Redeye Flights
I'm in our nation's capital right now, visiting some family and eating home cooked food. I took the redeye flight out here last night, despite lots of people asking my why I would do that to myself. Actually, I find the redeye flights to be the perfect way to travel.
I flew JetBlue, which leaves out of Oakland airport. I have nothing against Oakland, but their airport is like a Greyhound bus station compared to SFO. I would not take flights from there, but JetBlue is a pretty damn good deal and so far (based on two trips) a good airline as well. There was a lot of traffic getting into Oakland, which is odd because normally there is not much traffic at airports at that time of night.
Which brings me to the first reason I like redeye flights. Easy getting into the airport, no long check-in lines, short security lines, and empty restaurants where service is quick if you want something to eat. Those hassles alone are enough to make many frequent travellers annoyed enough to want to strangle someone. The second reason that I like these flights is sleep. I have lots of difficulty sleeping on planes unless I'm really really tired -- the problem is that if I'm not sleeping, boredom sets in rather quickly. There's a limit to the amount of reading/music that I can take all at once in tightly confined quarters. Thus, if I don't get much sleep the night before, by the time of the redeye I'm so tired that sleep comes readily and the flight goes quickly. Excellent.
Of course, by sleeping on the plane I don't waste an entire day on the airplane. During the day I can go out and do things, spending it on an airplane seems a waste of time. However, if I can spend the night on the plane and sleep while I'm there, then it's not a waste at all. In fact it's a pretty efficient use of time, as I wake up at my destination. Now, it is true that I usually need to take a nap of a few hours when I get to my destination to catch up on some missing sleep, but I still don't waste the whole day. It's pretty damn cool.
I think however that these flights are catching on. This past one was full to capacity, and amazingly, for the first time, these were not the cheapest times available for flights (close, but not quite.) Ah well, for now I still think that its' the best deal going.
I'm in our nation's capital right now, visiting some family and eating home cooked food. I took the redeye flight out here last night, despite lots of people asking my why I would do that to myself. Actually, I find the redeye flights to be the perfect way to travel.
I flew JetBlue, which leaves out of Oakland airport. I have nothing against Oakland, but their airport is like a Greyhound bus station compared to SFO. I would not take flights from there, but JetBlue is a pretty damn good deal and so far (based on two trips) a good airline as well. There was a lot of traffic getting into Oakland, which is odd because normally there is not much traffic at airports at that time of night.
Which brings me to the first reason I like redeye flights. Easy getting into the airport, no long check-in lines, short security lines, and empty restaurants where service is quick if you want something to eat. Those hassles alone are enough to make many frequent travellers annoyed enough to want to strangle someone. The second reason that I like these flights is sleep. I have lots of difficulty sleeping on planes unless I'm really really tired -- the problem is that if I'm not sleeping, boredom sets in rather quickly. There's a limit to the amount of reading/music that I can take all at once in tightly confined quarters. Thus, if I don't get much sleep the night before, by the time of the redeye I'm so tired that sleep comes readily and the flight goes quickly. Excellent.
Of course, by sleeping on the plane I don't waste an entire day on the airplane. During the day I can go out and do things, spending it on an airplane seems a waste of time. However, if I can spend the night on the plane and sleep while I'm there, then it's not a waste at all. In fact it's a pretty efficient use of time, as I wake up at my destination. Now, it is true that I usually need to take a nap of a few hours when I get to my destination to catch up on some missing sleep, but I still don't waste the whole day. It's pretty damn cool.
I think however that these flights are catching on. This past one was full to capacity, and amazingly, for the first time, these were not the cheapest times available for flights (close, but not quite.) Ah well, for now I still think that its' the best deal going.
posted by slithytoves at 11:36 PM
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