The best flights from London to Los Angeles

Make the most of your trip to Los Angeles by feeling more awake. Flights that depart London between 1pm and 5pm make it easier to adjust to the local timezone on the day you land - "day 1 jetlag".

To defy jetlag, you need to try to avoid stretching your travel day out too long. But, the hours in a long haul travel day add up quickly:

• Flights from London to Los Angeles are typically about 11 hours long.

• Add 2-3 hours in airports

• Add 2-3 hours getting to and from each airport

Your total door-to-door travel time becomes near the peak of your typical endurance. Most adults are awake for about 16-17 hours in a 24-hour period. An inflight nap will help, but picking better timed flights will make the most difference.

Flights that depart before 1pm will depart in the middle of the night in Los Angeles. Most people will be asleep there, but you will have been up for hours, getting to the airport, checking in, then taking off. Stretching out your day like this creates the perfect conditions for awful day 1 jetlag.

It's helpful to think of the earlier flights as "overnight" flights, instead of daylight flights. If you do have to take these earlier flights, plan to sleep deeply, avoid caffeine before you board, then "restart your day" with your pre-arrival meal service. It helps to plan to be active and outside when you land too, and avoid going to bed too early so you sleep through to the following morning.

Flights that depart after 5pm will land into Los Angeles in the middle of the night London time. Your body clock will be craving sleep, but you'll have to deal with immigration, collecting bags, and then getting to wherever you're staying first.

Treat these later flights as a long and lazy evening. Try to avoid sleeping deeply onboard, and aim for a place to stay near the airport. A good nights sleep in a real bed will help reset your body clock and minimise your day 2 jetlag.

The current British Airways A380 layout has Economy split over the main and upper deck. Unlike the main deck 3-4-3 layout, the upper deck is 2-4-2 and has large side bins for storing your personal belongings (as opposed to just the overhead lockers).

Smaller cabins and easier aisle access feels far less crowded than the dense Economy cabins on other aircraft.

British Airways are reconfiguring their A380s at the moment. This will convert the entire upper deck to Club Suite, moving Premium Economy downstairs into a 2-4-2 configuration, and expanding from 55 to 84 seats. Economy will only be downstairs in a 3-4-3.

Virgin Atlantic's A330neos feature their best hard products in every cabin. Even in Economy, it is a markedly better product with plenty of twin seats thanks to the 2-4-2 configuration. That's great for couples and groups. Solo travellers have fewer 'strangers' to navigate. There's easiest aisle access for window seat lovers. Huge screens, bluetooth for your own headphones, and deep recline.

Premium Economy comes in a 2-3-2 setup.

Business Class gets the latest Upper Class Suite with forward-facing suites with doors and aisle-access. These give the best setup for sleep, work, and window-gazing. You can also book extra space in their new 'Retreat Suite' as an individual or couple.

Studies show the effects of lower cabin altitude (more oxygen and humidity) help with feeling less fatigued when you land.

787s, A350s and A380s have lower cabin altitudes than other aircraft. On long flights, like from London to Los Angeles, you'll notice your skin, mouth, and nose dry through the flight.

Most international travellers will have to queue at US customs, but these days this is often not much longer than the time for bags to arrive so your door-to-door time isn't affected.

US Customs and Border Protection shows a spike in longer queues for arrivals from 2pm to 4pm, where your door-to-door journey could be delayed. You can avoid this by skipping flights that depart London between 11am and 1pm.

Two alternatives exist: US Global Entry programme makes it very quick to be processed, typically a couple of minutes. You could also pre-clear US customs at a connecting airport in Ireland or Canada.

The longest US flights get a second hot meal service, but you'll have 7-8 hours between service where you can go hungry. There are snacks onboard, but they tend to be carb-heavy that can spike your blood sugar and not really fill you up. Other airlines pace their meal service better for long dayflights that might leave you wanting more.

Avoid grazing through the flight, and consider high-protein snacks. These do a better job making you feel full and trigger hormones that make you feel more alert. Carb-heavy snacks will send you on a blood sugar rollercoaster that might make you feel less with it when you land.