I agree, I did a trip to London, England once, having flown from the east coast in an overnight flight and arrived in the morning. I stayed awake and walked all day after reaching London, and then by nighttime there, I was really tired and had to sleep. That too, I usually am not able to sleep on a plane, including overnight flights.
Same here, pretty much. I will allow myself a one hour nap (and no more!) to refresh, but then stay up until an early-ish bedtime, like 9 pm or 10 pm. I'm up early and back on schedule the next day. Never had jet lag going to Europe - but I'm on EST so only six hours difference and it might be harder for folks from the west coast with a nine hour difference.
@@rudraguinit’s difficult to me get asleep on flights too, I have been visiting my sister in Norway and try to stay awake until the time I usually go sleep at home, and don’t feel the jet lag
@@legendaviation9439 yea then I may root for Sam and Jeb and betray Ben and Adam for those episodes. Imagine if it’s a race to complete hub hopping with all the us airlines.
Back in 1998, I was fed up with the overnight eastbound flights, even in business class, so I was pleased to hear that a couple of airlines had started the morning flights to London. At that time, there were three options - United or BA from JFK and BA from Boston. I chose United and stayed at an airport hotel close to JFK. The hotel wasn't anything special, but, as you saw, it was good to have an empty lounge before departure. Boarding at around 09:00, it felt good to spend my Sunday sitting watching movies and being fed at "normal" meal times. Even better, I arrived at Heathrow around 21:30 local time and found an empty arrivals terminal with no queues. Then, to arrive home and go to bed at normal UK time was such a luxury. Yes, I woke feeling good the next day.
Other advantage: hotel check-in times are generally in the afternoon. Sure you could ask for an early check-in, but you might be denied or they’ll charge for it. Getting in at 7-8am means you’ve got to plan on what to do with your bags (sometimes the hotel will store them) and then plan on being out and about until check-in. The funniest was our trip to Sydney, we got in early, decided to eat breakfast in the terminal (not great, but not bad), and then slowly make our way to the hotel, who were kind enough to have a room ready because they saw we were international guests. We did a few things in the early afternoon, then decided it was “too early” for dinner at 3pm, so we took a “nap.” Jet-lag must’ve hit as we woke up at 2am! “Guess we’re not doing dinner.” Back to sleep and we had a big complementary breakfast. We were actually ok for the rest of the trip though. Coming back we got in after 9pm, so it was straight to bed.
The pro tip is to book the hotel for the night you fly, tell them you will arrive early morning to hold your room, and then you can check in at 7am and take a shower and nap for 3-4 hours. As long as you only sleep one sleep cycle (~4 hours) your body clock will be fine. Up by 12 Noon exploring the city and sleep regularly that night. This all depends on arrival times. Early morning arrival is best, midday arrival is the worst.
London is one of the few destinations from the East Coast that has morning departures. I mostly fly to Paris which once had a morning departure but has since been dropped. Airlines prefer the evening departure from the East Coast because it allows them to do a Transatlantic round trip in one day per plane. For Paris, though, there is a pretty good Plan B: I take the last flight of the day which currently leaves JFK at about 12:30 am, getting into CDG at 1:55 pm. By the time you get out of the airport and into Paris it will be about 4:30 or 5:00 pm. You grab a little early light dinner and you can be in bed by 8:00 pm, which is a reasonable time to fall asleep on a European arrival.
London I think is the only destination that has an east coast morning departure. However, I think that will change in the near future as I'm very certain United, Delta or even JetBlue will announce a daytime Paris flight once their A321XLRs enter service, an aircraft perfect for this role. Don't expect American to do so as they are short on capacity.
Great video Jeb. As a business traveler who does a lot of work in Europe I do this trip a lot. My strategy if you are on the late afternoon to evening departure flights is to just keep moving once you get to Europe and take a melatonine to help fall asleep at night. Avoid taking a mid day nap.
Those mid day naps after an overnight flight to Europe will kill your body clock….took me 5 days to adjust my body clock because I took a 3-4 hour nap one time and couldn’t fall asleep that night…it was miserable lol
@@kylefopma4108 It depends on the arrival time and how much you travel. If you arrive on a Dublin or UK flight at 5 30 / 6 30am, most people are not going to be able to stay up the entire flight AND all the next day. It's best to book the hotel the night you fly, check-in to the hotel at 7am and get 3-4 hours of sleep right away. This means you are up by 11-12 Noon and can sleep regularly that night. I've never had a problem with jet lag doing this for years. However, if you sleep for 6+ hours upon arriving your clock is screwed.
The way I found to avoid jet lag on overnight flights to Europe: don't sleep on the plane. On my last overnight flight from EWR to Athens, I used my laptop during the entire flight, and had decently fast internet. I was able to catch up on all the TH-cam videos I wasn't able to watch before. I was able to get a good amount of work done as well, and when I landed, I was not tired at all, and was able to go to bed at normal time in Athens. As an added benefit, since nearly everyone else on the plane was sleeping, my Wi-Fi was blazing fast. With a VPN, I could effortlessly watch TH-cam in 1080p.
@@congresssux9766 It worked well for me and with Starlink coming soon to planes, allowing for internet speeds in excess of 100mbps, it would be even better. I would never get bored or tired from spending 11 hours on my laptop.
This only works if your flight arrives to Europe or Istanbul in the late afternoon hours, say 4pm, 5pm, etc. Then you can go to bed a 9/9 30pm just fine. But if the flight arrives at 5 30am or 6 30am this logic doesn't work for most adults as you will be completely wrecked the entire next day. In Zurich I was able to check-in to my hotel at 9 45am as they cater to business travelers much better. However, most places will not let you check in until well after 1pm. Booking the hotel the night of your flight is also a good option if you arrive early as you can check in a 8am and sleep.
As Jeb said, handling jet lag seems to have a large subjective element. I fly to Europe a lot and have found a system that works for me: I take evening flights. I avoid caffeine for 36 hours before the flight. I try to get up two to three hours early. I always sleep on the plane. I find sleeping on the plane to be easy, so I am lucky. I drink coffee when I land and don’t, under any circumstances, sleep during the first day. I get right into the new time zone. It works for me and I’m not really impacted by jet lag as a result.
I can't agree more, although I travel from the UK to Asia. The only thing you are really fighting here is the trouble getting asleep on time as per the new time zone and it starts right on board. Apart from caffeine, I skip meals 4-5 hours before the flight and do not eat anything on board (food keeps me awake). But otherwise same protocol really. So when I fly in the eastward direction, I choose evening flights with some prep the night before.
Over a 5 year period I made a return trip from Auckland New Zealand to either Heathrow or Birmingham UK 6 times (12 trips). My health management plan was timing my activities according to the destination, then reverse engineering intermediary activities. Flying Emirates, Dubai was a good way-point for that timing. I made a company rule that all staff flying the same route hoteled at the destination, and set off the next morning after a good sleep. Worked for us all.
The vast majority of the time traveling to Europe, the first day is wasted as you get so little sleep on the red-eye flight in my experience, and I definitely think that morning eastbound flights to Europe is a game changer as it allows a full night of sleep so the next day is not wasted.
Especially in Economy, forget it. Arriving in Paris at 6 am and having to wait for your room and dropping your bags is torture. After sighing seeing at 2pm you’re done for the day until the next morning at 3 or 4 am.
Makes sense! A favorite trip for UAL flight attendants is the 2 day LHR, working a morning flight to LHR, and coming back the next morning. Your body clock almost doesn’t get messed up.
I travel frequently to Ireland. My system is that I go to bed a bit earlier each night a few days before departure. I take an afternoon flight. I eat on the plane, take melatonin and sleep for a few hours which makes me feel refreshed for the 5:15 am arrival in Dublin. Having slept on the flight, I'm more alert for the 3 1/2 hour, early morning drive across Ireland. I don't nap the day of arrival and go to bed at night at the usual time. The next day I'm 100% on Ireland time.
I did this flight with BA in June 2022 with my 2 children. I chose it because i knew doing a 6hr overnight would be bad for the kids - they'd be upset & cranky for not getting enough sleep. Instead they got to watch a couple of movies and we much happier in a daytime flight which meant my husband & I were happy too!
Flew from Chicago to London on AA90 in premium economy in April and it was nice to get to London at 9:30 at night rather than in the morning. Definitely helped with the jet lag taking a daytime flight. Edit: best part - zero wait for customs on the other side in London.
