Wouldn't daytime flights to Europe make more sense?

[Anonymous]

I think I would love an 8 am flight to Paris. 7 hours on the plane, 6 hours ahead. You'd wake up early, be on the plane all day, check in to your hotel around 9 pm, find a late dinner somewhere, and I guarantee I'd fall asleep by midnight Paris time and wake up normally on their time ready for vacation.

The overnight flights have me a total disaster for the first two days. Why don't they offer daytime flights? I can't be the only one who would prefer this.

[Anonymous]

https://www.passrider.com/daytime-flights-to-europe-from-the-u-s-you-wished-you-knew-about/

[Anonymous]

That makes sense about not being able to make a connecting flight, but I'd like more nonstop daytime options! That's not very many - and none from DC.

[Anonymous]

It’s mainly to make the connections. Arriving at 9 or 10 pm leaves very little time for all those passengers who need to catch connecting flights forcing into overnighting at airport or a hotel to catch connection next day.

I hate 8 am or earlier flights. That’s 6 am at the airport, so waking up 4 or so.

Arrive at 9 pm to airport, get by 11 pm or 12 am to hotel most probably still wide awake and fall asleep by 4:00 pm. And if need a connection, then most connecting flights have already flown.

[Anonymous]

PP. Delta apparently ran a daytime JFK -> CDG one summer a couple years ago.

https://thepointsguy.com/news/delta-air-lines-new-york-paris-daytime-cut/

These days it looks like mostly New York to London, as mentioned in the article in the previous post.

Looks like there was a daytime IAD -> LHR a few years ago, but it got canceled.

https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedairlines/comments/17ii7k4/daytime_flight_iad_lhr/
https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedairlines/comments/18oxisx/dulles_to_london_morning_flight/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think I would love an 8 am flight to Paris. 7 hours on the plane, 6 hours ahead. You'd wake up early, be on the plane all day, check in to your hotel around 9 pm, find a late dinner somewhere, and I guarantee I'd fall asleep by midnight Paris time and wake up normally on their time ready for vacation.

The overnight flights have me a total disaster for the first two days. Why don't they offer daytime flights? I can't be the only one who would prefer this.

I 100% agree OP! Not getting a good night sleep before arrival completely messes me up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s mainly to make the connections. Arriving at 9 or 10 pm leaves very little time for all those passengers who need to catch connecting flights forcing into overnighting at airport or a hotel to catch connection next day.

I hate 8 am or earlier flights. That’s 6 am at the airport, so waking up 4 or so.

Arrive at 9 pm to airport, get by 11 pm or 12 am to hotel most probably still wide awake and fall asleep by 4:00 pm. And if need a connection, then most connecting flights have already flown.

Regarding the bolded above, I also hate waking up at 4am to catch a flight, but I’d rather wake early then take a nap on the plane instead of trying to get a “full nights sleep” which is so hard to do on an airplane. (DP)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s mainly to make the connections. Arriving at 9 or 10 pm leaves very little time for all those passengers who need to catch connecting flights forcing into overnighting at airport or a hotel to catch connection next day.

I hate 8 am or earlier flights. That’s 6 am at the airport, so waking up 4 or so.

Arrive at 9 pm to airport, get by 11 pm or 12 am to hotel most probably still wide awake and fall asleep by 4:00 pm. And if need a connection, then most connecting flights have already flown.

Regarding the bolded above, I also hate waking up at 4am to catch a flight, but I’d rather wake early then take a nap on the plane instead of trying to get a “full nights sleep” which is so hard to do on an airplane. (DP)

And also waking up at 4am forces you to wake up close to local time (9am London time) which helps get over the jet lag quicker.

[Anonymous]

I agree. My family is in Paris. All I want is to land there and go to sleep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s mainly to make the connections. Arriving at 9 or 10 pm leaves very little time for all those passengers who need to catch connecting flights forcing into overnighting at airport or a hotel to catch connection next day.

I hate 8 am or earlier flights. That’s 6 am at the airport, so waking up 4 or so.

Arrive at 9 pm to airport, get by 11 pm or 12 am to hotel most probably still wide awake and fall asleep by 4:00 pm. And if need a connection, then most connecting flights have already flown.

It's also about connections to the flight, if it's a hub.

In other words, the daytime New York to London flights that seem viable are likely largely supported by origin/destination traffic -- large numbers of people starting their travel in New York and going to London. You're absolutely correct that the daytime flight would be suboptimal for people wanting to connect in London for further travel. What I'm saying it it's also suboptimal for anyone wanting to go to London connecting to the morning flight from New York. Yes I realize there are lots of redeye flights arriving early in New York, but think of how many passengers on a redeye flight from New York to London have connected into New York earlier in the day.

Seems like New York -> London is one of the few markets that can support this. Washington -> Europe apparently can't.

[Anonymous]

It's about connections and making most use of the planes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's about connections and making most use of the planes.

I get how all the planes for the evening flights to Europe are on the return leg, but do the planes for the morning flights to Europe really get used just half as much?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's about connections and making most use of the planes.

I get how all the planes for the evening flights to Europe are on the return leg, but do the planes for the morning flights to Europe really get used just half as much?

Yes, because they arrive too late to go out that night, and the first flights back to the US don't leave until around 9 AM at the earliest. So they sit for 10-12 hours. Way too long to do that for many planes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s mainly to make the connections. Arriving at 9 or 10 pm leaves very little time for all those passengers who need to catch connecting flights forcing into overnighting at airport or a hotel to catch connection next day.

I hate 8 am or earlier flights. That’s 6 am at the airport, so waking up 4 or so.

Arrive at 9 pm to airport, get by 11 pm or 12 am to hotel most probably still wide awake and fall asleep by 4:00 pm. And if need a connection, then most connecting flights have already flown.

Regarding the bolded above, I also hate waking up at 4am to catch a flight, but I’d rather wake early then take a nap on the plane instead of trying to get a “full nights sleep” which is so hard to do on an airplane. (DP)

Neither option is greet, but getting up at 4am is do much better than an overnight flight to Europe. First world problems, but first day in Europe is always rough since I can’t sleep in overnight flights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s mainly to make the connections. Arriving at 9 or 10 pm leaves very little time for all those passengers who need to catch connecting flights forcing into overnighting at airport or a hotel to catch connection next day.

I hate 8 am or earlier flights. That’s 6 am at the airport, so waking up 4 or so.

Arrive at 9 pm to airport, get by 11 pm or 12 am to hotel most probably still wide awake and fall asleep by 4:00 pm. And if need a connection, then most connecting flights have already flown.

Regarding the bolded above, I also hate waking up at 4am to catch a flight, but I’d rather wake early then take a nap on the plane instead of trying to get a “full nights sleep” which is so hard to do on an airplane. (DP)

It also depends how far you are from the airport. I live 10 mins from the airport so could totally wake up at 5-5:15 and be at the airport at 6am for a 8 am flight. That would be soooo much better than trying to get a full nights sleep on an airplane.