Preferred beginner's term for "flight"?

Question

Since my flight home from Japan is soon approaching I thought I had better learn the word for "flight".

It seems to be one of those words that has several Japanese equivalents. I'd like to know the usage and nuance differences between them, and which is most practical to learn first for a beginner (not too difficult, rare, technical, outdated, etc)

Here are the terms I've found so far:

1. 飛行{ひこう} - My intuition is that this is the one I should prefer, but I could be biased against loanwords from English.
2. 便{びん} - Wiktionary says this means "booked flight", which doesn't rule it out. Being a single character it's harder for a beginner to look for examples. Single character words usually have other readings and other senses.
3. フライト - This is obviously a loanword from English, does it convey anything new that the more traditional-looking kanji terms don't?
4. 飛{とび} - Being a single character makes this hard for a beginner to look into, but my impression is that even with this reading it's too ambiguous and probably isn't used so much for people talking about air travel.

I would be looking for a term that I could use in sentences equivalent to:

• I've booked my flight.
• I have a flight home on the 22nd.
• I hope I don't miss my flight.

Answer 1

most practical to learn first for a beginner

How about [飛行機]{ひこうき}? Japanese kids learn it (and the verb 飛ぶ) before 飛行, フライト, and 便.

So you can say:

I've booked my flight.
飛行機を[予約]{よやく}しました。(not *便を予約する. ?フライトを予約する)

I have a flight home on the 22nd.
22日の飛行機で([国]{くに}に)[帰]{かえ}ります。
(You can use 便 / フライト too but I think 飛行機 is more common in daily conversation)

I hope I don't miss my flight.
飛行機に[間]{ま}に[合]{あ}いますように。/飛行機に[乗]{の}り[遅]{おく}れなければいいですが。
(not *便に間に合う / *便に乗り遅れる. You can use フライト too but I think 飛行機 is more common in daily conversation)

etc... using the word 飛行機! ^^ Hooray!

Answer 2

飛行【ひこう】 means "flight" as in "the act of traveling by air". It's not used to mean "flight" as in "Flight 437 departing from Milan..." That term is 航空便【こうくうびん】 in full, just 便【びん】 for short. 航空便 can also mean "air service", as in "there is air service (i.e. there are flights) between Hawaii and Samoa", or "air mail" as an abbreviation of 航空【こうくう】郵便【ゆうびん】.

See eow.alc.co.jp/航空便 or eow.alc.co.jp/flight for more.

Answer 3

Well, the Wisdom J-E dictionary lists the following examples for 飛行:

• 夜間飛行【やかんひこう】: night flight
• ニューヨークへ向けて【むけて】飛行する: fly to New York

It uses 便 along the same lines:

• 彼はニューヨーク行きの3時の便に乗った: He took the 3 o'clock flight to New York.

So it seems like either of those would work. My instinct would say to go with 便, personally. The other two feel more translated-from-English than Japanese.