With noise cancelling earphones, lay-flat seats, and eye coverings I sleep just fine on overseas flights. When we arrive in the morning I can get my rental car, check into the hotel or stay with family and have breakfast, then start the day without missing a beat.
Great video, I like the daytime options! While on the topic, there is another way to get from the US to Europe without an overnight flight! JetBlue has a BOS-KEF service that leaves at 1230pm arriving to Keflavik around 9:30pm. Then you spend the night in Iceland and take a daytime flight to your final destination anywhere Europe. Slightly longer flights from Iceland down to Europe so it think both of these routes are about the same, except KEF is super easy to navigate.
I flew over to Munich last year on United and we left at 5:30 PM. Arrived at 7:30 in the morning. It was my first trip to Europe. I bought myself up into business class and there was no regrets and you’re right about the sleep, but I’ll tell you it took me about two days to get my body adjusted. I’ll definitely have to try taking a day flight.
Over the years my strategy has changed, but as I approach 70 here is my current plan. I normally fly from LAX to LHR and United has a departing flight around 1 PM, lands at Heathrow appx 7 AM London time. I then go to a dayroom at a T4 hotel (there are usually multiple hotels to choose from). I go to sleep at 10 AM London time, really tired, and sleep for 5 hours ONLY, get up at 3 PM, then transfer to my London hotel. That night I sleep for maybe another 5 hours, getting up at 5 AM or so. And I feel great and I’m ready to go from there.
Once I discovered the day flight, I won’t go any other way. Truly a revelation. You get in tired from traveling all day, and at least for me it totally eliminates jet lag.
Great video! My method has always been to take a nap on the hop across the pond, arrive early morning, power through the entire day with lots of coffee, and then go to sleep at a reasonable time in local time. That way, your exhaustion lets you sleep through the night and you wake up at a normal time in the morning. Might change as I grow older though!
The key to getting on the local when going to Europe and flying overnight is to stay up as long as you can when you get there. Have something planned for the afternoon, then eat a really early dinner and go to bed. We are usually asleep before 8pm. But, we get the next morning fresh and ready for adventure.
Last two trips to Europe found me taking a red eye from the west coast to ORD or BOS and then getting comfy in an airport hotel "day use" room. Took a nap during the day and was well rested for the evening flight across the pond. This allowed me to make it through the first day in Europe until the evening, when I then got a relaxing first night's sleep. The day use rooms are a great benefit!
That is a great idea Jeb! My strategy to avoid jetlag is to drink a lot after dinner and fall asleep, then you're refreshed when you get there in the afternoon. Then you'll just go about your day and be ready to go to sleep in the evening. Thanks for another great video❤✈
As far as other options to do the eastbound Atlantic crossing in the day, currently what I can find is: * ORD: A single morning American Airlines flight to LHR * IAD: A single morning United flight to LHR (on a 767-300ER) * EWR: British Airways also has a morning EWR-LHR flight * JFK: Four morning flights to LHR, one each on JetBlue, American, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic
I flew in and out of EWR 88 times one year for work. One thing I found to be more consistent than anything.... if it even sprinkles a drop, you're delayed 2 hours. Once got on UAL flight to ORD from EWR, fell asleep at the gate, slept for 1.5 hours, and woke up just to find out, we were still at the gate and the airport was in gridlock. I do not miss EWR much because of the time I spent waiting on delays in and out of that general area of the country. Glad to see you had clear skies Jeb.
"How to beat jet lag?" Have some drinks before boarding, go right to bed, and sleep the whole flight. Then when you land chug an energy drink with breakfast. Works like a charm for me.
As someone from Nova Scotia it was Great to see a mention of flight availability from Halifax, and your shoutout to the nice views over Nova Scotia in the same video! Thanks for the mentions Jeb!
Just did essentially the same on American from Chicago to London-flew from our home airport to Chicago the night before and stayed in a hotel then left for London at 8:30am central time. Flying through the day was the best! Essentially no jet lag.
Jeb, Air Canada used to have a flight that left YYZ at around 0900 and arrived in the evening in LHR. Time for a quick pint and light snack when you arrive then to bed. My wife and I came to rely on this as both our families are in Europe. I believe it shortened my jet lag recovery time. Come on Air Canada, BRING IT BACK!
I come from the time of rotary phones, black and white televisions, and no seatbelts in cars. It’s absolutely phenomenal if there’s any type of Wi-Fi transatlantic flight they can hit four or five Gs amazing
I like the daylight flights. There used to be a Qantas flight on Thursdays leaving LAX in the morning and arriving in Sydney in the late evening. It was a great flight. Emirates offer a flight that leaves Sydney at 6am that connects with other flights to lots of Europe for an evening arrival on the same day. I think you previously could do that on Cathay to London.
1) Would have loved to see a bit more of conclusion on this method! 2) I've only had one transatlantic flight back so far, starting from Dulles and going to Frankfurt. Departing late in the evening, I was able to get a few hours of sleep after dinner was served, which really helped me to avoid Jetlag! 3) This method feels pretty time consuming, starting somewhere in the evening of day 1, losing the complete day 2 while flying, and finally waking up at the beginning of day 3, if everything went according to plan. With the "standard" method of overnight flights, you barely lose half a day!
If airlines would only fly from North America to Europe in the morning here it would be a lot better, but there's only a handful of those flights and they're expensive in my experience. For the overnight ones the best way to deal with it is to just stay up all night, find something to do in the morning (walking tours are a good way to stay awake), try to check in early and take a nap for an hour or two, go out and do something low-key, then crash around 8-9pm. Then you wake up early the next day generally on European time.
When I was a crew chief in the Air Force, we would frequently fly from IN to England. On our KC-135s, we would takeoff about 8 pm. Everyone onboard would find a place in, under, or on the cargo we were carrying. By the time we landed in England, we were ready to go straight to work.
100%. Travel from Newark to LHR a lot to visit family. Yes you lose a whole day but it makes up for not feeling like a zombie. You land. Get dinner. Go straight to bed. Then wake up the next morning and your 100% good to go!
I’m still young, but my biggest jetlag successes have been landing in Europe in the morning, drinking 2 or so coffees during the day, and staying up with no naps as late as possible, usually by going to the club until 2:00am. After that, I go to sleep and I’m fine the next morning.
My way of beating jet lag as a long haul pilot is to have microsleeps throughout the day when I feel a little tired. 20 minutes here and there can provide me with solid boosts of energy
I'm no doctor, but I've come to the conclusion that I think most folks conflate simple fatigue with jet lag. Jet lag is the Inability of one's own circadian rhythm to realign with their new time zone. One can suffer jet lag for days an weeks. But for most of us we're dealing with the simple fatigue of travel. I know when I travel to Europe from the east coast, by the time I land I've been going easily 24 or 26 hours without deep restful sleep.
I always liked the daytime flight to London. Some people have argued with me as to having to lose the whole day flying and then paying for that 1st night hotel. I don't see it that way at all. It's fine for no jetlag. One wakes up rested. Great video, Jeb. Cheers.
That's exactly the problem I have with this procedure. I feel like I'm paying for one extra night for the room. Now if I were staying with someone, it would be worth a try.
My husband and I flew to France last September from Sacramento to Washington Dulles, then Washington Dulles to Paris on a red eye from IAD to CDG on United. This was my first time flying to Europe and hardly slept at all. Following the train to Nantes from Paris, crashed hard once we got to my brother in law and his wife’s home. We fell asleep around midnight and slept until noon the next day, although was fine after the first day. After we flew back from Paris to Sacramento via Toronto on Air Canada, kept waking up around 4am Pacific for several days, which took several days. Overall, I’d do it again, and this time, just try to power through the travel day and not make plans.
I've traveled to Europe twice before and both times I wasn't really affected by the jet lag. I'm not sure what I did to minimize the effects, but my body adapted to the time change pretty well. Traveling back to the US is a whole other story. Both times I felt completely exhausted and tired upon arriving back home.
Always easier for me to adapt going to Europe rather than coming home as well. But my friends who live in Europe think otherwise, they say, "West is Best, East is a Beast." Maybe it is always worse coming back home no matter which way you're going.
I find doing a red eye to Europe it’s always better to travel from the west coast if that’s an option. Particularly in business class. The extra 2-3 hours makes a big difference.
