Night flights - General Holiday Enquiries, Hints and Tips, Holiday Forums

Night flights

Fiona

2008-07-05 09:33:57

I'm reading of more and more members who have had day flights changed to night flights. I have to say that that was the thing that tipped us over the edge re package holidays. We had had night flights frequently and I was fed up arriving home feeling like I needed a holiday. This time we were in Tsilivi. We had a 2am pick up. We decided to book a hotel for an extra night and our rep sorted that out for us( or so we thought). We had to move to another hotel for the last day. Only when we arrived from the beach at 5pm did we find out that the room we thought we had booked for an extra night had to be vacated by 6pm. Funnily enough our rep could not be contacted but she certainly took a whole day rate from us.
There was nothing for it but to get on with it. I don't know about anybody else but once I've finished with the beach on the last day I just want to shower, change, pack and go home. We spun the meal and a couple of drinks out for as long as we could but eventually went back to the hotel at 11pm- to find the lounge was shutting. We were locked outside of the hotel and were told just to use the sunbeds( there were loads of us). I couldn't believe that we were put in that situation by our TO. And god help the people who were staying at that hotel as I would imagine this was a nightly occurence. We vowed never to use that TO again.
We tend to go long haul nowadays and of course we do have night flights but we just pay to keep the room right up to departure, even if it means a whole day rate. That way I can enjoy my last day to the full.
A perfect time to be picked up from resort is about 8pm. You pay to keep your room till 6pm, go out for a meal and come back just in time for the pickup.

One good TO we used when we went to Tolon, had a trip to Athens which you could do on your last day and the price included a hotel room you could use till pick up- which was about 1am. What a great idea and the price was good too. We had to travel to Athens anyway for our flight and this way we got the 3hr(?) trip out of the way in the morning, were kept too busy siteseeing to think that we were at the end of the holiday and then were able to rest in our room for a couple of hours before the pickup.
I don't know if its still the same but we used to notice that when we got to the airport and looked at the departure board it was almost always 100% flights to the UK.

yummymummy

2008-07-05 10:38:32

Re: Night flights

Hi Fiona,

I dont think i have ever had to vacate my room hours before we get picked up for the airport.

Ive only been to Goa, Turkey, Majorca, and Cran Canaria, so maybe this is why.

Ive been to Goa 6 times, and as we always have early morning flights, we get picked up from our hotel at around 3am, and we always make full use of the time in our hotel.
We get a wakeup call around 2am.

There may be once when we have had to vacate our room early, but that was when i was at college on a clubbing holiday in Majorca.
We stored our luggage in a luggage room, and basically just packed a bag with clothes to wear on our way home for the flight, and stayed out in the bars until midnight, just before the coach came.

shirleyV

2008-07-06 08:57:37

Re: Night flights

I do exactly the same as Fiona, we travel to the Far East etc so I always book and pay for the hotel until we leave , which means I will maybe pay a whole nightly rate even if we are being picked up by a taxi at say, 7pm , it means I can have a full day on the last day and a proper relaxed shower etc.
We always fly from Bangkok when coming home which always means a late night flight back to the UK , I am off there this week and have booked the last 2 nights of our trip in Bangkok, we will leave our hotel at approx 9.30 pm , which means we can have a bite to eat and do some last minute shopping on the last evening :tup

Milly_Molly

2008-07-06 17:43:09

Re: Night flights

The past few years we've been really lucky.

The couple we rent the apartment off let us have it until we are ready to leave.
They arrange for the cleaning lady to come in after we've gone, or the next day.

(E.g.This year, as was the same last year, we will leave the apartment at 3.30pm for a 6pm flight.
The apartment is not for hire until the afternoon of the following day.

)

They really are a pair of gems. :kiss

Edited by Milly_Molly 2008-07-07 10:04:13

Prettypollycat

2008-07-07 08:13:54

Re: Night flights

When we holiday in Europe one of our main considerations is the timing of the return flight.

When we went to Skiathos a couple of years ago, we had to vacate our studio by 10:00 am!
We were being picked up at 18:00 so we just caught the local bus into Skiathos Town and did a bit of shopping.

On our final day, we actually prefer to get up, shower, have a bit of breakfast and be picked up for the airport straight away.

We'd really like to go back to Turkey but most of the return flights seem to be very early morning, so pick ups are around 01:00 or 02:00 in the morning.

ndshelton

2008-07-07 08:28:44

Re: Night flights

yep,we are off to turkey in august and our flight out leaves at 8 in the evening and the flight back leaves 3 in the morning!!

but we are used to night flights and even though we have kids its never to much of a problem as we really like to pay any more just to get a better flight time

MariaH

2008-07-07 15:22:46

Re: Night flights

I've had my fill of night flights with Kosmar holidays and would not choose to book one again. One of the worst was on our return from Kos where our pickup was from the hotel at around 2am. We're not night owls and all we wanted to do was to go to bed. Once we were at the airport the nightmare continued as we queued up on the tarmac, outside the airport for about 1 hour and 40 minutes to put our baggage through the security scanners and another 30 minutes to check in. I never manage to sleep on a plane, so end up exhausted by the time I get home. Not a pleasant experience.

Helen T

2008-07-08 09:23:57

Re: Night flights

I prefer to be picked up straight after breakfast, on our last day. However when we pick our holiday the flight time is the last thing we consider. Price is the most important, and I don't fancy paying extra just to have a decent flight time. When you fly long haul, your body clock is all out of sync anyway.

JimnLiz

2008-07-08 11:08:50

Re: Night flights

We have a 4 hour drive to and from the airport. We usually stay in Glasgow/Edinburgh the night before we fly and the night we return. We would never consider a night flight and have changed dates/airports/resorts to get decent flight times. We wouldn't want to come home feeling like we need another holiday just to get over the travelling home. Having a bit of a problem with next years holiday. The family are putting big pressure on me because they want to go to Florida. I hate flying at the best of times but have noticed the flight times into our usual airport are at really silly times early in the morning, as already stated we have a 4 hour drive and it would'nt be worth looking into going into a hotel for a couple of hours. Am now looking at flights from London and trying to work things out from there but that will probably mean 2 take offs and landings in a short space of time :really

(hand me the sick bag). Am exhausted already and not even booked yet! The earliest start we've had was a 7am pick up from C'an Picafort for a 10am flight from Palma and that was bad enough.

micknmill

2008-07-08 11:45:40

Re: Night flights

We never consider taking night flights.
Being as we fly out of Gatwick and only go to Spain or Portugal, we are lucky in as much as there are plenty of flights to choose from.
We would rather pay an extra £100 or so.
Last year we flew at 6 in the morning and were in our hotel by just after 10 o'clock, so didn't miss our first days holiday. Then the return was pick up straight after breakfast and home indoors by 2 in the afternoon.

ndshelton

2008-07-09 06:40:39

Re: Night flights

When we have had night flights we've looked at the price of a better flight and its usually over £200 for the 4 of us... i just cant justify that for a flight that isnt even a great flight time,just not a night flight
This year we are going to turkey and there really wasnt mucg choice at all.
Under 4 weeks to go now... woohoo!

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