You’re shopping around for flights and have a choice of flights at 6:15am or 7:01pm. The 6:15am one is cheaper but you’d have to wake up at way-too-early o’clock and those few extra hours of sleep are totally worth the extra money you’d pay for the later flight. Or so you think. So you choose the 7:01pm flight.
Is it still worth it if your flight and everything around it turns out to be awful? Maybe that early morning flight would have been better? Yeah, it might have. Here’s why…
According to Travel & Leisure, there are lots of reasons to consider an early morning flight:
Fewer Delays
Early morning flights should have few, if any delays, for several reasons. Lots of late takeoffs are because of air traffic. But there’s significantly less air traffic before, say, 8am. There’s also been no time for delays to pile up on delays, which will also help. Of course, if there’s weather happening, or a mechanical issue, those kinds of things can’t be helped. But otherwise, you have a better chance of your flight taking off on time with an early morning flight.
Less Turbulence
Jet streams trigger sudden changes in wind speed that can rock a plane all over the place. We’re kind of stuck with that; the best a pilot can do is avoid it. But another type of turbulence is thermal turbulence. That one is created by hot rising air, usually from cumulus clouds or thunderstorms. Those tend to happen more often during the afternoon, which is the hottest time of the day. So if you fly in the early morning, when it’s still relatively cooler outside, there’s less chance of turbulence.
It’s Cheaper
Not as many people are willing to fly those 6:15am flights, so airlines try to make them more attractive with a lower price.
It’s Not As Crowded
Do YOU want to wake up at 3 o’clock in the morning to make your plane? Neither do I or a whole lot of other people. So the plane won’t be as crowded. And – bonus! – the roads at 4am will be pretty empty, too!
The Airport Will Be More Pleasant
Think about it. People are still groggy from the early morning hours, so they’re not as loud. Kids might not even be running and screaming. People haven’t had a chance to be frazzled yet and in general, the airport will just be…calmer. That’s definitely something to look forward to.
My Take On Early Morning Flights
Now personally, I think that my actually following through with all of this and getting an early morning flight could just about kill me because I am SO NOT a morning person. Just ask Joe. So do as I say, not as I do. But still, an early morning flight could make your traveling day a whole lot better…IF you can stand waking up that early, anyway 😉
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
2 comments
6:15am? Try 5:15am for the real hard core folks 🙂 I agree with your take on this but my reasoning is that the first flights of the day are often on aircraft that arrived the night before so the crew is there, the plane is there and other than weather and mechanical issues it should leave on time. With the later banks of flights say at 7am-9am these may be aircraft that left the hub at 6am and are turning around which puts you at the mercy of the originating airport. So you have double the chance to have weather or mechanical issues not to mention ATC issues out of larger hubs. All that being said I still like the 9am flights because I live over an hour from the airport so a 6am departure is a 3 or 4am departure at home, yuck.
Some flights leave IKA Tehran at 3:45 am. Ukraine International leave around 5:30 am