I've always used the "force yourself onto destination time" method and hit the major tourist sights the day I land. Those tend to be the easiest to find and have fewer language barriers, plus it's easier to keep going when you're checking items off a list rather than exploring. Daytime flights make sense for folks with a lot of time and flexibility, but I'm always trying to squeeze one more day of travel out of my limited PTO so spending a full day flying isn't ideal for me. But it's a great tip for those who can do it!
I am a flight attendant currently. The way I handle jet lag is: by sleeping at my desired time every day regardless of what time zone. Say I go to bed at 10pm, even if I’m in London, I’ll go to bed at 10pm. Then I come back, and I go to sleep at 10pm when I come back to the east coast. That’s it. It’s worked for me as a flight attendant, and I travel a lot.
Virgin also has a day flight that I've flown. I wish Delta would add one. It is great flying by day. Here is a challenge for you: Can you fly the cheapest long haul flight and you have to sit in a middle seat. I am envious of all your first and business class flights. :) Love you work!
From the sublime to the ridiculous, from Australia, where pretty much most O/S flights are long-haul, I had noticed that my jetlag was not such a problem when flying West - following the Sun, compared to going East. So if doing the SYD/LAX flight for West Coast business destinations, you have to fly East and suck it up, along with about three days of jetlag. However, for East Coast destinations, I discovered that a Oneworld RTW SYD to LHR, with an overnight sleep there (being tired at normal night-time) followed by a "long lunch " Flight to MIA/JFK/BOS allowed me to arrive fresh and ready for meetings the next day. The return meant continuing onto LAX and then home - all flying West. Sure, there is an extra 10 hours flight time on the SYD/LHR/East coast route, but the cheaper RTW fare covered the cost of the Hotel and a day in London. Keep up the great work and it is good to see Mrs B in more vids. 😁😁
I think that United shines with the Polaris lounge. Whenever I’m in Newark and traveling to Portugal on TAP, I always leave terminal B and go to the Polaris lounge instead.
I flew from Toronto to Reykjavik last summer. Midnight departure after I hadn’t slept well the night before the flight either and they still did a meal service I was very happy about that. I was surprised people wanted to eat so late and not just go to sleep.
You should the reverse and see if jet lag is worse as well! I only recently discovered there is a LHR-IAD flight that leaves at 8am, arrives 11am. Makes a huge difference!
Done many later afternoon departures to Europe, haven’t try the morning ones yet. Definitely an interesting perspective view, and will try this for my next trip. Personally, have been travel to Asia and Europe frequently, jet lag seems not too much of the fact on my body anymore. However, I am always looking for ways to maximize use of times…. Thank you for another great video!
I think London is the ONLY European destination where you get multiple options throughout the day - so you can choose to fly morning, afternoon or evening. For most other European cities the departure is in the evening or late night red eye flights (departing after 10pm)
I took a daytime eastbound transatlantic from Boston to LHR once, probably about 20 years ago. I found it much better than the usual red eye overnight flight. As it usually means an early start on the day of the flight, you are already part of the way adjusting to UK time before you even board the flight. It doesn't cure the jet lag completely and getting to sleep a couple of hours after you've arrived isn't particularly easy but the pros far outweigh the cons. Lie flat seat or not I find it incredibly difficult falling asleep on an aircraft so after an overnight flight I arrive completely knackered with some twelve hours or so to go before bedtime.
I've only flown to Europe in day/morning flights for decades - there are a few cities you can depart from - and you arrive in time to grab a bite to eat, head to the hotel and chill, then go to bed.
I like that they offer this service. I wish they also offered a similar timed service to other destinations in Europe and North America. I’m kind of the type of person who can more or less sleep when I feel like it. As such jet lag isn’t a huge problem for me. I usually will sleep for a few hours on a flight to Europe. When I arrive I am usually quite tired but I do try to stay up until evening before going to bed. If you know you won’t be able to sleep on the flight to Europe my recommendation is to either try and book a flight that arrives in Europe in the afternoon as opposed to an early morning arrival or book an itinerary that requires a connecting flight at a European airport so that you’ll arrive a little later in the day at your final destination. I really like flying to Asia because the flights to there arrive in the early evening meaning you can basically just go to bed when you arrive. They do however arrive earlier in the day coming back.
One thing that BA do on many of their red eyes from JFK is their 'club world sleeper', where in business class there is no first meal service, only a full breakfast before landing, so it's straight to sleep once you've taken off
I used to travel to Asia several times a year on business, for many years. I always booked a flight that arrived in Asia in the evening. Get off the plane, straight to bed and zero jetlag the next morning.
I live on the west coast and there are no morning options for flights to Europe - it's pretty easy to see why. SFO-LHR is a 10 hour flight and an 8 hour time change. So a 6 am SFO departure would arrive LHR at midnight. That actually might be appealing - stay awake, work watch IFE or read on the flight, get to your hotel then fall asleep. It would be about 2 am arrival at your hotel, which is 6 pm at home. But you got up super-early to make that flight so maybe you would be ready for bed. Problem is this flight would only work for Bay Area originating passengers - no connecting flights would arrive in time to transfer to this flight. So it would have to be a small, long -range aircraft like maybe a 321neo-XLR. For eastbound flights to Europe I generally try to be a bit tired when I board, sleep after the first meal service and stay awake from when I arrive until normal bedtime for the location I'm in. This works pretty well. Going home much easier- flights are during the day and I don't nap for more than a few hours of the return flight then stay awake until normal bedtime at home. Also if I'm going to a destination that doesn't have a direct flight from SFO, I prefer to fly to a European hub rather than transferring in JFK or IAD for example.
I battle jet lag by going the other way around. So instead of Chicago to London, I'll go Chicago to Tokyo, Tokyo to Sydney, Sydney to Dubai, then Dubai to London. The trick is not to sleep, that way you are so tired when you arrive in London you have no trouble going to sleep and syncing to the local time zone. :)
Lol that’s a heck of an itinerary But, believe it or not, choosing a different country’s airline and transferring through their hub to reach your final destination can be cheaper For example you can fly Chicago-Lisbon; Lisbon-London on TAP or Chicago-Paris; Paris-London on AirFrance You depart in the evening and arrive at your transfer airport in the morning and 2 or 3 hours later you depart to your final destination. Better avoid tight connections that are under an hour as you may miss your flight. Connections over 4 hours are also inconvenient as you end up wasting a lot of time sitting at the terminal
Nice report Jeb (and Suzanne!). My strategy for any long haul flight is to reset my clock to my destination as soon as I board. Leave your departure time behind you. Plan ahead to getting a night's sleep when you arrive at your 'normal' time. If you arrive in the morning (like you did) then 'push through' as best you can until the evening. Daylight can help your body to fool your circadian rhythm, so resist the temptation to nap in your darkened hotel room if you feel tired in the afternoon! I had a trip in January flying from London to SFO and back from LAX. Both flights departed around 4-5pm. The SFO flight arrived around 7pm local, so I was planning to get a full night's sleep in my hotel, so I dozed a bit during the long flight, but tried to avoid any deep sleep. The LAX leg arrived in London at 10am local, so I tried to sleep as much as possible after the start of the flight (we departed at midnight London time and arrived at 10am - that's close to a regular London night's sleep!). Despite being only a 10 day trip (so I probably didn't get fully acclimatised to CA time), I didn't feel any of the typical 'jetlag' symptoms of daytime tiredness. Oh, and Melatonin can help as well. Edit, my worst experiences have been heading west (eg UK to Australia, so that may be something else to bear in mind?
I’ve been doing the morning flight out of JFK for a few years. I live around 3 hours away from Heathrow, so I leave JFK early, arrive in Heathrow in the evening and it’s late night by the time I get home. Even if I come from the west coast I fly to New York for a night and do the morning flight to london, it’s so worth it. I can be on west coast US time and slip straight back into UK time (8 hours difference) without the jet lag 👌🏾If I do a regular flight out of Vegas or LA I can be jet lagged for atleast a week when I get home 🙈
Way back in 1999 I flew on Air Canada's daytime Toronto-Heathrow service (having connected from an Air Canada red-eye that morning from Washington DCA). Arrived Heathrow at 21:00hrs and then had a 2-hour coach journey to Cambridge. Fell straight into bed upon arrival, awoke at 09:00hrs the next morning and... no jetlag! 🙂
Eastwards depart so that you arrive in the afternoon. Either daytime or overnight depending on the distance. Westwards depart in the morning so you have a daytime flight and arrive in the evening. Also eat something very spice when you arrive. I feel it helps by putting your body into emergency mode and then resetting it with sleep.
