flight tracking alert feature

[merlinflyer]

i was trying to track a flight from madrid to heathrow IB 3166 and i put this into the alerts feature but i noticed that the flight showed up on screen as IBE 31GQ.
how can i track a flight when the last two numbers are changed to letters and why?

[tarbat]

Often the flight number used on the aircraft is different to the published flight number.  For example, EZY764 is EZY50DZ.  I don't know why.

However, you can use wild cards (*) when setting up an alert, so maybe something like IBE31* might work.

[Allocator]

When I'm looking to track a flight, say BAW009, I'll put all possible combinations into the alert box:

BA9
BA09
BA009
BAW9
BAW09
BAW009

Ok, so this is a bit of an extreme example, but I'm sure you get the idea.

[merlinflyer]

seems the only thing that does not change is the airline prefix
in the future i will use a combination of both replys
your  answers are very helpfull to me  as im still learning as i have only had this radarbox for 1 week.
thanks again for your replys

[GlynH]

seems the only thing that does not change is the airline prefix

Actually if you look in the example Allocator quoted above you will see the Airline prefix does change - BA-BAW

Why do they do that?

I had the same issue a few weeks ago when a friend of mine flew to Australia.

I input the flight details I had directly from the British Airways website and the airport monitors I believe and wondered why her flight was delayed.

Realised afterwards that BA should have been BAW...:-(

Didn't make the same mistake on her return flight - had a list like the British Airways 'Catch All' one referred to above but also added the Qantas & Singapore Airlines flight numbers...one heck of a list for one flight!

Kind regards,
-=Glyn=-