Checking which aircraft operates a flight
 

I'm flying EDI-LCY-MAH on BA8715/BA8749 on July 1st next year. Is there a way to check this far out if the aircraft coming from EDI is the same aircraft scheduled to continue to MAH? I have 40 minutes between flights which is a bit less than I'd normally like so it would be peace of mind to know that the aircraft will be the same.

It's doubtful they'd be the same plane. BA has lots of aircraft based at LCY.

LCY is a slick easy airport - however problems could occur if the inbound is late. BA will rebook you on a single ticket, however will there be other options that day? If not, may be worth booking an earlier flight down from EDI

It's one ticket. I know BA will take care of me in case of a missed connection but the limited number of flights is exactly what started to worry me. That's why I was hoping the aircraft would be the same although I appreciate that there's no way of telling this far out.

If it helps, CJ is sensitive to the problems which can caused by misconnections if there are no further onward flights that day.

A few weeks ago, I flew LCY-EDI on the last flight of the day on a Saturday morning. About half a dozen pax were booked ZRH-LCY-EDI, and their ZRH-LCY was late in. So we waited for them.

It was particularly notable that morning because the ZRH-LCY and LCY-EDI flights were being operated by the same aircraft, so these pax happened to be flying on the same aircraft on both sectors. They did, of course, have to do the entire circuit at LCY, bang on MCT. But the crew's decision-making included the fact that if the pax had misconnected at LCY, there were no other LCY-EDI flights that day and there would then be a considerable delay to their journey.

I did this on Sunday with the same plane GLA-LCY then out and back through security and onto GRX on the same plane.

I only had 30 mins connection an hand luggage. The crew gave me a transfer sticker for my boarding pass so I could show it to security if my bag got pulled at the X-ray (every second bag was down the chute) and they said this might help me queue jump.

I do ZRH-LCY-GLA twice per year, normally. The transfer time on the Friday evening option is 30 minutes (exactly the MCT). The aircraft is (usually) always the same, with the same crew positioning north. Once time, we were late out of ZRH and I said to the Purser if they could wait on me to complete formalities to be back on the same aircraft. They waited for me, and I was last to board.

Not true. It is much more common to be on the same aircraft (even with the same crew) at LCY on very short (30/40min) connections.

My experiences of upset recovery at LCY have usually been good. BACF seem to have a reasonable amount of operational flexibility and latitude to make common sense decisions as far as I have been able to tell when push has occasionally come to shove.

Plus I guess the size and design of the terminal somewhat lends itself to this stuff working ok (at least to my relatively untrained eyes).

If you want to get a sense in advance of how frequently it will be the same a/c operating (without any guarantees of course) I suppose you could look at current patterns on FR24 and see how often it happens, how often a delay on the first flight knocks on (with or without same a/c) to a late ATD in the next flight etc.

Just a thought. Still won't guarantee you anything...

LCY is pretty slick,so barring any weather or other problems you should be ok. As a last resort there is always a re-route via LHR which BA will be consider.

For some reassurance, if you miss your 1250 LCY-MAH, there's also an option to get the 1455 LCY-PMI, connect to IB and get into MAH at 2030, or trek across to LHR, fly to MAD at 1710 and get to MAH at 0010.