If You Want To Avoid Confusion Don't Book A Flight For This Time Of Day

Picture this: You've just found a great deal on a flight ... but there's a catch. Looking at the details of your ticket a little closely, you notice a small but crucial factor that immediately leaves you scratching your head and going through the motions while counting on your fingers. No, we don't mean layovers or baggage fees — we're talking about departure times. Because, while most travelers are pretty clued in on whether they're flying at 9 a.m. or 9 p.m. on a certain date, there's a time that isn't always as straightforward: midnight flights.

The thing is, booking a flight scheduled for midnight can be a recipe for travel disaster. After all, seeing that your flight's departure says 12:00 a.m. on Tuesday can throw you for a loop where you're no longer sure if you should be heading to the airport on Monday night or Tuesday morning. And, when it comes to flying, that small confusion can make a world of a difference — specifically, in terms of missed flights, extra costs, and situations where even your travel insurance isn't likely to refund you.

There's no denying that midnight is a tricky time for flight bookings for a variety of reasons. First, there's the disconnect between how some people see midnight as the end of the day, while others — specifically, computer systems — actually see it as the beginning of a new one. Not to get too philosophical, but these inconsistencies in how the idea of "midnight" is interpreted can eventually lead to travel misunderstandings, where flyers think their flight leaves the next day ... only to find out they're about 12 or even 24 hours too late.

@nessieandbecca

AVOID MIDNIGHT FLIGHTS!! ✈️ Unless we are the only ones to make this silly mistake? 😅 We are so lucky that our friend texted us to remind us of our flight because otherwise we would have missed our flight from Thailand back to the U.K. I'm pretty sure insurance doesn't cover mistakes like that so don't do what we did 😅 Let us know if you've ever made similar mistakes when travelling 💓 Follow for more travel videos 📹 #travelmistakes #missedflight #avoidthismistake #thailandtravel #travelcontentcreator #travelstories #storytime #backpackingthailand #backpackingcouple #travelcouple Airport mistakes Travel mistakes Travelling from the U.K. to Thailand Avoid this flight Do not make these travel mistakes Avoid this travel mistake Travel tips

♬ Au Revoir – Sweet After Tears

Additionally, airlines and booking websites don't all show midnight flights the same way. So, for example, while some might list a 12:01 a.m. flight on January 1 as leaving on December 31, others might choose to categorize it under their January 1st departures. Ultimately, however, this lack of a so-called industry standard is also what makes it even harder for travelers to know exactly when their flight leaves and when they're expected to be at the airport.

Finally, time zones can also make things even more confusing than they already are. For instance, a flight leaving at midnight in one time zone might land at a very different time in another — sometimes even before the midnight departure that caused so much trouble in the first place. With this in mind, it's even more important that travelers flying at night or early in the morning understand the intricacies of their departure and arrival times from pretty much every angle.

So, what's the easiest way to ensure you're on time? Well, if possible, the best thing you can do is to simply avoid flights at midnight — or at noon, if you're being really cautious — altogether. Instead, opt for flights with departure times like 11:34 p.m. or even 1:15 a.m., where there's less of a chance you'll end up confused.

Additionally, while midnight flights might be particularly prone to mistakes, they're not the only time-related issues that might trip up unsuspecting travelers. Another common culprit is ignoring the 12-hour versus 24-hour clock system. For example, a flight departing at "6:00" could either mean early morning or evening depending on where you're from — and without the correct "a.m." or "p.m." identifier, you could easily find yourself at the airport at the wrong time altogether. This becomes even more important when traveling internationally. So, while countries like Canada, the United States, Australia, and even India rely on the 12-hour format, most international destinations throughout Europe and South America operate on military time — aka, the 24-hour clock.

In the same vein, make sure you're also clued up on date formats. While in the U.S. it's common to write dates out as MM/DD/YYYY, most other countries generally go by DD/MM/YYYY (or, in some cases, YYYY/MM/DD). Why does this matter? Well, because simply going by what you "know" could mean that you end up with a flight that's booked for the wrong date –– like a ticket for July 3 instead of March 7 (or the "7 of March," per the format), when you're actually meant to be flying. Oops!