6am flight putting me off going on holiday -aibu?

[getionnn]

Pretty much that.
I'm going to Gran Canaria for a week in 7 weeks time and I should be excited as it was a valentines present from OH
But he's booked a 6am flight
We are staying at an airport hotel the night before which is literally 2 mins walk to terminal (and small airport ) but I'm dreading it.
I hate being tired and will need to be up at 2.30am really.
We are going to Rhodes in September and it's a lovely 3pm flight.
I'm just filled with dread and worrying about being tired the whole day.
Aibu to feel this way ?

I'm with you Op - my DH would know not to book a flight at that time as I wouldn't want to go! He always books flights 11am onwards (& will be willing to pay extra as it's all part of the holiday experience IMHO).

I fly night flights a lot. Even in Heathrow, it's a ghost town until 7 or 8 am. In the early hours, it'll only be full of homeless looking travellers stretched out on benches sleeping too – being all glammed up and presentable is a waste.

Maybe you can skip the makeup and do that on the plane or after you've settled in to your hotel at destination, as nobody will really be around or sufficiently awake to look at you in the airport.

Also, will duty free be open? Heathrow shops only start slowly opening at 5am or so.

Since you've already shelled out for the airport hotel, an alternative suggestion would be to book an airport lounge, so you can wake at 3.30am, check in at 4am then go to sleep till 6am.

Yes, YABU, You’re just being miserable. If you’re staying at the airport you can get up at 4.30 and there’ll be plenty of time, and all the time in the world to relax once you get there.

I’m really wondering if this is a joke. You got a week in Gran Canaria for Valentines day. I got a souvenir slogan t-shirt (extra large) of DH’s favourite youtube woodwork channel for my 50th birthday. ‘Its scrap its crap its firewood..but some of the wood is good - Scrapwood Challenge!’

‘Lovely 3pm flight’ for your other upcoming holiday? Spoiled, that’s what you are.

I actually don't recommend only reaching at 5am for a 6am flight?

Although budget airlines only board you at the last minute, ironically it makes more sense to arrive late for a reputable airline (SQ, Cathay, Emirates... at a pinch, BA) than budget (Easyjet, Ryanair).

The latter's check-in (even if you've done it online) and boarding processes are full of cock-ups, PLUS they won't sort you out and just put you on the next flight for free like reputable airlines do.

@getionnn Gran Canaria is a Spanish territory - Europe. Not international.

Arrive at hotel, v early dinner, shower and do whatever you need, go to bed super early, get up 3.30am, quick wash and dress, out the door and arrive at 4am.

Do your make up at the airport and grab a crossaint and a banana if you’re pushed for time. FYI - you will find cheaper prices than duty free elsewhere in the U.K., especially during sales, so it is a bit of a waste of time as selection is limited.

In short - you’re being ridiculous.

If you ever have kids; most of the flights available and cheaper flights for a family are early on or late at night for key destinations, and you just have to get on with it, while managing several other humans too! Forget make up and browsing duty free too! 😂

@LuckySantangelo35

Well this is my experience having taken many many flights.
Its very hard to sleep the night before because you are excited to be going on holiday but also aware you need to be up early.
Its too early to eat properly before you get on the plane hence wanting food when you land added with the lack of sleep you feel like crap and no one wants to eat in arrivals, you just want your hotel. Then you have to drop off your stuff or just bags (lucky if your rooms ready before 3pm) and find somewhere to have lunch stressed and tired. It buys you a couple of hours in the afternoon that you'll most likely be asleep even if it is on a sun lounger.

If you fly at lunchtime you get a full nights sleep, brunch and drinks at the airport, land feeling fine and can check in to your room straight away. Get changed have a look round and have a decent evening meal.

Yes of course YABU and ungrateful. Just do what other people do and sleep on the plane. Then snooze by the pool when you get there.

I don’t really care. The point is, OP is behaving like a spoilt brat.

