I received an email from BA today, with the subject line "Seat changes for British Airways booking". The banner at the top of the email said "Your seats have been changed", and gave me a link to MMB.
In MMB, I discovered that not only had my seat changed but so had the departure time
and the operating airline: my flight had, in fact, been cancelled and I'd been rebooked onto Iberia. An email with the subject line "Your flight has been cancelled" would have been more appropriate, and no more unwelcome (to me) than one telling me my seat had changed.
None of the alternative flights I was offered in MMB worked for me so I called BA (the Gold Line was answered in 30 seconds
) and requested that the cancelled flight be removed from the itinerary and the rest left intact. This, apparently has to go to the back office for reissue, so lord knows how long that will take.
No sooner had I got off the phone with BA than another email arrives telling me that my flight number has changed but, not to worry, my flight is operating as planned and no action is necessary. (BA457 MAD-LHR on 4 June is now BA7070). So I didn't have to look at alternatives in MMB, nor call BA, nor remove the cancelled-not-cancelled flight from the booking. Although BA had already rebooked me onto an alternative flight, so I'm not sure how that works?
So, for those of you who know about these things: (1) why does removing a flight from an itinerary need to go to the back office black hole, and (2) what's up with that weird flight number BA7070?