flarmip

BA have just emailed me to say that for my January TP run, they've had to "change [my] cabin" for the LHR-PHL-LHR flights (BA66/67). Of course that's their euphemistic way of saying they've downgraded me to CW because the flight is now A350 operated.

I'm open to the idea of sticking with the same flight in CW, but I want to explore what my options are. Looking at BA's Standard Customer Guidelines for cabin closures, it appears I could rebook onto any other BA or AJB TATL flight with First +/- 14 days. How much latitude does this allow in terms of re-routing? It appears LHR-PHL now has no F flights at all, so to stick with F I'd have to go via JFK, BOS, IAD - or further afield such as ORD or CLT.

Going via any of those would necessitate an overnight stay, as I'd be unable to reach my destination (PHX) the same day. I can't leave LHR much earlier because I'm doing a B2B at JER, arriving at 10:30. It's a BA Holidays booking so is there any chance they be willing to add a night's hotel to the booking, at least for the outward journey? For the return it shouldn't be as big an issue. Alternatively, what are my chances of being allowed to re-route the internal US portion? If I could re-route onto AA F Transcon (for one last hurrah) that would be ideal, but I imagine that is unlikely to be permitted.

Basically, can anyone see an easy alternative for earning at least the same number of TPs (350 between LHR and PHX) given the constraints (Wed 8 Jan LHR-PHX, departing no earlier than 11:45 due to MCT)?

If I choose to accept the change and leave things as they are, how much is the "fare difference" downgrade likely to be? I'm expecting the answer to "basically nothing" as I booked a cheap £2.2k sale fare (JER-PHX, fare basis code AJX4G1S4/DIBH during the March sale). I guess there would be quite a fight to get the 75% downgrade reimbursement I'd be due.

Thanks for any advice!

Finland Station

Are you wedded to going via PHL? If not, you can re-route to PHX via another port, e.g. JFK, MIA, BOS.

flarmip

No, but I seem to recall I couldn't find BA codeshare flights via any of those with timings that allowed a same-day journey. Without the BA codeshare I'd only earn half the TPs because of the double TPs offer.

If there are now suitably timed BA codeshare flights then of course I'd consider it.

corporate-wage-slave

If this is a JER-PHX routing/ticketing, with LHR-PHL in First then I would expect no problem swapping LHR-PHL to JFK, IAD, BOS, ORD or MIA. And I think you can do JER-LHR-MIA-PHX on one day. Unless I'm missing something here, PHL is just a gateway and can thus be swapped. I can't see the justification in a Transcon First swap given that normal First to PHX is on the table anyway.. I don't know how BAH would handle the accommodation issue but as you know the legislation in this area tends to favour staying on time (on the A350) over trying to avoid the downgrade.

c1223

Last time this happened to me (also on PHL as it was swapped to an A350) the GGL agent basically let me do whatever I wanted in terms of flights.

My original routing was:
GOT-LHR-JFK-LAX-SMF / SMF-PHX-PHL-LHR-AGP

Outbound stayed the same but on the return I ended up doing:
SMF-LAX-JFK-LHR-AGP

And the agent made a mistake and ignored the fact that there wasn't "A" class upgrade availability and rebooked me into First on the transcon (as it was a GUF'd journey).

flarmip

Yes, it's JER-PHX with LHR-PHL (originally) in First. JER-PHX via LHR & MIA is easily doable in a day as you say.

The issue is that there are no BA codeshares on MIA-PHX. Due to the double TPs offer, I'd therefore be missing out on 140 TPs if I accepted that routing. I'll still meet my TP target without them, but I do aspire to GfL, so 140 TPs aren't to be sniffed at.

flarmip

Thanks, sounds like they are likely to be reasonably generous on re-routing. I'll have a think to see if I can find any more options. At the moment I'm gravitating towards asking to go via JFK & LAX as that can be done same-day and means no reduction in TPs (in fact, I'd earn slightly more). Would require leaving JER on the early morning departure and thus an overnight stay, but a hotel in JER at that time of year is inexpensive - certainly compared to a hotel in most US cities!

Pilot37

Perhaps look at moving the LHR-JER-LHR leg to the previous evening? That way you get it out of the way as a B2B (which is easily done at JER), come home (assuming you are London based) and then head to LHR on the morning of the 8th for your LHR-JFK-LAX-PHX legs?

Pilot37

flarmip

Yes, looking into it a bit further I don't think JER-PHX can be done with my desired routing in a day. So doing the B2B the night before is probably sensible.

flarmip

Unfortunately the GGL line said they can't touch it because it's a BA Holidays booking. The BAH rep I was redirected to almost began to process a downgrade, before I stopped her and reiterated that I wanted to explore re-routing options. It's currently sitting with the "back office" team with a request for JFK-LAX routing. Not hugely impressed by this interaction but I'll keep an open mind.

Perhaps I'd have been better off calling YouFirst, or would that simply have the same result as calling the GGL line?

spanishflea

No mistake, all options are on the table in the event of downgrades or cancellations.

ben1991

I've also been downgraded on this route, and I was advised that they would only book into J on the Transcon, despite there being A and F availability for the dates (my original booking is F). The reason given was that it was because my PHL-PHX flight was in J (I did note that this is because that route does not operate a flight selling A or F).

Any suggestion on how to proceed with getting the Transcon into A/F?

spanishflea

Hang up and try again.

corporate-wage-slave

YouFirst and the GGL team is the same team. You can't do anything terribly complex via the GGL team but they can fix straightforward things (such as the downgrade). I can see why they wanted to send it to BAH.

ben1991

Yes, sorry my original question was a bit pointless haha.

What I should have asked was: am I entitled to the Transcon booking into A given the fare I booked is a First class fare?