Originally Posted by
hbtr
The A330 “transcon” flights were usually priced much higher than other flights, so one could make a case for a refund if the flight was downgauged (not saying you would win…). With the recent use of the widebodies in domestic routes during COVID, most of the flights I saw were priced the same as or close to the price of a single-aisle plane on that same route.
When I was taking these flights, the price for PHL-LAX-LAS in F was the same as PHL-LAS nonstop, except for the taxes and fees for an extra passenger facility charge and possibly a TSA fee when it was only one fee on a nonstop rather than two. However, the F fare PHL-LAX was $1275 and PHL-LAX-LAS was around $618. I don't remember if the non-widebodies were also $1275 but I vaguely remember that they were. So no, I don't think they were priced higher.
I'll drill down on my recent trips. I had a trip somewhere, I forget where, that I booked what was supposed to be a B787 but it was downgraded to an A321. However, I had several trips PHL-LAS and back that were supposed to be A321's (late June through early September) and they changed them, there is currently a B787 going PHL-LAS at 6:55PM that gets there a bit after 9 and turns around and comes back at 10:10 as a red-eye. My A321's were changed to that, so that was great, especially getting the lie-flats on a redeye. In the latest schedule change, my eastbound flight on September 3 went back to an A321. I had also booked a morning flight on August 13, LAS-LAX at 6:15AM, connecting to a B787 around 8:10AM. I loathe getting up at that hour of the morning but I wanted to try the eastbound B787 and it was all they had. In the last round of schedule changes, they reverted that back to an A321, making it ridiculous for me to take the flight. However, I was able to cancel that and rebook for what was now the B787 redeye nonstop LAS-PHL for $20 more, so it wasn't worth arguing about.
However, I do - I've said this before - feel that when you schedule flights you know won't operate, sell tickets on them, then wait to finalize the schedule, it amounts to bait and switch, and no amount of legal disclaimers can change that. I think that the carriers should be required to bend over backwards to put pax in the position they would have been in if they had known what they were buying. For example, say you pay $400 for a B787 F ticket. They cancel the B787 and replace it with an A321, and in the meantime the fare has gone up to $500. You should be allowed a refund, or to rebook on pretty much any reasonable alternative, even if not the same day. Nobody says that they have to roll out a B787 just for you, but I think they should put pax in the position they'd have been if the schedules had been final on the day they bought the ticket. IRRPOS is one thing, mass scheduling changes are another.