Would you do a 6am flight home from holiday?

[christmasdee]

My partner has booked our holiday
He has chose a flight home from Tenerife at 6am back to Manchester.
Our transfer is picking us up at 2.30am
It's honestly making me miserable thinking about it.
He can't see anything wrong with this.
Please tell me I'm not alone in thinking this is a shocking time to get picked up.

Urgh no

I would look into the cost of a taxi or small group transfer from your resort directly to the airport, it's going to be a long hour and a half on the bus.

I wouldn't have preferred to pay £150 extra to arrive home late.

If taking the later flight is worth $340 to you then tell your partner you’ll buy tickets for the later flight.

But if that’s what fits best in the joint holiday budget then just make it work without moaning. With no DC I’d likely just take a nap that day, stay up until the 2:30am pickup and get as much sleep during the car ride and flight as possible. But perhaps I do enough long-haul travel that losing nights and weird schedules don’t seem like torture.

ETA: you haven’t mentioned who’s paying for this trip, and that absolutely makes a difference in how I’d approach this.

No. I would find it disregulating. I agree with your points. Make him change it

Better than the time DH booked our holiday and we had an 8pm flight out, arriving at about 1am.
Then a flight home at 00.20am…with a 10am checkout the day before 🫠

He was even trying to be tight, he just booked as a package and didn’t think to check flight times 🤯😂
Needless to say he hasn’t been allowed to take the lead in booking again 😂

The last few times we’ve been away we’ve done 6am flight out which means at the pool for late morning. Then a 2pm flight back which means being able to have a relaxed breakfast etc before setting off for the airport, but being home in time for a nice early night, which is perfect IMO!

I definitely wouldn’t like that at all and can see why you are unhappy about it.

No I wouldn't do it.

No I wouldn’t, but then I’m a special kind of lightweight when it comes to getting up early. Makes me feel stressed even thinking about it…

I do night flights long haul but I'd avoid it for Tenerife unless it was a 2am flight and saved a nights hotel

God I would, I'd pay double that.

I'm with you OP. It's a no from me.
I'm away to Tenerife this weekend and have a 7am flight out and 8pm flight home.
No children on the trip so fine for me.

Common on ski holidays.

I wouldn't choose it if I could avoid it but I have done it many times when better flights are hundreds more.

We did similar a few weeks back coming home from a destination where there was one flight per day on certain days and the next available flight home would have messed up the kids’ return to school. We had a very late evening meal, a nice walk, a cone, went back to the flat and I just stayed up, chilled and washed my hair etc. DH and two teens caught a few hours. Was tiring but not overwhelming. I don’t like hanging about waiting to fly when I know I’m leaving that day though and if I had a 8am flight I probably wouldn’t sleep much anyway in case I slept in. For £300 I’d definitely just suck it up - unless you really can’t cope without sleep, know some people feel ill etc when they’re exhausted.

Maybe when I was in my 20s and could cope with a night of less sleep etc I wouldn’t have cared but at 44 and menopausal and hate my sleep disturbed now, no. I’d rather pay more and fly later.

We had this on last years sk holiday and I was dreading it. Actually the reality was ok. Had a few glasses f wine with early dinner, Bed at 10 pm few hours seep. All went well no way as bad as I had expected.

For me it would depend on what type of holiday it was ... if the main holiday of the year (2 week break) then it would be a no but if it was a cheapie 'bonus' holiday where we were trying to be as economical as possible then it wouldn't be ideal but I would put up with it to be able to get away and have a holiday.

Nah I wouldn’t fancy it though have done a 6am outbound (never again)

But I plan entire holidays around decent flight times
from Manchester there is very little that comes back from Greece at a sociable hour. It’s all approximately midnight. No thanks, at least with kids.

In my twenties I don't think it would have phased me much but now I'm in my forties I get irritable on no sleep.

Wouldn’t mind at all.

As a pp said it’s a false economy as you are paying for 7 nights of holiday but effectively getting 6.

Might as well book a more sensible flight time for the day before and save on the extra night of hotel (if a shorter stay is available). Or book the later pricier jet2 flight to get value for the last night.

The OP hasn’t said how long she is going for. It could be a month for all we know.

No I wouldn't