the Gravity of Python 2

[Chris Angelico]

On Fri, Jan 10, 2014 at 3:51 AM, Piet van Oostrum <piet at vanoostrum.org> wrote:
> I don't know how other countries do it, but here, when the clock goes back, it goes from 03:00 to 02:00. So I wonder how they communicate when your plane leaves at 02:30 in that night. Which 02:30? In that case using UTC may come out handy, if it would be understood. Or do the planes just stop leaving during that interval? Not that there will be many leaving during that time in general, I presume.
>

The fundamental is that the timezone changes. Times roll from 02:00
Daylight time through 02:30 Daylight time to the instant before 03:00
Daylight time, which doesn't happen, and instead time jumps to 02:00
Standard time and starts rolling forward.

How this is adequately communicated on the plane ticket is a separate
issue, though, and as I've never actually flown during a DST
changeover, I wouldn't know. I'm sure there would be planes departing
during those two hours (neither airlines nor airports can afford to
have two, or even one, "dead" hour!), so this must have been solved
somehow. Maybe people could figure it out from the "check-in by" time?
For instance, last time I flew, the plane departed at 0240 local time
(but this was in July, so not anywhere near changeover), and check-in
opened at 2340; so if it were the "other" 0240, then check-in would
have opened at 0040 instead. Either that, or they'll tell everyone to
arrive in time for the first instance of that time, and then just make
us all wait around for an extra hour....

ChrisA