Sally4th

I have been watching LHR-PHL as I will be making a trip in that direction again shortly.

As I have mentioned in other threads, 1/28 and now 1/29 flight 728 show the aircraft as A332, but the seat map is that of a B767. My question is whether this is a website seatmap fault or have they changed to a B767 and failed to re-identify the equipment? I have looked at FlightAware and that says 728 was an A332 until the 26th and B767 after that. I called reservations and they still show an A332 tonight (1/29). I wouldn't be surprised if the plane was downgraded because passenger loads are light, but who knows what the cargo situation is.

How can I be sure which is correct? I would love to fly direct on an A332, but if they change to a B767 I'd rather rack up miles with a different route.

MikeLaw

When I was tracking the new config 332s the online seatmaps tended to change between 24 and 48 hours in advance. When I try to book a seat on flight 728 tonight, it says that the plane is a 332, but the seatmap is actually a 767. In the past, when they put the 332 on a route, the seatmap changed to the 332 seatmap.

I can't tell you what this all means, but I can say that when I was tracking the 332 swapouts, the seatmap was much more accurate than the "aircraft" field. If I had to bet, I'd bet it will be a 767 tonight.

Tomorrow's flight shows both 332 in the aircraft field and a proper 332 seatmap (not with the new pods, however).

USfan

Hi, I joined just to answer what I know about this question, the flights yesterday and today are indeed 767's, the tail number in QIK for these flights are 255 for yesterdays flight, and 250 for todays flight, both of which are 767's. Looking up the routing for these A/C in sabre also shows them going to LHR. As to why it still shows equipment as an a332 i am not sure, maybe just a glitch. It does show going back to an a332 for tomorrows flight A/c 283. Hope this helps.

Sally4th

Hi USfan, thank you for joining Flyertalk to reply, and welcome

Now, the $20,000 question is - is it a genuine glitch or is US leaving the A332 ID on the flight so people don't bail or don't book? Could they be that devious? I should think the A332 would be a draw in comparison to the B767 so there would be a benefit to not updating the aircraft on the record.

As to my flight, they seem to be making the change the day of the flight, so at this stage booking PHL-LHR is a crap shoot what aircraft will actually fly the route.

MikeLaw

As astonishing as it may seem to you and I, the vast majority of travelers couldn't tell a 332 from a 767 with a gun to their head, so I doubt seriously that they are trying to trick anyone into booking with their screwed up database. Incompetent IT support is a much better bet than nefarious intentions.

Sally4th

I'm guessing you're right, Mike. Sad rather than deliberately misleading I suppose.

And now tomorrow has changed to a 767 too

ashwinbrao

The seat map for today is that for a 767 although the website still identifies the plane as a 330-200.

Sally4th

I called tech support, any bets on whether this gets fixed?

MikeLaw

Right after they update the Envoy Suite Progress Report.

Sally4th

Lol , perfect!



Now for tonight's flight, it's identified and an A332, the seatmap is an A332, but Envoy's seatmap is neither the new or old config. Wha??

BoeingBoy

I think they may have finally updated it after you posted - it's now showing the old Envoy seats (2x2x2 instead of 1x2x1 with the Suites).

Jim

Sally4th

Sorry Jim, thanks for your reply, but I should have been more specific. I'm still seeing the same seatmap as when I posted, but it's not the full A332/old seats map. It does have 2x2x2, but it's missing 1A,B,G,&H, and I don't recall seeing this on other A332 old seat flights. I think on past flights the old seat config seatmap is usually 4 full rows of 2x2x2, thats why I'm confused with tonight's flight's seating.

BoeingBoy

Maybe they've updated the seat map for the old configuration on the 332's. 4 rows of 2x2x2 is 24 Envoy seats, which the 332's never had as far as I know, so assumed that they initially just dropped row 1 from the 333 seat map and called it the 332 seat map.

I also just assumed that the easiest way to show the correct number of Envoy seats with the old seat map was drop the outboard 2 seats on each side from one row. Since I haven't been in one of the 332's with either Envoy seats I don't know what the actual configuration looks like but assume (that's the 3rd time I've done that) the center seats are staggered relative to the outboard seats.

Of course, all those assumptions could be wrong...

Jim