I don’t know why other carriers don’t offer daylight flights from the East coast to FRA/AMS/CDG/MUC etc. Same are the flights from Central Europe to SE Asia. Always take the late evening flights, which gets you there in the late afternoon/early evening in SIN/BKK etc. You can get to your hotel, have a shower, have dinner and pass out for a proper nights sleep where you wake up around 6 or 7 am and you’re ready for your day!
Enjoyed the video, and the jet lag aspect. A little off topic trivia: I was watching Josh Cahill when your video notification popped on my screen. By the time his 23 minute video was done and I checked on yours it already had 2.7k in views. Amazing how many other people look forward to your videos besides me. Have a fantastic Memorial weekend.
Agreed. I took EWR or IAD-LHR daytime flights all the time. But I connect from CLE with a 6am flight. Easier than staying in jersey one night. Also, when you get to London, you’ll sleep just fine since I’m up at 4am for the first flight.
Coming back from SFO to LHR. Leave SFO late in evening for Toronto. Sleep on that flight. Treat that as "night" Get to Toronto very early in morning there. Have breakfast on that flight, STAY AWAKE. Have a slightly early night when you get to London. Body clock is adjusted fine you're just a bit tired.
I love Halifax-Stanfield! Such a clean, and organized airport. I arrived from Philly in an A319, which was 20 years old. We had a 2 hour delay but we still made it. The Atlantic on Decent was stunning! I would definitely visit again.
The daytime service to London is a real game changer but unfortunately many travelers are still stuck on flying overnight to the capital. There are so many benefits to taking a daytime flight vs a overnight flight. One being that you manage jetlag faster and you're not a zombie for the first two days lol. Another benefit that many don't think about is that your hotel room will be ready upon arrival. When you arrive in the morning there's a chance your hotel room will not be ready unless you pre-booked the night before which many business travelers are now starting to do to alleviate this headache especially during the peak summer months. Now the London daytime flights don't work as well if you're connecting to another city. But if London is your final and you live near or can connect easily to JFK EWR IAD BOS ORD I would highly recommend. You will definitely notice the difference...
I flew from IAD to AMS last year and avoided jet lag by forcing myself to sleep on the plane. The plane took off from DC around 5:30pm and I was asleep thirty minutes later. 7 hours later, I woke up flying across the English Channel at 7am. I did not have any issues adjusting the entire 10 days I was there.
Paying for a business class seat for a trip to Europe is almost always worth it. If you can sleep comfortably on the plane and save yourself the jet lag you will have a much more enjoyable trip. You can always fly economy home to save on the way back
In 2013 and 2014, I was flying to London from Boston every month to six weeks. Coming from Boston, I usually flew United, Virgin, or BA. On the first day in London on each trip, I was mostly useless because of the jet lag. On the advice of a friend, I finally tried the daily BA daytime flight. Boston 7 a.m. departure, London arrival at 7 p.m. Car to my hotel in the Docklands, late dinner and drinks with colleagues, go to bed at 11 p.m. local time…and the next morning, I hit the ground running. Won’t claim the jet lag was 100% gone, but that day flight meant I was amazingly (some of my reports claimed frighteningly) productive and sharp. The flights fill relatively fast, and there is rarely a price *break*, but you can become addicted to that routing in…once.
As a former FA. They daytime flights to LHR are usually seniour as they are a 2-day trip. I preferred the late departures as it gave me a 24+ hour layover to go out & about. Plus, I liked working night flights & redeyes both ways to/from Deep South America.
I did the economy from YHZ to LHR couple weeks ago. 11:00 AM - 9:00 PM trip (all local times). As with economy it is very difficult to do anything! As typical arrival (this time a medical emergency) all had to wait an hour before able to leave. I should have just found a good lounge but I already booked a brief sleep at the next door Hilton from T3. Perhaps a couple of hours rest plus shower then back to Heathrow for my 6:30 AM departure to FRA. The Hilton is out of the LHR airport really so I had to do security which does not even open until 4 AM. Anyways my eventual destination was worth it 😀
We live on the west coast and travel to Heathrow from PHX, LAX or DFW. We prefer a late flight, try to sleep at least 6 hrs and arrive in the afternoon. That way we only have to stay up until 9pm, wake up the next morning ready to go-no jet lag.
The body takes one day for each hour of timezone difference to recover from jetlag (actual research). Start shifting your sleep and wakes times by the equivalent hours in the days before leaving if / as much as you can. Keep hydrated on the flight then honour the sunrise and sunset of the new location. If you can exercise at your new location and that first night sleep early. These work for the majority of people.
This sounds great for East Coast flights! We tried this from San Francisco recently: There was a relatively late flight (7:30 PM) to Frankfurt with United, scheduled to land at 3:20 PM local time. That's much more manageable than arriving with an earlier flight, which usually flock into FRA between 6 and 11 in the morning. We usually have problems adjusting to being back home after a trip to the US and are jetlagged for days, but this time I managed to work the next day and was back to usual a day later. Would do it again like that
You are so lucky to be able to fly to Europe in 6 hours. Here in Brazil, a 6 hour flight doesn't even get me out of South America 😅 A transatlantic flight to Europe takes 10 to 13 hour. Including the connections, the trip can easily take 20+ hours. That's some serious jetlag
Thank you for your excellent content. It looks like a lot of work, but you enjoy it. It's also very helpful for me and other travelers to make the best choices.
Great video Jeb. I was wondering the other day about your Hub hoping and airline comparison videos (example low cost comparisons) A Star Alliance vs One world vs Skyteam. Around the world hub hopping would be epic.
My experience of flying back and forth to Europe for the past 45+ years is that it takes me 4-6 days to adjust to the new time zone when traveling overnight. This is borne out by military studies that say that the body adjust about an hour a day when changing time zones. I normally attemtpt to stay awake until normal bed time on the day of arrival and avoid the temptation to take a nap. I have only taken one transatlantic trip during the day and since that was on a military transport plane I will not consider that a representative example.
Keep in mind that bedtime isn’t the same in southern Europe as in the northern parts. In Denmark most people go to bed around 10 pm and eat dinner at 6-7 pm, while in Spain and other southern countries, it’s not uncommon to head out to eat at a restaurant at 10-11 pm and go to bed at 1-2 am
My way of beating jet lag is to fly overnight and stay up the entire day I land in Europe before going to bed at normal time in Europe. Works for me.
On the overnight flight you have no choice arrive at 6 or 7 am and have to wait until 3 pm or later to check in to your hotel.
Same!
I agree, I did a trip to London, England once, having flown from the east coast in an overnight flight and arrived in the morning. I stayed awake and walked all day after reaching London, and then by nighttime there, I was really tired and had to sleep. That too, I usually am not able to sleep on a plane, including overnight flights.
Same here, pretty much. I will allow myself a one hour nap (and no more!) to refresh, but then stay up until an early-ish bedtime, like 9 pm or 10 pm. I'm up early and back on schedule the next day. Never had jet lag going to Europe - but I'm on EST so only six hours difference and it might be harder for folks from the west coast with a nine hour difference.
@@rudraguinit’s difficult to me get asleep on flights too, I have been visiting my sister in Norway and try to stay awake until the time I usually go sleep at home, and don’t feel the jet lag
Jet Lag: The Game
Thought the same
I thought so for a minute that maybe Jeb was doing some crazy thing with them! One can dream! 😊
How did you guess a TH-cam channel name
dang that collab sounds like a dream
@@legendaviation9439 yea then I may root for Sam and Jeb and betray Ben and Adam for those episodes. Imagine if it’s a race to complete hub hopping with all the us airlines.
Back in 1998, I was fed up with the overnight eastbound flights, even in business class, so I was pleased to hear that a couple of airlines had started the morning flights to London. At that time, there were three options - United or BA from JFK and BA from Boston. I chose United and stayed at an airport hotel close to JFK. The hotel wasn't anything special, but, as you saw, it was good to have an empty lounge before departure. Boarding at around 09:00, it felt good to spend my Sunday sitting watching movies and being fed at "normal" meal times. Even better, I arrived at Heathrow around 21:30 local time and found an empty arrivals terminal with no queues. Then, to arrive home and go to bed at normal UK time was such a luxury. Yes, I woke feeling good the next day.
Jet Lag: The Game
BUC-EES!!!!!!
It wasn't new in '98. PA and BA had these morning flights since the 60s.
