FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - 2 flights on same day with same flight number at LHR - unexpected consequence
Old Oct 31, 2017, 11:10 pm
  #9  
zrh2yvr
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: ZRH
Programs: AC SE 100K
Posts: 926
I can see the problem here. If a flight is delayed until the next day, a new number will always be assigned because you can't have 2 flights departing on the same day with the same number.

However- because of the way that AC868 is normally a day flight, the delay of the one flight to a departure on the same day resulted in 2 flights arriving on the next day - at the same airport - with the same number (now - around 10 hours apart but still - same day). Thus, people looking on the arrivals side, would have had 2 flights with the same number arriving on the same day.

The problem will be that the scheduled arrival date was actually the day before - and you would have had to look at the previous day's arrivals, and see AC868 was delayed until T+1 in order to find the correct information. For the masses of this world - they would have never figured it out. As for the baggage belt identifier with the "A" assigned - that was probably just a baggage system flight number as flight numbers never operate or are published with letters assigned.

It's not so normal to assign a new flight number to a delayed flight when the departure is the same day - but - perhaps that could be something AC could look at - especially for AC868 - mainly because of the arrival time and the mess that can cause.

This was a bit of an anomaly but you're right - AC created some confusion on the arriving end by not changing the flight number and perhaps should have done so right away.
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