What are the options for flying from the US to Europe during the daytime, not overnight?

Question

I've done the JFK to LHR route before, where you get to spend the day on the plane and sleep in a real bed in London that night. It's also awesome to wake up early (5am) in NY in the days before you leave, and then wake up at 10am in London on the day after you arrive. If you have the time to spend a day on the plane, it's a very civilized way to travel.

Currently, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic offer departures to London from New York at or around 8am. Are there any other departures like this? Would love to be able to get to the continent the same way.

Answer 1

Kayak makes this easy to do with its "Overnight flights" check box. On a sample date (May 13), your nonstop options are:

• British Airways 178: JFK 8:00a - LHR 7:40p

• Virgin Atlantic 18: EWR 8:00a - LHR 8:00p

• United 18: EWR 9:00a - LHR 9:20p

• American 142: JFK 9:30a - LHR 9:30p

If you are willing to make a connection, you could also take advantage of:

• United 922: IAD 9:29a - LHR 9:55p

• American 90: ORD 9:00a - LHR 10:45p

Answer 2

I recommend the flight search site matrix.itasoftware.com, which is nice because it offers a ton of search options, and only shows you information, they don't sell you flights, so you can trust them. There are a number of hidden advanced options, one of which is / -redeye to rule out redeye flights. If you are flexible with your origin and destination, you can enter multiple airports (including the "generic" city codes for some cities, such as NYC for any New York City airport, LON for any London airport, etc.)

In your case, from the comments, I take it that you are not limited to only LHR, and perhaps not even NYC, so in the screen shot below I did a search for departure from any of New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, or Boston, and arriving at any of London, Amsterdam, Brussels, Copenhagen, or Dublin (obviously, change the search to suit your desires). I also indicated no redeyes, and requested a 30-day search for the lowest round-trip economy fare for a two to eight day stay (again, change to suit).

See the three screen shots to see what I mean: First, the search query:

Next, the search results, which show that the least expensive options for the given criteria is a 7- or 8-night stay departing on June 11 for $859:

Finally, the flight info screen (from clicking the price on the search results screen) which shows a number of options for day flights from various East Coast airports to various European airports at a range of prices:

Note that the flight info screen shot is truncated to fit; there are many more flights available; I am only trying to show how to do a search, not provide the exact answer for your situation.