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Regarding Concorde and from a customer's business perspective, going west (from Paris or London to NYC) made sense as you'd pretty much land before you took off
by mshook 7y ago
Regarding Concorde and from a customer's business perspective, going west (from Paris or London to NYC) made sense as you'd pretty much land before you took off (in local time). So you'd gain time.
For instance you'd leave Paris at 10:30am and you'd land at JFK at 8:25am or so. But on the way back, you'd take-off from JFK at 8am to land at 5:45pm... To/From London would be 10:30am/09:25am and 8:30am/17:25pm.
Bottom line, going west is sweet as you get a full day ahead of you. But going east doesn't get you anything but going there faster.
That's why Concorde was often carrying more passengers on the way west than on the way back: people would choose to get a first class overnight flight...
That said, if they could solve the cost issue, I'd rather fly for less time, even if I still lost a day of productivity going east.
- leetcrew 7y agoas an aside, I don't understand how people can fly several hours on a commercial airline and then just start their day as if it didn't happen. I need at least a full 24hr cycle involving sleep in a real bed to get back to 100%.
- chrisseaton 7y ago> I don't understand how people can fly several hours on a commercial airline Flying in first, not drinking a ton of free alcohol, and showering at the arrivals lounge.
- ryanlol 7y agoYup, sleep well and have a shower right before landing. Rather easy (depending on the route), but could be expensive depending on how valuable your time is. Doesn’t even always have to be first, lots of airlines have excellent product in biz too.
- CalRobert 7y agoHonestly I think a lot are struggling to stay awake and just use a ton of caffeine to mask it. Certainly I've seen some execs whose brains just weren't there thinking they were fine to do SFO->DUB and start meetings.
- johngalt 7y agoIt's mainly about routine. Given time and repetition people will get used to almost anything. The anxiety surrounding travel is what makes it exhausting. Once you are used to it, it fades into the background as a well optimized habit. It's like your work commute where you are just on autopilot and don't really think about it. Ultimately it becomes a few hours to yourself to just read, sleep, or get caught up.
- ghaff 7y agoRed-eyes are tough though it's not too bad in international business. I'm usually operating at about half speed when I overnight to continental Europe from the US East Coast. On the other hand, flying cross-country on an early morning flight to SFO, I can pretty much be ready for a regular day when I land.
- DoingIsLearning 7y ago> The anxiety surrounding travel is what makes it exhausting. That is actually a really good insight. I mean reading it, it seems obvious, it's just that I never realised it.
- usrusr 7y ago> That's why Concorde was often carrying more passengers on the way west than on the way back: people would choose to get a first class overnight flight... So in a fully realized 1960ies space age utopia you'd have a fleet of supersonics circling the planet hub to hub slightly ahead of the dawn line and a fleet of saloon cruisers going the opposite direction. Instead we got mobile internet.
- mshook 7y agoThat's another thing you're right about: decades a go, working remotely wasn't really a thing... So all the business value of being able to get somewhere quickly makes a lot less sense now as you can video chat with people anytime, anywhere pretty much.