PHP MYSQLI prepared statement compare datetime to GetDate() err - php

Question

I open a connection to my database using php and mysqli and make a few queries using prepared statements where everything works dandy but in this query where I attempt to only select rides that are in the future I am inexplicably failing as soon as I add the comparison to GETDATE()
date_default_timezone_set('America/Denver');
if(!($stmt = $con->prepare("SELECT r.destination, r.startDepartureTime, r.seats, r.priceperseat FROM ride r WHERE r.startZipCode = ? AND r.startDepartureTime > GETDATE()"))) echo "Prepare failed: (" . $stmt->errno . ") " . $stmt->error;
if(!$stmt->bind_param("i", $userZipCode)) echo "Binding parameters failed: (" . $stmt->errno . ") " . $stmt->error;
$stmt->execute();
$stmt->store_result();
$stmt->bind_result($destination,$departure,$seats,$price);
while($stmt->fetch()){
echo "Destination : $destination Departure Time : $departure Seats Available : $seats Price Per Seat : $price <br>";
}
$stmt->close();
The php error log reports that on the prepare statement line
PHP Notice: Trying to get property of non-object
and that therefore on the bind_param line we get
PHP Fatal error: Call to a member function bind_param() on a non-object
I originally was trying to use NOW() but tried all of the solutions in this thread SQL NOW() function not working properly and have had no luck.
When I run the statement without the r.startDepartureTime > GETDATE() comparison everything works fine.
And I have ensured that the startDepartureTime column in my database is of type datetime. Here is an example entry : 2016-05-21 10:24:00 that I've made sure is indeed greater than the current time and in the same zipcode to ensure that Im not just receiving an empty set.

Answer 1

GETDATE() is not a MYSQL Function, NOW() should be what you need
Maybe what you mean to do is use less than rather than greater than in the query r.startDepartureTime < NOW()
If the prepare fails then you need to do something more positive that just report an error. So this kind of code will work better.
Also if the prepare fails, $stmt is set to false and therefore using $stmt->errno etc will not work, and will in fact generate even more confusing error messages. So in this case you have to use the connection $con to get the errors from
$sql = "SELECT r.destination, r.startDepartureTime,
r.seats, r.priceperseat
FROM ride r
WHERE r.startZipCode = ?
AND r.startDepartureTime < NOW()";
$stmt = $con->prepare($sql);
if($stmt === false) {
echo "Prepare failed: {$con->errno} : {$con->error}";
exit;
}