- Passengers missed out on celebrating New Year's Eve twice after their flight was delayed.
- The United Airlines flight failed to land in Honolulu in time for the midnight countdown.
Hundreds of United Airlines passengers planned to celebrate New Year's Eve twice – but a delay to their flight dashed their hopes.
The flight from Guam to Honolulu was set to depart at 7:35 a.m. on January 1, 2024, and land at 6:50 p.m. on December 31, 2023, local time.
However, delays meant the plane took off more than six hours late from Guam and landed at 12:35 a.m. on January 1, missing the New Year's Eve countdown in Hawaii.
United Airlines had promoted the flight as a way for passengers to "time travel," saying on X earlier in the week: "You only live once, but you can celebrate New Year's Eve twice!"
One would-be passenger expressed their disappointment on X, formerly Twitter.
In a reply to United's earlier post, the X user said: "Great idea, too bad it got delayed! I was supposed to be on this flight. Double new year isn't happening anymore. Maybe next year?"
United Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.
Last year, a group of United passengers missed New Year's Eve entirely after a flight from Los Angeles to Sydney made an emergency landing on a remote Pacific island.
Passengers were left stranded in American Samoa, just east of the international date line, for 21 hours after the plane suffered a "mechanical issue."
Due to the time zone quirk, passengers missed out on the opportunity to celebrate the clock striking midnight on December 31.