Red eye flights can mean more comfort and lower costs

Unless you’re a creature of habit, and must go beddy-bye every night at exactly 11 pm and are up at 7 am, next time you book a flight try a red-eye one. Red eye means flying when most people don’t, usually between 10 pm and 5 am. Despite what you fear it can do to your sleep patterns and body rhythms, red eye flights have many advantages, such as:

1. Red eye ticket prices are lower to the same destinations, sometimes as much as 50 percent. Before you book a daylight flight, check out some red eyes to the same destinations with your favorite online and neighborhood travel agencies.

2. Getting to the airport is easier. Highway and street traffic are much less busy if you’re driving at 10 pm, rather than 8 am heavy drive time to get to your flight.

3. Airport waiting rooms less crowded. You don’t have to fight mobs of other flyers to get through to the ticket counter, and you’ll find more empty seats in the waiting room and bathrooms. Also, fewer cell phone yakkers and not so many kids running and screaming around you.

4. Many Red eye flights are not sold out, so if you’re in the usual cramped tourist seat, you’re more likely to be able to stretch out on an empty one next to you. That endless talker-sneezer-cougher who’s inevitably assigned to sit next to you on daylight flights isn’t there. And you won’t have to look at that pain-in-the-butt’s stacks of photos of kids and grandkids. As for actually in nearby seats, coughing-sneezing-yelling kids are less likely to be flying red eye.

5. Without all those daytime distractions, you can actually get some sleep on red eye flights. Dress in comfy clothing, slip off your shoes, wear a mask, ear-plug your radio/CD player and snooze away the hours. Then, chances are, you’ll arrive at your destination bright-eyed, instead of red-eyed.