Other advantage: hotel check-in times are generally in the afternoon. Sure you could ask for an early check-in, but you might be denied or they’ll charge for it. Getting in at 7-8am means you’ve got to plan on what to do with your bags (sometimes the hotel will store them) and then plan on being out and about until check-in.
The funniest was our trip to Sydney, we got in early, decided to eat breakfast in the terminal (not great, but not bad), and then slowly make our way to the hotel, who were kind enough to have a room ready because they saw we were international guests. We did a few things in the early afternoon, then decided it was “too early” for dinner at 3pm, so we took a “nap.” Jet-lag must’ve hit as we woke up at 2am! “Guess we’re not doing dinner.” Back to sleep and we had a big complementary breakfast. We were actually ok for the rest of the trip though. Coming back we got in after 9pm, so it was straight to bed.
The pro tip is to book the hotel for the night you fly, tell them you will arrive early morning to hold your room, and then you can check in at 7am and take a shower and nap for 3-4 hours. As long as you only sleep one sleep cycle (~4 hours) your body clock will be fine. Up by 12 Noon exploring the city and sleep regularly that night. This all depends on arrival times. Early morning arrival is best, midday arrival is the worst.
London is one of the few destinations from the East Coast that has morning departures. I mostly fly to Paris which once had a morning departure but has since been dropped. Airlines prefer the evening departure from the East Coast because it allows them to do a Transatlantic round trip in one day per plane.
For Paris, though, there is a pretty good Plan B: I take the last flight of the day which currently leaves JFK at about 12:30 am, getting into CDG at 1:55 pm. By the time you get out of the airport and into Paris it will be about 4:30 or 5:00 pm. You grab a little early light dinner and you can be in bed by 8:00 pm, which is a reasonable time to fall asleep on a European arrival.
London I think is the only destination that has an east coast morning departure. However, I think that will change in the near future as I'm very certain United, Delta or even JetBlue will announce a daytime Paris flight once their A321XLRs enter service, an aircraft perfect for this role. Don't expect American to do so as they are short on capacity.
This United plane sits overnight and make one of the earliest morning LHR - EWR departures at 7:45 am and arrives in Newark Liberty at 10:20 am ET.
Great video Jeb. As a business traveler who does a lot of work in Europe I do this trip a lot. My strategy if you are on the late afternoon to evening departure flights is to just keep moving once you get to Europe and take a melatonine to help fall asleep at night. Avoid taking a mid day nap.
Those mid day naps after an overnight flight to Europe will kill your body clock….took me 5 days to adjust my body clock because I took a 3-4 hour nap one time and couldn’t fall asleep that night…it was miserable lol
@@kylefopma4108 It depends on the arrival time and how much you travel. If you arrive on a Dublin or UK flight at 5 30 / 6 30am, most people are not going to be able to stay up the entire flight AND all the next day. It's best to book the hotel the night you fly, check-in to the hotel at 7am and get 3-4 hours of sleep right away. This means you are up by 11-12 Noon and can sleep regularly that night. I've never had a problem with jet lag doing this for years. However, if you sleep for 6+ hours upon arriving your clock is screwed.
@@kylefopma4108 I agree 3-4 hours are way to much, but 1,5 h with a set alarm cllock helps much to regain energy for the rest of the long day.
The way I found to avoid jet lag on overnight flights to Europe: don't sleep on the plane. On my last overnight flight from EWR to Athens, I used my laptop during the entire flight, and had decently fast internet. I was able to catch up on all the TH-cam videos I wasn't able to watch before. I was able to get a good amount of work done as well, and when I landed, I was not tired at all, and was able to go to bed at normal time in Athens. As an added benefit, since nearly everyone else on the plane was sleeping, my Wi-Fi was blazing fast. With a VPN, I could effortlessly watch TH-cam in 1080p.
Yeah kid, that won’t last much longer.
Enjoy being able to stay awake 30 some hours while you still can
@@congresssux9766 It worked well for me and with Starlink coming soon to planes, allowing for internet speeds in excess of 100mbps, it would be even better. I would never get bored or tired from spending 11 hours on my laptop.
That's what I do to! I can't sleep on planes, so I stay awake. Go to bed at night in Europe and wake up refreshed.
@@shetaz905 Even if the flight is overnight, you could do what I said.
This only works if your flight arrives to Europe or Istanbul in the late afternoon hours, say 4pm, 5pm, etc. Then you can go to bed a 9/9 30pm just fine. But if the flight arrives at 5 30am or 6 30am this logic doesn't work for most adults as you will be completely wrecked the entire next day. In Zurich I was able to check-in to my hotel at 9 45am as they cater to business travelers much better. However, most places will not let you check in until well after 1pm. Booking the hotel the night of your flight is also a good option if you arrive early as you can check in a 8am and sleep.
As Jeb said, handling jet lag seems to have a large subjective element. I fly to Europe a lot and have found a system that works for me:
I take evening flights.
I avoid caffeine for 36 hours before the flight.
I try to get up two to three hours early.
I always sleep on the plane. I find sleeping on the plane to be easy, so I am lucky.
I drink coffee when I land and don’t, under any circumstances, sleep during the first day. I get right into the new time zone.
It works for me and I’m not really impacted by jet lag as a result.
I can't agree more, although I travel from the UK to Asia.
The only thing you are really fighting here is the trouble getting asleep on time as per the new time zone and it starts right on board. Apart from caffeine, I skip meals 4-5 hours before the flight and do not eat anything on board (food keeps me awake). But otherwise same protocol really.
So when I fly in the eastward direction, I choose evening flights with some prep the night before.
Over a 5 year period I made a return trip from Auckland New Zealand to either Heathrow or Birmingham UK 6 times (12 trips). My health management plan was timing my activities according to the destination, then reverse engineering intermediary activities. Flying Emirates, Dubai was a good way-point for that timing.
I made a company rule that all staff flying the same route hoteled at the destination, and set off the next morning after a good sleep. Worked for us all.
The vast majority of the time traveling to Europe, the first day is wasted as you get so little sleep on the red-eye flight in my experience, and I definitely think that morning eastbound flights to Europe is a game changer as it allows a full night of sleep so the next day is not wasted.
Especially in Economy, forget it. Arriving in Paris at 6 am and having to wait for your room and dropping your bags is torture. After sighing seeing at 2pm you’re done for the day until the next morning at 3 or 4 am.
Makes sense! A favorite trip for UAL flight attendants is the 2 day LHR, working a morning flight to LHR, and coming back the next morning. Your body clock almost doesn’t get messed up.
Same for the IAD-based who take UA 122 over and then 925 back at 4pm the next day.
I travel frequently to Ireland. My system is that I go to bed a bit earlier each night a few days before departure. I take an afternoon flight. I eat on the plane, take melatonin and sleep for a few hours which makes me feel refreshed for the 5:15 am arrival in Dublin. Having slept on the flight, I'm more alert for the 3 1/2 hour, early morning drive across Ireland. I don't nap the day of arrival and go to bed at night at the usual time. The next day I'm 100% on Ireland time.
I did this flight with BA in June 2022 with my 2 children. I chose it because i knew doing a 6hr overnight would be bad for the kids - they'd be upset & cranky for not getting enough sleep. Instead they got to watch a couple of movies and we much happier in a daytime flight which meant my husband & I were happy too!
Flew from Chicago to London on AA90 in premium economy in April and it was nice to get to London at 9:30 at night rather than in the morning. Definitely helped with the jet lag taking a daytime flight.
Edit: best part - zero wait for customs on the other side in London.
With noise cancelling earphones, lay-flat seats, and eye coverings I sleep just fine on overseas flights. When we arrive in the morning I can get my rental car, check into the hotel or stay with family and have breakfast, then start the day without missing a beat.
Great video, I like the daytime options! While on the topic, there is another way to get from the US to Europe without an overnight flight! JetBlue has a BOS-KEF service that leaves at 1230pm arriving to Keflavik around 9:30pm. Then you spend the night in Iceland and take a daytime flight to your final destination anywhere Europe. Slightly longer flights from Iceland down to Europe so it think both of these routes are about the same, except KEF is super easy to navigate.
I flew over to Munich last year on United and we left at 5:30 PM. Arrived at 7:30 in the morning. It was my first trip to Europe. I bought myself up into business class and there was no regrets and you’re right about the sleep, but I’ll tell you it took me about two days to get my body adjusted. I’ll definitely have to try taking a day flight.
