Domvh75

I saw this on ba.com - Latest Flight News:

Due to operational circumstances, the services listed below will be operated on behalf of British Airways by Euro Atlantic.
The BA2167 London Gatwick to Tampa on 3, 4, 5, 6 February 2005.
The BA2166 Tampa to London Gatwick on 3, 4, 5, 6 February 2005.

More information
Euro Atlantic operates with a business class and economy configuration Boeing 767 aircraft. Every effort will be made to ensure the substitute aircraft has the same features as a British Airways aircraft, however, some of the products may differ. Duty Free sales on-board will not be available - customers should be advised to purchase any Duty Free goods at Gatwick or Tampa before boarding the aircraft. .

Club World customers travelling on the affected services, who booked prior to 2 February may:

Accept travel on the original flight operated by Euro Atlantic. Club World customers who choose this option, regardless of whether they travel in business class or economy, are entitled to downgrade compensation (paid by the airport on the day of travel) and difference in fare only : Or they can choose one of the remedies set out immediately below....


According the Euro Atlantic's website (http://www.euroatlantic.pt), the seat pitch in economy class is 28"

mario

Euroatlantic is a dreadfull charter airline. I wouldn't travel with them even if it was for free.

PhilH

This situation is getting more farcical by the day. BA is in serious danger of becoming a joke airline, if you can't rely on them to provide a service that you've paid good money for and instead lump you on a dodgy old charter plane.

28" seat pitch. Good god, I'm amazed anyone over 5'6" would fit in that! That's horrendous ... on a 10 HOUR FLIGHT!!!! At least they didn't lease the Euro Atlantic Tristars - with, er, 3-4-3 seat layout in economy

This is truly unbelievable and BA management should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves

krug

This is just awful, its one thing to replace an aircraft, quite another to have to replace it with a seriously substandard (from passenger perspective) machine, without any achievable advance warning and without any meaningful compensation.

And I think it is half term travel time too? Might be wrong on that.

At least we know for sure the new de-dusked aircraft will be on the route after this week?

PUCCI GALORE

Can someone tell me if the flights are very busy? What happens to the people who booked and MFU'd - I suppose that they are saddled with this situation. You book British Airways and you wind up on some tin-pot Portuguese bucket and spade airline. Terrific. Mike Street hang your head in shame.

PhilH

Some quite interesting information in this thread (on airliners.net):

http://www.airliners.net/discussions....main/1938566/

edi-traveller

I noticed that FIRST CHOICE are advertising a new economy and Premium economy product on longhaul routes - with 33in pitch in Y and 36 in W. The adverts make a big thing of the fact that the pitch is bigger than BA or Virgin.

PhilH

Pitch is only one element though. Many charters put another column of seats in the aircraft. The last time I was on a charter flight (Thomas Cook) onboard an A330, the economy layout was 3-3-3, which is 9 abreast, rather than the normal 2-4-2 8-abreast layout on most scheduled A330 services.

So you adda column of seats and increase the seat pitch for marketing purposes and then claim you give more room in economy than scheduled airlines, because everyone only cares about one statistic when it comes to economy personal space.

Give me 2-4-2 at 31" pitch anytime over 3-3-3 at 33" pitch.

ChickenOrBeef

But what First Choice has done is to replace their 2-4-2 layout on a 767 with the standard 2-3-2 layout, and add extra pitch and PTV's. Sounds like a good leisure offering. Oddly their Premium seats are also going to be in 2-3-2 with only 3" additional pitch, but they do have larger PTV's.

Back to the original post though, EuroAtlantic's website does say that the config can be adjusted to meet clients needs - I hope for the passengers sake that they take a few rows of seats out!

edi-traveller

Good point!

PhilH

And they're proposing to make money out of this how exactly? They don't have the mega-bucks F and J seats to be able to afford such luxury for economy passengers. We don't like it, but the only way charterers make money is by cramming people on.

efincomputer

This sounds incredibly selfish, but i'm so glad that i'm not one of the people getting stuck on this flight. I mean, in my book, the whole point I fly BA is so I dont get stuck in the tiny, narrow seats with poor leg room that many of the tour operators have. 28" is a joke - why arent BA getting this adjusted? The Euro Atlantic website lists that the 767ER (which i'm assuming is the one BA are leasing) can fit 289 passengers (in a full economy layout), but that this can be customised to fit the clients need - surely it makes more sense to take out some of the rows and give the people at least 31"? From the pictures the cabin looks BASIC!!!! with a 2-3-2 layout. This is the sort of thing you would expect from someone like Britannia (last time I had to fly them, the legroom was an absolute joke, and that was only GLA-ALC) - not from "The World's Favourite Airline". How they can expect anyone to sit in that cramped seat for the entire journey to Tampa is beyond me.

wheresmybagba

BA must expect all of its customers to check flight ops news before they book because it seems that they are still quite happily selling economy seats on this route on the affected dates with the aircraft as a 777 on ba.com.

Either Club seats were already sold out or they have pulled them from availability.

I do think its dishonest of them though to continue selling Y seats with the following description:

Operated by British Airways
31in seat pitch (78cm), lumbar support and adjustable headrest
Non-stop entertainment: blockbuster movies, TV and audio channels
Complimentary 3 course meal and drinks
Easier check-in online or using Self-Service Check-in kiosks
World class in-flight shopping at www.ba-shoppingtheworld.com
This fare is ineligible for Executive Club Tier Points

-when they know it not to be the case.

Dave_C

Is it not fraud? Selling something as product "A" when in fact they are knowingly selling product "B" which is of significantly less quality?

AJLondon

It certainly is.

I guess they are using the "equipment subject to change at the last minute" caveat as protection. But this behaviour does seem to be pushing the limits of corporate ethics IMO.