The Horticulturalist

Hey y'all,

Hope you are all ready for work tomorrow....

Anyway, I'm planning a family trip home to the UK in May, final destination airport will be Edinburgh or Glasgow, either works and I'm happy to overnight in London and then fly up the next day.

I'm dreading the usual overnight flight, plus my health has not been great these last 6 months so I'm looking for ways to mitigate the jetlag If I can.
I'd like to fly direct from Atlanta, but would consider connecting in Philly, DC or NYC to get the daytime flight.

Any advice gratefully received.

GeoffM

Nothing obvious is coming up. Problem is, you need to be in NYC or similar by about 8am to have any realistic chance of getting the daytime flights to the UK (allowing for connection time). Heathrow is about 12 hours difference and closes by 11pm so no flights leave after 9.30 or so in case of delays and thus costly diversions.

I'd work on other strategies for combatting jet lag! Sounds silly but perhaps doubling back to, say, IAH would give you more sleep time on the plane and doesn't always cost more.

penguinsix

DC has a morning flight, but usually only in the Summer time. Flying from IAD at about 9 am I thought. You might be able to catch a 6am flight from ATL to IAD and then transfer onward. Not sure though. Slightly closer than NY and less congestion.

Englishmum

Continental Airlines has a daily service (in fact twice daily when you are planning to travel) from Newark airport, NJ directly to Edinburgh. However, both flights involve an overnight transatlantic crossing.

It might be your best way to travel as you would avoid having to change terminals at London Heathrow. Continental is the main airline at Newark (although soon to merge with United Airlines, although I didn't look at their website) and almost all of their flights operate from Terminal C.

Go to http://www.continental.com and put in ATL as the departure airport and EDI (Edinburgh) as the arrival airport.

I did this on a round trip in mid-May 2011 and it came up with (amongst many options):

Depart ATL at 5pm, arriving at Newark EWR at 7.40pm flight CO1408

Depart EWR at 10.20pm, arriving at Edinburgh EDI next day at 10.00am flight CO 108

The other Continental Airlines flight from EWR-EDI departs at 8.00pm). You could perhaps take this earlier flight (not sure if you are working on the same day as your flight and taking a half-day or not as not sure how long your journey will be to ATL. If you want to take an earlier flight to arrive in Edinburgh at 8.00am, see below:

Depart ATL at 2.45pm, arriving at EWR at 5.02pm on flight CO2582

Depart EWR at 8.00pm, arriving at Edinburgh EDI next day at 7.55am on CO36

There is one daily direct flight from EWR to Glasgow (GLA) departing at 7.40pm, arriving next day at 7.30am on flight CO16 but there is a longer layover in EWR if you fly up from ATL. I guess with an international connection their website will give a minimum of 3 hours between flights.

I haven't looked up the return leg flights.....this is just a "heads up" as an alternative to going via LHR.

Continental also has daily direct flights (some are twice daily in the Summer) to: Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester, London Heathrow, London Gatwick, Birmingham and Belfast). They don't really seem to advertise these routes in the US media as far as I know, well certainly in the NY metro area with the exception of their flights to LHR. My mum has been on the CO flights from Birmingham to Newark and says that almost all the passengers seem to be British.

Anyway, I hope this helps!

PS: If you do take the morning flights to LHR, they generally arrive - if they depart on time... at around 8pm to 8.30pm. I don't know the times of the last flights from LHR to EDI with say, BA - but if you miss a connection in the evening then you are going to be stuck in London for the night! My last two morning flights from EWR on Virgin Atlantic departed late; one last March was due to a frozen fuel pipe and it departed 21/2 hours late, we got off the plane just before 11pm so I missed my connection to Singapore at LHR and Virgin put all pax with missed connections up in a Premier Inn motel on the Bath Road for the night. My most recent trip departed 3 hours late (last October) but at least I was staying at an hotel in London but it was midnight by the time I checked in.

PS: Some of the results were stating "5 tickets left at this price"....!!!! I'm not sure which legs the seats were selling fast for, perhaps it was the ATL-EWR legs of the journey???

Rete

Sorry to hear that you have not been well, Hort. Hoping 2011 finds you healthier and happier.

tonrob

Doesn't mean they're selling fast though does it? - Just that enough have booked already to push fare up to the next bucket. Presumably seats on these flights have been on sale for a while.

Seperately - and probably too late for the OP unless they untend to repeat this journey - CO have just started registration for their annual 'Mile-a-thon' promo. Might be worth a look in case they were undertaking any qualifying activities as could yield a fair amount of CO miles for future use (I'm making an assumption that CO miles will be converted into the United programme in due course).

S Folinsky

The time difference between the US Eastern Time Zone and UT is five hours. [US Daylight Savings Time starts a few weeks earlier than the UK, so it is 4 hours for a short time in March].

On "doubling back" -- many years ago I was seriously jet lagged in Los Angeles [my home] after return from a UK vacation. I had to go to Seoul for a four day business trip -- I had absolutely no jet lag at home. That is the only time I've avoided the problem!

Englishmum

Come to think of it, my daughter (who lives in London) swears by taking Melatonin tablets for jet-lag.

It can no longer be purchased in the UK, but you can buy it over the counter in the US eg. at Walgreens.

The Horticulturalist

Thanks all,

I've taken melatonin but it tends to give me a headache.

Englishmum, the Continental via Newark route into Scotland is the one we usually take. I feel so crap for about 3 days afterwards that I would be willing to take a daytime flight and overnight in a London hotel flying up the next day if I thought it would make a difference.

Penguin - Thanks for the advice about going via DC instead of NYC. The airport hotels look cheaper there also.

babybyrd

if youd be prepared to overnight in paris there are some days that delta flies non stop atl-cdg - departure at around 3pm or 3.45ish

GeoffM

The 12 hours I referred to comes from the time zone difference plus the journey time, hence 5+7=12. Actually slightly under 7 hours eastbound but keeps it simple. The reason for mentioning was, as said, the restricted hours at LHR and the lack of same day connecting flights.

babybyrd

leave atl 3pm - arrive paris after non stop at 6 am ( on delta) - why not treat yourself to a day and night there - do most of your acclimatisation - and then fly cdg direct to edi? i think AF do that route still - and as far as i am aware delta and AF code share so you could book it all on one itinerary probably ( which imho is always preferable when encountering delays cancellations etc)

tonrob

I've cut down significantly on the effects of jet lag by flying business class (using miles picked up via CC deals and the like). Lounge access before and after the flight (nice food, showers etc. if needed) and lie flat bed for sleep en-route has done wonders for me. Takes a bit of planning, researching offers etc. but it's been worth it for Mrs tonrob and I (especially as I tend to suffer badly from jet lag anyway). Some of this would depend, IMO, on the type of aircraft being flown on the route in question, as not all business classes were created equal. As per my previous comment - bit too late for a May trip if you were starting from scratch but could be worth considering for future jaunts.

The Horticulturalist

Disappointing, I thought you were going to come up with some marvelous insights into the power of sprouts in combating jetlag.

BritishGuy36

One word.

Cruise.