Have you ever wanted to celebrate New Year’s Eve twice? Okay, maybe you haven’t. To be honest, I haven’t either, since I’m asleep before 8PM on New Year’s Eve, just as I am every day. However, if there’s one thing that would get me in the spirit, it would be an aviation angle…
Continue reading: Flights That Land A Day Before They Take Off: Celebrate The New Year Twice
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Four years ago on one of these eastbound flights I remember arriving at my sister's house on the west coast one day earlier than I had originally told her (due to my miscalculation).
Equally unique eastbound is having a long layover (in a country such as Japan), where you can eat breakfast in Hong Kong, lunch in Tokyo, and dinner in San Francisco all in the same day.
How about adding the scheduled flight time (hours and minutes) of each flight?
Japan to Hawaii are great options. Departing around 21:00 arriving around 10:00 the morning of the same date as departure. Allows for an early new year's dinner in Tokyo, and full new year's celebrations in Honolulu.
The famous Aeroroutes has a post that did an analysis of scheduled flights operating on 12/31, as well as some that "might" do this if they end up operating a bit later/earlier. (Interestingly, one of those is westbound, due to quirks in time zones.) https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/251221-2526flights
Didn't one of United's "double New Years" flights have a significant maintenance issue last year and the passengers ended up 'missing" both NYE's?
I have flown internationally on my birthday a few times these past few years (mostly unintentionally). All of these flights have been westbound so I have gotten a longer birthday. Longest birthday yet has been 34 hours, where I got to the airport just before 12am, (and waited an extra couple minutes so my family could wish me happy birthday), took a 3am flight, and flew to the US eventually where I landed 23 hours later at 4pm. Got home at 7pm, and crashed out on my bed at midnight.
I'm flying again on my birthday this upcoming week from Europe to the US. I should have a 30 hour birthday this time.
@ weekendsurfer -- It seems those flights depart at 11:30PM, so since they leave before midnight, they wouldn't count by these standards (unless I'm missing something).
In other news, if you want to skip big birthdays that make you feel old, an LAX/SFO or DFW/IAH/ORD/JFK nonstop to Oceania westbound means you never have to celebrate getting older.
I may have done that once...
Or SQ 21/23 NY to SIN. These 19 hr flights literally cross 2 days due to 12 timezone crossing for a total of 31hrs so great for missing annoying events / dates.
The year before the pandemic I did the Apia, Samoa - Pago Pago, American Samoa flight eastbound across the dateline. What made it interesting was that it was a daytrip which meant the return flight took place prior to the outbound flight. When booking the flight on the Samoa Airways website, I had to select the return flight first and the outbound flight second to put them in the correct order chronologically.
Basically, E. Asia and Oceania routes back to US. Have done this before (on NYE), and it’s ‘fun,’ but not that special. If your schedule allows for it, why not! I always like when crews get festive, too. @Tim Dunn should be happy to hear that I particularly enjoyed a DeltaOne flight recently where nearly all the FA’s had nice ‘holiday light’ necklaces on. How cheerful!