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Who is "B6"? Can you just spell out the airline name instead?


B6 is the IATA designator for JetBlue. People who travel heavily, or otherwise spend a lot of time talking about airlines, often use these to refer to airlines rather than writing out the full names over and over.

IATA designators for commonly-discussed US-based airlines:

* AirTrain: FL

* Alaska: AS

* Allegiant: G4

* American: AA

* Delta: DL

* Frontier: F9

* Hawaiian: HA

* JetBlue: B6

* Southwest: WN

* Spirit: NK

* Sun Country: SY

* United: UA

* US Airways: US

* Virgin America: VX


Yeah, definitely appropriate abbreviation for the airplane nuts at Hacker News. It's an interesting TIL, but for future reference, @WildUtah, I'd wager less than 1% of the population knows anything about airline designations.


They're on every boarding pass anyone has ever handled, and there are screens full of them on the Departure/Arrival boards at every airport.

Airline codes aren't that obscure...


I wouldn't say they're common knowledge either. Sure, when ones traveling they may notice their abbreviation, but beyond a glance, it's not of much import to most.


Maybe overseas, but I've never seen IATA airlines codes used on an arrival/departure board in the US. Is the US we just spell out the airline, there are plenty of pixels.




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