Flying West to Go East: Why It Matters

After finishing up this weekend’s Boarding Area conference at around 5p, I headed to the airport for my 9pm flight to Los Angeles. Wait a second…I live near Washington DC. Why in the world would I be headed to Los Angeles?

Simply, there’s no flights after around 2pm that get you back onto the east coast the same evening. Any later, and you’ll be forced to wait the evening until you can get on a redeye flight across the country. So, that’s what I did.

Fortunately, I was upgraded on both segments, so I can get what I hope is a full night of sleep back across the country.

I love traveling to the west coast – it’s a beautiful landscape and the weather is pleasurable. The downside – and one that I’ve experienced many times while attending conferences and traveler events – is that you’re either forced to leave around noon to make an early afternoon flight back, or wait out the day, and risk not getting any sleep on a redeye back.

I’m happy that American has this type of schedule, though it’s interesting that it goes through Dulles and not Reagan, especially considering the merger with US Airways who has a hub there.

How do you handle west coast to east coast flying? Do you often take a route in the wrong direction just to back track?