British Airways are trying my patience with flight changes recently. First it was changing my MIA sectors later this hear from A380 to Mid-J 747 and now the real kicker.

Mrs SHT88T and I are booked in Club to fly KUL-BHD in December. We were due to change to a BA service at LHR departing at 0645. This now seems to have been changed to to 0630 which leaves only 55 minutes between our arrival from KUL and departure to Belfast.

BA have moved us to Aer Lingus at 1105, not only giving us a 5hr 30 layover but also putting us in economy. Before I call, is it likely that I can ask to be ticketed on the 0630 to BHD or will they not budge due to MCT? If not able to get on the 0645, am I entitled to ask for a re-route which ensures I can meet the 0630 to BHD? We are back to work the following day and the reason for flying BA Club was to get some sleep and be home for breakfast.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I thought this may be the case. Codeshare options for LHR to BHD are limited and they have moved us to the first available flight. We’ll lose all the benefits of CE because Aer Lingus only have Y but this is not my main concern.

It seems the only possibly way to achieve the desired outcome of being home for breakfast will be to get out of KUL a bit earlier?

SIN is an option, yes. Unfortunately the MH codeshare is scheduled to arrive same time as the BA.

We are actually starting our trip home in MNL so the routing will be MNL-KUL on a separate Avios booking a day prior to KUL-LHR-BHD. We can give our day in KL a by ball and come straight home on a routing like MNL-HKG-BHD which does meet MCT in LHR. Would BA be likely to offer that option in the circumstances?

Thanks Paul. It looks like SIN might be the only option at the Asia side in that case, I’ll give them a call and see what is on offer now that I have some idea of realistic routings.

DUB is a no go for us. We used BA because they fly from an airport 5 minutes from our house and so we wouldn’t have to deal with Dublin’s tortoise speed baggage delivery and a 2 hour bus journey after ~16 hours of overnight flying.

Thanks c-w-s I’ll have a read over that.

The main concern is getting home asap and not wasting 5 hours sitting in a lounge at LHR (which I believe I cannot access as a Silver) on the last day of our holiday. It’s pretty inconvenient and will potentially mean re-arranging a few things because we have moved to 5 minutes below MCT at LHR.

Thanks Karfa, unfortunately that won’t work for us as Mrs SHT88T is Bronze. I wish I’d known that last night though. I was travelling on a BA issued ticket on Aer Lingus and was told by a check-in agent that as a BA Silver there was no lounge access. Luckily I have a priority pass and was able to escape the carnage of T2 into the total calm of the Plaza Premium Lounge.

I’ve had three poor experiences with EI recently, all on short haul. As a result, they have gone onto my list of airlines to avoid when possible. Some on here may be surprised when I say the end-to-end BA customer service experience (particularly the contact centres) has been far superior to that of Aer Lingus.

I don’t need it enough to take that risk

Sounds like SIN is the best of a bad bunch of options when compared to what we had. A380 though. Not keen to give up 6A/B in the small B789 CW cabin for the B777 dorm if it can be avoided.

Based on the thread c-w-s mentioned, I might sit tight for a few days and see if anything changes to make the original plan viable again.

Edit. @Sam Bee, availability looks good on BA 12. Still showing some good UD seat availability