South America - Daylight Savings Time Changeover in Chile

We are flying into Santiago, with arrival on March 10th (Thursday.) I understand that Daylight Savings Time will end for the year at midnight on Saturday, March 12th (changing to Sunday, March 13th) so that clocks will move back one hour at that time. Is this correct? Currently we are in the US Central Time Zone, so we understand that there is currently a three hour time difference (6:00PM in Chicago = 9:00PM in Santiago.) After the changeover, when Santiago goes off daylight savings time and Chicago goes on, I believe that 6:00PM in Chicago = 7:00PM Santiago. Is this correct? I have never worked with time changeover on Daylight Savings Time from the Northern to Southern Hemispheres before, and just don't want to miss connections on Sunday after the change. Also, we will be going from Santiago to Valparaiso, and want to be sure that there is no time zone change involved in that trip. Thanks for any insight anyone can supply.

Santiago to Valpo is a 2 hour drive. All Chile (mainland) is the same time zone. During the Southern Winter, the time is the same as EST (subject to the shoulder times when the time is off by an hour).

If you are flying LAN, check and double check your flight times - they've been known to not always adjust for daylight time changes, although this close to departure, everything should be ok (part of this have been shifts of when it starts/stops, and part of which is the fault of the government of Argentina).

Here's a great web site for all kinds of time information throughout the world...

http://timeanddate.com/



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Currently we are in the US Central Time Zone, so we understand that there is currently a three hour time difference (6:00PM in Chicago = 9:00PM in Santiago.) After the changeover, when Santiago goes off daylight savings time and Chicago goes on, I believe that 6:00PM in Chicago = 7:00PM Santiago. Is this correct?
That is correct.

During the Southern Winter, the time is the same as EST (subject to the shoulder times when the time is off by an hour).
The time is the same as Eastern Daylight Time.

Thanks to all of you for the info. It makes me more comfortable to be sure of this going into our trip.

That is correct.


The time is the same as Eastern Daylight Time.

Tenés razon. Podés azotarme ahora mismo.

According to my MS Outlook calendar (which nearly always gets these things right), the three hour difference between Chicago and Santiago reverts to two hours on Sunday 13 March. The "shoulder" period is only one week long, and starting on Sunday 20 March the difference between Chicago and Santiago will be one hour. I'm not sure if Chile goes off DST a week before the US goes on DST or whether it's the other way around, but that should be immaterial as far as flight scheduling goes.

We have now gotten word that the government of Chile has moved the change from Daylight Savings Time from March 13th to April 2nd. So it looks like we don't have anything to worry about on the weekend of the 13th. www.timeanddate.com had the change listed as 3/13/11 a few days ago, but the website now lists the changeover as 4/2/11.

Energy saving measure:

http://www.economiaynegocios.cl/noticias/noticias.asp?id=82243

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/02/energia-chile-horario-idARN0221413820110302?rpc=444

An exceptional situation but got screwed once because the last time there was a Chile impromptu change in the shift to standard time, the early morning Turbus to Mendoza with an Argentina crew did not change their watch so 7 am to them was actually 6 am in Chile.

As a result, we missed our bus and we and another family ended up hours later in the Turbus service office (I left customer out as there rarely is such a focus in Chile) pleading our case. Turbus never admitted to the error and stood by their fine print that all we were entitled to was a refund of 50% as we missed the bus (and thus at fault).

I boycott them to this day.