Irvine

Traveling BA TLV - LHR - LAX on January 1st.
Got text message to say they had an equipment change:>
" We've changed aircraft for BA162 on 01/01/2020. The flight has a Club Europe seat, not a Club World flat bed. Please contact us to discuss your options. "
Spent a long time on the phone with BA, as the tix were issued using American Advantage business class award, they can't do anything. They have space available on Jan 2, but can't change it without AA approval.
Called AA, they said they don't have inventory available from BA on Jan 2, so they can't do anything. Left hand isn't talking to the right hand.

There are 2 of us in business, and one who we used a business class award for but they didn't have the award for the TLV - LHR segment, so he's in economy.

I think the taxes through LHR are based on class of service when you arrive in LHR, so we should expect a refund on that, correct?
Any tips, hints, advice or guidance are appreciated.

TIA.
Merry XMAS/Happy Chanukkah/Happy Holidays (delete whichever not applicable).

Andriyko

APD is not collected when you're connecting without a stopover so there should be no difference in taxes.

alexwuk

Even if you were stoping over: No APD refund is due - the taxes are based on you flying in a higher class of service, regardless of how much nicer that class or service is versus coach. You're still flying business not coach, so you're still going to pay the business class rate of tax. the UK government don't care if you're getting a first class bed or merely the same seat with a marginally better meal.

corporate-wage-slave

AA in theory can contact their oneworld liaison focal point who may be able to liaise with BA to move the flights. The alternative is to try again when you are within 24 hours of the flight, since on paper BA then have control of your ticket. However my suspicion is they may still ask you to contact AA about this. Finally you could try at the airport to see if they will move you to the next day. Having said that, the customer guidelines have only just come out, it may be AA will be more helpful after they have seen/circulated the guidelines.

You won't get any tax refund, since you are still in business class, for which there is a higher APD, and there's not much BA can do about that. In any event you are flying to the UK so there is no APD. However in other cases BA have given £150 on a cash card for this sort of change - admittedly that tends to happen for last minute changes. So if you continue with your schedule then you could ask about that. The alternative would be to request AA to put you all in EuroTraveller / World Traveller, if only to save the miles concerned, again assuming there is availability for this.

The reason for this is a shortage of flight crew. This was an A350 too...

ermis177

Can they rebook you with LX via Zurich? They operate A330 sometimes to TLV.

corporate-wage-slave

That's not in the rebooking guidelines. At the airport they may do this if they are also overbooked as a result of the downgrade. But I would expect that flight to be not so busy.

alexwuk

G-XWBB has for the last week just done the daily BA 162/163 overnight rotation to TLV, leaving LHR at 21:10 and returning at 09:45. If BA are short of A350 pilots why isn't this aircraft being sent for a daily training flight to MAD in that 12 hour gap in the schedule?

Often1

As AA is the ticketing carrier, you must deal with AA until the day of travel, at which time BA can deal with the issue.

As CWS notes, AA can request space from BA, but it is a liaison and not automated process. Thus, this close in not really worth it.

For what it is worth, APD is based on your class of service departing from the UK. While it seems unlikely that you paid any APD on a conenction (<24 hours at LHR), it would not matter unelss you were booted out of the premium cabins on your AA flight departing LHR.

As soon as you are within 24 hours of your originally scheduled departure, call BA and ask to be moved to the next day's service. Have that flight number handy so that you are making a clearcut request. Given that other CW passengers may have been moved to the next day, it may possibly be full. I would do the research on other flights and have those handy too.

Fly_IAD

This is really a bummer for lack of a better/forum friendly word. We all know these kinds of things happen during travel.

I wonder about discussing some other flight options with BA once you are within 24 hours of the flight including OneWorld partners or the later BA flight 164 to LHR, overnighting and then connecting the next day to the LAX service.

I am very familiar (and you may be even more so than me) with the early AM departures from TLV and I no longer use them as its just a slog and makes for a really long day. It can be quite nice to take a later flight and have a good sleep at hotel around LHR. Alternatively you might also look and see if any of the IB or RJ options work or are available?

Perhaps calling AA again and looking at different options beyond BA given you are not changing the origin and the destination and then your traveling partner could even potentially get the business class seat you paid for? What have AA said about this if you look at other flights and or partners?

OhDoctor

Holy cow. That is the mother of all equipment swaps. You're basically in economy for 16 hours now. You should go find the people that complained about the Evelop angle flats out of LGW.

alexwuk

LHR-TLV is the only aircraft with the equipment stop. It's a 3.5-4 hour flight. LHR-LAX is "as is", seemingly the OP and his companion both flying in business.

Ldnn1

?

The swap is on the TLV leg, not LAX.

rapidex

Because BA has no available trainers. The training department is maxed out and cant cope. BA was trying to persuade a number of trainers who are part time,50 or70% rosters to do 3 months 100% at the time of the strikes. Then they got nasty with them so they all stuck 2 fingers up and went off duty. This is the result.

BA's man or woman management is almost as bad as Ryanair.

alexwuk

Yep, sounds like good business. Buy an asset that has £30k per day financing costs and £30k per day depreciation and then leaving it sitting around for half a day, every day, because you can't manage your human capital.

rapidex

The B777 fleet has similar strife, but not quite as bad as the A350, because they have been covering for the tech B787's, and a lot of the crews have had their annual hours burnt out. The lesser flying program in January and early February should help to ease the situation.