Avoiding red-eye flights for long journeys
I'm not very good at sleeping on airplanes (at least in cattle class - I've never flown overnight on higher classes), and I don't fancy the prospect of sleeping for a couple of hours in an airport transit lounge either. If it happened on the way to my tourist destination it'd be fine, but unfortunately it's on the way back home (probably because my tourist destinations are further to the west of me than my home city), and I don't want to be half-asleep when I go back to work. Usually it takes me more than one day to recover from a red-eye flight, so spending two days flying non-red-eye may actually be better than spending a single day and night flying red-eye.
I looked up kayak.com for flying from Ulaan Baator to Sydney, or from Osaka to Sydney, without using a red-eye flight, and it said that there weren't any.
Is it possible to fly from city X to city Y during the daytime, have a good night's rest at city Y, and then fly from city Y to city Z during the daytime? How do I search for the most suitable flights, in terms of cost, and start and end times for each flight, and can I ensure that if the first flight is delayed for reasons beyond my control and I miss the second flight, I can get another flight without paying any extra?
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Quick Answer about "Avoiding red-eye flights for long journeys"
Should I take melatonin on a red-eye flight?
You don't need more than 5 milligrams (the usual drugstore dose), and you should only take melatonin if you have a flight long enough to hit at least one full sleep cycle. That's at least a couple of hours solidly in your seat. Otherwise, you might wake up groggy and unhappy that you can't keep sleeping.How do you avoid red-eye flights?
Is it better to take a red-eye flight?
Red-Eye Flights Are Less Likely to be Delayed Fewer flights take off at night. The diminished runway traffic means that red-eye flights are more likely to depart and land on time! Depending on the wind, you may even land early.Are red-eye flights less crowded?
As far as the experience, red-eye flights are generally less crowded than regular morning or midday flights tend to be, so you might luck out with an empty seat next to you and have more space to spread out (making it easier to sleep).Red-Eye Flight Tips: A Man's Guide to Overnight Travel
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Tom Fisk, Antonio Prado, inna mykytas, Johannes Plenio