How do people feel about night flights?

[Beachdaytoday13]

Going short haul to Greece/Spain, I usually always try to book morning flights for around 8am. That way we are usually at the hotel by about 3oclock in the afternoon. Then usually try to fly home at around 11am. That way we are not either rushing or hanging around to get home.

We’ve found a holiday we want to book but the only flights are late evening. Landing at after 9pm.

We did a night flight years ago and by the time we’d landed and got to the hotel it was the very early hours of the morning. I said I’d never do it again. But there are no morning flights at all.

What do people prefer?

We prefer to stay at a hotel near the airport and get an early flight out. And then opt for a late morning/lunchtime flight home. We looked at holidays recently and ruled out a couple of locations as the flights were rubbish timings for our dates, and if we're only going away for a week I want to make the most of it. Can you travel further to a different airport with better flight times? We did that last year and it worked out nicely.

Landing at 9 is not that late, why would that take you to hotel by early hours? Or you mean you have booked a general transfer that takes 5 hours to drop off a busload of people one hotel at the time? If you land at 9, hotel is reasonably close and you can take a taxi, that sounds great - straight to bed and you will be nice and rested the next day to enjoy the holiday.

I would have no issue with that, landing at 9pm is not really that late, and would only be 8pm in the UK. Even with kids (not tiny ones) I've often landed later than that in the evening by choice. I would avoid flights landing in the early hours of the morning, unless long haul and been on it for hours.

Prefer early morning to arrive at lunchtime so you can have a bulk of a day when you arrive. We did a late flight a couple of years ago. Our flight was delayed and we didn't arrive until gone midnight. Luckily our accommodation owners had provided snacks and water upon our arrival. Not only did we lose that entire day, but a large proportion of the following day while we slept.

Don't mind a late departure coming home. We had one year where it was pouring down with rain and we weren't going to the airport until 4pm. The owners of where we were staying brought out the wine and we had a lovely time putting the world to rights with them.

I feel so strongly that I choose my destination around the flight times and the nearest airport. I won't go from Manchester or London, only Leeds or East Midlands.
Obviously if cost is a priority you would choose the cheapest antisocial flight, but not for me.
One good thing about Jet2 is that you can go for any number of nights. We used to stay at an airport hotel and book a morning flight but now I just add an extra night and choose an afternoon flight. I never take the coach I always get a taxi.
So I arrive at the hotel around 7/8 pm in time for dinner and spend my first night at the destination hotel instead of a crumby airport hotel.
Coming home I want to fly around lunchtime. So it gives time to get up at a decent hour, breakfast and get off.
This does mean there are a few places I don't go to (Rhodes seems to only have awful flight times) but a beach holiday is a beach holiday.

Hate night flights. Hate long haul night flights even more. Will avoid every time (not that I fly that much) if possible.

@Beachdaytoday13 The decent flights sell out first so you have the ones available that no one else wants. Obviously better timed flights cost more! I’d not do a night flight with a dc. Fairly horrible start to a holiday.

I’m with @Quooth and design my holiday around best available flights, they’ve usually been brilliant.
I don’t like late evening flights departing or returning. It’s ok in theory but if delayed then it’s really tiring arriving in the small hours. In theory you have the whole of the last day but in practise it means packing a suitcase and maybe a small bag for the day and finding somewhere to shower if you’ve been on the beach or by the pool.
For me optimal times are 9am from the UK and lunchtime/early afternoon return. I can usually get these times if flexible on airports and/or destination.
Was much more able to cope with early/late flights when young but it ruins the holiday for me now I’m old and set in my ways!

I often fly long haul for work (Singapore), where some night flying is inevitable. but for leisure flying I prefer day flights if possible. I''m prepared to pay extra for that, but there was a time when I could not afford the extra in which case I would lump it.

The worst scenario in my book is something like a 6:00am departure, which means that you have to be at the airport for silly o'clock.

I much prefer flying at night, both going and coming home, but it does sometimes mean you get one less 'proper' day.

Ideally, we prefer daytime flights from our local airport, a ten minutes drive away.

If we have to go to Gatwick or Heathrow, I don’t mind a flight in the morning, because we stay in an onsite hotel the night before (or one nearby), get through baggage drop and security, then go eat breakfast in a business lounge.

What I really don’t like are night flights back. One time, I had specifically booked daytime flights there and back, and the airline put us on a night flight a day later. Luckily, we were staying with family!

We had a long haul flight back last year, of two connecting flights - but the second plane broke down and we had hours to wait at 3 am in a foreign airport for another one! We were offered meal vouchers, which DH said would only get us fast food (which he’s not supposed to eat for his heart); so we hot footed it to the lounge, where they were just about to serve breakfast. Still, it was a horrible experience, when half asleep.

Had a short haul flight recently, leaving at 11pm-ish (was delayed, didn't leave til gone midnight but arrived only 10 minutes late weirdly) arrived about 1:30am local time, half 3 my time, then a nearly 3 hour drive. Had to sleep all morning to recover which lost half a day. But otherwise alright.

The late flights are often delayed. The aircraft pick up minor delays all day that add up for the final flight.

Always pick the earliest flight going out and afternoon flight coming home. This year however our flight home is at 6am, we need to leave the accommodation at 3am, I am dreading it.

I usually avoid those evening or late flights as it seems such a waste of hotel costs and annual leave so I pay more to fly out at an easier time, go at a different time of year, or not go at all. I’m going to the west coast of the U.S soon and have no choice to fly back overnight with the flight leaving early evening - it’s either that or not go on this bucket list trip.

It’s standard to do overnight back from USA. You land early morning back in uk. There’s similar flight timings from South Africa and Canada. It’s arriving early in the morning abroad that’s the issue, especially on short haul. It’s disrupting your sleep pattern.

True.. A lot of Longhaul timing is driven by the wish/need to allow people to connect via short haul feeds at either end...that means trying not to depart early AM, arrive very late PM.

Chuck in time changes (and possibly noise abatement curfews) and you often end up flying overnight, especially if going eastbound.