We are vacationing in Australia and flying to New Zealand on Saturday the 5th of October. I was looking at my TimeBuddy App so that I could update friends and clients at home as to when we would be available to take calls or check messages.

What I noticed was something that we did not even plan for; daylight savings time. The clocks in Australia spring forward on Sunday the 6th of October. Luckly for us we are flying on Saturday, not Sunday, so I won’t have a nasty surprise.

Fortunately, none of my flights on this trip are on a Sunday when the clocks are moved ahead in Spring and back in Fall.

How upset would I have been to show up at an airport on a Sunday morning and found that I missed my flight because everyone else turned their clocks ahead by 1 hour and we didn’t notice because we were on vacation and not watching the news.

I do suggest that you make a note in your planner/calendar so that you know when they change time in your country or the country you are flying through or to. Keep in mind that when we in California are thinking about turning our clocks back in the Fall, in the Southern Hemisphere, such as Africa, South America, Australia and New Zealand they are moving their clocks forward because it is Spring.

Here in the US & Canada, we spring forward on 2nd Sunday in March and fall back on the 1st Sunday in November. There are exceptions to daylight savings times in the US. It is not observed in Arizona, Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and the Nothern Mariana Islands.

For New Zealand, they spring forward on the last Sunday in September and fall back on the first Sunday in April.

Australia is a bit more complicated because the states of Queensland, Western Australia, the Northern Territory, and Christmas Island do not participate in daylight savings time. The states of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, the ACT (Australian Capital Territory), and Norfolk Island spring forward on the first Sunday in October and they fall back on the first Sunday in April.

The European Union observes daylight savings time on the last Sunday of March to the last Sunday of October.

Daylight savings time is also observed in Paraguay, Chili, Cuba, and Haiti.

The bottom line is to either never fly on a Sunday or to make sure to think about daylight savings time when your are flying on Sundays.