Delta discontinuing redeye LAX-MCO?

[cigar95]

For years, I've gotten to Orlando from Los Angeles by flying the redeye on either United or Delta. A couple years ago, United discontinued their redeye, and now it looks like Delta is doing the same thing as of next January, replacing it with a mid-afternoon flight that gets in late at night.

Los Angeles travelers - anyone else notice this? Am I missing something? Maybe the redeye still exists on certain days of the week and I've just not seen it?

It's disappointing that Delta is almost killing the SkyMiles program, but now it seems my usual flight may not be available anyway.

Switching to the new flight would get me a full night's sleep in exchange for leaving work a half-day earlier, so maybe it's not all bad.

 

[DebbieB]

For years, I've gotten to Orlando from Los Angeles by flying the redeye on either United or Delta. A couple years ago, United discontinued their redeye, and now it looks like Delta is doing the same thing as of next January, replacing it with a mid-afternoon flight that gets in late at night.

Los Angeles travelers - anyone else notice this? Am I missing something? Maybe the redeye still exists on certain days of the week and I've just not seen it?

It's disappointing that Delta is almost killing the SkyMiles program, but now it seems my usual flight may not be available anyway.

Switching to the new flight would get me a full night's sleep in exchange for leaving work a half-day earlier, so maybe it's not all bad.

I flew a redeye SNA-ATL after D23 in 2011. When I went last year, that flight was discontinued, I flew the LAX-DTW redeye. It was 90 minutes late and I missed my connection. Had to wait 3 hours at DTW for the next flight which ended up about 45 minutes late. Got home a total of 5 hours late. I swore never again for a red-eye, it's too difficult after a long day.

 

[cigar95]

Just to add to the confusion, I now see that DL is also discontinuing their early evening non-stop back to Los Angeles. It used to be easy to stay in the parks until about 4 pm, then head to the airport.

Delta's been good to me for a lot of years, but looks like I may have to look at switching to United for Orlando trips.

 

[Firepath]

I've taken that Delta red eye and also the old United one as well. If you don't mind going way out of your way, there's an Alaska flight LAX to SEA then non-stop overnight to MCO. I think it leaves LAX after 5pm and arrives MCO around 6am or so. Alaska partners with Delta so if you use/earn miles they are interchangeable. Alaska airlines has been great for us. Last time we flew they changed our flights (both ways) about 6 mos. out. They put us on better flights and gave each of us enough miles for another roundtrip for the inconvenience.

 

[cigar95]

Yeah, I think there might be a similar option connecting through Salt Lake, that doesn't cost quite as much time. I'd lose out on the free checked bags that I have on Delta, but I guess that's better than losing a half a day's pay.

 

[Greysword]

Looks like there is an Alaska Airlines non-stop from San Diego to Orlando

Flight 760
Departure City SAN
Departure Time 10:30 AM
Arrival City MCO
Arrival Time 5:55 PM
Stops 0
Meals L, F
Aircraft 737
Weekly Schedule:
Sun
Mon
Thu
Fri
Sat

 

[MAH4546]

American offers a non-stop LAX-MCO redeye.

 

[lacrosse_lady72]

Ugh! I swear red-eyes are going away more and more! It's so frustrating because I'd rather have a sleepy full day on the east coast instead of a late night arrival and no day at all.

 

[cigar95]

Ugh! I swear red-eyes are going away more and more! It's so frustrating because I'd rather have a sleepy full day on the east coast instead of a late night arrival and no day at all.

One of the reasons redeyes began was a general trend for planes to move west as the day progresses, so that there were more planes on the west coast than there were in the morning. Flying them back overnight got them back in position for the next day, and they may as well have paying passengers on them while they fly.

Over the years, it's possible that more sophisticated scheduling algorithms have allowed the airlines to reduce this "westward drift", so that fewer redeyes are needed, and they can probably be focused on the hubs - of which MCO is not.

I think the last time I flew to New York on anything other than a redeye might have been 1982. There have been a couple of non-redeye trips to Orlando, but most have indeed been overnight.

Like you, I enjoy arriving with a whole day ahead of me. I can survive day 1 off a couple hours of sleep, just running on first-day-adrenaline. Plus, I enjoy driving out of the airport at MCO as the sun comes up and this mist is just lifting.

My guess is that my alternative to Orlando is going to be to redeye to Atlanta and connect, which gets me in about 8:30 instead of my more common 5:30.