Failed 'time travel' flight messed up a double New Year's celebration
Some United Airlines passengers were disappointed ringing in 2024 when their flight advertising two New Year’s Eves was hours delayed.
UA200 is a daily flight departing from Guam at 7:35 a.m., landing in Honolulu at 6:50 p.m. the previous day. That’s because the seven-hour flight crosses the International Dateline, and Guam is 20 hours ahead of Hawaii.
On Jan. 1, this meant passengers would be able to countdown to 2024 twice.
“You only live once, but you can celebrate New Year's Eve twice!” United posted on X, formerly Twitter. The airline said it was the only U.S. carrier offering such a flight.
However, the flight ended up being delayed over six hours. It departed at 1:49 p.m. and arrived in Honolulu shortly after midnight on New Year’s Day, causing passengers to miss their second countdown.
Orlando, Florida-based Calvin Pham was one of those passengers whose New Year's plans were spoiled. He specifically booked the United flight for the experience of a double New Year's celebration, he told USA TODAY in an email.
Pham received a notification of the delay on his phone when he was at his hotel waiting to head to the airport.
This would have been Pham's first double New Year's, and he was planning to celebrate on a pre-booked fireworks cruise with friends in Honolulu. "That was the most disappointing part for me because I’d be missing celebrating with my friends," Pham said.
The airline told USA TODAY in an email it had no statement to share on the incident, but responded to people’s tweets offering rebooking assistance.
My flight was delayed, now what? What you're owed when your flight is canceled or delayed
How do people ‘time travel’ to experience two New Year’s?
The concept of time traveling of sorts to have two New Year’s Eve isn’t entirely new. It can be done when flights pass over the International Date Line, which marks a new calendar day. When people cross the date line eastward, they go back a day, no matter how long the flight itself is.
For the unique experience, some passengers purposefully book these time zone-crossing flights.
Pham first heard of the concept a few years ago and "put it on my 'to experience' list immediately because I found its novelty to be an amusing situation."
"I suppose one could celebrate any holiday or their birthday twice by flying UA200, but New Year’s Eve is a special holiday for the worldwide and communal fanfare," he said.
There tend to be only a handful of flights scheduled to cross the date line at the right time. Besides UA200, other flights that time traveled for New Year’s included an All Nippon flight departing Tokyo shortly after midnight on Jan. 1 and arriving in Los Angeles at 5:12 p.m. on New Year’s Eve. There was also an Air New Zealand flight leaving Auckland on Jan. 1 at 8:50 a.m. and landing in the Cook Islands around 1:29 p.m. on New Year’s Eve.
Some travel companies have even created special itineraries based around having a double New Year’s Eve. In 2018, luxury private jet company PrivateFly offered a very pricey package where people flew from Sydney, Australia, on the evening of Dec. 31 to Los Angeles, California, where it would still be New Year’s Eve. The 19-hour time difference allowed travelers to “replay over 5.5 hours of party time,” PrivateFly’s marketing director said in a press release. However, the cost to charter the entire plane for the 2018 itinerary was $255,500, and it was only one way with no return flight to Sydney.
Kathleen Wong is a travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Hawaii. You can reach her at kwong@usatoday.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How could you get New Year's Eve twice by flying?
