Earlier quoted context omitted.
But have they considered 5 digit numbers :^)
I can't believe they haven't started using three digits and an emoji.
No checksum???
Airlines are running out of 4-digit flight numbers
151–160 of 461 posts
Re: Airlines are running out of 4-digit flight numbers
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
> provided I reimbursed them for the cost of the personal portion How does that work, given that the cost of the personal portion isn't independent of the rest of the booking? I was just looking at a flight plan on kiwi.com that they could book for $900, with the individual legs costing $250, $350, and $500 if booked through the carriers.
They price two itineraries - one with the work part only, the other with both work and personal. They book the combined itinerary and then you reimburse them the differnce
Yep, I’ve done something similar. Flew to a conference for work, then had them fly me to my vacation destination instead of home.
I basically ended up getting a free one-way flight for vacation.
Re: Airlines are running out of 4-digit flight numbers
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you know of any easy ways to book an arbitrary itinerary across carriers?
Sounds like a premium service someone could build. :)
Nope, they can't, either the GDS allows booking it in which case it's already possible or the GDS doesn't allow booking it and then no app can do it. There are plenty services already which allows you to book the craziest itineraries. Like, ITA Matrix Powertools can construct a clickable link into Orbitz from ITA Matrix searches and it doesn't get crazier than that. There's Bookwithmatrix too.
Re: Airlines are running out of 4-digit flight numbers
#154I don't even understand the point of code-share flight numbers. The first thing I do when I see one is look up the original flight number. Most flight search engines will also show you the original carrier. Why not just get rid of them and book on the original flight number? Is it needed somehow in their systems to know how a flight was booked or what flights are eligible? Can that be fixed instead of the flight numb…
Generally in order to ticket an itinerary, there needs to be at least one flight marketed (e.g. with the airline's flight number) by the "plating carrier" whose ticket stock the flights are issued on. I can't buy an itinerary consisting of just BA238 on aa.com but I can buy AA6981 which is its codeshare. I can also buy an itinerary where I fly AA on BOS-JFK and connect to BA JFK-LHR, because there's at least one AA-m…
> I can also buy an itinerary where I fly AA on BOS-JFK and connect to BA JFK-LHR, because there's at least one AA-marketed flight on the ticket.
Dunno if that’s a requirement that AA has, but I’ve totally bought 100% Air France metal tickets that don’t even touch US soil on Delta because Delta sold the same itinerary for way less.
Re: Airlines are running out of 4-digit flight numbers
#155Clearly the successor solution is to use eight groups of four hexadecimal digits each, separated by colons. Then each individual seat and peanut could be addressed to it's final destination. More seriously the solution suggested of giving the 3 companies other unused prefixes like D* U* and A* to use with their codeshares and non rev flights to start seems the easiest.
Having multiple prefixes per airline doesn't seem trivial, given that this historically wasn't a thing. I could imagine a bazillion code snippets of
if flightNumber.startsWith(OUR_AIRLINE_CODE)
Re: Airlines are running out of 4-digit flight numbers
#156Re: Airlines are running out of 4-digit flight numbers
#157Too much consolidation? Time to split up them again?
Code shares are between airlines that generally operate in different markets.
Delta code sharing with Air France may limit direct competition on the few international routes they share, but in general it is also good for passengers because Delta cannot operate flights wholly within Europe and Air France cannot operate domestic US flights. Code sharing allows a passenger to buy one itinerary complete with rescheduling for missed connections and correctly handled baggage.
Re: Airlines are running out of 4-digit flight numbers
#158This is the tipping point that will make the world switch from passenger flights to high-speed rail.
Then we'll see "Railroads are running out of 4-digit train numbers" or similar before long.
More and more airlines are selling plane+train (or plane+bus) itineraries and giving the train system its own 2 letter value + “flight” number. Might happen.
Re: Airlines are running out of 4-digit flight numbers
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you know of any easy ways to book an arbitrary itinerary across carriers?
Sounds like a premium service someone could build. :)
Isn't it entirely dependent on the airlines, what counts as one itinery? How could I contractually obligate them to something they didn't agree to be contractually obligated to?
(BTW: I've had multiairline itineraries many times. I think a lot of airlines are perfectly happy to do it because they can't fly domestic in that country and the domestic airline doesn't fly international. Also, there have been times when I haven't been able to, and I've been worried about it, and I got to the airport for manual checkin, and they've said "oh, i see you have an ongoing flight to such-and-such, do you want me to check you in for the whole journey?")
Re: Airlines are running out of 4-digit flight numbers
#160I don't even understand the point of code-share flight numbers. The first thing I do when I see one is look up the original flight number. Most flight search engines will also show you the original carrier. Why not just get rid of them and book on the original flight number? Is it needed somehow in their systems to know how a flight was booked or what flights are eligible? Can that be fixed instead of the flight numb…
Recently, I flew with gf on Etihad from MEL to CDG, via Abu Dhabi. We weren't allowed into the Etihad lounge in Abu Dhabi because even though our flight from there to CDG was an Etihad code, it was codeshare with Air France.
Believe me when I say I was pissed and made sure everybody knew, including the travel agent that booked us that deals with high end corporate travellers.
Etihad lost a bunch of business from AU because of that.