Direct flight from CVG to CVG
 

I recently flew a DL Connection flight (ACA, I believe) from CVG-ROA on flight DL5238. I was surprised to see that the return flight to CVG has the same flight number. It's a bit confusing for the general public, I think, because there would be both a departure to and an arrival from the same city on the status boards, both with the same flight number.

Flight DL 5238 departs CVG 0915, arrives ROA 1020, leaves ROA 1040, arrives CVG 1152. So does this mean you could book a direct flight from CVG to CVG? :)

Has anyone ever seen something like this before?

My United Express (service by Shuttle America) had the same flight numbers IAD-BGM as it did BGM-IAD. Served by the same aircraft, from the same gate, no less.

Some related discussion on the topic (with SEA_Tigger's comments) in the UA forum:

Two flights with same flight number, different directions?

...or you could have searched the Delta forum for the Same Flight Number, Yet a Roundtrip. Why? thread, Boofer, and you would have found an interesting discussion and the answer to your question.

Please accept my personal invitation to visit the Delta forum more often, Boofer. You will be most welcome there.

I look forward to more of your input and questions to be answered.

I wish I had picked the right keywords when I did exactly that. Thanks for the link - it's got the answers I was looking for! I'll try to be more thorough in my thread searches. ;)