continuing on to SIN. I suppose in theory I could try the same plan but staying awake on the 7+hr flight to SIN seems unlikely. The one time I connected in NRT to PEK (rather than the nonstop from IAD) I ended up dozing off for most of the NRT-PEK sector and was messed up for days in PEK.

I will definitely try to hit a shower in the NRT IFL or NH F lounge (need to get my Udon fix), but I'd be interested to know what others do on this long connection to SIN.

-C

dsgtc0408

Mrs dsgtc0408 and I do this a bit differently. She sleeps as much as she can for the TPAC portions (we start in JFK, connect either SFO or LAX, then NRT or HKG to SIN) and if she feels like napping for the final sector, she does. I tend to nap a little on TPAC but for the last leg, stay up for the whole thing. The key for us though is that either the HKG or NRT to SIN flights arrive at Changi between say 11:30 PM to about midnight. Thus by the time we get home and potter around a little, we collapse in bed. I guess what I am saying is that our need to sleep nicely corresponds with local time.

German Expat

I usually shorten my sleep the night before. Then I do not sleep on the DEN -> SFO flight and will work at the RCC and then sleep right after the meal service for a couple hours. Then will work, watch TV etc. and not sleep until I land in HKG. I will eat only light on the flight and won't finish the meals. I also only drink alcohol during the first 2 hours of the flight so that its out of my system until I land. But I do drink lots of water.
At the hotel around 8ish, take a shower, eat some Dim Sum or light Chinese Food and take a long walk (usually earns me another shower after return though) and try to be in bed by 11ish latest.
Will sleep then until 5 or 6am and be relative well rested. Eat a large breakfast, catch up on news on TV or newspaper, do my emails and I am ready to go by 8. Just make it through the day with coffee or whatever helps you to stay awake and go to bed 10ish on he 2nd night and you should do ok.

SeattleDavid

The medical advice I've read - and the strategy that really works for me is to adjust your watch to HKG time the moment you leave IAD and then behave as you would at that time. Few people do this and the meals definitely get in the way as they feed you by departure time zone most often.

This usually means sleeping right away (the meal services can get in the way, but manage them as best you can). Then sleep until it is 9 or 10 am in HKG and then wake up and start watching movies, etc etc.

I do this regularly now on LHR-SFO and stay up till 10pm at night with no problems and wake up normally the next morning.

BangkokTraveler

I think this is good advice. I even try to think ahead to that time before the flight. I usually fly ORD-NRT-BKK and there is, most times, a 12-hour difference between ORD and BKK. Day before the flight, I sleep late and also take a nap mid-evening. Wake up no later than midnight, stay up all night, board at noon in ORD, eat and drink, then sleep. I can usually sleep most of the way ORD-NRT.

On the 3.5 hour layover NRT, try to stay in the daylight (RCC or ANA lounge that is on the 4th floor of Satellite No. 5, the ANA lounge in Satellite No. 4 has no windows). NRT-BKK, try NOT to sleep. This is very difficult as they keep the cabin very dark and everyone is asleep. Arrive in BKK at 11:45pm, have a drink or two and try to sleep but I will awaken at 4am no matter what I do.

First day in BKK, don't nap. Then I take an Ambien CR at bedtime and this seems to get me through the night. I can take the Ambien CR first night after I land in BKK if I don't have somewhere to be the next day before 10:00am.

Once I get the first good nights sleep in BKK, the next nights are better but I still avoid naps and try to get exercise each day. Still, it takes me 4 days before I feel normal and sleep soundly through every night.

I've thought about severely altering my routine just to see if I can get faster adjustment while in Asia. I wonder how adjusting to Asia time 2 days before departure form USA, and sticking to it, would work?

Kman

Please forgive an even slightly more OT post, but this seems to be the thread with the TPAC sleep experts.

Doing a MR SFO-HKG-SIN-NRT-SFO at the end of the month. Have booked the SIN transport hotel for 6hr layover for shower and maybe a nap (would be around noon SFO time), then another RCC shower at NRT 3hr layover before getting back to SFO about 44 hrs after leaving.

Should I try to stay on SFO time all the way, or make some adjustments for local (HKG, SIN, NRT) times?

Ambien and/or scotch could be employed as needed (plus a beer from the magical NRT RCC beer machine)

Your thoughts?

Ripper3785

On a MR I try to stay on home time.

mduell

My strategy going to Asia is to undersleep the night before (just so you're a little tired/not fully refreshed), nap on the long haul, go to the gym when you get to the hotel, go to bed and get up at normal time.

I don't know what I'm going to do with an upcoming trip to the Mid East... I arrive at 0020, so there's no hope of a normal sleep night with a normal wakeup time.

gabrielz

As others have echoed, I like the sleep on the long overwater segment but not the intra-asia connections. When flying to HKG from the west coast, I sleep a little and stay up a little, and then force myself awake the rest of the time.

As 777Brian pointed out, I find the return to be the toughest thing. It normally takes me 2-3 days to adjust as well.


If, like many of us, you are not generally well rested, then follow this advice: sleep whenever you can on the flight. Consider it an opportunity to catch up on some restful sleep in a no disturbances way.

-G