Early Flight to London

I almost always take the morning flight out of Dulles to London. I can’t sleep on planes, so I find this the best way to get to Europe.

I usually don’t get to sleep until about 1am the first night. I end up sleeping in a little late the first morning. I set my alarm for 9. After that, I am pretty much fine the rest of the trip.

My brother in law does this route out of Dulles as well. He swears by it.

My husband and I are fond of the 7am flight to Heathrow from Boston. We have to get up at 3am to get there so by the time we get to our hotel we're tired. We grab a quick meal and then we're ready for bed.

If I arrive early in the day, I know I'm going to break the rules and take a nap. Arriving close to a proper sleeping hour has worked better to get me onto a normal European schedule.

For me, it is very enticing to catch the 8:10 flight to LHR from JFK on Virgin and arrive around 8:10pm and I used to do it when Delta had its early morning flight. Yet I don't because it would cost an extra night's hotel stay and that money could be budgeted for me to go to two plays on the West End.

So then I think -- which do I want? Arriving in time for a good night's rest or have that groggy first day but then know I'll be enjoying two performances on the West End later during my visit. It is the latter I pick and it is the latter I in fact just DID pick as I just booked roundtrip tickets on Delta between JFK & London for $579. They are having a fare sale through Nov 14 for all trips between January 9 and March 31, 2019. Given the high exit taxes at London airports, this really IS a good deal.

So to answer your question, I have done the early morning flight and it truly is wonderful as I do wake up the next morning feeling fully refreshed. If that's what you want, go for it!

Agree with Laura. When flying to S. America one arrives late at night around regular bed time, so it works well for working through jet lag. We always take the non stop British Airways flight out of BWI which leaves in the evening and arriving in London early. That makes getting through the day difficult. A morning non stop flight would be nice.

Thank you everyone. I am sold. Continental, I like the way you think.

I have flown into Heathrow over 30+ times. And my favorite flight to take is the 9:00 am flight out of Chicago to arrive in London at 10:45 PM. - I just love arriving at this time. I can go to bed and feel totally refreshed by the morning. The older I get, the more I like the day flight. The premier Inn at Terminal 4 is great for the first night and really cheap. I just booked for March and I paid $34.00. non refundable. Rooms are new and very clean.

Margaret.

That is my favorite way to arrive in London. I do it whenever I can for my trips there. I too cannot sleep on a plane no matter where I sit. I just don't live anywhere near the East coast, so that means I have to fly in a day early and spend the night near the airport to make that early flight.

For the past 2.5 years, I have taken the morning flight from JFK- LHR. I love it. No jet lag and I get up the next morning ready to go. That's about 10 flights.

On my current trip, I changed the routine and took an overnight flight from JFK-KEF. I can't sleep on planes. My timing was scewed up for days.

I'm going back to my day flights.

Thank you again everyone. This was my wife's idea to fly early but like every great marriage you have to hear it from others before you believe your wife. Sorry my dear.

Morning flights are the only way to go. Too bad there aren't more of them. But I guess the overnight flights cater to business fliers and the businesses that pay them.

Heathrow has a large collection of hotels with prices that can be less than in London. Spending the first night at one of them has its appeal. And more than once I've spent the night before a morning departure at Heathrow just to make things simpler.

My husband, 3 kids and I took the morning flight out of Chicago this past June. Arrived at LHR about 10:45 at night. Went through customs, stayed at a reasonably priced hotel that first night, and were able to get a decent nights sleep. Woke up not terribly early the next morning, but refreshed enough to rent a car and head to Windsor Castle and enjoy our day. Really didn't suffer from much jet lag for any of us, including the kids, all fairly young. I highly recommend the morning flight!

I'm green with envy of all you East Coasters who can make this daytime flight thing work. I have no choice but to sit nearly sleepless through a "night" over the Arctic and land when the sun and clock say morning or noon but my body says midnight or worse.

Joe, for what it's worth, your wife and all those other people are right, go for the evening arrival, have a heavy dinner with wine, take a pill, and zonk out till morning. That's what I do on arrival, but I have to get through a semi-zombie day first. You'll get to spend your zombie time in the air. ;-)

I have to second the thoughts on the flight out of Chicago. The AA flight gets you into London at ~2245. Immigration is generally easy (or has been when I have done it) by that point. Makes the next day much easier.

The BA day flight is the only flight to Europe that I take. Boston to London. I stay overnight at the Sofitel, have a lovely room service dinner and just relax and sleep in a real bed. I, then, make my connection the next day at a civilized hour to my intended destination, if it is not London. IMO, there's no other pleasant way to do travel...well, maybe by ship. Not sleeping on an overnight flight is unacceptable as it opens one up to fatigue, jet lag and illness, IMO.

Wray's post makes me want to move to Boston so I can get to Europe that easily!

Flying from the west coast is different or maybe I have been selecting the wrong departure times.

Regardless of departure time from OAK or SFO, or even SeaTac after the layover from Calif, I want ideally to land in London, Frankfurt, or Paris, as these three are the only arrival airports, between 9 to 10 am, by noon at the latest. This means most of the flight will be an over-nighter...no problem since I can count on sleeping most of the flight. There is no jet lag when I arrive.

The "early morning approach" means a greater chance of getting through Border/Passport Control more quickly, I have more than half the day available, and am good to good once leaving the airport by public transport.

I've never arrived in Europe on a trans-Atlantic flight in the evening, always sometime between 5-11 am and non-stop from the west coast.

Thank you everyone!

Loved the day flight from Chicago to LHR, plus the Premier Inn was only about £45 or so, saving a night in expensive zone 1 London. Two drinks at the hotel bar and i was ready for bed. As a plus, Premier Inn usually has BBC radio, so I was able to relax to BBC radio 3 before falling asleep.

"Flying from the west coast is different or maybe I have been selecting the wrong departure times. "

The former. The flights that leave in the morning and arrive in the evening are only available to London, and only from a few airports (Chicago, JFK, Newark, Dulles, and Boston, last time I checked). If someone wants to take one of these flights and doesn't live close to one of these airports, they'd need to get to one of them the day before, then spend the night in an airport hotel (the flights leave around 8 AM).