Is it possible to know which aircraft will fly just from booking flights? [duplicate]

I booked a flight from BOM (India) to CPT (Cape Town) with a lay-over at DOH (Qatar) using Qatar Airways. The flight numbers are QR 557 and QR 1369. While making the booking, there is an option of seat-selection which I used, the seats were shown in 3-4-3 configuration. I did see that on the Qatar Airways Wikipedia page that they have both Boeing and Airbus but just like trains, I am guessing there would be the same aircraft which flies the same route. The first hop is a short-haul 3 hour flight while the next one is biggie 9 hour long-haul flight. I also believe this is routinized to a large degree as you need to have the staff, captain and the ground staff intimately familiar with the aircraft for taxing purpose, weight issues (as I read in some other thread) hence would make sense to have familiar aircraft.

I would understand if there is now secrecy about these sort of facts as terrorists knew which airplanes they were on and did take training before doing what they did on 9/11.

Best Answer

The plane being used for a trip will almost always stay the same; the airline will have made precise calculations on how to spread out their fleet, and a change would cause issues with load capacity, passenger capacity, pilot training and is even potentially limited by whether an airport is able to support the plane (the Airbus A380 being an obvious example for this).

TripAdvisor's Seat Guru matched with Flight Aware can be used to find the model of plane that has historically flown under a given flight number (and even future scheduled flights) and then match it to a seating plan. It appears that Seat Guru has even recently updated to allow you to do this from one single site, but I can't do that without knowing when you fly.

Using these sites, we can discover from your flight data that the code QTR557 relates to a Boeing 777-300ER (twin-jet). If comparing this to the Qatar fleet in Seat Guru, we can then see the seating layout for that plane. Your only issue here is that the Qatar fleet has 3 different seating layouts for the B777-300; using your flight details should take you to the correct one however.

I have flown in the Qatar 777 from Doha to Bangkok, and can inform you that I prefer Quatar Airway's Airbus 330s (I prefer the 2-4-2 layout), but the 777 is still a great plane to fly in. Do try and avoid seats A, D and K with the media computer in the footwell however; these are recorded on Seat Guru.

Pictures about "Is it possible to know which aircraft will fly just from booking flights? [duplicate]"

Is it possible to know which aircraft will fly just from booking flights? [duplicate] - Top view of miniature airplane placed on over gray world map with crop hand of anonymous person indicating direction representing travel concept

Is it possible to know which aircraft will fly just from booking flights? [duplicate] - From above of crop anonymous person driving toy airplane on empty world map drawn on blackboard representing travel concept

Is it possible to know which aircraft will fly just from booking flights? [duplicate] - Top view of crop anonymous person driving toy airplane on empty blackboard while representing journey concept

Do flights reuse flight numbers?

For flights operating at the same time, numbers can't be repeated. Also, numbers must not exceed four digits. With a few exceptions, flights are usually numbered based on their direction of travel. For example, north and eastbound flights are assigned even numbers, while south and westbound flights are numbered odd.

What does duplicate booking mean?

to promise the same room, seat, ticket, etc. to more than one person or group: The room was double-booked so they had to give us a different one. Making bookings & reservations.

How often do they reuse flight numbers?

In many cases, those flight numbers repeat daily; flight 100 on American Airlines always goes between JFK and London Heathrow seven days a week, while 101 runs the same route in reverse. In some special cases, the routes have a special meaning.

Can you search flights by type of plane?

Almost every airline in the world lists the aircraft type on the reservations page of its website. Start by doing a search for your preferred flight to find out what type of plane you'll be flying in. While every website is different, you will typically find aircraft information displayed near the flight details.

HOW TO FIND CHEAP FLIGHTS - My Best Tips After Booking 500+ Flights

Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Images: Andrea Piacquadio, Andrea Piacquadio, Andrea Piacquadio, Andrea Piacquadio