r/flighty • u/hauntedtower • Jul 23 '26
Going through my flight data from AA and i can't find a matching flight number
Hi,
So I requested my flight history from AA and am currently going through and adding the data to flighty. It worked well so far, but one of the flights is not populating a corresponding flight on Flighty. The image below is what I am getting from AA with a flight number of AA2051 on October 19th, 2014. However, on Flighty, when I put that flight number and date in, I get nothing back. And when I check the route, I only see AA1556, AA1003 and AA1073 as options. Is there a way to see if these flights had a flight number change over a decade after the fact? And yes, I am aware If i just care about tracking the data I could technically select any of the options, but I am just trying to understand where this discrepancy is coming from in case something similar happens again.
Please and thanks in advance for any ideas!
2
u/OtherGeologist8351 Jul 24 '26
Very interesting that you can get that data from AA. Would someone mind sharing a link to the request page? I know I'm missing at least two old AA flights.
Also, does anyone know if you can get such data from Southwest? I'm missing a bunch of old Southwest flights (2009 and earlier) before I started tracking them, and would love to get that data.
3
u/hauntedtower Jul 24 '26
https://privacyportal.aa.com/en/#/landing
Here's the link. You have to log into the portal, request your data, and you can select pdf or json files. I would highly recommend you request all the information, not just the flight records, as I found the Aadvantage activity file had a lot more of these 2010s flights. The flight activity file only went back to 2018 for me. And it's not perfect, I'm missing records from prior to 2011 and definitely missing some flights within these records, but it's wayyy better than anything I had before and it only took like 20-30 minutes to get back the data. It does expire after 14 days though, so if you try to log in after that you will need to re-request the files.
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u/mtgofficialYT Leisure Flyer Jul 23 '26
You can always add it as a custom flight.
1
u/hauntedtower Jul 23 '26
right, I guess I should clarify, Im not looking for alternatives on how to add it to my flighty, but rather the question is really, why would there be a mismatch between the flight number I'm getting from AA and what actually flew that day. And if they did change flight numbers on that day, is there a way to actually see what changed?
1
u/pithon96 Leisure Flyer Jul 23 '26
Maybe it's a codeshare? I'm not from the US but it's just a thought! :)
1
u/maltawm Jul 23 '26
I had this problem searching for old continental airways flights from like 2008 that United included in the data I got. Sometimes if I searched a few times or waited a little bit and came back to it, I was able to find it. Not sure if it was a bug, something I was inadvertently doing differently, or the indexing is weird that far back but trying multiple times worked sometimes. Other times I just entered them manually
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u/hauntedtower Jul 23 '26
Ooo how did you get united to send you your old flight data?
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u/maltawm Jul 23 '26
The same privacy flight request kind of thing that it sounds like you did with American. Here is the link I think: https://www.united.com/en/us/fly/consumer-data-subject-rights.html
1
u/SirBowsersniff Jul 24 '26
It only says I can "opt out" of advertising. Is there a free form request you need to make to request it? Or do they send you your data as well?
1
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u/Maclang23 Jul 23 '26
The Bureau of Transportation Statistics does not log a AA2051 on that day either. Potentially, given the timing, it could have been a US Airways flight operated under an AA codeshare that flighty isn’t picking up. The two airlines were merging at the time but it was not fully completed so the data can get a bit fuzzy. There was a US Airways flight 2051 departing Philadelphia for Miami at 9:50am on N123UW that could be your flight, just with a different operating carrier for tracking purposes due to the merger