Originally Posted by
SpaceCoastBill
We flew that route a couple years ago instead of direct MCO-PHX. The flight left earlier than the non stop. We were expecting to have to change planes, only to find out the flight continued on to PHX and we didnt have to get off the plane for the second leg.
I was hoping to find that again.
But did those two legs of the flight which used the same plane have different flight numbers back then?
Ie, when the plane continues without the passengers having to deplane, it's usually because both legs of the flight use the same flight number,
especially since the US merger where AA is now short of flight numbers.
An example of such a continuation is the planes that fly LAX-BNA-CLT and back. They use the same flight number for both LAX-BNA (Nashville) and BNA-CLT.
What I haven't heard of is this happening when the two legs of the flight have totally different flight numbers, especially again in this post-merger era when AA is short of flight numbers. Why would they give two flights different flight numbers, when they're so short on flight numbers, if one flight is a continuation of the next and they could use the same flight number for both legs?
(FYI: AA is
so short of flight numbers, in some cases they've used the same flight number for AAA-BBB
and the return BBB-AAA! That's why they had to get rid of the old rule of taking meal orders up front based on whether the flight number was even or odd.)