The BEST way to fly to EUROPE?

Watch this video to see the ultimate way to fly to Europe and virtually eliminate the effects of Jet Lag to travel to Europe!

Jet Lag may be the WORST part of traveling to Europe, but with these “not-so-secret” flights, there’s a way to make the trip East from the USA a whole easier. In this video, we’ll share a few jet lag tips to help you make the trip from the US to Europe a little easier! We flew with United Airlines in Polaris Business Class from Newark and started our time in Europe completely ready for the experience.

The jet lag recovery tips in this video are just some travel hacks we’ve learned. But the real fun will come in the comments below as other travelers share their tips and tricks about how to travel to Europe, so please leave your ideas and have a look through other ones below!

Normally, a trip from the US East Coast to Europe involves a painful start to the trip thanks to that groggy feeling you can get when you don’t sleep on the red eye flight over, but you don’t have to feel that way! Watch this video to see how!

0:00 Introduction
1:29 Jeb’s Jet Lag Diatribe
0:43 Polaris Lounge
3:08 Boarding United 777-200
6:50 JebScore
7:53 Did it work?

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Music:
Take Me Away (Instrumental Version) - Ramin
Underwater Sunlight - Daxton
I’ve Had Enough (Instrumental Version) - Snake City
Time Traveler - Sum Wave

[billyw]

My way of beating jet lag is to fly overnight and stay up the entire day I land in Europe before going to bed at normal time in Europe. Works for me.

[bishwatntl]

Back in 1998, I was fed up with the overnight eastbound flights, even in business class, so I was pleased to hear that a couple of airlines had started the morning flights to London. At that time, there were three options - United or BA from JFK and BA from Boston. I chose United and stayed at an airport hotel close to JFK. The hotel wasn't anything special, but, as you saw, it was good to have an empty lounge before departure. Boarding at around 09:00, it felt good to spend my Sunday sitting watching movies and being fed at "normal" meal times. Even better, I arrived at Heathrow around 21:30 local time and found an empty arrivals terminal with no queues. Then, to arrive home and go to bed at normal UK time was such a luxury. Yes, I woke feeling good the next day.

[kentgordis]

London is one of the few destinations from the East Coast that has morning departures. I mostly fly to Paris which once had a morning departure but has since been dropped. Airlines prefer the evening departure from the East Coast because it allows them to do a Transatlantic round trip in one day per plane.

For Paris, though, there is a pretty good Plan B: I take the last flight of the day which currently leaves JFK at about 12:30 am, getting into CDG at 1:55 pm. By the time you get out of the airport and into Paris it will be about 4:30 or 5:00 pm. You grab a little early light dinner and you can be in bed by 8:00 pm, which is a reasonable time to fall asleep on a European arrival.

[ronanborus]

Great video Jeb. As a business traveler who does a lot of work in Europe I do this trip a lot. My strategy if you are on the late afternoon to evening departure flights is to just keep moving once you get to Europe and take a melatonine to help fall asleep at night. Avoid taking a mid day nap.

[joermnyc]

Other advantage: hotel check-in times are generally in the afternoon. Sure you could ask for an early check-in, but you might be denied or they’ll charge for it. Getting in at 7-8am means you’ve got to plan on what to do with your bags (sometimes the hotel will store them) and then plan on being out and about until check-in.
The funniest was our trip to Sydney, we got in early, decided to eat breakfast in the terminal (not great, but not bad), and then slowly make our way to the hotel, who were kind enough to have a room ready because they saw we were international guests. We did a few things in the early afternoon, then decided it was “too early” for dinner at 3pm, so we took a “nap.” Jet-lag must’ve hit as we woke up at 2am! “Guess we’re not doing dinner.” Back to sleep and we had a big complementary breakfast. We were actually ok for the rest of the trip though. Coming back we got in after 9pm, so it was straight to bed.

[naturallyherb]

The vast majority of the time traveling to Europe, the first day is wasted as you get so little sleep on the red-eye flight in my experience, and I definitely think that morning eastbound flights to Europe is a game changer as it allows a full night of sleep so the next day is not wasted.

