What time zone is DELTA in?
 

Curious if anyone knows what time zone "The Computer" that issues tickets "lives" in? Frequently I book at 1:00 or 2:00 AM EDT or EST, but ticket reflects pre-midnight date. For example, I booked at 1:18 AM this morning (8/17/2011), and receipt and itinerary clearly state booking date 8/16/2011. I have called DM desk three times and I get the same answer--"The Computer" operates on USA Eastern Time zone. No one can explain why my ticket reflects yesterday's date. If the reader asks why I care, it is because of cancellation deadline of 23:00 the day after ticketing. I frequently need to make plans and then cancel or change due to work conflicts that turn up when coordinating with colleagues. It is helpful to book AFTER the date change and thereby buy a little time.

Perhaps is actually happening in SLC vs. ATL (what agent told me), which would add two hours?

Thanks

Most of my online bookings now show LAX/web

I'm assuming that would be Los Angeles, so Pacific.

Delta IT lives in the Kryptonium Medallion time zone!

And unlike most computers the only than impact it is Kryptonite

Having booked many tickets late at night, I believe it is in fact the time zone of wherever the ticket was issued. If you are booking online, it seems to be LAXWEB and uses the Pacific time zone. If you are calling, ask... I booked one ticket through CVGRES after midnight Central (where I am located) and it was dated that same day. I cancelled it shortly thereafter and rebooked through SLCRES and it was the previous day. Which is why I now always wait until after 2:00 AM Central if I think I might be needing the risk free cancellation.

No, it's readily evident that Delta IT is stuck in 1995.

It lives & parties like it is 1999:p

I would assume all times are local times.

The Twilight zone

95 is low balling

75 is about right ;)

I know Apollo and SABRE are on CT. That's where their servers were 5 years ago. For UA/AA, it didn't matter what engine you booked thru, times were CT. It sounds DL may behave differently.

Operationally, airlines run on Zulu/UTC/GMT, etc.

Atlanta time. Everything revolves around The Atlanta, right?

I had an issue similar to what the OP asks about...Purchased at ticket between 1 am and 2 am EST but it showed as purchased two hours earlier, so the night before. The affected the cancellation window.

What I was told in the end is that the time stamp for the ticket purchase is determined by the CREDIT CARD COMPANIES computer!

Yeah doesn't make a lot of sense to me either and I don't know if that is true...but just relaying what I was told...

DL Time Zone
 

Yes. It books the time where you are.

Delta's primary data center is just north of Hartsfield across from the freight terminal. Ticketing is local time and the servers run on UTC (Coordinated Universal Time).