jrl767

just registered for a conference in DC starting Mon afternoon 18 Nov, and found that neither SEA-WAS redeye operates between early Nov and early Mar

moreover, the reappearance is strange ... IAD shows up for a week, gets replaced by BWI for about two weeks, then both resume on 3/19

interestingly, both SEA-DCA flights are upgauged to A321 on 17 Nov

lalala

I can see why they are “seasonal”, but for those who wish to maximize their time at home (Seattle) or make connections from somewhere else without getting up at the crack of dawn - it’s unfortunate.

As long as they bring it back in March, I’ll be delighted.

jrl767

equally interestingly, they retain the single-digit flight numbers (AS1 and AS3 westbound, AS2 and AS4 eastbound) rather than the Airbus 1XXX numbering convention across the rest of the system

AS Flyer

They're going to start using all flight numbers for all equipment.

jrl767

from the perspective of a longtime airline geek, it’s an unnecessary change that’s being made for its own sake (yes, I expect there’s some efficiency metric associated with not having an assigned-equipment-to-flight-number check in the schedule development process, but that doesn’t mean it’s really a value-added metric)

EkekoBWI

AS makes this route unnecessarily hard, so much so that I've shifted to UA metal (redeeming UA miles) for this route. If for no other reason, Amazon's HQ2 in Crystal City (DCA) should convert this to a year-round, non-seasonal route.

AS Flyer

So here are the reasons why its beneficial to the company to start mixing flight numbers that maybe you didn't know before -

*In some slot controlled stations, slots are tied to flight numbers. If they change a flight from an Airbus to a Boeing plane it could mean additional paperwork associated with the slot used for that flight

*The number of available 3 digit flight numbers is decreasing while there are plenty of 4 digit flight numbers still available as Alaska grows.

*It gives the company more flexibility between the two fleets to swap from an Airbus to a Boeing aircraft on any route on any given day without having to change the flight number. In other words, you could swap a Boeing aircraft with an Airbus aircraft on any given JFK-SFO flight without having to be concerned with flight numbers. Maybe Mondays the flight is operated by an Airbus 319 and every other day it's on a Boeing 737-800.

*Alaska is the only major airline to distinguish aircraft type by flight numbers. It's not an industry preferred practice as it also raises the possibility of call-sign conflicts with other companies, within Alaska and between Alaska and ATC.

jiburi

Not surprising for BWI or IAD as redeyes were seasonal add to begin with. Even DL has seasonal redeye, at least to IAD, also ending. UA's IAD has always been the surviving red-eye most years unfortunately.

Jiburi

formeraa

Yes, because UA has a hub at IAD -- so they can run it profitably even during the off-peak season. Apparently, the hub at SEA can't support nonstops to BWI/IAD in the off-season -- otherwise, they would be kept in the schedule.

wolfpacktrojan

Gotta wonder how much government contracts on the IAD side for UA keep their redeye alive for the winter.