[davidempire]

The way I found to avoid jet lag on overnight flights to Europe: don't sleep on the plane. On my last overnight flight from EWR to Athens, I used my laptop during the entire flight, and had decently fast internet. I was able to catch up on all the YouTube videos I wasn't able to watch before. I was able to get a good amount of work done as well, and when I landed, I was not tired at all, and was able to go to bed at normal time in Athens. As an added benefit, since nearly everyone else on the plane was sleeping, my Wi-Fi was blazing fast. With a VPN, I could effortlessly watch YouTube in 1080p.

[michaelross]

Over a 5 year period I made a return trip from Auckland New Zealand to either Heathrow or Birmingham UK 6 times (12 trips). My health management plan was timing my activities according to the destination, then reverse engineering intermediary activities. Flying Emirates, Dubai was a good way-point for that timing.
I made a company rule that all staff flying the same route hoteled at the destination, and set off the next morning after a good sleep. Worked for us all.

[FirstLast-cbjr]

As Jeb said, handling jet lag seems to have a large subjective element. I fly to Europe a lot and have found a system that works for me:

I take evening flights.

I avoid caffeine for 36 hours before the flight.

I try to get up two to three hours early.

I always sleep on the plane. I find sleeping on the plane to be easy, so I am lucky.

I drink coffee when I land and don’t, under any circumstances, sleep during the first day. I get right into the new time zone.

It works for me and I’m not really impacted by jet lag as a result.

[sherrygreene]

I travel frequently to Ireland. My system is that I go to bed a bit earlier each night a few days before departure. I take an afternoon flight. I eat on the plane, take melatonin and sleep for a few hours which makes me feel refreshed for the 5:15 am arrival in Dublin. Having slept on the flight, I'm more alert for the 3 1/2 hour, early morning drive across Ireland. I don't nap the day of arrival and go to bed at night at the usual time. The next day I'm 100% on Ireland time.

[Originalman]

Great video, I like the daytime options! While on the topic, there is another way to get from the US to Europe without an overnight flight! JetBlue has a BOS-KEF service that leaves at 1230pm arriving to Keflavik around 9:30pm. Then you spend the night in Iceland and take a daytime flight to your final destination anywhere Europe. Slightly longer flights from Iceland down to Europe so it think both of these routes are about the same, except KEF is super easy to navigate.

[tonytunzat]

Makes sense! A favorite trip for UAL flight attendants is the 2 day LHR, working a morning flight to LHR, and coming back the next morning. Your body clock almost doesn’t get messed up.

[zackschwab]

I would love to see a video like this for longer flights, such as US to Japan! Love your videos, always very entertaining and informative!

[nickalliker]

Another interesting video Jeb. I’ve never done a daytime flight from US back to London. It’s definitely worth considering. Thanks for sharing 👍

[anthonywalsh]

I like the daylight flights. There used to be a Qantas flight on Thursdays leaving LAX in the morning and arriving in Sydney in the late evening. It was a great flight. Emirates offer a flight that leaves Sydney at 6am that connects with other flights to lots of Europe for an evening arrival on the same day. I think you previously could do that on Cathay to London.

[Mike]

Over the years my strategy has changed, but as I approach 70 here is my current plan. I normally fly from LAX to LHR and United has a departing flight around 1 PM, lands at Heathrow appx 7 AM London time. I then go to a dayroom at a T4 hotel (there are usually multiple hotels to choose from). I go to sleep at 10 AM London time, really tired, and sleep for 5 hours ONLY, get up at 3 PM, then transfer to my London hotel. That night I sleep for maybe another 5 hours, getting up at 5 AM or so. And I feel great and I’m ready to go from there.

[StreaksSkunk]

As someone from Nova Scotia it was Great to see a mention of flight availability from Halifax, and your shoutout to the nice views over Nova Scotia in the same video! Thanks for the mentions Jeb!

[gilliankirby]

I did this flight with BA in June 2022 with my 2 children. I chose it because i knew doing a 6hr overnight would be bad for the kids - they'd be upset & cranky for not getting enough sleep. Instead they got to watch a couple of movies and we much happier in a daytime flight which meant my husband & I were happy too!

[KTHR]

Flew from Chicago to London on AA90 in premium economy in April and it was nice to get to London at 9:30 at night rather than in the morning. Definitely helped with the jet lag taking a daytime flight.

Edit: best part - zero wait for customs on the other side in London.

[Staticc]

60k miles on delta can get you from Orlando to Atlanta crazy you were able to redeem that to go to Europe