Time of day to fly

I can only offer you our experience. Flying from Philadelphia (or Newark), flights across are pretty much all late afternoon. Depending on where we are going, we have reached our destination at anywhere from noon to 3 PM local time. This means we have been up all night, trying to nap some on the plane. In terms of our internal clock, we have generally landed for the first time (if connecting) at midnight to 2AM. The practicality of this is that we shower when we get to our lodging, and even though tired get out and explore, have an early dinner, go to sleep by 9, and with a good night's sleep are raring to go the next morning, and adjusted to the new time. The flights back are mid-morning, and we arrive back to our house around 5-5:30PM, which in terms of the time zone we were on, is late night. In essence, we stay up until 3 AM this way, and then readjust.

We don't seem to have any options on these, this is when the airlines fly, and they have to position their planes effectively. But if we were to have offered an early morning flight to Europe, say 9 AM (and there a re a couple options out there), we would not take it. Why? Because this would put us arriving not only very late - 9AM + 7 hours flight = 4PM, + 6 hours time difference = 10PM, but then we would be needing to go to sleep at what we think is dinner time.

The unfortunate part of flying is that it IS exhausting to be cooped up in your seat for so many hours, no matter what time you do it. The hardest thing for us has been to have dealt with a 4 hour layover for what our bodies told us was 2-6AM.

I also travel from SF and find that an early afternoon departure and arrival in mid- to late afternoon the next day in Europe works really well for me--I sleep a little on the plane and arrive in good enough shape to hit the ground running, with enough daylight to get myself oriented, find something to eat and then to bed at a normal early bedtime--I seem to totally crash by 9 pm. Next day my body clock is in sync.

Coming home I take the 6 am flight and arrive in SF in early afternoon--again, works quite well, I get home and unpack, etc and to bed when I'm no longer functional, usually 9-10.

I flew to London three times from the East Coast. We left at around 10 p.m. EST, and arrived in London around 10 a.m. (British time). I did sleep on the plane a bit, and I was tired when I arrived, but each time I was meeting friends, so I was excited and did not want to go to sleep. Of course, I was in my early 20s and could put up with sleep deprivation a lot better.

That said, these days I think I would still choose the same time frame so I could sleep on the plane.

This is the classic conundrum that flying west to east is always more disorienting than east to west. Except for a few flights from the east coast to Ireland or the UK, all flights leave from late afternoon to evening, so they land in Europe in the morning. You arrive at 2 am on your clock, but it is 9 am on the local's clock. They had a full night's sleep and are starting their day, you've been up to the wee hours and are ready to crash.

Going the other way, you leave Europe early afternoon and fly with the sun. When you land, it is 11 pm on your clock, but 4 pm on the locals clock. So it is no problem to stay awake for a few more hours and turn in early and be pretty much readjusted the next day.

So as far as departure times, we really have no choice. We will land the next morning in a mental fog.

Thanks for all your replies. I guess this is just something to deal with - we just returned from a trip and are dealing with jetlag right now, so I'm looking for a magic solution for the next trip. I guess this is just the price of going and having a wonderful time while there. Thanks.

Keep in mind: the later flights leave little "wiggle room" if there are delays and missed connections. Yep, speaking from experience.

We take 2:30 p.m. SFO-CDG arriving in mid-morning -- I sleep fine, my husband watches movies most of the flight -- left bags at the hotel once, apartment was ready another time so we were able to walk around for a few hours (nothing deep like a museum) . Early light dinner, early bedtime. On the way back, we try for a mid-morning flight arriving SFO around noon then public transit home and collapse with the accumulated mail/ suitcases full of laundry. But we do NOT have to get up and go to work the next day, so that makes it easier.

I like the evening flights the best out of the west coast. That way, when I get where I am going I can down some coffee and avoid taking a nap and stay up until at least 9:30 or 10.

That's the best way for me to adjust quickly.

You said you're flying premium economy, but if you haven't tried BA or SAS premium economy I recommend it. Much more luxurious than Economy Comfort on Delta, which is just a little extra legroom.

I also use noise cancelling headphones, eye shades and sometimes a benedryl to get a good 4-hr nap.

I’ve come up with different theories for this as well. We also fly out from San Francisco. As a general rule, I try not to arrive after dark, especially if it is a place I’ve never been to before and are unfamiliar with. At the same time I try not to book morning flights out. The earlier I have to wake up in the morning for an outbound flight the more tired and physically comprised I’ll be and that’s when mistakes happen. I’ve had great success with afternoon departures out of San Francisco, which would arrive in Europe sometime in the morning. You won’t be able to check in to your hotel at that hour, but in a way it forces you to remain active and not fall victim to jet lag and sleep away most of the day.

Hi,

Whether to Paris, London, or Frankfurt I fly out of SFO too. As long as the flight departs anywhere from 2 to 4 pm (best time ) and arrives local time in the morning or so, 9 to 11 am, I am fine, fit to go. The flight from SFO or even LAX has to be direct since I don't want to change planes and on a ten to 11 hr direct flight, I can count on sleeping, min. 2-3 hrs, at best more than six. True, sitting in Economy isn't all that great, putting up with that constrained squished in feeling, I just don't think about it by focusing on falling asleep, and when I'm not sleeping, ie, having just awakened I look at the watch to see how much flight time is left.

Mostly I have taken evening flights, but twice I've taken flights that leave in the AM with arrivals around 9-10PM in London. I've done this out of Chicago and out of New York's JFK. I actually like the morning flights much to my surprise. By the time you get to your hotel it is time to go to bed. Of course, you're still awake, but if you stay up until midnight or 1 AM reading and get up for a late breakfast--go as late as they will let you--I found that I got a head start on beating my jet lag. I usually take a tylenol or Ibuprofen PM to help me get to sleep.

I don't know what is possible from the west coast. I suspect that you just don't have this option. First, it's a longer flight and second, you have three more hours of time difference.

That sounds like a perfect schedule to me, Pamela. Not possible for us here, but it would be nice. Thanks.

Leaving from Denver, there haven't been any direct flights until recently and we usually wind up connecting thru Chicago, Newark, or Dulles. Our upcoming trip to Amsterdam will connect thru Houston, a first for us. But they all leave around 5pm and get into Europe early in the morning around 9am or so. We too have had a mixed experience of being able to check in early with the worst case being our last trip to London when the hotel made us wait until exactly 4pm to check in. Our usual routine is to check the bags at the hotel and go out for a walking tour for lunch/early dinner or whatever. We try to stay awake until 7 or 8pm and then sleep through until the following morning early when we're ready to really hit the sightseeing.

Coming back is worse. The late morning, noon time flights all get us back to Denver around 9-10pm with connecting flights in the US and we're exhausted for the next couple days - this has gotten worse as we've gotten older.