Winging over The Pond (Part 1)

(UPDATE: I have updated this article to get the most recent schedule for flights and to add multi-leg journeys. The original article only considered non-stop flights.)

Let’s take a look at the subject of flights from the US to London. We live near the Washington, DC area so the focus will be on that area as we know it pretty well, but we have looked at other cities (Atlanta, New York, Chicago, Dallas, Denver and San Francisco) and can cover them as well.  First, a disclaimer— you should work with your local travel folks to verify what flights are available to you and, if you are not in a major city, be advised that you may need to add in the time and expense to get to a major city for a flight to London. Finally, flight schedules change, so while this info is current now (2024) it may be out of date later on.

At most airports in the US two departure options are usually offered for direct flights to London; what we call “lose a day travelling” or the “red-eye” overnight.

On the “lose a day” plan, the flight would leave in the morning from your departure city and arrive at Heathrow early in the evening, UK time.  Although this plan seems at first glance to be a pretty good solution because you arrive tired, it’s late at night, you get a good night’s sleep and should be good to go in the morning. But there are some serious downsides to this approach that need to be considered. First, for check-in you may have to be at the airport really early, and if you have any sort of drive to get there, that factor can sharply cut into your sleep the night before. For example, out of Washington Dulles International (IAD) as of now (2024), there is a flight that leaves at 11 a.m., arriving in LHR at just after 11 p.m. local time. To catch that flight, one would need to arrive at the airport no later than 8:30 a.m., but preferably 8 a.m. We live an hour’s drive from the airport, so we would need to leave our house at 7 a.m., which means a 5 a.m. get up, making for a very long day by the time we even arrive at LHR.  Assuming it takes an hour to get through UK Border Control and Customs, another hour for a taxi drive to central London, it’s going to be close to midnight or later before you get to your room.  Your body time is 7:00 p.m. and you’ve been up since 3 a.m.!  That’s a long day.

The second option is the “red-eye” approach in which the flight takes place overnight. There is a five-hour time difference from the East Coast of the US to London, and eight hours from the West Coast. So, for example, the flight time for non-stop flights from Dulles Airport in Washington, DC area to London Heathrow (LHR) is about 7.5 hours. Add in the five-hour time difference and a flight leaving IAD at 7 p.m. arrives in LHR about 7:30 a.m. the following day. Of course, the flight itself is only 7.5 hours, so if you assume it will be about an hour before things quiet down enough for you to get to sleep and that you’ll be awakened about an hour before landing, the maximum sleep time will be 5.5 hours. Add in the fact that although it’s 7:30 a.m. in London, your body thinks it’s 2:30 a.m. and you can see how jet lag gets its reputation!  From points further west the flight is longer, so the sleep time may be longer, but the conditions for sleeping in the seats, even in First Class, are not excellent. You can count on being really tired and really out of sync on arrival.

There are now several airlines that are taking advantage of the airports in Iceland to offer two-leg flights. These flights offer generally lower fares, and the flight times are also longer, some as much as double the overall time of the non-stops. The same rest considerations apply, however, for these flights. You can either “lose a day” or “red-eye” your way across the pond to UK.

What to do? It is really up to you and your particular situation, but stay tuned for how we have experienced both options.