Have you ever ever needed to rejoice New Yr’s Eve twice? Okay, perhaps you haven’t. To be sincere, I haven’t both, since I’m asleep earlier than 8PM on New Yr’s Eve, simply as I’m day-after-day. Nonetheless, if there’s one factor that might get me within the spirit, it might be an aviation angle…
Alongside these traces, I figured it might be enjoyable to have a look at the flights that allow you to rejoice New Yr’s Eve (or a birthday, or different special day) twice.
The fun of journey & time zones
Airplanes actually make the world a fairly small place, as these days you possibly can journey to the opposite aspect of the globe with a single flight, in lower than a day. As anybody who has traveled lengthy haul is aware of, jetlag could be robust to cope with, and this pertains to timezone adjustments.
The additional east or west you journey, the extra timezone adjustments you’ll expertise. And along with the overall timezone adjustments that occur one hour (or typically half-hour) at a time, you even have the Worldwide Date Line, which may impression the day that it’s. The Worldwide Date Line is situated over the Pacific Ocean, and it’s not a straight line, however is as an alternative mapped out in fairly the attention-grabbing approach.
So touring throughout the Atlantic and touring throughout the Pacific are very completely different by way of the time change, a minimum of whenever you issue within the days:
- A westbound flight throughout the Pacific will usually land one or two calendar days after it takes off, because the Worldwide Date Line pushes you ahead a day
- An eastbound flight throughout the Pacific will usually land earlier than it even departs, because the Worldwide Date Line pushes you again a day
Once I was youthful and cared about birthdays, I at all times thought it might be enjoyable to attempt to create the longest birthday ever by persevering with to fly westbound for so long as one can. Getting a ~40 hour birthday is tremendous straightforward, by simply flying from Asia to the US.
Nonetheless, arguably essentially the most attention-grabbing flights by way of time adjustments are people who land a day earlier than they take off.
The good flights to return in time
United Airways took to Twitter/X yesterday to advertise how “you solely dwell as soon as, however you possibly can rejoice New Yr’s Eve twice.” Particularly, the airline promoted its flight from Guam to Honolulu, which takes off at 7:35AM on January 1, and lands at 6:50PM on December 31.
That’s proper, you possibly can return a calendar day, and may even return to the earlier calendar yr. This flight is so good for this as a result of it’s a brief transpacific flight that crosses the Worldwide Date Line, basically pushing again time practically 24 hours.
Admittedly that is removed from the one transpacific flight that lands the earlier calendar yr, as there are a number of flights to the US mainland that provide this, together with the next:
- NH106 Tokyo (HND) to Los Angeles (LAX) departing 12:50AM arriving 5:50PM (-1 day)
- CX888 Hong Kong (HKG) to Vancouver (YVR) departing 1:00AM arriving 8:30PM (-1 day)
- CX872 Hong Kong (HKG) to San Francisco (SFO) departing 12:55AM arriving 9:00PM (-1 day)
- CX800 Hong Kong (HKG) to Los Angeles (LAX) departing 12:15AM arriving 8:55PM (-1 day)
Now, none of those flights are as cool as United’s Guam to Honolulu flight. That’s as a result of with the above flights, you’ll mainly be boarding (or making ready to board) when the clock strikes midnight, so it’s not like you possibly can even have two New Yr’s celebrations.
Whereas this flight doesn’t function on New Yr’s Eve, I believe the flight that almost all goes again in time is Fiji Airways’ fifth freedom flight from Kiritimati to Honolulu:
- FJ822 Kiritimati (CXI) to Honolulu (HNL) departing 7:30AM arriving 10:40AM (-1 day)
It’s sort of attention-grabbing to see that on a map, as a result of it’s mainly a north/south route. Nonetheless, as a result of approach the Worldwide Date Line is structured, the locations are on reverse sides of the road.
The catch — and it’s a serious catch — is that the brief three hour flight solely operates as much as twice monthly, so that you’re very restricted by way of the times the place you possibly can take this. I nonetheless actually wish to take that flight a while, as a result of it’s so cool.
I’m curious — is there a flight I’m lacking that goes again in time greater than Fiji Airways’ distinctive Honolulu fifth freedom flight?
Backside line
Lengthy haul journey can contain fairly a while zone adjustments. On prime of that, the Worldwide Date Line can imply you could take an extended haul flight and arrive earlier than you depart. If you wish to rejoice New Yr’s Eve or your birthday twice, there are some flights you possibly can take the place you fairly actually return in time to the earlier calendar yr.
Has anybody ever celebrated an important day with a while zone enjoyable?
