Air carrier flight crew reported ATC issued a clearance for the visual approach but then indicated i...

Narrative:

We were on downwind at 3000 feet when ATC cleared us for the visual approach. We replied ''aircraft X cleared for the visual 13L.' ATC then came back and said 'aircraft X; are you still at 3000 feet'? We said 'no; you cleared us for the visual.' she said 'that was for aircraft Y'. Well; I heard aircraft X; my first officer heard aircraft X; and aircraft Y didn't respond when ATC cleared us for the approach! So ATC said 'I'm sorry for the confusion; aircraft Y is cleared for the visual.' right after that ATC recleared us for the visual approach behind company aircraft. ATC again apologized and we made an uneventful landing.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier flight crew reported ATC issued a clearance for the Visual Approach but then indicated it was intended for an aircraft with similar callsign.

Narrative: We were on downwind at 3000 feet when ATC cleared us for the Visual Approach. We replied ''Aircraft X cleared for the Visual 13L.' ATC then came back and said 'Aircraft X; are you still at 3000 feet'? We said 'No; you cleared us for the visual.' She said 'that was for Aircraft Y'. Well; I heard Aircraft X; my First Officer heard Aircraft X; and Aircraft Y didn't respond when ATC cleared us for the approach! So ATC said 'I'm sorry for the confusion; Aircraft Y is cleared for the visual.' Right after that ATC RECLEARED us for the Visual Approach behind Company aircraft. ATC again apologized and we made an uneventful landing.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.

Attributes
ACN	1455864
Time
Date	201706
Place
Locale Reference	DAL.Tower
State Reference	TX
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Large Transport
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 256
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Other / Unknown

Air carrier flight crew reported ATC issued a clearance for the visual approach but then indicated it was intended for an aircraft with similar callsign.