Which stopover situation is better?

amother

Tue, Feb 04 2020, 9:30 pm

Going NY to Israel IYH with a stopover, flying alone with kids (no babies/toddlers). Here are the options for the way back:

A: Leave around midnight. Get to stop around 4am. Next flight is around 9am. Arrive home 10 hours later early afternoon (with the time change.)
Leaving at midnight sounds great, but having to be awake in an airport from 4-9 a lot less great. We'll be dying of exhaustion but then hopefully sleep the whole way back. Then force ourselves to stay up until evening, and then be back on schedule.

B: Leave around 7am. Get to stop around 11am. Stop is about 2 hours, flight about 10 hours, arrive home late afternoon.
Shorter stop sounds great, but leaving early - I know I'll be packing all night, my kids are hard to get up in the morning especially with jet lag (we've done this before but on a different flight setup), and I doubt anyone will be able to sleep on the plane because it will feel too much like daytime.

Neither option sounds fabulous but I don't see any better flights available for the day we need.

Seasoned travelers please weigh in!

amother

Slategray

Tue, Feb 04 2020, 11:31 pm

The second one sounds better to me. Everyone will get a little sleep before so they won't be falling apart, but it won't be a full night's sleep, so they'll take another little snooze on the second flight. One the first one, they'll be sooo tired, and they it's only a 4 hour flight before another long layover. Everyone will be cranky.
With the jetlag, they won't need to sleep as much on the second flight, so they'll still be tired and ready to go to sleep at the right time.
Hatzlacha!

Teomima

Wed, Feb 05 2020, 2:12 am

Second option. Early morning flights are a really hard time to leave because you have to be up about 4 hours before the flight (an hour to the airport, 3 hours wait at the airport for international flight) but if you go to sleep early the night before, and only have a 2 hour layover, you might be set to hold off till the second flight and sleep then. Whereas with the first option, you won't get ANY sleep before the flight, might take a short nap on the first leg but then have to stay up five hours at the airport after a mostly sleepless night. That's very rough.

amother

Chocolate

Wed, Feb 05 2020, 4:55 am

You have to know your family. We don’t sleep ok flights. Not even midnight flights. It’s just not comfortable and we are so wired. For us the early morning flight would definitely work better given the shorter layover. Whatever we would sleep in the hotel the night before would be more and better sleep than we would ok a flight. But if you and your kids sleep on flights then consider the first. But they’re both pretty lousy options imo

DrMom

Wed, Feb 05 2020, 5:08 am

I'd take the 2nd one.

Shorter stopover, plus at least there will be something to do/see in the airport during your stopover. Early flights are tough, but your kids my just sleep during the first leg of the flight, so that's always nice.

amother

Cerise

Wed, Feb 05 2020, 5:14 am

amother [ Chocolate ] wrote:

Same experience