(CNN) — Passengers on a United Airlines flight hoping to “time travel” to celebrate the New Year have gotten off to an unfortunate start in 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, traveling across time zones to pick up passengers a year earlier.
“You only live once, but you can celebrate New Year's Eve twice!” United Airlines had tweeted Earlier that week. In another Instagram post about flight UA200, he wrote: “Time travel is real.”
Every year, a range of flights offer passengers the opportunity to recreate their New Year's Eve celebrations, and airline crews sometimes celebrate the occasion several times on a single route.
But the passengers of the UA200 were disappointed. The flight was delayed, departing Guam at 1:49 PM on January 1 and arriving in Honolulu at 12:34 PM on January 1, resulting in a missed countdown.
Many passengers later voiced their complaints on X, formerly Twitter.
“Great idea, too bad it was delayed! I had to be on this flight. Double New Year's is no longer possible,” one person wrote under United Airlines' original tweet.
“I booked this trip specifically so I could do this,” read another comment. “I received a late notice and we are not scheduled to arrive until 1/1.”
The airline responded with X by offering passengers rebooking assistance.
Passengers on other one-off flights had better luck: 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 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.
