>Whenever I hear that any IDs could be "recycled", I make a mental note to replace the person making such a proposal from all teams that I am involved in.
Couldn't agree more, not even interested in debating it
Couldn't agree more, not even interested in debating it
And it's mostly a holdover from legacy systems airlines are entrenched in, so there isn't much else anyone can do here short of completely reinventing the mainframe reservation systems and heavily refactoring all the pieces that depend on it.
This is commonly called "software maintenance". I believe that most places have contracts to keep software up to date for changing specifications/operating systems.
Given that the industry has rejected the natural but very expensive solution, and that airlines exist in a connected space, this information is shared with partners and external parties so they can't just change their internal systems, it doesn't seem like there are too many solutions.
One solution could be to assign multiple airline codes per airline, but I'm not sure of the downsides.
Do you have a solution you think would work?
You'll regret using natural keys https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40580549 (554 comments)