BA25/26 LHR-HKG changing to BA31/32 from 25/10/2015
Mar 24, 2015, 3:13 pm
#1
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BA25/26 LHR-HKG changing to BA31/32 from 25/10/2015
I received a notification from BA today that my BA25/26 flights in November 2015 had been cancelled and I have been rebooked on BA31/32 for the round trip.
After initial panic it turns out the dates and times are the same and its still the A380 both ways.
Strange thing is that all BA31/32 flights are showing 'Sold Out' in First from when the new flight numbers take effect from 25/10/15, even when trying to book with cash, although ExpertFlyer shows full availability in the First cabin. My booking is on an Amex Companion voucher and I was hoping to upgrade if/when 2 First award seats become available for the outbound.
I'm assuming this is just a glitch and BA.com will catch up at some point. Any thoughts?
After initial panic it turns out the dates and times are the same and its still the A380 both ways.
Strange thing is that all BA31/32 flights are showing 'Sold Out' in First from when the new flight numbers take effect from 25/10/15, even when trying to book with cash, although ExpertFlyer shows full availability in the First cabin. My booking is on an Amex Companion voucher and I was hoping to upgrade if/when 2 First award seats become available for the outbound.
I'm assuming this is just a glitch and BA.com will catch up at some point. Any thoughts?
Mar 24, 2015, 3:16 pm
#2
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Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: London
Posts: 17,007
I received a notification from BA today that my BA25/26 flights in November 2015 had been cancelled and I have been rebooked on BA31/32 for the round trip.
After initial panic it turns out the dates and times are the same and its still the A380 both ways.
Strange thing is that all BA31/32 flights are showing 'Sold Out' in First from when the new flight numbers take effect from 25/10/15, even when trying to book with cash, although ExpertFlyer shows full availability in the First cabin. My booking is on an Amex Companion voucher and I was hoping to upgrade if/when 2 First award seats become available for the outbound.
I'm assuming this is just a glitch and BA.com will catch up at some point. Any thoughts?
After initial panic it turns out the dates and times are the same and its still the A380 both ways.
Strange thing is that all BA31/32 flights are showing 'Sold Out' in First from when the new flight numbers take effect from 25/10/15, even when trying to book with cash, although ExpertFlyer shows full availability in the First cabin. My booking is on an Amex Companion voucher and I was hoping to upgrade if/when 2 First award seats become available for the outbound.
I'm assuming this is just a glitch and BA.com will catch up at some point. Any thoughts?
I have seen this before.
Presumably if you tried to get a confirmed reservation it would come back as unable or cancelled instead of HK
Last edited by Calchas; Mar 24, 2015 at 3:22 pm
Mar 24, 2015, 3:22 pm
#3
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Thanks for your quick response Calchas, not sure that's the case though as it seems unlikely that every flight I checked through to Jan 2016 on BA.com is showing sold out in First, even on full revenue. I'll keep checking. Either way I'm pretty happy with Club but it's just the lure of the CCR 
Mar 24, 2015, 3:25 pm
#4
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Thanks for your quick response Calchas, not sure that's the case though as it seems unlikely that every flight I checked through to Jan 2016 on BA.com is showing sold out in First, even on full revenue. I'll keep checking. Either way I'm pretty happy with Club but it's just the lure of the CCR
If it's zeroed out so far in advance (Jan 2016!?) this is likely the reason.
It is extremely unlikely that BA has over sold F on every flight already in January
Mar 24, 2015, 3:32 pm
#6
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MMB is giving me the option to cancel or change flights at no charge so if availability comes up I might wing it and try to upgrade without paying the £70 fee. Doubt any BA agent would buy it though given nothing has actually changed!Ah, ok cheers clarkeysntfc. I wonder why that is?
Mar 24, 2015, 3:39 pm
#7
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One of the theories posited was that VS and CX could be confused over the radio and CX has the same flight numbers so it might just be out of an abundance of caution and trying to eliminate any possible source of errors.
Mar 24, 2015, 3:51 pm
#8
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I've had exactly the same thing. The only thing changing that I can spot is the flight number, the aircraft and flight times are identical. However this change did erase my seat selections, and had i lost them due to this i would have been highly disappointed. Luckily I am on the website once a week or so and so managed to catch this early.
PS when you are offered rebooking via mmb you cannot see the aircraft type. So I had to create a dummy booking in another window. When I did so this afternoon, it showed all classes as being sold out.
PS when you are offered rebooking via mmb you cannot see the aircraft type. So I had to create a dummy booking in another window. When I did so this afternoon, it showed all classes as being sold out.
Mar 24, 2015, 3:57 pm
#9
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Thanks UKtravelbear, so maybe the BA changes are just coincidence.....
Mar 24, 2015, 3:59 pm
#10
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That's why the BA flight numbers are changing too. 26 and 28 are so close together that everyone gets confused. Normally they'd use a different callsign on the ATC flight plan but the Chinese don't allow this.
Mar 24, 2015, 4:05 pm
#11
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I've had exactly the same thing. The only thing changing that I can spot is the flight number, the aircraft and flight times are identical. However this change did erase my seat selections, and had i lost them due to this i would have been highly disappointed. Luckily I am on the website once a week or so and so managed to catch this early.
PS when you are offered rebooking via mmb you cannot see the aircraft type. So I had to create a dummy booking in another window. When I did so this afternoon, it showed all classes as being sold out.
PS when you are offered rebooking via mmb you cannot see the aircraft type. So I had to create a dummy booking in another window. When I did so this afternoon, it showed all classes as being sold out.
Mar 24, 2015, 4:14 pm
#12
Join Date: Jul 2013
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Do you think (i) award availability would be closed before the change as well as after it and (ii) when would you expect to see the availability open up again [if ever]?
Mar 24, 2015, 4:30 pm
#13
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Mar 24, 2015, 4:33 pm
#14
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If cash booking classes have been temporarily closed, then it's entirely plausible that award booking classes would be temporarily closed too. A simple flight number change isn't going to cause a massive shift in selling strategy. I would expect everything to be back to normal within a few days, perhaps after the flight number change has had time to propagate through all the systems.
Mar 24, 2015, 4:34 pm
#15
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Yesterday I was seeing availability across a number of days in August and September on BA25, today I'm not seeing anything.
Do you think (i) award availability would be closed before the change as well as after it and (ii) when would you expect to see the availability open up again [if ever]?
Do you think (i) award availability would be closed before the change as well as after it and (ii) when would you expect to see the availability open up again [if ever]?
(ii) At the same time as the revenue buckets return to sale. Which is difficult for me to guess but perhaps within the week!
But this is just supply and demand. There are something like 6 London-bound widebodies departing within a couple of hours of those two.