What Are Red-Eye Flights?

A red-eye flight is a flight that departs at night and arrives at the destination airport in the morning. Red-eye flights are too short to get any meaningful amount of sleep, hence the term—”red-eye” resulting from the fatigue. Generally an overnight flight of seven hours or less is considered a red-eye.

Pros of Red-Eye Flights

• Leaving later at night means you can spend all day preflight at your departure city, effectively adding one more day to your trip or allowing you to leave for a trip after work.
• Red-eye flights arrive early in the morning, which means you have the full day for work or sightseeing at your destination.
• May help with adjusting to the new time zone
• An overnight flight may eliminate the need for a hotel room that night which could save money.
• Airports are usually less busy and congested late at night, which could mean shorter lines for check-in and security.
• May cost less than a day time flight

Cons of Red-Eye Flights

• Flight duration means that it is difficult for most people to get any reasonable amount of sleep so you may arrive at your destination fatigued.
• Depending on the individual and flight specifics, it could be disruptive to your sleep once at the destination.
• Airline lounges and airport shops and restaurants may not be open at late hours.
• Late night departures and early arrivals may eliminate the possibility of using public transit to and from the airport which may add to your cost if you have to use a taxi.
• Often not a good choice for children or infants due to the disruption in sleep
• May require finding storage for your luggage either predeparture or post-arrival
• Since hotel check-in is typically midafternoon, unless you pay for an extra day, you probably won’t be able to rest in a hotel room on arrival if you are tired.

A red-eye flight is loosely defined as a flight that leaves in the evening and lands the next day in the morning with a duration of seven hours or less.

The fact that you gain time as you move eastward through time zones means that red-eye flights often occur on eastbound flights, although they do happen with north to south flights as well.

Examples of red-eye flights are:

• Transcontinental routes from the U.S. West Coast to the U.S. East Coast, for example, San Francisco (SFO) to New York (NYC)
• Eastern U.S. to Europe e.g. Washington Dulles (IAD) to Dublin (DUB)
• North America to South America e.g. New York (NYC) to Quito (UIO)
• Middle East to Southeast Asia e.g. Abu Dhabi (AUH) to Bangkok (BKK)

For some routes, the only nonstop alternatives are red-eye flights, so you have no choice but to fly overnight or to choose an alternate route. Examples are New York (NYC) to Edinburgh (EDI) and Boston (BOS) to Dublin (DUB)

To book a red-eye flight, you’ll want to identify flights that leave later in the day and arrive the next day. One way to do this quickly is to use a filter to list only the nonstop flights that leave in the evening. Here’s an example, using Google Flights to search for red-eye flights from JFK to LHR.

We’ll first select “Nonstop” from the Stops dropdown box.

Next, we’ll use the slider under “Times” to select flights that leave at 9:00 pm or later.

You’ll notice that the arrival time has the +1 notation, which indicates that the flight is arriving the next day.

Select your flight, grab your travel pillow and you’ll be on your way.

Red-eye flights let you effectively add another day to your trip without incurring the cost of another hotel night. Certain flights are only available as red-eye flights so that’s something to consider when planning your itinerary. Whether the advantages of a red-eye flight are worth the fatigue or potential sleep disruption depends on the individual.