United Airlines came up with an exciting advertisement last week when they promised the passengers a unique experience of celebrating New Year’s Eve twice within 24 hours. The offer of time travel might initially seem like a scam, but it can actually happen when a flight passes over the International Date Line.
United Airlines invited its customers to travel on the UA200 flight, which would depart from Guam at 7:35 am on January 1, 2024, and touch down in Honolulu, Hawaii at 6:50 pm on December 31, 2023. What makes the rare thing possible is the time gap between Guam and Hawaii, which is almost 20 hours.
You only live once, but you can celebrate New Year's Eve twice! ???????? UA200 departs Guam at 7:35 a.m. on January 1, 2024 and lands in Honolulu at 6:50 p.m. on December 31, 2023. pic.twitter.com/T3QY1ED9Bl
— United Airlines (@united) December 28, 2023
United Airlines announced the offer of double New Year through a post on X (formerly Twitter). Sharing details of the UA200 flight, the company wrote, “You only live once, but you can celebrate New Year’s Eve twice!”
Lured by the offer, many customers had planned a trip to Hawaii on January 1 with the hope of ringing in the New Year for the second time. However, all of the passengers were left disappointed after the UA200 flight ended up being delayed for more than six hours. The plane ultimately jetted off from Guam at around 2 PM and landed in Hawaii a few minutes after midnight on New Year’s Day, according to tracker FlightRadar24.
Keeping aside the unfortunate occurrence, the 4828km route from Guam to Hawaii has a remarkable record of punctuality as 95 per cent of flights usually arrive on time. The last time when a flight got delayed on this route was on April 20. According to the travel news site One Mile at a Time, the latest delay happened due to the flight’s previous two journeys.
The UA200 aircraft was slated to travel from San Francisco to Honolulu first on December 30 before going to Guam on the same day. It was scheduled to arrive in Guam at around 7 PM on the following day. However, a maintenance issue led the flight to wait at the San Francisco airport for nine hours. So naturally, the arrival in Guam was late.
After the passengers lashed out at United Airlines for ruining their New Year plans, the company responded to the complaints, seeking an apology for the inconvenience. They, however, have yet to bring out an official statement citing the reason for the delay.
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