Anyone ever celebrated New Year's on a plane?
 

Did anything happen that was special? Free champaign? Free wine? A fasten seat belt sign that was turned off? Anything?

Absolutely nada.

Let me check my flightmemory.com data...

These are the ones I can confirm:

LGW-IAH on 1/1/07
SEA-MCI-PVD 1/1//01
TPE-HKG 1/1/83

Can't remember anything special about any of these flights.

Since planes move quickly, it might be hard to determine exactly when to ring in the New Year.

I flew on Christmas Eve once. No special festivities. Ditto for Thanksgiving.

oh, wally! :) i think i celebrated new year's on a plane once and the captain came on and said "happy new year!" but that was it.

I've flown Christmas Day from HKG-SFO on UA, got absolutely nothing free, but this was in the early 1990s when there was no charge for drinks in economy. The flight attendents did announce Merry Christmas, at that was it.

I had to fly to Boston on Christmas night a few years back. I think the crew was just about as thrilled with the whole thing as I was.

Came home from Kingston on Christmas night 2 years ago. I slept most of the way and I think the plot did too.

errr...pilot

Good point by SamH. We're just passengers going on a trip, often for pleasure at that time of the year.

But the crew are working, and many of them have family and children too. I don't understand why we'll expect MORE from them. It should be reverse.

Next time when we fly during the major holidays, perhaps we should thank them for actually working that day!

[Yes, when I was a truck driver, I've worked through major holidays...]

December 31, 2002, at 11:55 PM, my flight departed Sao Paulo, Brazil, bound for Washington Dulles.

The plane got airborne at midnight and we could see fireworks shooting into the sky from dozens of places in the city.

Nothing special occurred onboard. That flight qualified me for Premier status on United (25,000 miles), coming with just five minutes left in the qualifying period - the calendar year.

Great point, Rkkwan from someone who has worked every Christmas (and other major holiday) since 1982.

We flew to ATL-ICN-BKK over Christmas last year and I brought seven 1 lb. boxes of chocolate to distribute. The gate lady and the FAs were all very happy someone thought of them. As Rkkwan said they are working and I'm on vacation. I did wish everyone "Happy Holidays" not Merry Christmas did not want to offend anyone.

Once flew out of Manchester UK Christmas eve to Lanzarote returning New Years eve.
Nothing special at all happened on flights, but i was glad as i hate new years eve and all that it entails, strangers grabbing you to kiss you at stoke of 12 ug!!
I always wish people merry christmas & never thought it would upset anyone,we can be too politically correct dont ya think!!
I have some neighbours from Bulgaria/Russia etc and do not find their customs offensive, each to their own.

Does anyone cross the International Dateline on their birthday so they won't get older?

wally - I have suggested this before to some of our age-conscious Fodorites:

Fly from US West Coast to Asia on the eve of one's birthday. The plane arrives the morning 2 days later, so one totally skips the birthday. Do it every year, and one will never get old.

On the other hand, if there's special occasion you want to celebrate more, fly from Guam to Honolulu on Continental. You can depart Guam the evening the day after your birthday, and then arrive Honolulu on the morning <b>on your birthday!</b> You will get almost another full birthday to enjoy yourself.

Both of my holiday trips were work related, so yes, I did appreciate those that were also working.

On the Boston trip, we were lucky to be released to go home for Christmas even though we had to return Christmas night to finish the project. Then, I had to leave Jan 2 for Houston!

The Kingston thing...they PROMISED that we would be done before Christmas...PROMISED. Oh well.

I once got a Qantas flight out of London on NYE afternoon, arriving Singapore about 9 am on New Years Day.

The captain grunted something about Happy New Year just after takeoff, and that was it. BUT trying to work out precisely where and when, with an 8 hour time change, it would actually be midnight on the ground - together with a bottle or two of Qantas' excellent Shiraz - turned out to be the most effective way of getting a decent night's sleep I've ever discovered.

Incidentally, Qantas are a lot less eeyoreish about Christmas. I once found all their flight atendants wearing Father Christmas hats for the whole journey from London to Bangkok.

I pondered this question myself, since we will be flying overnight on Christmas Eve this year from the US to Europe.

I thought the pilot might pretend to see Santa and his sleigh out the window or on his radar, or announce something like that for the little kids on the flight, but I guess it's hard to know whether you will be stepping on toes when you do that. It might be fun for some of us and offend others.

Better to be PC and just treat it like any other flight.

sevendown (AND seetheworld): make sure to wear the Father Xmas or crazy hats (and also Xmassy earrings) when boarding the plane - this might give the FAs and flight deck crew some cheer.

Not on a plane, but in an airport, sitting on the floor (Ixtapa Mexico) years ago. Not too pleasant. Our flight was delayed about an hour.

Another time I spent NY eve in a train station, Denver, again delayed while waiting for my &quot;ride&quot; back home.

I spent the 4th of July on a Qantas flight once... the pilot was nice enough to say &quot;Happy 4th to our American passengers.&quot; I thought that was nice of him.