MacMyDay

In July I booked AUH->LHR in F for 1st May '16 and had an alert from myflightsapp a few weeks after booking it to say the plane had changed to an A380. I've had quite a few in-advance equipment swaps from Etihad and found they've always stuck with it. For example, tomorrow we fly to Singapore and almost 4 months ago we were told it was changing to a B787. So far, so good (famous last words), but the route is definitely not exclusively ran on that, as on the 14th it's showing as a 77L.

agjil

Right, maybe I should have worded my previous post differently, but let me try this again.

If EY decided to do an actual equipment swap, the changed equipment should appear on EY's website and the booked reservation, as it did in your case MacMyDay.
The seat map for the new equipment will also be loaded into the system, so you can pick your seat on the new equipment.

However, the case we're talking about here is slightly different where the equipment still shows as the original aircraft it was at the time of booking on EY's website and the reservation.
There's no indication of an equipment swap on EY's website.

The weird part is when one tries to select a seat on EY's website, it says it cannot be done (with no reason given), and when one tries to check the seat map on ExpertFlyer for the flight, it says the seat map cannot be loaded because there's an equipment change in progress.

I believe the reason the seat map is not loading is simply because EY's system is having an error, and not because of a planned equipment change.
If an equipment change was actually happening, the seat map for the changed equipment would load instead of an error message saying "equipment change in progress".

OneWorldSapphire

This is strange. After finding this thread, I nervously looked at ExpertFlyer for the seat map for my upcoming flights in F on the A380. In early-January I'm due to fly SYD-AUH-LHR, all on the A380 in F.

on both flights' seat maps on ExpertFlyer I get the error message about equipment change in progress, even for the SYD-AUH leg, EY455. Etihad has already changed equipments on me once (a LHR-AUH trip for December, booked as an A380 flight, then switched to an A340 so I cancelled the reservation and rebooked with another airline). This would be so upsetting it Etihad was doing this with only a few weeks to go. People have paid good money for this particular product, and it leaves almost no time to change routes/flights for those of us with flexible tickets.

However, what is weirder: I checked the inbound flight (EY454), which leaves AUH the night prior to my SYD-AUH leg, and this is still showing as A380 on ExpertFlyer. Maybe there is a system issue? Clearly the aircraft that flies EY454 the day before will be the same aircraft for my EY455. So maybe this is some system issue? MYFlights has not sent me any alerts about changes to my reservation, either.

burg_rtw

I am having the same problem on a flight for next September. Only in my case, EY actually changed me to a different flight. Originally I was confirmed in F on a A380 operated flight and was moved to F on a A340 operated flight. Expertflyer shows the "equipment change" message.

Just called EY to understand why they changed my flight and the agent said that the system showed the flight as cancelled. However, when she looked at the schedule, the flight is still showing as confirmed. Agent sent a message to their rescheduling department to figure out what happened and said would move me back to the original flight if it is indeed operating.

All sounds very strange, as there is no indication EY is cutting one of the LHR flights.

Will post again when I hear back from EY.

knutfin

This happened to me too. Etihad changed me from EY19 to EY11, and when I called the agent couldn't tell why this happened, but said it could be because of an oversold flight. It clearly wasn't oversold, though.

Anyway, I'm back on EY19 now.

rkj2106

Still getting the seat selection error - I agree must be an issue with EY's system as no one at EY can give me a straight answer as to what is going on. If the aircraft is in fact changed I should be able to select a seat for the new aircraft

I have the option to re-configure my itinerary and move from EY19 to EY11. Is EY11 more likely to have the A380 then EY19?

ft101

Only us nerds here on ft will even be aware of the product. >99% (my guess) will have booked to get from A to B, at a date and time to suit, at the lowest price they could find.

I don't think EY (or any other airline) will be worrying about hurting our feelings.

gnargel

That may be true for economy (and to al lesser extent, employer paid, business), but I highly doubt that that will be the case for first. Especially since Emirates - only half an hour away - provides a superior product in every respect but the seat/apartment.

LaphroaigAndRibeye

Welp, officially nervous as hell now, considering the dozens of hours I've just spent building an itinerary around getting some Apartment space.

I'm in EY 12 LHR-AUH in mid-March and for now it's still showing A380. I wonder if AA will grant me a free destination change if they swap me onto a completely different experience under the guise of "still being First"... At least then I could pray for last-minute AUH-JFK.

MacMyDay

Point well made, agjil, and I agree with what you're saying.

gnargel, I'm only a sample size of 1, but I'm with you......I've been flying in paid-from-my-own-pocket J for about 5 years, yet never had any idea about different aircraft. It was only this year when I started flying paid F that I took an interest, as the significant cost (especially paying for 2 of us) was enough to warrant research and finding the best airliners to use to get where we wanted to go, hence me now being on FT (although I'm mostly here for the hotel discussions). No way would I have chosen Etihad for our flights to Singapore if they didn't have the A380.

Anywho, flight is about to board, so off I toddle.

ft101

Agree, and even more so the ones that have used AA miles to get there, and can't use them half an hour away.

knutfin

No, it seems like EY19 is always A380, while EY11 is sometimes A346.

I believe it's safer to stick with EY19

LaphroaigAndRibeye

It looks like EY 12 has been switched to A340 for some days around my departure, but mine is still A380. EY 20 is always A380 on the dates I browsed. EY 18 goes back and forth between 77W and A340.

I'll definitely be wigging out for the next few months... If they do change to another plane, do you guys think I'd have luck either getting EY to confirm me on a different flight on A380, or are they going to stick me with whatever they want since it's an award booking?

rkj2106

Ok thanks, I'll keep monitoring and try and make a switch next week if bed be.

H99

I'm flying to Sydney this month from LHR this week with family and back first week of Jan - spoke to EY customer "services" and looks like multiple equipment change (although they can't confirm). Nothing I can do - I can't change airlines now, but need to vote with my feet next time.

Would I have had flown EY if I thought the equipment would change? Maybe, but less likely. What winds me up is that this appears to be changes not for technical but rather optimising equipment on routes.

Very unhappy about this. This airline just doesn't have a clue.