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"Your seats have changed" when flight is in fact cancelled (or is it?)

"Your seats have changed" when flight is in fact cancelled (or is it?)

Old Feb 1, 2024, 12:45 pm
  #1  
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"Your seats have changed" when flight is in fact cancelled (or is it?)

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?
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Old Feb 1, 2024, 1:01 pm
  #2  
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I would suspect that this is BA's codeshare onto Iberia. As per the network thread, BA appears to have reduced its MAD's frequency in favour of Iberia adding flights to their roster.
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Old Feb 1, 2024, 1:04 pm
  #3  
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yes you often get the seat change email a little bit before you actually get the cancellation email itself.

the agent should be able to remove the cancelled flight. it may need to be sent off for ticket reissue, and of course manual calculation of a part refund.

the email is a bit misleading though as you have actually been moved from a BA flight to an identically timed IB flight with a BA codeshare. Your BA flight has been cancelled.
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Old Feb 1, 2024, 1:06 pm
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Originally Posted by Misco60
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?
Just had the same for a flight end of August. First I received an email telling me that "The number of your BA460 flight to Madrid Barajas on Aug 2024 has changed" but no mention that it was a cancellation and that the flight was now operated by IB (however, since the number was now BA7071 I suspected it was), then I got the seat change email, and again no mention of any cancellation and/or operating airline change.
I had to check in MMB to see that it was indeed a cancellation and the flight was now on IB.

PS
I don't think I will ever get an email telling me explicitly that the flight was cancelled...
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Old Feb 1, 2024, 4:05 pm
  #5  
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Thank you, everyone, for helping me make sense of this.

It would have been so much more straightforward if BA had simply sent an email saying "your flight's been cancelled but we've transferred you to an identically-timed flight operated by Iberia". I can only wonder how many other customers have received similar emails and been left scratching their heads this evening.
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Old Feb 1, 2024, 10:18 pm
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I got the same today (well I got two emails, one saying my flight number "changed" and another advising about seat changes). When I open MMB I can apply for a full refund, which is great news as they were cash flights I had wanted to cancel
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Old Feb 2, 2024, 1:02 am
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I got a whole pile of emails, plus requests to call BA about the cancellation and warnings from Flighty. It was a busy afternoon.
For me it looks like all of these were transfer of BA flights to Iberia with flight number changes to BA7070 and BA7071 but at the same times. My 1D seat preferences copied over to the IB flights.
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Old Feb 2, 2024, 1:42 am
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Originally Posted by Markie
For me it looks like all of these were transfer of BA flights to Iberia with flight number changes to BA7070 and BA7071 but at the same times. My 1D seat preferences copied over to the IB flights.
Yes, the actual change turned out to be quite straightforward; it was just the content of the emails from BA and the sequence in which they arrived that made it all seem very complicated.

It was useful to see how MMB has improved, though, and how easy it appeared to be to select alternative flights. And also to see how flexible BA was being: I was offered close to two dozen alternative routings on the original date, and was also able to choose another date. Unfortunately, every alternative involved a tight connection, long layover, fewer tier points, entering the US at JFK and/or flying with Iberia, none of which was appealing, so removing the first sector of this ex-EU trip was the best option for me.
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Old Feb 2, 2024, 2:05 am
  #9  
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Originally Posted by Misco60
Thank you, everyone, for helping me make sense of this.

It would have been so much more straightforward if BA had simply sent an email saying "your flight's been cancelled but we've transferred you to an identically-timed flight operated by Iberia". I can only wonder how many other customers have received similar emails and been left scratching their heads this evening.
I don't think that I would expect a message that specific, which would suppose an above average level of sophistication in the robot handling flight change messages. It would, however, perhaps be simpler to have a single generic message for all changes other than mere seat changes along the lines of something like "there has been a change to your flight. Please check your itinerary on ba.com."
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Old Feb 2, 2024, 2:44 am
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Originally Posted by NickB
I don't think that I would expect a message that specific, which would suppose an above average level of sophistication in the robot handling flight change messages. It would, however, perhaps be simpler to have a single generic message for all changes other than mere seat changes along the lines of something like "there has been a change to your flight. Please check your itinerary on ba.com."
There was, but the 2nd email to tell you that came after the seat change email. I assume the bots shuttle you over whilst the flight is still live and the seat change email is generated, then BA cancel the flight and out comes the 2nd email. If BA supressed the seat change email they'd probably get it wrong and do it when the flight isn't cancelled as well.
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Old Feb 2, 2024, 2:49 am
  #11  
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Originally Posted by NickB
I don't think that I would expect a message that specific, which would suppose an above average level of sophistication in the robot handling flight change messages. It would, however, perhaps be simpler to have a single generic message for all changes other than mere seat changes along the lines of something like "there has been a change to your flight. Please check your itinerary on ba.com."
in this case the email says this, which is misleading at best considering the BA flight has been cancelled and i have actually been rebooked on an IB flight.

Booking Reference: xxxxx

Dear MR KARFA,

Your upcoming flight to London Heathrow on Thursday 02 May 2024 will have a different flight number.

You will now be travelling on the BA7070.

Please rest assured that your flight will continue to operate as planned, and no other part of your booking will be affected. Your booking can be viewed in Manage My Booking.
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Old Feb 2, 2024, 4:07 am
  #12  
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Originally Posted by KARFA
in this case the email says this, which is misleading at best considering the BA flight has been cancelled and i have actually been rebooked on an IB flight.
Would this, by any chance, be part of the exceptional ex-MAD deal to the US that we (on the forum) talked about some months ago?

In my case, the affected booking is the first sector of my MAD-LHR-BOS//EWR-LHR trip on 4 May, which cost 950€.
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Old Feb 2, 2024, 5:37 am
  #13  
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Originally Posted by Misco60
Would this, by any chance, be part of the exceptional ex-MAD deal to the US that we (on the forum) talked about some months ago?

In my case, the affected booking is the first sector of my MAD-LHR-BOS//EWR-LHR trip on 4 May, which cost 950.
I have a number of ex-MAD or ending MAD tickets on my way to GGLfL. Of course I also have tickets back to LHR the day after my return from the US.
So, I got a lot of these emails, each of which needed me to accept the change to the IB flight, with a BA flight number.
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Old Feb 6, 2024, 8:01 pm
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Your seats have been changed

I received an email early this morning from BA with that title, saying our seats for an April trip JKF-LHR in Club World and LHR-SEA in PE, which I paid to choose 2 months ago, have been changed. But when I went into my booking, both earlier and now 20 hours later, there has been no change. The confirmed seats, the flight time, the aircraft type, are all the same as before.

Does it take longer for the changes to show up in MMB? Or is this some kind of mistake?
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Old Feb 6, 2024, 8:38 pm
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I had this today too, for a LHR-BCN / then return in May. Seats have not changed from the ones I selected at booking. Flight times appear to be the same as booked also. Not sure if it is maybe an aircraft type change?
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