Just curious here. My DFW-LHR flight for tomorrow was cancelled and replaced with another flight about an hour later with a really weird number. Was 50, is now 9601 (not a codeshare).I could come up with many theories but who knows? Everything seems to be fine on the rebooking end. Although I'd always rather have more time to change from T3 to T5 at LHR, it's still about 2.5 hours so should be ok.

But I'm a travel advisor and always interested in the potential backstory, in case this happens to a client.

I looked it up on FlightAware and it seems to be a sort of dummy/all-purpose flight number, based on the wackadoodle history for the flight number.

Maybe something do with an equipment swap that got complicated? Or LHR trying to space out international arrivals differently due to the airport border patrol worker strike this weekend?

Anyone out there who can contribute to the sleuthing?


It's a mystery!