af101

BA just decided to email me to let me know that "We are very sorry to advise you that your flight BA0768 on 8 January 2018 has been cancelled."

And my "new flight details" are.... BA0768, 8 January, exactly the same times.

Anything to worry about? Has this happened to anyone else before? It rings a bell...

Cymro

BA768, for those who haven't memorised this part of the BA schedule, is the 4 p.m. LHR-OSL

I'd check my seat assignments - there's a reasonable likelihood that this is a confusing way to achieve an aircraft change.

dodgeflyer

Whilst talking of the OSL flight; anyone know why it was retimed from its 1730 slot to 1600? The new time makes it rather pointless.

Rubecula

Not sure why a schedule change of 90 minutes makes a flight rather pointless.

Often1

It may be pointless for OP, but not for those who are quite happy to be home 90 minutes earlier.

Flight schedules change all the time and most often for reasons having nothing to do with the particular segment, e.g. OSL-LHR. It could well be that BA has found a more efficient or effective means to serve multiple routes and in order to make that work, changing the OSL-LHR segment becomes necessary. Short-haul aircraft may well operate as many as 7-8 segments per day. Every minute on the ground between segments is a sunk cost which can't be recovered.

dodgeflyer

It is not a schedule change for that flight but rather a new timing overall for the flight. It previously left at 1730 which meant, time permitting, could grab an earlier flight than the 1930 that only gets in around 2230; a 4pm flight means leaving city at 2pm at the latest, rendering it a difficult flight for most people who can't just pack up and leave halfway through the day. But I guess the answer is that it used to be five flights, around 7am, 11am, 3pm, 530pm and 730pm, and now there're are only four flights. Supposed with FR now flying to OSL rather than TRF they may very well have lost passengers.

Rubecula

That looks like a schedule change to me.

dodgeflyer

You know very well I referred to a one off change as FT venecular would also have schedule change to be a one off, not just an overall retiming of a flight. But glad you managed to be pedantic.

Oxon Flyer

This happens twice a year, every year. OSL has a ‘seasonal’ timetable that changes in March and October, and has flight frequencies and timings optimised for ‘summer’ and ‘winter’ traffic patterns.

Your beloved 1730 is back from the end of March 2018.

dodgeflyer

Thanks. I was unaware of this despite being from there and living in London. Needless to say I usually take the 1930 but lately the 1730 have suited better.

BertieBadger

I had something similar, if not exactly the same recently. I was on BA227 LHR->ATL and got an email informing me it was cancelled, and I had been rebooked on BA1227 LHR->ATL which was identical in all respects (date, duration, times etc) except for the '1' added to the flight number.

Both flights showed in MMB, but the cancelled one had no associated ticket number, and later, changed to show a prominent red banner indicating it was cancelled.

While dealing with an upgrade at Galleries South, they commented on my odd new flight number, and I was told it was because some change or other had resulted in the original flight data being corrupted, and in those cases, it was easier just to refile it as a "new" flight that was really just the same one. I can't vouch for the accuracy of that explanation, but I believe that was the gist of it.