Talk me out of taking the red eye home.

[cruiser21]

We've taken red eyes to Europe and home from Hawaii several times. Your child will be fine. He's on summer break It's the adults that have to go back to work that will suffer. Jet lags sucks, but you'll survive. Plus it not a huge time difference.

 

[bumbershoot]

My kids have done the red eye flights from LAX to MCO many times. Arriving us at Orlando 6am. That's 3 am our time here in CA. We just took a nap later in the day of arrival and everything was fine the next day.

JW

Lucky. My family is messed up for days. Even with just a 3 hour time difference.

Your child will be fine.

Can't guarantee it. If your kid doesn't sleep, or if you don't, on airplanes it can be a miserable start to a trip.

Just had one of them SEA to MCO, and it was awful.

And our trip from Seattle to Dublin via Vancouver and Heathrow involved less than 40 minutes of sleep on the long portion thanks to my then 10 year old. Took days to get into the swing of things.

 

[cruiser21]

Lucky. My family is messed up for days. Even with just a 3 hour time difference.



Can't guarantee it. If your kid doesn't sleep, or if you don't, on airplanes it can be a miserable start to a trip.

Just had one of them SEA to MCO, and it was awful.

And our trip from Seattle to Dublin via Vancouver and Heathrow involved less than 40 minutes of sleep on the long portion thanks to my then 10 year old. Took days to get into the swing of things.

None of us sleep all that well on planes, but it doesn't kill us. We just go to sleep when we get home or to the hotel. Yes it can take days to adjust to flying overseas that's just part of traveling. Going from pacific time to central time shouldn't be that big a deal.

 

[Flossbolna]

When I fly back home to Europe, there is no choice, all flights are red-eyes. However, my experience is that it is easier to get over them the longer the flight is and the bigger the time difference. I guess mainly because I am more likely to get some sort of sleep on the plane. Flying home to Germany from California is far easier for me that flying home from Miami and the worst was Coming home from Boston. Therefor, your plan which also has the layover in the middle sounds like the worst type of red eye I can imagine. I would definitely try to avoid it. And it would be 600$ worth it for me. Especially if I man the one who has to go to work so quickly after returning home.