Some passengers who were hoping to celebrate the New Year twice experienced a very poorly timed delay…
In this post:
United’s Guam to Honolulu flight doesn’t “fly” back to 2023
Thanks to the International Date Line, there are some flights that arrive a day before they depart. While this can be a cool experience any time, it’s especially cool if you take off on New Year’s Day and land on New Year’s Eve, as you’re going back in time by a year (or something like that).
A few days ago, United Airlines was promoting on Twitter/X how “you only live once, but you can celebrate New Year’s Eve twice.” The airline was highlighting its daily Guam to Honolulu flight, which is scheduled to operate at 7:35AM, and land at 6:50PM the previous day.
This is especially cool for those flying on January 1, since you can celebrate New Year’s Eve in Guam, get on a plane, and then celebrate New Year’s Eve in Honolulu. While there are some other flights out there that land the prior day, this is the only flight operated by a US airline that lets you go “back in time” so much.
Well, as it turns out, United was wrong. Not only do you only live once, but you can also only celebrate New Year’s Eve once… at least if you took United’s flight from Guam to Honolulu.
As it turns out, this flight ended up being delayed by just over six hours. Instead of departing at 7:35AM on January 1, it instead departed at 1:49PM. And instead of landing at 6:50PM on December 31, it instead landed at 12:34AM on January 1. Ouch.
Talk about bad luck!
United’s Guam to Honolulu flight has to be one of the most punctual flights in United’s system. Statistics show that the flight is on-time 95% of the time, and even when it’s delayed, it’s usually very minor. The last time that this flight ended up arriving in Honolulu after midnight was on April 20, 2023, so that was over eight months ago. Talk about bad luck when the next flight to have such a delay is the New Year’s Day flight.
So, what went wrong with this flight to cause the delay? The flight was operated by a Boeing 777-300ER with the registration code N2747U. Unfortunately the cause of the delay on the Guam to Honolulu flight was the plane simply being late inbound. On December 30, the aircraft operated punctually from Hong Kong to San Francisco, but that’s when the reliability stopped:
- On December 30, the plane was supposed to fly from San Francisco to Honolulu departing at 9:35AM and arriving at 1:15PM; it ended up being delayed by nearly nine hours due to a maintenance issue, departing at 6:06PM and arriving at 9:17PM
- On December 30, the plane was supposed to fly from Honolulu to Guam departing at 3:05PM and arriving at 6:55PM the following day; it ended up being delayed by around 17 hours, departing at 7:57AM the following day and arriving at 11:48AM the day after that (I’m not sure if this additional delay was due to crew availability, or some other airport restrictions?)
- The plane was then supposed to spend around 12 hours on the ground in Guam, so that at least absorbed some of the delay, but the plane ended up being turned around in Guam in around two hours, as it arrived at 11:48AM and took off at 1:49PM
Bottom line
You can’t predict when maintenance issues will happen, though the timing of one delay on New Year’s Day sure seems unfortunate. United was promoting its Guam to Honolulu flight that lets you take off in 2024 and land in 2023, as it’s the only such flight operated by a US airline. Unfortunately due to a maintenance delay on a previous flight, the service was delayed by around six hours, and ended up landing in Honolulu just after midnight.
There are certainly worse things that can happen to you, but I just hope most passengers on the flight didn’t specifically book it because they wanted to celebrate the New Year twice.
What do you make of this “year-long” United delay? 😉
If I recall, UA had a similar delay a last year. LAX-SYD diverted to PPG due to an engine issue. It took nearly a day to get another place and basically caused people to completely miss New Years (midnight). Departing 12/31 3am, arriving 1/1 4am.
Hope no one was on both flights, that would be bad luck
It's a long way to go just to say you did it! For a few minutes of fun in two places you get to fly for 7+ hours. Forget about the cost... just drink a lot of NYE and have someone reset all your clocks back a day once you're asleep. Then go out for a picnic or event day so you're not reading future headlines on the web or listening to future news ;-)
...It's a long way to go just to say you did it! For a few minutes of fun in two places you get to fly for 7+ hours. Forget about the cost... just drink a lot of NYE and have someone reset all your clocks back a day once you're asleep. Then go out for a picnic or event day so you're not reading future headlines on the web or listening to future news ;-)
I've given romantic helicopter tours, one of which was the "double sunset" tour. Cruise east of the mountains and watch the sun set, then crest over the mountains and watch the sut set again (over the horizon, not the mountain). Most people were pretty much over it having too much fun with the first sunset to care ;-)
I booked my ticket on this flight a year ago they say they went on sale, and flew from the Caribbean all the way to Guam for this bucket-list item.