😂 The irony lol! The petulance of your post is coming through. There there, have a lollipop and stop your sulking and stomping.

I'm pretty sure the harshness of all the replies is due to vicious jealousy. However, OP just sounds not too well informed (eg thinking the airport will be open for browsing at that hour).

Also, some people need sleep more. I could very easily skip 1 or multiple meals in a day, but I can't function without at least 7h sleep. Everything is blurry and I get very depressed. I don't want to go on a holiday (even one that was a gift) sleep-deprived – work or taking care of kids, sure, but not something that's meant to be a treat. However, I've taken many early hour flights and not had an issue, as I was able to bunk in early the night before, nap after check-in or on the plane (as uncomfortable as it is) etc. I'm sure OP will find that out too.

I was actually awake on take off recently, which was a novelty as I normally fall asleep on the plane before we even begin taxiiing.

Go to bed a bit earlier and then sleep more on the 4 hour flight to GC.

please say you are not a pilot

Hahah. Is the OP a toddler? My family and friends of all ages (including ones here now who are 80 and filled with anxiety on several levels and families with several small children) have flown to see me here in NZ. Somehow they managed to get through a 27 hour flight on little more than a handful of micro snoozes and then stay up until 9pm, 12 hours after they land, to regulate their sleep. All have been totally fine yet the OP is going to be asleep all day and feeling dreadful because she had to rise from her bed once at 4am?
I'm boggled at how some people get through their lives sometimes.

Oh honey, they're not going to tell you they feel crap bc they don't want to make you feel bad. I fly a lot on 14 hr flights between continents to visit family/friends (I'm not from the UK), and "a 27 hour flight on little more than a handful of micro snoozes and then stay up until 9pm, 12 hours after they land, to regulate their sleep" sounds like hell especially for an 80 year old or those with children.

Just don’t think about it and get on with it. We have done early flights many times with children. It is not great but once you get there you can relax

I don’t think the poster was saying they don’t feel like crap after such a long trip. Of course they do. The point was that they behave like grown-ups and get through it quickly, as they supposedly chose to travel and nobody forced them to.

Sometimes in life we have to do things that are a bit difficult. I’m astonished at how many adults seem unable to understand this concept, they must have led very sheltered lives.

I have a friend who has to travel for work to the other side of the world every 2-3 months. They moan for about a week going there, another week coming back, how sleep deprived they are, and tired, and jet lagged, and unable to function. Yet they don’t even try to regulate the time difference, or to go to bed earlier / stop the coffee past X time. They don’t listen to any advice they themselves have asked for. Just stay awake for a couple extra hours on the first few nights and be done with it (yes I deal with jet lag regularly too and I know it’s a killer, but there are things you must do to mitigate it).

Some people would rather complain for days on end about something, rather than choose to do one little thing that’s inconvenient short-term, but ultimately more rewarding.

OP could go to sleep at 10pm having packed and showered, be up at 4am and in the airport by 4:15. That’s 6 hours of sleep which is a decent enough for any reasonably healthy adult. Make up and browsing duty free are not essentials at 4 in the morning. She could inconvenience herself by skipping those, but she’d rather moan about the whole thing instead.

@Marchintospring

interesting!
I might feel a bit tired with an early flight but nothing too extreme as I’m just excited and happy to be on holiday! Eating when I can and not at usual set meal times doesn’t bother me either. Even if I had a lunch time flight there would be no way I’d be eating a meal at the airport anyway - too expensive! It’s doesn’t do anyone any harm to miss a meal and be a bit hungry - again the holiday excitement distracts from that!

@mydamnfootstuckinthedoor

lol I’m sure op will be ok - not too tired and certainly won’t need to spend the whole day sleeping - how ridiculous!

I’m with you ✈️

YABU. Do you have any grasp of how lucky
you are to be going on holiday when millions are struggling to put food on the table? It’s ONE early morning with a holiday at the other end - many people have to get up early every morning just to work.
Sleep on the plane, or have an early night when you get to your destination.