Over the years my strategy has changed, but as I approach 70 here is my current plan. I normally fly from LAX to LHR and United has a departing flight around 1 PM, lands at Heathrow appx 7 AM London time. I then go to a dayroom at a T4 hotel (there are usually multiple hotels to choose from). I go to sleep at 10 AM London time, really tired, and sleep for 5 hours ONLY, get up at 3 PM, then transfer to my London hotel. That night I sleep for maybe another 5 hours, getting up at 5 AM or so. And I feel great and I’m ready to go from there.
Once I discovered the day flight, I won’t go any other way. Truly a revelation. You get in tired from traveling all day, and at least for me it totally eliminates jet lag.
Great video! My method has always been to take a nap on the hop across the pond, arrive early morning, power through the entire day with lots of coffee, and then go to sleep at a reasonable time in local time. That way, your exhaustion lets you sleep through the night and you wake up at a normal time in the morning. Might change as I grow older though!
60k miles on delta can get you from Orlando to Atlanta crazy you were able to redeem that to go to Europe
The key to getting on the local when going to Europe and flying overnight is to stay up as long as you can when you get there. Have something planned for the afternoon, then eat a really early dinner and go to bed. We are usually asleep before 8pm. But, we get the next morning fresh and ready for adventure.
Last two trips to Europe found me taking a red eye from the west coast to ORD or BOS and then getting comfy in an airport hotel "day use" room. Took a nap during the day and was well rested for the evening flight across the pond. This allowed me to make it through the first day in Europe until the evening, when I then got a relaxing first night's sleep.
The day use rooms are a great benefit!
That is a great idea Jeb! My strategy to avoid jetlag is to drink a lot after dinner and fall asleep, then you're refreshed when you get there in the afternoon. Then you'll just go about your day and be ready to go to sleep in the evening. Thanks for another great video❤✈
I hope you meant drink a lot OF WATER- Not booze. 😂
As far as other options to do the eastbound Atlantic crossing in the day, currently what I can find is:
* ORD: A single morning American Airlines flight to LHR
* IAD: A single morning United flight to LHR (on a 767-300ER)
* EWR: British Airways also has a morning EWR-LHR flight
* JFK: Four morning flights to LHR, one each on JetBlue, American, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic
I flew in and out of EWR 88 times one year for work. One thing I found to be more consistent than anything.... if it even sprinkles a drop, you're delayed 2 hours. Once got on UAL flight to ORD from EWR, fell asleep at the gate, slept for 1.5 hours, and woke up just to find out, we were still at the gate and the airport was in gridlock. I do not miss EWR much because of the time I spent waiting on delays in and out of that general area of the country. Glad to see you had clear skies Jeb.
88 times, wow! We’ve had some delays in EWR, but just another reason to fly first thing in the morning!
"How to beat jet lag?" Have some drinks before boarding, go right to bed, and sleep the whole flight. Then when you land chug an energy drink with breakfast. Works like a charm for me.
As someone from Nova Scotia it was Great to see a mention of flight availability from Halifax, and your shoutout to the nice views over Nova Scotia in the same video! Thanks for the mentions Jeb!
At 5:02 - what a view! Staten Island, the Verrazzano Bridge, Brooklyn, Coney Island - and beyond, Jamaica Bay and the Rockaway peninsula.
bing bong
Just did essentially the same on American from Chicago to London-flew from our home airport to Chicago the night before and stayed in a hotel then left for London at 8:30am central time. Flying through the day was the best! Essentially no jet lag.
Jeb, Air Canada used to have a flight that left YYZ at around 0900 and arrived in the evening in LHR. Time for a quick pint and light snack when you arrive then to bed. My wife and I came to rely on this as both our families are in Europe. I believe it shortened my jet lag recovery time. Come on Air Canada, BRING IT BACK!
I come from the time of rotary phones, black and white televisions, and no seatbelts in cars. It’s absolutely phenomenal if there’s any type of Wi-Fi transatlantic flight they can hit four or five Gs amazing
I like the daylight flights. There used to be a Qantas flight on Thursdays leaving LAX in the morning and arriving in Sydney in the late evening. It was a great flight. Emirates offer a flight that leaves Sydney at 6am that connects with other flights to lots of Europe for an evening arrival on the same day. I think you previously could do that on Cathay to London.
I would love to see a video like this for longer flights, such as US to Japan! Love your videos, always very entertaining and informative!
1) Would have loved to see a bit more of conclusion on this method!
2) I've only had one transatlantic flight back so far, starting from Dulles and going to Frankfurt. Departing late in the evening, I was able to get a few hours of sleep after dinner was served, which really helped me to avoid Jetlag!
3) This method feels pretty time consuming, starting somewhere in the evening of day 1, losing the complete day 2 while flying, and finally waking up at the beginning of day 3, if everything went according to plan. With the "standard" method of overnight flights, you barely lose half a day!
If airlines would only fly from North America to Europe in the morning here it would be a lot better, but there's only a handful of those flights and they're expensive in my experience. For the overnight ones the best way to deal with it is to just stay up all night, find something to do in the morning (walking tours are a good way to stay awake), try to check in early and take a nap for an hour or two, go out and do something low-key, then crash around 8-9pm. Then you wake up early the next day generally on European time.
We need a one off video of your watch collection!!!
5:41 really awesome shot Jen, I can see my house on the bottom of the screen! North shore mass!
Omg I’m loving all the shoutouts for my home province of Nova Scotia in this video! we don’t see that too often 😊
When I was a crew chief in the Air Force, we would frequently fly from IN to England. On our KC-135s, we would takeoff about 8 pm. Everyone onboard would find a place in, under, or on the cargo we were carrying. By the time we landed in England, we were ready to go straight to work.
Fellow North Carolinian here, I live near RDU and have flown to London on British Airways out of RDU and the service is really good.
Another interesting video Jeb. I’ve never done a daytime flight from US back to London. It’s definitely worth considering. Thanks for sharing 👍
Canada 3000 did it 30 years ago left Toronto 9am arrived Gatwick 8:30pm it was great as I was up 6am....this is the way to go
100%. Travel from Newark to LHR a lot to visit family. Yes you lose a whole day but it makes up for not feeling like a zombie. You land. Get dinner. Go straight to bed. Then wake up the next morning and your 100% good to go!
I’m still young, but my biggest jetlag successes have been landing in Europe in the morning, drinking 2 or so coffees during the day, and staying up with no naps as late as possible, usually by going to the club until 2:00am. After that, I go to sleep and I’m fine the next morning.
My way of beating jet lag as a long haul pilot is to have microsleeps throughout the day when I feel a little tired. 20 minutes here and there can provide me with solid boosts of energy
I'm no doctor, but I've come to the conclusion that I think most folks conflate simple fatigue with jet lag. Jet lag is the Inability of one's own circadian rhythm to realign with their new time zone. One can suffer jet lag for days an weeks. But for most of us we're dealing with the simple fatigue of travel. I know when I travel to Europe from the east coast, by the time I land I've been going easily 24 or 26 hours without deep restful sleep.
I always liked the daytime flight to London. Some people have argued with me as to having to lose the whole day flying and then paying for that 1st night hotel. I don't see it that way at all. It's fine for no jetlag. One wakes up rested. Great video, Jeb. Cheers.
That's exactly the problem I have with this procedure. I feel like I'm paying for one extra night for the room. Now if I were staying with someone, it would be worth a try.
@@darryljorden9177 Yes, true. But with those overnight flights one feels like a zombie when you land. Well, at least I do. Cheers.
My husband and I flew to France last September from Sacramento to Washington Dulles, then Washington Dulles to Paris on a red eye from IAD to CDG on United. This was my first time flying to Europe and hardly slept at all. Following the train to Nantes from Paris, crashed hard once we got to my brother in law and his wife’s home. We fell asleep around midnight and slept until noon the next day, although was fine after the first day. After we flew back from Paris to Sacramento via Toronto on Air Canada, kept waking up around 4am Pacific for several days, which took several days. Overall, I’d do it again, and this time, just try to power through the travel day and not make plans.
I've traveled to Europe twice before and both times I wasn't really affected by the jet lag. I'm not sure what I did to minimize the effects, but my body adapted to the time change pretty well. Traveling back to the US is a whole other story. Both times I felt completely exhausted and tired upon arriving back home.
Always easier for me to adapt going to Europe rather than coming home as well. But my friends who live in Europe think otherwise, they say, "West is Best, East is a Beast." Maybe it is always worse coming back home no matter which way you're going.
