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Level 4

1,014 points

Make Calendar understand flight times across time zones?

Whenever I fly between time zones, I like to enter enter my departure and arrival times into my calendar using local time. Unfortunately, this means that sometimes my ending time for the flight will be earlier than the starting time, and Calendar doesn't seem to like time traveling.

I've turned on time zone support and I see an option called "floating" time zone, which I think may be the answer, but every time I select it it just snaps back to one of the other time zones. Anyone know how to get these sorts of flight times into Calendar?

OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on May 31, 2013 8:04 PM

Best reply

Arkansawyers

Level 1

0 points

Posted on Feb 11, 2015 6:50 PM

Had a call with Rick in support today on this very issue, and there is a solution! But you have to be on the right platform!!!!!

Here is the trick: use the iOS version of Calendar. When you enter the flight information into an event, and you click on the start time, the information below INCLUDING TIME ZONE is specific for the start time! When you click on the end time, you can select a DIFFERENT time zone. Amazing! Problem is solved.

However, if you are on a Mac, the desktop version does not have this option. You can't "split" the time zones. Go ahead and add the event, using the "local" times at the different airports, but only the first time zone will be correct. I find this easier on my laptop because I am also entering locator numbers and e-ticket number....lots of typing. Save it. Then open the same event on your iPhone or iPad and when you click on the end time, you can select the correct time zone! Voila.

Okay, all is not perfect, Get the two OS versions working the same way!!!! AND when you enter a location for the event (Timbiktu Airport) the event should be smart enough to offer you that time zone as a starting point! Right now it just gives you the default. There's something to add in the next update.

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19 replies

Feb 12, 2015 1:19 PM in response to ChrisJ4203

Did both, since there was already a solution on one platform. Thanks!

ChrisJ4203

Level 10

230,371 points

Feb 12, 2015 2:49 PM in response to Arkansawyers

You're welcome.

Oct 5, 2016 4:18 PM in response to ffiti

As of macOS Sierra it appears that this still is not a feature. So here's what I do:

Say I'm travelling from New York (in the EDT timezone) to Cairns, Australia (in the AEST timezone). The ticket says something like: Flight UA123 departs JFK on MON03OCT2016@8:00pm/EDT arrives CNS on WED05OCT2016@1:30pm/AEST.

1. Turn Mac Calendar's TimeZones on by going to Calendar->Preferences->Advanced->Turn on time zone support

2. Then I go to http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html and enter the arrival time on the ticket (e.g. 1:30pm) and convert from the destination time zone (e.g. AEST) to the departure timezone (i.e. EDT). Then I click the Copy&Paste tab to get:

Cairns (Australia - Queensland) Wednesday, October 5, 2016 at 1:30:00 PM AEST UTC+10 hours

New York (USA - New York) Tuesday, October 4, 2016 at 11:30:00 PM EDT UTC-4 hours

Corresponding UTC (GMT) Wednesday, October 5, 2016 at 03:30:00

3. I then create an event called "UA123 JFK✈" with the departure time on the ticket (e.g. 8:00pm) and set the arrival time to the converted time above in the second line (e.g. 04OCT2016@11:30 PM). I set the time zone to my departure time zone (e.g. EDT).

4. I then create an event called "UA123 ✈CNS" with the arrival time on the ticket (e.g. WED05OCT2016@1:30pm). I set the end time of the event to exactly the start time so that the event is 0 minutes in duration. I set the time zone to the destination time zone (e.g. AEST).

What this does is create two events. The first one shows the whole time period of the flight. The second one shows just the arrival point-in-time. By using the drop down on the Calendar app to the left of the search box, I can select what timezone I want to see things in. And events remain in the right order with the right duration.

Be sure to double check it and that it passes the reasonableness test. If you're arriving before you left or your flight is very, very short, you've made an error.

I sure hope that Apple adds this functionality to this macOS app and makes it compatible with the iOS app through the cloud. It would make a nice demo for one of those Apple Event stage shows.

celf

Level 1

13 points

Dec 27, 2016 2:53 AM in response to ffiti

I've given up on Apple's Calendar app over this issue. I really didn't want to share all my calendar information with Google, but Appe's lack of attention to basic calendar functionality required by professionals (or, really, just about anyone who travels), which people have obviously been complaining about for years, has been really discouraging. Google Calendar isn't perfect, but it includes a setting in the desktop app to enter different takeoff and landing time zones.

Make Calendar understand flight times across time zones?