harry0233

I just noticed that my DUB-LHR and vice versa BA0826/827 flights have just changed from BA operated flight to Aer Lingus operated without any notifications. Did anyone notice it too?
BA Twitter had no clue and they are looking into it for me to change it back to a BA operated flight. It's quite irresponsible on BA part to not notify people as it affects all sorts of things

Can I help you

EI will be operating one DUB return and one HAM return from T5 this summer.

soy

Actually starts in Feb. I understand that BA are temporarily short of aircraft while they do MX/refits and they have contracted to EI to fly these DUB/HAM routes. Flight numbers did not change so they do not have the BA5XXX code that you would normally see on a EI codeshare. No idea if they will do anything to the onboard experience, but I doubt it.

corporate-wage-slave

I've just seen a note about this. The flights will be operated by Aer Lingus crew and Airbus aircraft, but will operate from T5. My suspicion in that CE will be fairly similar to BA (it will be interesting to see how Aer Lingus does this, since they don't offer a business product on shorthaul), but ET will probably get free tea and biscuits rather than port over Buy on Board. So some here will think that's an improvement. However their row 1 is tighter than BA, so no point aiming for that, and personally I think there is less knee room than the BA Pinnacles, though I must admit I haven't measured it.

The reason for doing this is to allow BA crews (flight crews? aircraft?) to fly to other places, but for 4 services a day I would hope BA isn't that close to the wire in terms of resources. Usually these are bus loaded and difficult to get on RFS. If you find yourself on an Aer Lingus service then you are allowed a free change to the BA service before or after (not sure about a refund however).

Can I help you

This is to support the extra flights from LGW, I have a feeling EI will offer their excellent BOB product.

BobServant

It looks like Aer Lingus are operating the BA826 (around 1530) and BA824 (around 2100) ex LHR, at least for my travel dates in early March. BA don’t seem to be selling Club Europe on the EI aircraft ex T5.

Ber2dca

I don't know why you'd think there'd be anything free. EI doesn't even give free water on their flights. It's all 'buy on board'.

corporate-wage-slave

It has happened every other time until now. Normally BA supplies everything except crew and aircraft in this situation, so it remains BA's ground staff and logistics chain that's used to prep the aircraft. When Ryanair operated for BA it wasn't the FR catering on offer, it was the BA supplied version.

The BoB process isn't easy to transfer to other airlines, so for Titan, Qatar and Germania services BA supply the catering, and for ET supply a snack pack for every passenger along with a drinks trolley or two. Now Aer Lingus may be different, judging from CIHY's comment/information, but nevertheless it may be difficult to transfer the Aer Lingus BoB from DUB all the way to HAM and back, via T2 and then T5. Hence my hunch that in fact BA will continue the prep rather than make Aer Lingus do something unusual between T2 and T5.

chucko

So long as I don't have to switch terminals, I'm fine with this. It's only an hour-long flight.

710 77345

There won't be CE.

thunderlounge

Had to run and double check this, but still safely confirmed (for now) on a 13:20 departure on BA metal. Not that it would really make much difference, but interlining would be interesting to get sorted.

I did a look for the same day and it looks like about half the flights show as being operated by EI. On those flights there is only an economy option, no HBO or CE fares.


I was actually kind of hoping my particular flight would have been switched, as that would give me an excuse to change times, if not change from DUB to BHD instead. All works out in the end though.

MarkFlies

I wonder if EI already have a catering supply at LHR to service their own flights. If they do, it might be easy to say deliver to stand 5xx instead of 2xx.

BA6501

I don't see why there would be any increased likelihood of EI flights being bussed than if it were a pure BA flight. A320s can use T5 stands without a problem (which was the reason JetTime used bus boarding all the time). And EI is replacing BA flights, not additional flights, so there is no increased likelihood of bussing than currently, unless I'm missing something. It's similar to IB operating flights to MAD, and I have very rarely seen that happening.

PoincianaKings

Not one to doubt C-W-S but I can't see there being any CE on these flights. If you have booked CE I'd imagine BA will contact you and offer you an alternative flight.

IIRC Raffles over on Head for Points also believes there will be no CE service.

Gomac

Thanks for the head-up. without the MyFlights app I have to manually check all of these changes.