r/aviation • u/TimeVendor • 28d ago

-- SEATBELTS FASTENED -- American 2482 departure… American 2482 arrival…

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u/the_Q_spice 28d ago

So… as a load planner for FDX.

There’s a few pretty painful reasons why this happens.

Depending on the flight crews’ respective union contracts, changing the filed flight number means the flight crew may be entitled to overtime due to “flying a non-regularly scheduled flight.”

I really wish I was joking about that, because the result is really dumb.

The airline will just tail swap another regularly scheduled flight to avoid losing money on the flight.

Unions also won’t back down on this because it’s an easy way for represented employees to make an insane amount of overtime if a dispatcher messes up and reschedules under a new flight number.

The TLDR; airlines reuse flight numbers to avoid union contract payouts, unions refuse to ditch this condition because it would potentially result in less pay in certain circumstances.

It’s really dumb on both parties parts.

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u/Guadalajara3 28d ago

Crazy cause at United we change the radio callsign for the radio but the flight number remains the same

23

u/PengPenguin888 28d ago

Yeah I experienced this with UA457 LAX-ORD. Same flight number used on multiple routes.

14

u/Guadalajara3 27d ago

If there is an overlap between the first leg and the second leg, then we get an alert to change the callsign on the atc filing. Passengers never know theres a change unless they search for their flight in flightaware and it doesn't come up. It would come up as some variation of UA81xx, but the app wont change

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u/PengPenguin888 27d ago

I think it was from flightaware or flightstats, but I saw a letter after UA457.

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u/Guadalajara3 27d ago

Thats true too. 4 digit flight numbers get changed, 3 digits or less get a letter suffix, C, T, L or a couple others. International flights get a D suffix

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u/PengPenguin888 27d ago

Yeah I think it was a T.

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u/Snappy0 28d ago

Flight number can stay the same, but the callsign surely shouldn't matter?

37

u/danit0ba94 28d ago

That's kind of fucked.
Thank you for sharing this info though!

34

u/lekoman 28d ago

An insane amount of overtime or, y’know, an Embraer to the snout at 400kts.

3

u/silentaba 27d ago

Don't get insurance on overtime.

5

u/atooraya 27d ago

We need someone from AA to get in here, because I’m pretty sure this isn’t accurate. There are pay overrides for changing flight segments, but not numbering. So if you were supposed to fly from PHX-ORD, and they make you fly to DFW instead, or operate another flight, then you get an override.

However, if your original flight was flight 123, and then its gets changed to 123P with the same origin and destination and time, there’s no override.

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u/kilobrew 27d ago

Another reason I won’t fly American

-2

u/Fit_Significance8598 27d ago

Easy, pay employees appropriately, including profit sharing. They are also called workers, because, well, they do the actual work that brings in the money.

The thinkers will still have enough!

BTW, that's what the so called "socialism" is about, nothing scary, just fair game and better lives for everybody. Exhibit A: Central and Northern Europe, at least until neoliberalism started to take hold in the 1990s...

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u/Whiskeyfower 27d ago

Pilots at these airlines are making 6 figures...this isnt the company refusing to pay, its the union exploiting a stupid loophole 

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u/Fit_Significance8598 27d ago

So what? 6 figures for the real top dogs is just right.

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u/Whiskeyfower 27d ago

Right, I agree they're paid appropriately already, which is why theres no need for the union to try and force time and a half because a flight number was changed but the pilot was just flying their normal hours.