Departing PER - Late night or early morning advice

[Lawrage]

Am looking to book a 1 way from from PER - JNB and cant decide on taking an early morning or late evening flight. Have a bachelors shindig the day after arriving so need to be somewhat bright eyed the next day.

So far looking at two flights and need a bit of advice.

PER - DOH - JNB - Departs PER at 11pm on a Thursday and arrives the following day into JNB at 4pm.
Planes are a 777 and a 787, both are business.

PER - DXB - JNB - Departs PER at 6am on the Friday and arrives the same day into JNB at 8:50pm.
Planes are both 777 and would be in first.

Door to door Emirates is 2h10m shorter and you get the pick up / drop off service but need to figure out which one would have be arriving more refreshed (assuming I could sleep in either flight).

 

[QF WP]

You're not coming back from the batchelors party

For me, it would be the Emirates flights in F, with a better departure time (helping to maintain body clock better - but I may be different to others). Arrival time means that you hopefully can get to your overnight accom and go to sleep with the natural darkness.

 

[mannej]

Isn't using QR or EK the long way to get to JHB?

 

[Lawrage]

You're not coming back from the batchelors party

For me, it would be the Emirates flights in F, with a better departure time (helping to maintain body clock better - but I may be different to others). Arrival time means that you hopefully can get to your overnight accom and go to sleep with the natural darkness.

Thanks for that, return flights have already been booked on Singapore so no problem with those.

Am leaning towards it myself, just dont want to wake up at 3am for a flight. The thought did pop into my head to just stay up and then crash at 7am (midnight JHB) time so already into the new time zone but you run the risk of not sleeping I guess.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

6 AM is definitely not a better departure time it is hell on earth.
Count back - checkin by 4 AM, leaving home at 3 AM, up at 2 AM.
Essentially this option means no sleep the night before you fly.
So you start your trip with a sleep deficit.
I do anything to avoid early morning flights.
If this is the only factor I would be on the 11 PM flight for sure.

 

[Lawrage]

Isn't using QR or EK the long way to get to JHB?

It most certainly is the long way, since QF stopped its code-share with SAA I have been going via Singapore / Dubai for this trip. I know its much longer but I'm weird like that, Id prefer double the flight time and being comfortable vs sitting in SAA economy (not enough points for SAA im afraid).

 

[mannej]

It most certainly is the long way, since QF stopped its code-share with SAA I have been going via Singapore / Dubai for this trip. I know its much longer but I'm weird like that, Id prefer double the flight time and being comfortable vs sitting in SAA economy (not enough points for SAA im afraid).

I hope you don't use the airport code JHB trying to get to Jo'burg as it's actually located in Malaysia. The correct code is JNB

 

[Lawrage]

I hope you don't use the airport code JHB trying to get to Jo'burg as it's actually located in Malaysia. The correct code is JNB

Whoops, thanks for spotting that, updated the post.

 

[oobi doobi]

Agree 100%. nothing worse than no sleep before boarding an early morning flight.

 

[Daver6]

The first section to the middle east is the long one and where you can get the most sleep in.

Taking the EK option, are you really going to sleep on this sector given you've just woken up for the day. Then say you do get some sleep in on the next sector to JNB will you be ready for sleep again come late evening in JNB?

Don't let the QR 777 J hard product put you off. While not as good as the newer seats in the 787, it is still a decent size flat bed where you can sleep well.

Unless you have a burning desire for the EK F option, I think the QR flights offer better sleep/rest options for me. I'd be on the flight out of PER, go to sleep. Wake before DOH and then likely stay awake for the second sector.

 

[vetrade]

I'd still go SAA and pay for a J seat if I didn't have enough VA points. Their flight leaves at around 2300 and you get to JNB at 0430. Their J product is better than a lot of others (although admittedly not as good as QR/ EK) and their seats have miles of room. To me, going the long way round and having a much longer trip is more tiresome and is just a waste of your points.
Leave at night and sleep on the plane at the same time as you would normally in Perth.

 

[Lawrage]

The first section to the middle east is the long one and where you can get the most sleep in.

Taking the EK option, are you really going to sleep on this sector given you've just woken up for the day. Then say you do get some sleep in on the next sector to JNB will you be ready for sleep again come late evening in JNB?

Don't let the QR 777 J hard product put you off. While not as good as the newer seats in the 787, it is still a decent size flat bed where you can sleep well.

Unless you have a burning desire for the EK F option, I think the QR flights offer better sleep/rest options for me. I'd be on the flight out of PER, go to sleep. Wake before DOH and then likely stay awake for the second sector.

Thanks Daver6, think you hit the nail on the head here. Will be booking the night flight out of Perth. Should give me a good night sleep on the first leg and some movie time on the second.

 

[Lawrage]

I'd still go SAA and pay for a J seat if I didn't have enough VA points. Their flight leaves at around 2300 and you get to JNB at 0430. Their J product is better than a lot of others (although admittedly not as good as QR/ EK) and their seats have miles of room. To me, going the long way round and having a much longer trip is more tiresome and is just a waste of your points.
Leave at night and sleep on the plane at the same time as you would normally in Perth.

Its very tempting at 11 hours flight time, you pretty much cut the second flight out. Had a look on the flysaa site and hard to justify a $5085 fee for a 1 way business ticket im afraid

 

[vetrade]

Its very tempting at 11 hours flight time, you pretty much cut the second flight out. Had a look on the flysaa site and hard to justify a $5085 fee for a 1 way business ticket im afraid

Yep, that's way too expensive

 

[Lemon_Party]

Agree with the others, 6am flight is no fun, and to be honest the 4pm arrival on QR is better than EK's anyway. By the time you clear immigration etc and actually get to your accommodation it'll be another couple of hours and time for a bite to eat and get straight onto the new time zone sleep wise.

 

[Daver6]

Its very tempting at 11 hours flight time, you pretty much cut the second flight out. Had a look on the flysaa site and hard to justify a $5085 fee for a 1 way business ticket im afraid

Plus SAA J is several rungs below QR J. If the seats on their A340 are the same as their long haul A330, then they aren't completely flat either.

 

[JohnK]

6 AM is definitely not a better departure time it is hell on earth.
Count back - checkin by 4 AM, leaving home at 3 AM, up at 2 AM.
Essentially this option means no sleep the night before you fly.
So you start your trip with a sleep deficit.
I do anything to avoid early morning flights.

I don't mind early departures as you highlight above. I'm asleep for most of the flight catching up on any sleep missed.

 

[Lawrage]

I got an email from Qantas with a change in departure, its now 4.5hours difference in travel time with 4 hours 40 mins in Doha so have cancelled my Qatar flight and rebooked the 6am flight out of Perth.

Thanks to everyone.