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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is such a timely post.  I just booked four Business Class (Club World) on British Airways for an April trip to London out of Dulles.  We are returning on economy but flights are non-stop both ways.  Came out to $8500 total (BA was having a promo) and I almost had a stroke when I clicked that 'pay' button but we 1) depart on my birthday and 2) celebrating our 20th anniversary while in London and 3) it's the last big trip before our son goes off to college.  Those are the mental gymnastics that I went through to justify it in my mind.  It is most definitely a splurge and not something we would do again in the near future.  I'd be lying if I said I was super excited, especially as our kids don't know about the fancy seats (at least on the way there).[/quote]

Business to London for leisure travel is kind of a waste. The flight there from DC is [b]5.5-6 hours in reality[/b] despite it saying 7.5 when you book. If anything you want business on the flight back because that one is closer to actually being 7 hours.

I can never actually get enough sleep on the flight over because of the short slight + meal services after takeoff and before landing which cause a ton of noise even if you skip. So it’s 2 hours meal service, then 1 hour sleep, then meal service for breakfast starts again. [/quote]

Last night's late BA departure was in the air for 6:20:

https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/BAW292/history/20250908/0250Z/KIAD/EGLL

The play to maximize sleep is to take the late night departure and eat dinner in the lounge (or even at home if it's a 10 or 11 PM departure).  Arrive at the airport at 8 PM, eat from 8:30-9:30, get on the plane at 10, brush teeth, change into sleep clothes.  In the air by say 11:15, 10 minutes later put your seat down.  If you can fall asleep within 20 minutes you can get around 5.5 hours until they make you put it up 20 minutes before landing.  Sleep through breakfast and eat in the arrivals lounge.

Yes the return is probably 45 minutes longer, but it's a daytime flight.  We do fine with the 1 PM or so departure, watch movies in economy (middle section of 4 seats to ourselves), land at 4 PM DC time, home by 5:30, quick dinner, kids in bed by 7 PM (midnight in London).  Everyone has their own preferences, but I think business class is much more worth it on overnight flights, especially if you are the type who can't sleep in a regular seat (have tried many times and its never happened more than an hour total).

Yeah 5 hours sleep isn't perfect, but its enough to be functional and get you through the day when you arrive, which is a short day anyway since the flight lands at 11 AM and you won't be at your destination until probably 12:30 or 1 PM.[/quote]

My issue is I can’t sleep through the meal service noise. Even with earplugs or music it cuts through and then you add in the lighting (twilight if you’re lucky, but some leave the lights fully on and yeah… no way I’m getting 5.5 hours sleep on a 6 hour 20 min flight.

I wish they offered more super early AM flights to Europe so you can roll into the day there - easier way to adjust. [/quote]

I guess it does depend on personal circumstances.  We flew on a late departure to Europe last year, and I did notice the meal service noise very briefly, but an eyeshade helped a ton.  Younger kid was out cold from the minute we put the seat down until we woke them up to put it up 15 minutes before landing.  Other time I flew a flight like this, I was up for the meal service and it definitely wasn't 2 hours, I'd say closer to being done around 75 minutes after departure.  They took everyone's order on the ground, and brought everything out on a single tray so it was fast.  And I'd say less than half the people even took the meal, many just went straight to sleep.  It does help having a seat farther from the galley.

In terms of AM flights to Europe, right now the only available ones are a couple from New York (basically every airline offers 1) and Boston, only to London.  It's a tricky flight to make work economically, that's why they aren't offered more.

https://simpleflying.com/united-airlines-follows-delta-air-lines-cutting-daytime-europe-flights/[/quote]

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