Same flight # out and back
 

Has anyone seen this before? This is totally new to me and I'm wondering if DL has done this in the past.

Tomorrow (3/9), DL4622 is scheduled for SLC-SEA. It is also scheduled for the return flight SEA-SLC. I'm on the SEA-SLC portion.

I suppose technically there's no reason an airline can't do this because the flights can't be in the air at the same time (it's the return equipment in SEA). I've just never seen one do this before.

-RM

Apparently this is a frequent occurrence for the regional carriers and there is another thread as to whether there are problems with taking the flight in both directions with the same flight number during a mileage run.

This has been pretty common for quite some time. For instance most of the ASA short turns from ATL are listed as the same flight number for both directions.

It's a trick used by scheduling departments to conserve flight numbers. You'll see it mainly on the regionals, as they have a limited range of numbers to work with, but it's not unheard of, or shunned at mainlines, either.

I used to work for America West back in the day, and every flight had the same number from PHX and back.

Discussed several times recently, including here.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...ng-issues.html

I'm not sure there is any relevance as to whether or not there are two flights in the air at the same time with the same flight number.

Consider one of DL's (or, for that matter, any airline's) sham "direct" flights where the itinerary involves two flights with the same flight number, but a change of aircraft at the connecting airport. If your inbound flight WXYZ is late, your continuing flight WXYZ may leave before the inbound flight lands.

In that case, aren't there two flights with the WXYZ number in the air simultaneously?

Can some of the experts explain how ATC handles this situation?

In such cases, the flight numbers, as filed with ATC, are stub amended, as we like to call it.

Let's assume that marketing has made DL1933 operate LGA-ATL-DAB, with LGA-ATL as an MD-80, and ATL-DAB as a DC-9.

DL1933 LGA-ATL, the filed ATC callsign will be DAL1933.
DL 1933 ATL-DAB, the filed ATC callsign will be DAL933B.

The actual callsign will be something similar based on whether it has been used that day or not.

I once flew LGA-MCI and looked at the TV screen for information about upgrades.
The plane returned MCI-LGA (or possibly MCI-JFK) later that day, using the same flight number.

There were some open F seats, as there tends to be on this elite-light route.

I believe the cost of upgrading LGA-MCI was significantly more than LGA-MCI-LGA/JFK! They presumably looked at the net displacement to determine how much to charge.

Thanks