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Airlines are running out of 4-digit flight numbers

viewfromthewing.com

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Re: Airlines are running out of 4-digit flight numbers

#401

Post by ars »

prmoustache wrote: post #192
ars wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe when a train costs less than an airplane ticket. But right now the train costs more and takes longer. Why would I do that?

You usually need to factor the whole trip as most trains start and stop in city centers while airports are sometimes very remote from the cities. YMMV but where I live, I need to either pay for the parking at the airport, have someone shuttle me or take a taxi/regional train/bus to the airport. For domestic use in my country, plane is competitive on paper, meaning some flights are much cheaper than train tickets. How…

> as most trains start and stop in city centers while airports are sometimes very remote from the cities.

You write that as a negative, but for me that's just an even bigger bonus. The only thing I want from a city center is how to get out of the city center. I never actually want to go there.

I have not personally noticed much difference in commute costs plane vs train. Car trips, taxis, and public transport, have all been around the same time and cost to both. And the plane tickets I've looked at have been at all kinds of hours, early, middle of the day, and late. Exactly the same with the train, there's no specific pattern. (Obviously this is very specific to the location.)

You have a point with the food, it's easier to bring on a train - luggage as well, but then again the plane is so much faster you don't need to bring as much food.

And I do factor in wait time for an airport, very short trips are faster and cheaper in your car, longer trips are better in a plane. The train just doesn't really fit in anywhere - it's the same speed, or slower, than a car, and less convenient. (Even if the train is physically faster, getting to/from the station adds so much time the car works out faster.)

I book a lot of Spirit flights, and not only are they cheaper than a train, they are even cheaper than a bus! Every one in a while I go back and check all 3 options, and the plane and (occasionally) car win every time.

If you want people to take more train trips they need to cost 1/10 of what they currently do, or at least be 5 times faster. Without that, well, people just aren't going to use them.

Re: Airlines are running out of 4-digit flight numbers

#402

Post by partomniscient »

layer8 wrote: post #109
DidYaWipe wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any well-written article should anticipate, ask, and answer the obvious questions. For example: Why not use alphanumeric characters? And if the answer isn't known by the sources the writer quotes, the writer should say so.

Answered in this comment by “hagbard celine” under the article: https://viewfromthewing.com/airlines-are-running-out-of-flig...

Interesting. I thought he was more of a submarine guy.

Re: Airlines are running out of 4-digit flight numbers

#403

Post by vel0city »

nottorp wrote: post #396
vel0city wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bet you probably go to this website by visiting https://209.216.230.207 since that's way easier to remember than https://news.ycombinator.com I mean why would anyone really care to deal with DNS anyways, just a bunch of fluff. Real IT admins just memorize IP addresses. Why would I bother dealing with all that DNS hassle? If its easier to remember this site by its name, why wouldn't it also be easier to remember wha…

> I bet you probably go to this website by visiting https://209.216.230.207 What you forget is on your average home network only the last byte matters. The first 3 don't change. It's always 192.168.x.y, x is fixed so you only need to remember the y.

Your average home network has a functional mDNS stack already running.

Re: Airlines are running out of 4-digit flight numbers

#404

Post by averageRoyalty »

crmd wrote: post #322
vel0city wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You are referencing the private blocks that are designed for private use. Sure, but the person I'm replying to wasn't making a distinction here. They're just saying, "Have you ever changed the static IP address of a computer", where does that exclude RFC1918 IP addresses? I'm right for the right reasons IRT to the person I'm replying to. There are IP addresses which are absolutely not globally unique in any way, sh…

Real talk. I’ve been working in tech for 20 years, am coming off a year-long sabbatical, and for the past couple of months have been struggling with the feeling that the joy is gone and I should consider a radical career change. Reading (what feels to me as) the aggressive pedantry of parent commenter in this thread is giving me a straight up anxiety attack. I’m not sure I have it in me anymore to be in meetings with…

I've had hyper-pedantic arguments in many workplaces, but they're usually focused in tech or other "intellect driven" fields.

A lot of people (Americans especially, I guess due to their Silicon Valley) think you need to work in tech to work in tech. There are tech jobs in every industry, both IT and other types of tech. I recommend not being in the tech industry - working for a manufacturer with embedded systems or doing IT for a finance company is a lot better for your mental health.

Re: Airlines are running out of 4-digit flight numbers

#406

Post by trueismywork »

tivert wrote: post #389
delta_p_delta_x wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm certain each flight has its own completely unique ID buried somewhere in a database There is. It's called the Globally Unique Flight Identifier (GUFI), and it's essentially a UUIDv4[1]. [1]: https://docs.fixm.aero/#/general-guidance/flight_identificat...

>> I'm certain each flight has its own completely unique ID buried somewhere in a database > There is. It's called the Globally Unique Flight Identifier (GUFI), and it's essentially a UUIDv4[1]. Great, step one cleared. Now have all the legacy systems everywhere that use 4-digit flight numbers been updated or replaced?

4-digit flight numbers are for humans, not computers

Re: Airlines are running out of 4-digit flight numbers

#408

Post by fishywang »

jll29 wrote: post #227

> Here’s the full answer, along with how they triage the problem – for instance by assigning the same flight number to more than one flight a day (although that means they need for it to be flights that would never both be in the air at the same time, such as where the same plane is used and can’t reasonably be substituted) This sounds like it's calling for trouble! Whenever I hear that any IDs could be "recycled", I…

I don't think that's even new for the big N us airlines. I noticed about 10 years ago that there were some united flight number used by not really related flights, or for both outbound and inbound for the same city pair.

Re: Airlines are running out of 4-digit flight numbers

#410

Post by andrewstuart2 »

delta_p_delta_x wrote: post #292
ryukoposting wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm certain each flight has its own completely unique ID buried somewhere in a database. But, shorter codes can be spoken into a radio faster and with lower probability of misinterpretation - both critical features for air traffic control. Those shorter codes will necessarily be reused, it's just a question of the time interval between re-uses of any particular code. I faintly recall seeing two Southwest flights from…

> I'm certain each flight has its own completely unique ID buried somewhere in a database There is. It's called the Globally Unique Flight Identifier (GUFI), and it's essentially a UUIDv4[1]. [1]: https://docs.fixm.aero/#/general-guidance/flight_identificat...

Please tell me it's pronounced "goofy."
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