I find doing a red eye to Europe it’s always better to travel from the west coast if that’s an option. Particularly in business class. The extra 2-3 hours makes a big difference.
I've always used the "force yourself onto destination time" method and hit the major tourist sights the day I land. Those tend to be the easiest to find and have fewer language barriers, plus it's easier to keep going when you're checking items off a list rather than exploring. Daytime flights make sense for folks with a lot of time and flexibility, but I'm always trying to squeeze one more day of travel out of my limited PTO so spending a full day flying isn't ideal for me. But it's a great tip for those who can do it!
I am a flight attendant currently. The way I handle jet lag is: by sleeping at my desired time every day regardless of what time zone. Say I go to bed at 10pm, even if I’m in London, I’ll go to bed at 10pm. Then I come back, and I go to sleep at 10pm when I come back to the east coast. That’s it. It’s worked for me as a flight attendant, and I travel a lot.
Virgin also has a day flight that I've flown. I wish Delta would add one. It is great flying by day.
Here is a challenge for you: Can you fly the cheapest long haul flight and you have to sit in a middle seat. I am envious of all your first and business class flights. :) Love you work!
From the sublime to the ridiculous, from Australia, where pretty much most O/S flights are long-haul, I had noticed that my jetlag was not such a problem when flying West - following the Sun, compared to going East.
So if doing the SYD/LAX flight for West Coast business destinations, you have to fly East and suck it up, along with about three days of jetlag.
However, for East Coast destinations, I discovered that a Oneworld RTW SYD to LHR, with an overnight sleep there (being tired at normal night-time) followed by a "long lunch " Flight to MIA/JFK/BOS allowed me to arrive fresh and ready for meetings the next day. The return meant continuing onto LAX and then home - all flying West.
Sure, there is an extra 10 hours flight time on the SYD/LHR/East coast route, but the cheaper RTW fare covered the cost of the Hotel and a day in London.
Keep up the great work and it is good to see Mrs B in more vids. 😁😁
I think that United shines with the Polaris lounge. Whenever I’m in Newark and traveling to Portugal on TAP, I always leave terminal B and go to the Polaris lounge instead.
I flew from Toronto to Reykjavik last summer. Midnight departure after I hadn’t slept well the night before the flight either and they still did a meal service I was very happy about that. I was surprised people wanted to eat so late and not just go to sleep.
My favorite part of the week...a new video from two of my favorite jet setters!
You should the reverse and see if jet lag is worse as well! I only recently discovered there is a LHR-IAD flight that leaves at 8am, arrives 11am. Makes a huge difference!
Done many later afternoon departures to Europe, haven’t try the morning ones yet. Definitely an interesting perspective view, and will try this for my next trip. Personally, have been travel to Asia and Europe frequently, jet lag seems not too much of the fact on my body anymore. However, I am always looking for ways to maximize use of times…. Thank you for another great video!
I think London is the ONLY European destination where you get multiple options throughout the day - so you can choose to fly morning, afternoon or evening.
For most other European cities the departure is in the evening or late night red eye flights (departing after 10pm)
I’ve took this exact flight in 2019, it was honestly wayyyyyyy better than a red eye flight!
I took a daytime eastbound transatlantic from Boston to LHR once, probably about 20 years ago. I found it much better than the usual red eye overnight flight. As it usually means an early start on the day of the flight, you are already part of the way adjusting to UK time before you even board the flight. It doesn't cure the jet lag completely and getting to sleep a couple of hours after you've arrived isn't particularly easy but the pros far outweigh the cons. Lie flat seat or not I find it incredibly difficult falling asleep on an aircraft so after an overnight flight I arrive completely knackered with some twelve hours or so to go before bedtime.
I've only flown to Europe in day/morning flights for decades - there are a few cities you can depart from - and you arrive in time to grab a bite to eat, head to the hotel and chill, then go to bed.
I like that they offer this service. I wish they also offered a similar timed service to other destinations in Europe and North America. I’m kind of the type of person who can more or less sleep when I feel like it. As such jet lag isn’t a huge problem for me. I usually will sleep for a few hours on a flight to Europe. When I arrive I am usually quite tired but I do try to stay up until evening before going to bed. If you know you won’t be able to sleep on the flight to Europe my recommendation is to either try and book a flight that arrives in Europe in the afternoon as opposed to an early morning arrival or book an itinerary that requires a connecting flight at a European airport so that you’ll arrive a little later in the day at your final destination. I really like flying to Asia because the flights to there arrive in the early evening meaning you can basically just go to bed when you arrive. They do however arrive earlier in the day coming back.
One thing that BA do on many of their red eyes from JFK is their 'club world sleeper', where in business class there is no first meal service, only a full breakfast before landing, so it's straight to sleep once you've taken off
I used to travel to Asia several times a year on business, for many years. I always booked a flight that arrived in Asia in the evening. Get off the plane, straight to bed and zero jetlag the next morning.
I live on the west coast and there are no morning options for flights to Europe - it's pretty easy to see why. SFO-LHR is a 10 hour flight and an 8 hour time change. So a 6 am SFO departure would arrive LHR at midnight. That actually might be appealing - stay awake, work watch IFE or read on the flight, get to your hotel then fall asleep. It would be about 2 am arrival at your hotel, which is 6 pm at home. But you got up super-early to make that flight so maybe you would be ready for bed. Problem is this flight would only work for Bay Area originating passengers - no connecting flights would arrive in time to transfer to this flight. So it would have to be a small, long -range aircraft like maybe a 321neo-XLR. For eastbound flights to Europe I generally try to be a bit tired when I board, sleep after the first meal service and stay awake from when I arrive until normal bedtime for the location I'm in. This works pretty well. Going home much easier- flights are during the day and I don't nap for more than a few hours of the return flight then stay awake until normal bedtime at home. Also if I'm going to a destination that doesn't have a direct flight from SFO, I prefer to fly to a European hub rather than transferring in JFK or IAD for example.
I battle jet lag by going the other way around. So instead of Chicago to London, I'll go Chicago to Tokyo, Tokyo to Sydney, Sydney to Dubai, then Dubai to London. The trick is not to sleep, that way you are so tired when you arrive in London you have no trouble going to sleep and syncing to the local time zone. :)
You must have a lot of money then. I certainly would not be able to afford those multiple routes. Just a simple A to B is enough for me.
@@refined_a I'm totally joking. But I must admit, I'd love do to it if I could too.
@@AndrewTubbiolo Fair enough.
Lol that’s a heck of an itinerary
But, believe it or not, choosing a different country’s airline and transferring through their hub to reach your final destination can be cheaper
For example you can fly Chicago-Lisbon; Lisbon-London on TAP or Chicago-Paris; Paris-London on AirFrance
You depart in the evening and arrive at your transfer airport in the morning and 2 or 3 hours later you depart to your final destination. Better avoid tight connections that are under an hour as you may miss your flight. Connections over 4 hours are also inconvenient as you end up wasting a lot of time sitting at the terminal
@@samroy5967 Yeah, but that's not the MAXIMUM delay. :) Your trip idea is not nearly are silly as mine. I'm looking for maximum silliness.
Nice report Jeb (and Suzanne!). My strategy for any long haul flight is to reset my clock to my destination as soon as I board. Leave your departure time behind you. Plan ahead to getting a night's sleep when you arrive at your 'normal' time. If you arrive in the morning (like you did) then 'push through' as best you can until the evening. Daylight can help your body to fool your circadian rhythm, so resist the temptation to nap in your darkened hotel room if you feel tired in the afternoon!
I had a trip in January flying from London to SFO and back from LAX. Both flights departed around 4-5pm.
The SFO flight arrived around 7pm local, so I was planning to get a full night's sleep in my hotel, so I dozed a bit during the long flight, but tried to avoid any deep sleep.
The LAX leg arrived in London at 10am local, so I tried to sleep as much as possible after the start of the flight (we departed at midnight London time and arrived at 10am - that's close to a regular London night's sleep!).
Despite being only a 10 day trip (so I probably didn't get fully acclimatised to CA time), I didn't feel any of the typical 'jetlag' symptoms of daytime tiredness. Oh, and Melatonin can help as well.
Edit, my worst experiences have been heading west (eg UK to Australia, so that may be something else to bear in mind?
