Global time zones, particularly when flying long distance east or west – where does the lost/gained time go/come from?

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I hate admitting this. I’m 46, educated and logical, but I don’t TRULY understand how time zones work – when I flew to America from the UK the flight was 8 hours, but when I landed, only 2 hours had elapsed in local time but it’s the same day. Where does the time go? Does it sort of get saved up at the international date line and cancelled or something? I hate admitting I don’t really understand this.

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Anonymous 0 Comments

I think you might have that backwards.

Let’s say you’re at JFK in NYC. You are 5 hours behind London. So it’s noon in NYC and 5pm in London. If your flight leaves at noon, it takes 8 hours to fly. When you land it would be 1am local time. If you left at noon from London, flew 8 hours, and landed in NYC, it would be 3pm local time, same day.

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