Narrative:

Flight abfb was descending on the mip arrival into lga and told to expect holding at lizzi intersection. We were cleared to 13;000 ft and then shortly after told we would not be holding. We were handed off to new york approach by center. We checked on and new york approach said we were on the wrong frequency. We went back to center ATC and the controller told us we took another flight's clearance. We asked for clarification and what they wanted us to do. It turns out there was a similar sounding company flight abdb on center frequency as well. The ATC center controller did not respond to our request from when we asked what they wanted to do. The controller then gave us a short vector at our present altitude and then shortly thereafter handed us off to new york approach again. We never knew there was a similar sounding company call sign abdb along with our abfb call sign on the same frequency. ATC never advised us of that. We had been on that center frequency for some time and we were unsure what extent the center controller was talking about us taking our other company flight's clearance. The 4 digit air carrier call signs are very difficult on ATC. When we had flights abfb and abdb it made matters worse when ATC never advised us of the similar sounding problem.

Related reports:

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier Captain described confused ATC instruction event; claiming company four digit call signs; and lack of controller advisory; caused incident.

Narrative: Flight ABFB was descending on the MIP Arrival into LGA and told to expect holding at LIZZI Intersection. We were cleared to 13;000 FT and then shortly after told we would not be holding. We were handed off to New York Approach by Center. We checked on and New York Approach said we were on the wrong frequency. We went back to Center ATC and the Controller told us we took another flight's clearance. We asked for clarification and what they wanted us to do. It turns out there was a similar sounding company flight ABDB on Center frequency as well. The ATC Center Controller did not respond to our request from when we asked what they wanted to do. The Controller then gave us a short vector at our present altitude and then shortly thereafter handed us off to New York Approach again. We never knew there was a similar sounding company call sign ABDB along with our ABFB call sign on the same frequency. ATC never advised us of that. We had been on that Center frequency for some time and we were unsure what extent the Center Controller was talking about us taking our other company flight's clearance. The 4 digit air carrier call signs are very difficult on ATC. When we had flights ABFB and ABDB it made matters worse when ATC never advised us of the similar sounding problem.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.