Originally Posted by
EricH
That and it's a good bet that there's a code on it somewhere that indicates exact date.
The IATA standard for the flight date in the barcode is simply to include the day of the year (1-365), not the year number for the flight date. But it also includes the date the BP was issued that does include a year marker, though only the last digit of the year. So a BP issued in 2017 or 2027 would be the same in that regard.
Originally Posted by
CPRich
Perhaps when airline systems were written eons ago, memory was so valuable that they decided there was next to zero chance that the same flight/gate/date/time would exist in future years, so they saved space. Y2K-style.
Save memory and because airlines do not sell flights more than a year in advance so each date can only exist once in the system. Even if the flight number, departure time and city pair remains the same. And for many airlines it does. LH400 has been flying between JFK and FRA for a long time now.