Originally Posted by
goldox
OK I have re-examined the 42-year-old faint carbon copy of the ticket.
It definitely says BE576 Heathrow to Geneva. BE577 Geneva to Heathrow.
However underneath the typed BE577 there is a faint handwritten "BE625".
I have also found the boarding pass - BE625 Geneva to Heathrow 1/4/78.
If the 1978 date is correct, those flight numbers should be
BA576,
BA577, etc. The BE designator was retired at the start of the Summer 1977 season.
So, which type would it be, another Trident?
Almost certainly.
And why the change?
Given that the date falls right at the start of the Summer 1978 season, it's probably a consequence of the mass renumbering of flights that was going on at that time as all the former BE/BEA and BA/BOAC flight numbers were merged into a single schedule.