Hot take: booking a red-eye flight saved me $200 on a trip to Denver last month

I always avoided overnight flights because I like sleeping in a bed, but after I paid $320 for a Tuesday afternoon seat versus $120 for the 1am departure, I realized I could just nap at the airport lounge instead of paying for a hotel.

4 comments

4 Comments

the_faith18d ago

My 1am flight to Austin last February got delayed four hours and I sat on the tarmac until 6am. I barely slept and felt terrible the whole first day of my trip. That $200 savings cost me an entire day of vacation time being a zombie.

juliashah18d ago

@the_faith yeah, those red-eyes are a total crap shoot with delays.

robinson.hannah18d ago

Oh man, that is brutal. I gotta say though, that $200 savings might not even be real if you factor in how much you spend on coffee and snacks trying to stay awake after a flight like that. Plus, if you had to take an extra day off work to recover, that's basically losing money too. Red-eyes can be worth it if the timing is perfect and everything goes smooth, but when they don't, you pay for it in ways you don't think about upfront. I've learned to just pay the extra for a morning flight if I can, even if it stings a little at checkout.

rodriguez.felix18d ago

Take the red eye every time and just embrace the misery. A morning flight means you waste the whole first day traveling anyway, and at least with the red eye you show up and crash at 2pm instead of dragging through meetings. Plus that $200 is a real number in your pocket, not some hypothetical latte math.