My Favorite “Jet Lag Hack” Flight Is The New York To Europe Day Flight

I get asked often about my favorite flights. I have one and I’m happy to share it. It’s the New York to London day flight on basically any airline that flies it, though there are games within games for preference, which i’ll get into, too. I’d count the same for Paris too.

Why this flight? I consistently suffer less from jet lag when taking this daytime service than with any of the overnight options, all of which leave well past midnight (local) time in the UK, leaving very little time to sleep, particularly if you eat or drink a single thing.

This NY-LON day flight leaves around noon or 1PM UK time and lands around late supper or early bed time. If you manage to stay awake during the flight, you’ll have naturally extended your waking hours well enough to feel tired and night and fall right into UK time.

WTF Is Happening To These Flights

If you pay much attention to airline schedules, you’ll see many airlines have dropped these unique morning flights. Planes sitting on the ground and waiting around are very, very bad news for airlines and that’s an issue here with timing.

In a perfect world, they basically just shuttle around the world 24/7 for eternity and that’s what makes this flight tricky for airlines. This flight lands at around 8-10PM UK or EU time depending on airline, which by the time the aircraft is serviced means it’s too late to turn around to the US the same evening.

Unless the airline can then put it on a very late departure going in another direction, which heavily excludes US airlines, it’ll be forced to sit overnight. American, British Airways, JetBlue, United and Virgin are the only ones still flying regularly. Delta cancelled its morning flight to Paris this past year.

Good Routine Feeds The Greatness of Schedule

If I’m traveling to the UK, I try to slowly adjust my eating times towards Europe in the days before travel. Grabbing a 6PM dinner in New York is still the equivalent of 11PM in London, but it’s better than the later alternatives.

Get up earlier, eat earlier and you’ll slowly start to sync your circadian rhythms with GMT time before you get on the plane.

The day of travel, you’re naturally up early for these flights. The BA, JetBlue Virgin and United flights leave before 9AM and as international departures with major city roadways, you’ve gotta get up fairly early to make it safely. Unless, of course, you fly Blade. Forcing me up at 5AM local means it’s 10AM in the UK, which is a decent time straddle.

I do my damndest ($#!T happens) to not drink on these flights and try to keep my window at least cracked. I want to feel the day light as much as possible and send the signal to my body that it’s mid day.

And that’s the thing – if you’re treating yourself to a special experience in a cabin up front, you may want to bear in mind when picking your flight, because you’re slightly fighting the best benefits of this flight if you get hammered and pass out for most of the way.

Plane Meals To Match Local Time

Meal schedules are well timed on these flights, so when you have your 9AM EST post take off meal, it’s about late lunch time in the UK.

I’ll either self cater “good” food or pick the healthier, less sleep inducing bits of a meal from the plane. The pre-landing meal at around 6PM UK time is a good chance to eat something before arrival if you need to zip off to slep. After 6ish hours on the plane with time adjusted, you’re weaving your way into London for an 8PM arrival so 9PM dinner.

About those games within games

If you’re a true nerd, you’ll know that the cabin pressurization – aka how natural and earth like or how much you feel like you’re in a fish tank in the sky – varies between planes.

Newer planes have been optimized with stronger materials that allow heavier pressurization, which makes it feel like you’re just in your living room. The air is more humid too, which makes you dry out less and feel less lethargic.

Virgin is the only airline flying this route with an Airbus A350, which is one of these newer generation planes. All other factors being equal, I typically pick Virgin for this flight because I’ll benefit from the best cabin environment to help me stay awake and feel less fatigue.

The above is very marginal, nerdy stuff so please ignore if you like.

Early One And Call It!

By the time you’ve deplaned and made your way through Heathrow immigration, it’s likely between 8 and 9 and depending on where you’re going, a great time to just have an early one.

I’ve done this flight more times than I could possibly count and it’s by far been the easiest flight to simply wake up the next morning before 8AM local time in the UK – equivalent to 3AM in New York – and feel absolutely fine and ready for the day.

An edible and you’re off to a great first nights sleep!