I’ve been doing the morning flight out of JFK for a few years. I live around 3 hours away from Heathrow, so I leave JFK early, arrive in Heathrow in the evening and it’s late night by the time I get home. Even if I come from the west coast I fly to New York for a night and do the morning flight to london, it’s so worth it. I can be on west coast US time and slip straight back into UK time (8 hours difference) without the jet lag 👌🏾If I do a regular flight out of Vegas or LA I can be jet lagged for atleast a week when I get home 🙈
Way back in 1999 I flew on Air Canada's daytime Toronto-Heathrow service (having connected from an Air Canada red-eye that morning from Washington DCA). Arrived Heathrow at 21:00hrs and then had a 2-hour coach journey to Cambridge. Fell straight into bed upon arrival, awoke at 09:00hrs the next morning and... no jetlag! 🙂
Eastwards depart so that you arrive in the afternoon. Either daytime or overnight depending on the distance.
Westwards depart in the morning so you have a daytime flight and arrive in the evening.
Also eat something very spice when you arrive. I feel it helps by putting your body into emergency mode and then resetting it with sleep.
I don’t know why other carriers don’t offer daylight flights from the East coast to FRA/AMS/CDG/MUC etc.
Same are the flights from Central Europe to SE Asia. Always take the late evening flights, which gets you there in the late afternoon/early evening in SIN/BKK etc.
You can get to your hotel, have a shower, have dinner and pass out for a proper nights sleep where you wake up around 6 or 7 am and you’re ready for your day!
I love your videos! As an aviation geek, your videos teach me so much airlines and planes! Thanks for all the hard work you put into making these!
Enjoyed the video, and the jet lag aspect. A little off topic trivia: I was watching Josh Cahill when your video notification popped on my screen. By the time his 23 minute video was done and I checked on yours it already had 2.7k in views. Amazing how many other people look forward to your videos besides me. Have a fantastic Memorial weekend.
I did this from JFK-LHR and it was unreal, I woke up next day, fully rested ready for go. In economy too
Agreed. I took EWR or IAD-LHR daytime flights all the time. But I connect from CLE with a 6am flight. Easier than staying in jersey one night. Also, when you get to London, you’ll sleep just fine since I’m up at 4am for the first flight.
Coming back from SFO to LHR. Leave SFO late in evening for Toronto. Sleep on that flight. Treat that as "night"
Get to Toronto very early in morning there. Have breakfast on that flight, STAY AWAKE. Have a slightly early night when you get to London. Body clock is adjusted fine you're just a bit tired.
I love Halifax-Stanfield! Such a clean, and organized airport. I arrived from Philly in an A319, which was 20 years old. We had a 2 hour delay but we still made it. The Atlantic on Decent was stunning! I would definitely visit again.
Flight back Canadian Airlines dept 9;15pm arr Toronto Midnight!!! the best
The daytime service to London is a real game changer but unfortunately many travelers are still stuck on flying overnight to the capital. There are so many benefits to taking a daytime flight vs a overnight flight. One being that you manage jetlag faster and you're not a zombie for the first two days lol. Another benefit that many don't think about is that your hotel room will be ready upon arrival. When you arrive in the morning there's a chance your hotel room will not be ready unless you pre-booked the night before which many business travelers are now starting to do to alleviate this headache especially during the peak summer months. Now the London daytime flights don't work as well if you're connecting to another city. But if London is your final and you live near or can connect easily to JFK EWR IAD BOS ORD I would highly recommend. You will definitely notice the difference...
I flew from IAD to AMS last year and avoided jet lag by forcing myself to sleep on the plane. The plane took off from DC around 5:30pm and I was asleep thirty minutes later. 7 hours later, I woke up flying across the English Channel at 7am. I did not have any issues adjusting the entire 10 days I was there.
Paying for a business class seat for a trip to Europe is almost always worth it. If you can sleep comfortably on the plane and save yourself the jet lag you will have a much more enjoyable trip. You can always fly economy home to save on the way back
This is the best case scenario but usually it’s not the case for most people. Sleeping perfectly 30 mins after takeoff at 530pm? Lol
In 2013 and 2014, I was flying to London from Boston every month to six weeks. Coming from Boston, I usually flew United, Virgin, or BA. On the first day in London on each trip, I was mostly useless because of the jet lag.
On the advice of a friend, I finally tried the daily BA daytime flight. Boston 7 a.m. departure, London arrival at 7 p.m. Car to my hotel in the Docklands, late dinner and drinks with colleagues, go to bed at 11 p.m. local time…and the next morning, I hit the ground running. Won’t claim the jet lag was 100% gone, but that day flight meant I was amazingly (some of my reports claimed frighteningly) productive and sharp.
The flights fill relatively fast, and there is rarely a price *break*, but you can become addicted to that routing in…once.
As a former FA. They daytime flights to LHR are usually seniour as they are a 2-day trip. I preferred the late departures as it gave me a 24+ hour layover to go out & about. Plus, I liked working night flights & redeyes both ways to/from Deep South America.
As someone who was born in Halifax. Thanks for the mention of Halifax
Jeb should fly there
I did the economy from YHZ to LHR couple weeks ago. 11:00 AM - 9:00 PM trip (all local times). As with economy it is very difficult to do anything! As typical arrival (this time a medical emergency) all had to wait an hour before able to leave. I should have just found a good lounge but I already booked a brief sleep at the next door Hilton from T3. Perhaps a couple of hours rest plus shower then back to Heathrow for my 6:30 AM departure to FRA. The Hilton is out of the LHR airport really so I had to do security which does not even open until 4 AM. Anyways my eventual destination was worth it 😀
I take the same route often, and i’m definitely a fan of the 11am departure
Our family's method is to take the red-eye, and as soon as you get to Europe take a nap for two hours and then get up. That prevents jet-lag for us.
I cant explain how much I love watching your videos they are amazing!
people be complaining about 7 hour flights me flying to india via singapore on a 17hr flight it is not that bad
We live on the west coast and travel to Heathrow from PHX, LAX or DFW. We prefer a late flight, try to sleep at least 6 hrs and arrive in the afternoon. That way we only have to stay up until 9pm, wake up the next morning ready to go-no jet lag.
Look forward to seeing the return trip. It was great meeting the two of you. All the best
The return trip was also jet-lag free🤣 Great to meet you and hope your onward travels were smooth!
Actually looking into this for our trip to London later this year. Very helpful because we are trying to decide when to leave
The body takes one day for each hour of timezone difference to recover from jetlag (actual research). Start shifting your sleep and wakes times by the equivalent hours in the days before leaving if / as much as you can. Keep hydrated on the flight then honour the sunrise and sunset of the new location. If you can exercise at your new location and that first night sleep early. These work for the majority of people.
One of my favorite channels on TH-cam. See you in the friendly skies brother
This sounds great for East Coast flights!
We tried this from San Francisco recently: There was a relatively late flight (7:30 PM) to Frankfurt with United, scheduled to land at 3:20 PM local time. That's much more manageable than arriving with an earlier flight, which usually flock into FRA between 6 and 11 in the morning. We usually have problems adjusting to being back home after a trip to the US and are jetlagged for days, but this time I managed to work the next day and was back to usual a day later. Would do it again like that
You are so lucky to be able to fly to Europe in 6 hours. Here in Brazil, a 6 hour flight doesn't even get me out of South America 😅
A transatlantic flight to Europe takes 10 to 13 hour. Including the connections, the trip can easily take 20+ hours. That's some serious jetlag
Thank you for your excellent content. It looks like a lot of work, but you enjoy it. It's also very helpful for me and other travelers to make the best choices.
Great video Jeb.
I was wondering the other day about your Hub hoping and airline comparison videos (example low cost comparisons)
A Star Alliance vs One world vs Skyteam. Around the world hub hopping would be epic.
My experience of flying back and forth to Europe for the past 45+ years is that it takes me 4-6 days to adjust to the new time zone when traveling overnight. This is borne out by military studies that say that the body adjust about an hour a day when changing time zones. I normally attemtpt to stay awake until normal bed time on the day of arrival and avoid the temptation to take a nap. I have only taken one transatlantic trip during the day and since that was on a military transport plane I will not consider that a representative example.
Keep in mind that bedtime isn’t the same in southern Europe as in the northern parts. In Denmark most people go to bed around 10 pm and eat dinner at 6-7 pm, while in Spain and other southern countries, it’s not uncommon to head out to eat at a restaurant at 10-11 pm and go to bed at 1-2 am