CNN –
Passengers on a United Airlines flight hoping to return in time for New Year's have had an unfortunate start to 2024.
Flight UA200 was originally scheduled to depart Guam at 7:35 a.m. on January 1, 2024 and land in Honolulu, Hawaii at 6:50 p.m. on December 31, 2023 – crossing time zones to bring passengers back a year.
“You only live once, but you can celebrate New Year’s Eve twice!” United Airlines had tweeted Start of the week. A separate Instagram post about flight UA200 said: “Time travel is real.”
Switching time zones on New Year's Eve is not a new practice – each year a handful of flights offer passengers the opportunity to relive their New Year's Eve festivities, with airline crews sometimes marking the occasion multiple times on a single route.
But those on UA200 were in for a disappointment. The flight was delayed – eventually departing Guam at 1:49 p.m. on January 1 and landing in Honolulu at 12:34 a.m. on January 1, missing the countdown.
Several passengers subsequently voiced their complaints on X, formerly Twitter.
“Great idea, it's a shame there were delays! I was supposed to be on this flight. “Double New Year is no more,” one person wrote under United Airlines’ original tweet.
“I booked this flight specifically so I could do this,” read another comment. “I received a delay notice and we are not expected to arrive until January 1st.”
The airline responded to X by offering passengers rebooking assistance.
Passengers on other on-time flights were luckier – for example, Cathay Pacific flight CX872, which departed Hong Kong shortly after 1 a.m. on January 1 and arrived in San Francisco at 8:22 p.m. on December 31; and All Nippon Airways flight NH106, which departed Tokyo at 12:48 a.m. on January 1 and landed in Los Angeles at 5:12 p.m. on December 31.