LASUA1K

One thing in common, all 739's are junk. And the non er version is even more of a piggy.

Infinite1K

Ah, thanks. So are the flight attendants sUA?

Infinite1K

It is a shame that they are not using the UA style tail number format (N***UA) instead of the random CO style string of numbers.

milepig

The version without true E+ recently caught me by surprise. I'm usually pretty careful, but it was a last minute hurried SDC, and I just chose a seat where E+ was supposed to be, only to discover that the bird was the version with the "pseudo" E+ section being the bulkhead and exit rows.

mduell

It's pretty much the same, 2 digits to find available space in the registry and then the 3 digit ship number.

doobierw

N69814 was delivered on....the 14th. Should see it in that rotation along with the rest. 30 of them newly delivered this year, or around 2 1/2 per month. (Six 787s also to be delivered this year....ship #09 now in service and five more on the way. First 787-9 should be mid-summer timeframe.)

BayAreaPilot

The good news is there's only one 739 flying without E+. The 738 is where there's still significant risk of getting a non-E+ aircraft.

WillFlyer

Agreed. It's a terrible aircraft from the perspective of passenger comfort.

Infinite1K

I wouldn't go so far to say they are "pretty much the same".

The United one had a straightforward mapping from tail number to ship number.

The CO system not so much.

For instance take N68803 and N57863. Per your algorithm I get ship 803 and ship 863 but what type of airplanes are those?

But if you take any two United tail numbers, lets say N598UA and N179UA you can immediately use the straightforward mapping of N5xxUA -> B757 and N1xxUA -> B747 to figure it out.

mduell

So your big pain is that sCO split the 800 range into 800-850 and 851+ instead of keeping each hundred range its own aircraft type?

For a guy that can keep track of which aircraft type each hundred range is at UA, knowing that the sCO 800s are split down the middle seems pretty easy.

sUA actually has the mess of the tail number/ship number matching, since you have to know the not just the aircraft type but also configuration to get the the ship prefix.
sCO ship 3xyz is always tail Nnnxyz
sUA ship wxyz is tail NnyzUA and you have to know the configuration to get the wx from the n.

Like if you see N771UA it's 2371, but N773UA is 2473.
And N778UA is 2378 so it's not even that the prefixes are increasing when the last 2 digits are.

Not straightforward at all.

If you can remember at what 2 digit number each of 23xx, 24xx, 25xx, 26xx, 28xx, and 29xx start and end surely you can remember that 38xx is split at 50!

EmailKid

Thanks for setting me straight.

Seemed to me it was clear as mud, and you guys confirmed it

SFO 1K

The 2nd digit in the nose number on sUA dealt with the configuration inside the ship. I imagine there are a handful of people who cared enough to keep track of that, but generally all we had to know was that a sUA bird had three numbers, the first one told you what model aircraft it was and the last two came from the nose number. It was actually very simple. And thoughtful.

The sCO system has some level of order to it, but the random first two digits is just sloppy. Maybe someone is saving money with the FAA by not going with a specific numbering system and taking whatever's available, but for aviation buffs, it just makes things a little more complicated.

ORDnHKG

No it is not the same, the problem for me and like others are the first 2 digits are random, and not to mention the ship # doesn't match the nose number, this is apparent on sCO's 777 ! On united.com and the metal plate behind the cockpit's door, it would said 30xx, in reality, they are still referred as 00xx !

sCO's 777 only have one config, yet the first 2 digits of the Nxxxxx are so different, like N78005, then N77006, then N27015, then N37018. I know to look at the last 3 digits, but still why the first two are so random, doesn't follow any orders at all ?

JOSECONLSCREW28

Actually the 30xx is only on the website and reservations systems. On our (FA trip) pairings and on the nose gear doors as well as the cockpit door it's referred to as 00xx. Example on the website when you check the flight status for flight 29 EWR - LHR 3002 however on our trip pairings, the nose gear doors, and on the cockpit door it will say 0002. Btw the UA number system was pretty random too. 757s at one point were 50xx, 53xx, 54xx, 55xx, 56xx, 57xx, 59xx take away 50xx and 57xx and it's still pretty random you have 53xx, 54xx, 55xx, 56xx & 59xx. A320s have 41xx, 42xx, 46xx & 47xx, the UA 777s have 20xx, 23xx, 24xx, 25xx, 28xx 763s have 64xx and 66xx. The 744s and A319s seem to be the only continuous system of the same numbers 84xx 744s and 40xx on the A319s.

jgreen1024

Good. Maybe it will end some of the idiotic postings on FT.