Absolutely. Quality over quantity guys!

I'd pick a morning flight any day of the week.

There's nothing worse that sitting around in that heightened "watch checking state", waiting to go, whether that to GO on holiday, or to return.

You can nap on the plane, or just veg on a lounger when you get there!

I think that the longer lead in time to flights started in Covid when people were first taking flights again after the lockdown - but airlines / airports had let a lot of their staff go . At that time people really did need the longer time (remember the pics of queues in the media). I imagine that airlines haven't changed it back again and that in giving the longer 'warning' time, they are making themselves less responsible if people miss a flight due to late arrival.

@RobinHood19 I guess this is where I differ from MN. I travel (internationally) so much for work and personal life, and often on early AM or red-eye flights, that I'd rather not spend my holiday likewise sleep-deprived.

Especially not on 6 hours – like I said, I need 7 hours at the bare minimum. We're all different. I could happily skip entire meals and have my first bit of food of the day in the evening (no snacks before that even), but if others can't, I don't find that offensive. I think the whole being competitive about necessary bodily functions thing is very weird. Have an imaginary medal and a sticker, people of Mumsnet. I'll have my lovely lie-in.

Also, genuinely not to be rude, but I find this so ironic!

1. Exactly, the woman with the relatives who don't get proper rest for 40 hours didn't say they would die... Neither did OP?

She didn't say she would roll around on her deathbed, only that she was worried about feeling like crap (which, yes, is likely). All of you are exaggerating OP's post.

2. On the moaning point, your whole long moaning post about her supposed moan is longer than her OP!

She simply asked a brief question due to what sounds like inexperience (not knowing airport shops won't be open that early).

It's not just you though – tbh I think the fact that so many posters have to write paragraphs and paragraphs of scorn, in response to a simple question from OP, points to jealousy. I wonder if they'll serve sour grapes for the plane meal...

3. On your friend – as someone who travels to a different continent at least once every few weeks, like her, I wouldn't take advice from inexperienced travelers either. (However, I wouldn't moan too much to them either.)

Real life doesn't stop when you travel on business (and are answering to multiple timezones including back home as well) and you can't just cut the coffee/stop working/tuck yourself in to bed nice and early.

@skygradient I totally agree that when going on holiday people should be free to choose flights / times that work for them, and help them relax during their time off. Just like you said, we’re all different.

For me what’s most incredible on MN is a lack of reading and comprehension skills.

1. I was replying to your earlier response in which “oh honey they’re not actually fine, they just don’t want to make you feel bad” was said as if PP’s relatives just put on a brave face after a long trip so they don’t offend their hosts. No, the PP was just giving an example of grown ups behaving as such, especially in the context of someone gifting you something or having you over. Be gracious and don’t make such a big deal out of it, was the point.
2. My long moaning post only included 1 paragraph on the OP.
3. Like I said earlier in the thread, I don’t think taking up to 10 flights a month on business makes me an “inexperienced traveller”, and my advice void and null. I offer suggestions to people who ask because they know I’m constantly on a plane. I know all too well how we need to power through on little sleep when work, family, just basic life calls. I am obviously not referring to that, but to this particular friend getting back home to 3 days off, no children or urgent tasks that keep him from adjusting to the local time quickly, and him refusing to get out of bed earlier than 2pm for days on end and then moaning to me he’s still jet lagged. When he’s refusing to set his alarm back to 12pm/11/10am and stop the 9pm “I’m so tired” coffee, not mucb else I can suggest. Again the point here was, flexibility is needed sometimes.

The OP was gifted a trip. Her replies were a list of reasons why she couldn’t possibly be flexible for this one day in the year as it would spoil the whole trip. I was taught to accept graciously and get on with it, or decline just as graciously, if you really can’t get on board with what someone has offered you. It’s about good manners and a bit of goodwill, which can go a long way in this world I find.

(And yes, I’m on MN at this time of day because even people in high-pressure jobs have days off, before someone jumps on that 🙄)