What flight numbers have stood the test of time?
 

There are some flight numbers out there that are easily recognized. Example, BA 1 and 2.

What other flight numbers "identify" a route? Does anyone know the oldest, continuous flight number?

TWA was good about this. On many routes, the flight numbers did not change for years and years.

UAL 1 and 2 are (were?) RTW routes. LAX-HKG-DEL-LHR-JFK-LAX or something like that. I've never done a RTW, but did fly that flight from LAX to DEL. I thought it was amusing that they announced it as United flight 1 to Hong Kong with continuing service to Los Angeles.

I believe it's gone now and thus hasn't stood the test of time. But it was easily recognized.

cnk

Weren't UA 1 and 1 direct descendents of Pan Am 1 and 2, which, of course, didn't meet the test of time either?

NW 51 from Paris has been around for several years. It's not a record, even for NW, though.

Someone was right about TWA. TW5 between MIA-JFK (forgot which direction) was around for a long time. So was the 800's. Wasn't 842 to Milan?

AA 1, 2, 3 & 4 (JFK-LAX)

UA 930/931 has been the early afternoon SFO/LHR since probably 1992 or whenever they took the route over.

Flight 658 was the afternoon STL-JAX flight for years and years... flights 487 and 577 were the evening STL-OMA flights. A lot of the flights between ORD and STL like flights 46 and 60 dated way back.

TWA was a classic at keeping the same flight numbers. I can remember when I was a non-rev traveling on my father's pass. They had the classic "triple nickle" from STL to MCI and it was the last flight of the day. That flight was placed just for the Kansas City folks who commuted out of STL. The other one I can remember was Flight 1 to HNL and Flight 2 back to STL. Not sure AA will/has kept these flights.

QF1/2 has been SYD-LHR-SYD as far as I can remember and QF5/6 has been SYD-FRA-SYD for long time too.

When I lived in IND, for years the last flight of the night STL-IND on TWA was flight 100.

NW11 - DTW-NRT
NW12 - NRT-DTW

Service started between 1988-1989 (the beginning of NW's use of DTW as an int'l hub) and is currently one of the most popular flights.

Yes. United purchased those route rights from Pan Am. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

United has twice pulled the true RTW service which UA #1 and #2 certainly were, and to this day no carrier offers a real RTW on its own metal AFAIK.

And Spider is certainly correct about QF #1 and QGF #2.

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~ Glen ~

CP 7/8 have been YVR-HKG-YVR for a very long time. Even after the merge with AC, they retained AC 7 & 8 for HKG flights.

Two AA flights that have been around since at least 1966 are AA flight 1 and AA flight 21. Both are JFK to LAX. They were 707s in 1966 and 767s today. AA 1 was the morning flight and AA 21 the evening flight. For a time AA 21 meals were catered by the 21 Club of NYC. The fare back in 1966 was F $160 and Y $145 plus tax each way.