joshwex90

And that flight wouldn't be a downgrade

justsawaufo

Hi,

I am booked on the LX257 flight on Jul 20, by looking at the schedule it seems that downgrades of that plane, originally booked business class at A333 are common.

Is there a way to predict the downgrades 3-5 days in adavnce?
I am debating if I should change flights to OS and as with the current booking, I have 2-stops on my way to WAS (TLV-ZRH-GEV-IAD), where with OS I know I am getting A321, but the service/food later will be better, it is also only 1-stop.

Thoughts?

In the past 100-something flights from TLV-ZRH

32 times the equipment was A32X
83 times it was the original equipment or A343

athome

Where did you get the information from that the flight will be not an A330-300?
In Amadeus it still is.

YuropFlyer

TLV is the destination that LX chooses when they're lacking a long haul plane (due to one getting tech/not being available) for replacement with a short haul plane (A321)

It used to be CAI (when they still got long haul equipment) but now it's TLV..

I guess the chance that it happens is somewhere around 30% - probably now that more and more 777 are getting into the fleet, it will slightly decrease (the old A340's that are replaced were more affected by technical problems than the new B777's I can just assume) but not very much, as LX is still planning on 100% usage without spare aircrafts for their long haul fleet (correct me if I'm wrong)

If the choice is only between LX and OS, I'd stick with LX.

You still get around a 70% chance of flying a decently equipped aircraft vs. a 0% chance, and food on OS narrowbodies in C isn't much to talk home about (they're really just great in their C on the B767/777 fleet) - definitely not worth taking the 1 in 3 risk you're taking with LX.

justsawaufo

I didn't say that the flight on 7/20 not be an A333. but the information I got was from flightaware

The thing is, with OS - I get to experience their excellent C on 767 again after a short connection in VIE. with LX, I have two-stops and then I get GlobalFirst on UA, which according to the reviews, isn't real "first".

YuropFlyer

Ah, "GlobalFirst".. yes, technically it's considered to be F, but it's probably just as good as OS C, food wise even less from what I know.

Is the price the same for both connections? Is it mileage ticket or paid, ie mileage earnings would make a difference (higher on UA F, I guess)

While 2-stops (including the short hop ZRH-GVA) wouldn't turn me off much (both airports aren't terribly huge), the long haul OS C product does indeed have some benefits.

That said, UA Intl F isn't really bad or much worse than OS C, and the flight from VIE to TLV will be long no matter what.

Tricky one.. if the fare is different, I'd choose the cheaper option, or if mileage earning is important, the one with higher.

If neither of them are of concern, flight schedule might tip it in one or the other direction..

justsawaufo

thanks for the responses.
It's an award ticket, OS = 80K UA=90K ... schedule is pretty much the same. though decision

pilatusguy

I'd go for OS - excellent food, much better service than UA, VIE is easy to transfer. and you safe 10k ;-)

YuropFlyer

I think 10k miles less might tip it in favour of OS - especially as the VIE-TLV-VIE flights are day flights (while the ZRH-TLV-ZRH are night flights if I'm not mistaken) so the crappy seats don't matter that much.

Yes, go for OS in that case ^ (and hopefully the LX one will be operated by an A321 on that day )

justsawaufo

yeah I agree with you all.
changed and saved 10k + $20 in airport fees

sabbasolo

I was downgraded on LX255 today, the morning flight from ZRH to TLV. Instead of the A330-300 scheduled we flew on an A321. In addition we were 30 minutes late due to the necessary reseating of families....

It looks like it was really a tech problem. Captain stood in the cabin and apologized nicely, said A330 was tech and stuck in TLV. Expert Flyer didn't notify me of the change, so it must have been last minute indeed.

I have no status on M&M, UA*G (actually 1K), so miles will not be useful. Any suggestions as to what to write politely? A voucher might be useful, might not, but its better than nothing.

clubman

Unless the policy has changed, you should get a travel voucher.

YuropFlyer

As clubman said, best you can hope for is a reasonable travel voucher (the more expensive your ticket was, and if ZRH-TLV was the main part of it (and not a tag-on of a longhaul flight), the higher the % of your ticket it should be. But don't expect too much. You flew C (only the European C, and not long haul C) so technically they owe you nothing. Their compensation is pretty much "good will" (even though with the high frequency it's happening, I guess LX knows that if they don't compensate for those days that they do the swap, they'll lose any advantage on people booking them over LH/OS who fly narrowbody to TLV all the time)

flymeoutofhere

I just checked now for flights from TLV via ZRH in the winter season (several dates in November and December) and all the night-flights (LX256/7) were operated during this period with A321 aircraft instead of the current A330, whilst the day flight was now with B77W aircraft. Is that the end of LX flying the premium business product to TLV on the night flight? I know there are sometimes isolated dates with A321 service but I've never seen it so regular as that.

Nick Art

Due to the change from A333 to B77W on the day flight the capacity seems to actually increase in Economy, while staying about the same in Business (depending on the Bus - Eco ratio of the A321). Probably if they served an A333 for the night flight as well as the B77W for the day flight the capacity might be too much in Bus as well in Eco? I mean that'd the a whopping 107 (62 + 45) daily Business seats (+16 potential first seats used as Business seats) and 453 (270 + 183) Economy seats daily.
With two A333s it'd be 90 (45 + 45( Business seats (+16) and 366 (183 + 183) Economy seats.
B77W and A321 will have 92 (62 + 30+-) (+8) and 441 (270 + 171+-)

If I remember correctly I have already seen one of the flights being changed to A321 while the other flighty stayed A333, but I can't remember if it was isolated or reguarly so.

_____

I just checked the seat maps and omg I have never seen an A321 with so many Business Class seats. There are a whopping 43 seats in Business available on this flight. That's nearly as much as in a A333! (btw when selecting the flight it says this flight has lie flat seats as it isa n A333, which when you look at the seatmap is obviously not true, pretty unacceptable to market lie flat seats where there are non imo).


Below you see a normal European Economy seat with Business service markted as a Business Lie Flat seat... I hope they do change that asap.