We did have a countdown on the plane as we were flying over Kawaii. There was also a spectacular view of the fireworks on Oahu. It wasnt a total disappointment!
Regardless of the two new years, I did have a lovely time in Guam and am planning to enjoy my visit to Hawaii.
My friend and I booked this flight back February and planned a trip around it. Guam is far away and not cheap, so yeah, we're pretty upset about it. At least we had a good time in Guam! But we'll have to try again another year.
Wouldn't this be in the realm of a credit card charge back situation? They touted a product on Social Media but didn't deliver it, that seems within the realms of 'not getting the experience you paid for'; charge back for those customers if they ever saw an opportunity in the money hungry US airlines.
It’s not the airlines fault people made a stupid decision and now you think they are owed something. You’re one of those, aren’t you?
This is precisely why you don't make dumb claims regarding airline operations. Delays happen.
Doesn't matter how "on-time" the flight was for months before.
It's United so hot air is part of the way they operate....
Out of my nearly 150 flights in 2023, Delta is the only one who A) canceled my flight and B) lost my bag on a different occasion. Delta is trash compared to what it used to be and my SkyPesos pushed me to a much better now AA…
DL ain’t god!
@WestCoast1
DL plays "the social media game" better than anyone-- but there's hundreds of actual, operational problems with their system, hubs, "rules" and management that make them only mid-pack when operating out of reasonably competitive hubs/regions.
Flying a lot out of LA and DC airports? Nobody treats you worse, on a bad thunderstorm day in ATL than DL. They are terrible at IROPS.... and that horror ripples across their entire network.
Most of the "unending...
@WestCoast1
DL plays "the social media game" better than anyone-- but there's hundreds of actual, operational problems with their system, hubs, "rules" and management that make them only mid-pack when operating out of reasonably competitive hubs/regions.
Flying a lot out of LA and DC airports? Nobody treats you worse, on a bad thunderstorm day in ATL than DL. They are terrible at IROPS.... and that horror ripples across their entire network.
Most of the "unending love" for DL is about the sweet credit card deals, not actual flying.
So, with the end of the credit card era? And the continual devaluation of SkyPesos? DL turns out to be Spirit-with-a-better-paintjob.
You really should have a new years resolution to be less of a loser and troll
And you could be nicer.
Not everybody believes the DL hype machine.
you do realize there is lots of data that actually measures these things?
Whether you like it or not, Delta runs a better operation than any other US airline when all of the measurable operational metrics are tallied: on-time, fewest cancellations, baggage and wheelchair mishandling ratio, invol oversales, consumer complaints.
And NONE OF THAT MATTERS because the issue is that UA TOUTED that someone could travel "back in time" which was a risky thing...
you do realize there is lots of data that actually measures these things?
Whether you like it or not, Delta runs a better operation than any other US airline when all of the measurable operational metrics are tallied: on-time, fewest cancellations, baggage and wheelchair mishandling ratio, invol oversales, consumer complaints.
And NONE OF THAT MATTERS because the issue is that UA TOUTED that someone could travel "back in time" which was a risky thing to promise given that flights DO GET DELAYED.
Making big hype and not delivering IS THE ISSUE.
As much as some people want to throw stones, Delta doesn't make flight-specific claims and they DO LIVE UP TO their position of operational leadership on a consistent basis.
Being nice does not mean glossing over facts, Santa Barbarian
I'm not completely clear on this -- say more, Tim?
Ground time zone notwithstanding, at least the same aircraft crossed the date line and years twice: Going from 12/31 9:15 am to 1/01 9:15 am (UTC+/-12), and later going from 1/01 20:07 to 12/31 20:07 (UTC+/-12).
NZ offer a similar flight between Auckland and the Cook Islands. Quite fun to celebrate new year twice.
This is where I think the PR team and Ops team should have acted and tried a plane swap to ensure the timeliness. I know it’s not easy but if you promote it and doesn’t happen then it becomes bad rep.
I doubt they had a spare aircraft
Non-critical teams are off for the holidays and even if not, it would be an industrial-organizational miracle if PR and Ops could pull off a coordination like this. In most companies the only thing those two orgs have in common is nothing.