jayw

i booked a biz class seat on this flight ~1 month ago. Checked in and printed my boarding pass last night--everything shows I have a biz class seat on this flight. When at the airport for my connecting flight to CLT the GA hands me a boarding pass for 730 showing me in 7b--he tells me it's a coach seat.

The only way I can figure 7b as a coach seat is if they changed equipment to a A330-200 from the originally scheduled a330-300.

The weird part is my itinerary on US's web site still shows me in biz and the equipment a330-300.
FlightAware shows this flight is on a A330-300

Is it possible US Air made the equipment change without telling anyone--like their own website folks?

If US Air is going to force feed my an involuntary downgrade does anyone here have knowledge of what recourse I might have regarding refunds, etc.?

The US Air call center has been outrageously unresponsive. Any help or information can get is greatly appreciated.

dml105

One of the A333s was damaged in a tarmac incident at LHR in the last week. My guess is this is related, and is in fact an aircraft switch to a spare A332.

If you're an AA CK, I'd suggest calling that line and seeing what they can do. They at least can switch you to the US CP line to help you out.

But you're right, I'd expect a call. In the past where they've had to switch out the aircraft I was scheduled to fly on, they called me, and asked me if I could switch to a different flight. They were very proactive. Don't know why they weren't here, unless the crazy weather simply has all their callers busy.

Piedmont767

730 will indeed be an A330-200 tonight, of I'm not mistaken N289AY will operate to Heathrow tonight. Would of been on your flight tonight, but was asked to swap out to domestic today.

About your seat, if getting to London is not time constrained, I would ask to be moved to tomorrow's flight.

lowfareair

Can also check to see if connections are available to the late BA flight in PHL, or any of the late BA/AA flights in JFK. If you don't need to be in to LHR ASAP tomorrow and want to fly on the A330 suite rather than the rather tight Club World*, you can try the CLT-FRA 'late night' flight and have them get you a connection to LHR through FRA.

*BA J has its pros, but the US A330 seat generally reigns supreme in comparison.

IceTrojan

Wait, ANOTHER US A330 goes down in a tarmac incident? Please tell me it wasn't a catering truck slicing through the nose...

jayw

Thanks all. I'm in a pinch for time. Only in Europe for a quick meeting. Had I been offered prior notice I could have made changes. Right now even US Air's customer support supervisors think it's still an a333 flying. I'm standing right in front of it and can confirm it's an a332.

Now the fun part...let's see what they do with my seating. I purchased the tix about a month ago and it's full fare. This should be interesting.

IceTrojan

If you're full-fare, I'd expect someone else to be unceremoniously downgraded.

lowfareair

Of course not - this time the left engine ran into the jetway after a pilot released the brake before the chocks were in place.

http://www.airliners.net/aviation-fo....main/6307549/(apologies for the a.net link, it is the 'primary source' for this.

Piedmont767

Fortunately, well not fortunately, N273AY had just come into the gate at LHR after completing Flt.730 (no less) and the pilots had released the brakes before the chokes were in place then we started rolling forward and suddenly thump! The engine had impacted the jet bridge and the engine cowl lip was damaged, I was stationed at 1L and remember looking down the business class cabin at the flight attendants stationed at door 2, looking like they had just seen a ghost.

The engine cowl lip was damaged, replaced and 273 was ferried to Philly two days ago as US 9200.

jayw

My office booked the flight. Fare code is J. On AA that's unrestricted biz. Is it the same on US Air?

IceTrojan

Thanks for the info. I wonder what the pax on that side thought.

lowfareair

Assuming you bought it after MLK Weekend when US adopted AA fare codes, that is unrestricted business. Beforehand, I believe it was an upgrade fare class (C was unrestricted business).

jayw

Closing the loop from 1a.

Often1

Good result. Key when this stuff happens is to make a fuss. US should be willing to DG somebody else unless all others are paid J CP's. My suspicion is that they DG OP because it was his seat which went away in the swap.

phlwookie

Good result. This happened recently to me and a colleague on US 729 LHR-PHL - an A333 had been swapped to an A332 due to maintenance. They accommodated some folks on BA 67 in business and rerouted a few others in business (mainly on BA) to handle the loss of business class seats. Standard procedure seems to be to work it out on checkin in person.