Most flights to anywhere in Europe leave in the afternoon or night in the USA and arrive in the morning. However, I’m considering a flight that leaves at 9 am from Chicago and arrives into London at 1045 pm and staying at an inexpensive hotel (£37) near the airport for the first night. I’ll probably have a cocktail at the hotel bar and then head immediately to bed. Is this a good way to beat jet lag?
That’s a good way, IMHO. I traveled back and forth to Europe for years for business (London, Basil, Frankfurt and Zurich were the main destinations.) I typically took the red-eye flights as it gave me an extra day at home and I could usually soldier through the day in meetings/etc. despite always being tired.
The vacations we left early for London, but for the Switzerland trip, we did the red-eye as it just worked out that way.
I alway found it harder traveling east, but traveling west (with the benefit of time) was easy.
For business, go late as you ca[FONT=“Arial”]n always sleep that night. For vacation, you probably want to be rested up and ready to go for the day and night.
On a completely different subject, I’m surprised you found a £37/night hotel at a London airport…granted, it’s been 8 years since my last trip…Heathrow or GatwicK?[/FONT]
Use the money you saved on the cheap hotel, and upgrade to business class.
You won’t regret it.
I’d say it’s probably a good idea. You do have to take into account taxi fares to the hotel - I doubt any hotel charging £37pn is actually at the hotel - and you will have to pack everything again and move the next day.
If you’re coming in to Gatwick or Heathrow you can pre-book a minicab for about 40 or, maximum, 50 quid to central London (I’ll give you a link to a reliable firm if you PM me - don’t want to seem like I’m spamming) which sounds a lot but you should investigate where your extremely cheap airport hotel actually is. If it really is £37pn and walkable from the airport then staying there the night you arrive is a great idea.
I don’t know how much spare cash you have to throw around but there is no airline on earth that offers an upgrade to business class for the difference between a cheap and mid-class hotel. It would most likely be at least an extra $1000 dollars (and most likely much more). A BA mid-April flight Chicago-Heathrow is £372 economy, and £3192 business…one way
I was lucky enough to fly business and first for work and I’d say it definitely isn’t worth the money. I can’t sleep on planes anyway so a flat bed is wasted on me and the food onboard with the higher classes is often just a slightly higher class of meh!
The cheap hotel will be fine (and you can certainly find a £37 near to Gatwick or Heathrow…I’ve done it on many occasions) and economy will be fine, and your plan is fine.
Yep, so hard. The OP plans to have a cocktail and go to bed around 6-7pm on his body clock.
Imo, go into town, get settled into a chap hotel, and spend about 4 hours walking around in the middle of the night - see the city from a very different perspective, cafes, coffee, people watching. Trying to sleep at 7pm at Heathrow ain’t no way to go.
I did book the flight for about $650 in cattle car class, leaving Chicago at 9 AM and arriving at 1045 pm. But, I was able to get a late departure when I leave the UK on BA which I love. I so despise those early AM flights from Heathrow.
To stay at my hotel in central London is £198 on that Saturday night that I arrive at 1045 pm. There seem to be numerous hotels at/ or near Heathrow for £50 or less. That seems to be a no brainer for me as that adds about £150 to the budget. I can then take the Piccadilly line the next morning to my central London hotel where I’ll be staying for 8 nights right near Leicester Square tube station.
If it’s a Saturday, parts of the tube run all night. You can stay in half of London. Greenwich s cheap and cheerful:
I’ve only been across the ocean twice but did it both ways: the first time I was in travel for literally two whole days because I flew to Toronto to London to Madrid because I was going to be departing from London and a layover in Toronto was cheaper. When I arrived at my hotel in Madrid it was 11:00 and I tried to get to sleep but couldn’t until probably around 2 am. However, I don’t feel loagy or out of sorts when on vacation (because I’m not working!) so other than that there were no problems either day.
The second time I was not as tired, even though I should have been because I couldn’t sleep well in the middle seat on my nighttime flight. I fueled up on Red Bull and alcohol and was ready to see London from around 10 am until around 3pm when I had to get to my hotel because it was getting dark rather than because I was tired. But as soon as my head hit the pillow it was lights out! I slept straight until 6 am and no sleep issues after that.
All in all when I do it again I will take my chances on a nighttime flight again. I think it will be better for me than arriving at night assuming I get a better sleep.
One tip, a place I’ve used previously. is the Travelodge in Hounslow. It is only 10-15 minutes by tube from Heathrow and the hotel is only 150 yards from the station. You should be able to get it for £35-£45 and it is perfectly fine, clean and quiet.
Next morning, trot on down to the station (it is Hounslow central tube station) and continue into London again on the Piccadilly line.