Odd BA15 LHR-SYD question

[Youfah Mizzum]

Back in January I booked myself on the most convenient LHR to SYD flight I could find (at least on any airline approved by Mrs Mizzum) for the timing I was after in October.
Found BA has LHR-SYD via SIN on BA15 so booked direct with BA.

The SIN stopover was about 2.5 hours which I thought was pretty good and standard operating procedure for LHR-SYD.

I have just completed the flight and am left scratching my head.
So LHR-SIN was on BA15 which on the airport display screens at Heathrow shows as LHR-SYD via Singapore. Yep, that's us. We jump on board.

As we're approaching SIN, there was an announcement, "pax onwards to SYD please hang around the gate as we'll be leaving in 45 mins or so" (not verbatim obviously). Hang on I thought. The boarding passes we got (and as booked back in Jan) show that the SIN-SYD leg departs from a different gate, on different metal, in fact a QF codeshare on QF82 about 2.5 hours later. I thought that was the normal thing for this flight.

We ended up disembarking from BA15, finding our way to the other gate and boarding onwards to SYD on QF82 when everyone else seemed to stay on BA15 and getting to SYD an hour or more ahead of us.

I just don't understand why my LHR-SYD booking had us swapping aircraft when we were already on the BA15 flight? We were in PE class (and QF82 didn't have PE so we got packed into Y). Maybe that has something to do with it?

On the plus side, we had lounge passes for SIN so we spent the time in the QF lounge. Too bad they stuffed us (food-wise) on BA15. I would've loved to have been hungrier!

 

[AIRwin]

Sounds like you've been downgraded?!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Back in January I booked myself on the most convenient LHR to SYD flight I could find (at least on any airline approved by Mrs Mizzum) for the timing I was after in October.
Found BA has LHR-SYD via SIN on BA15 so booked direct with BA.

The SIN stopover was about 2.5 hours which I thought was pretty good and standard operating procedure for LHR-SYD.

I have just completed the flight and am left scratching my head.
So LHR-SIN was on BA15 which on the airport display screens at Heathrow shows as LHR-SYD via Singapore. Yep, that's us. We jump on board.

As we're approaching SIN, there was an announcement, "pax onwards to SYD please hang around the gate as we'll be leaving in 45 mins or so" (not verbatim obviously). Hang on I thought. The boarding passes we got (and as booked back in Jan) show that the SIN-SYD leg departs from a different gate, on different metal, in fact a QF codeshare on QF82 about 2.5 hours later. I thought that was the normal thing for this flight.

We ended up disembarking from BA15, finding our way to the other gate and boarding onwards to SYD on QF82 when everyone else seemed to stay on BA15 and getting to SYD an hour or more ahead of us.

I just don't understand why my LHR-SYD booking had us swapping aircraft when we were already on the BA15 flight? We were in PE class (and QF82 didn't have PE so we got packed into Y). Maybe that has something to do with it?

On the plus side, we had lounge passes for SIN so we spent the time in the QF lounge. Too bad they stuffed us (food-wise) on BA15. I would've loved to have been hungrier!

You’ll have to go back to your original ticket and see what it said.

If the return ticket says BA15, and BA15 only from London all the way to Sydney, it looks like you might have been swapped and downgraded, potentially making you eligible for EU261 downgrade compensation.

If your original ticket however shows BA15 connecting in SIN to BAxx_x or QF82, then your travel was correct as ticketed. Your classes of travel on the original ticket should also show PE and Y (or subsets) in this case.

What sort of lounge passes did you use in Singapore? I believe QF passes can only. be used prior to QF flights?

 

[SYD]

BA has two flights LHR-SIN (only BA15 continues on to SYD). Plus BA sells QF flights from SIN-SYD (QF1/82) and other QF flights to other Oz ports.

So it’s quite possible to book BA15 for part of the way and something else onwards. If PE isn’t available (eg QF82), then it books into whY but that would have been a cheaper but nastier option on the “red-eye” leg.

As mentioned above, check your eTicket and what was actually booked?

 

[Youfah Mizzum]

My flight was correct as ticketed, so BA15 then connecting to QF82 but I can't think of a reason why if BA15 continues all the way to SYD anyway. Why chuck me on a different flight for the last leg?
I can only think of 1 reason but I think its only an outlier case - and that would be if the SIN-SYD leg was already fully booked by January. So maybe they had no seats left.

As for access to the lounge, I was given lounge passes. I think they either came with a CC (I'm a constant churner) or from Points Club. I knew I had a couple of hours to kill and didn't have access to the club via other means (like travel class or status) so I burned them while in SIN.

 

[Mwenenzi]

My flight was correct as ticketed, so BA15 then connecting to QF82 but I can't think of a reason why if BA15 continues all the way to SYD anyway. Why chuck me on a different flight for the last leg?

Did you click on the cheapest flight on offer? That was BA15 LHR-SIN PE and QF82 SIN-SYD Y that happened to have a the ~2:30hr transit
Reads like you travelled on the flights *you* purchased.

 

[Youfah Mizzum]

Did you click on the cheapest flight on offer?

No idea - cannot recall.
Maybe I need to do a dummy LHR-SYD booking and see what options come up.

That was BA15 LHR-SIN PE and QF82 SIN-SYD Y that happened to have a the ~2:30hr transit
Reads like you travelled on the flights *you* purchased.

If they're the flights I purchased so be it. At least I might have an answer. When I booked I was just looking for PE for the whole trip on the day I wanted - and yes I would've considered the price. BA booking wizard displayed those flights and I booked not even knowing that BA15 continues direct to SYD. As in the first post, it was only when we arrived in SIN that I realised BA15 continues to SYD on the same metal.
No biggie, I got to experience the lounge!

 

[AIRwin]

As in the first post, it was only when we arrived in SIN that I realised BA15 continues to SYD on the same metal.

The departure screens in LHR would also have displayed SYD as the final destination?

 

[Youfah Mizzum]

The departure screens in LHR would also have displayed SYD as the final destination?

Yep. But I just assumed that as I was going to SYD, then it was a normal part of the trip that its onwards to SYD on QF82. Was only in SIN that I cottoned on that something was different for us.

 

[Youfah Mizzum]

Just to finalise this thread, I have done a few searches 5 to 6 months away to see what displays on the BA website. Although I can't find my exact itinerary, I'm suspecting I saw PE to at £n and a similar flight leaving same time but arriving an hour or so later at £cheaper so figured I'd grab that flight, not even realizing that BA15 goes onwards to SYD anyway, albeit more expensive. From a vague recollection I think that it might've been maybe £300 to £400 cheaper and it didn't even occur to me investigate the details behind the pricing anomaly.
In addition, it was likely I saw the layover time in SIN for the pricier trip and thought to myself "hey, that's not long enough to make the connecting flight if there are delays. Better go for the cheaper flight and at least I have an extra hour or so." I didn't cotton on that it's actually the same aircraft - just refueling!
Either that, or my first suspicion that BA15 was already fully booked the entire trip & they needed to bump me onto a different flight for the SIN-SYD leg.

In the end it doesn't really matter, I still got to the destination, got to experience the SIN lounge and it was not really impactful otherwise. The thread was triggered just by my puzzlement when it dawned on me at Changi that the flight is leaving for SYD in 45 mins but we're hanging about for a couple of hours for a different flight.

 

[tdimdad]

In addition, it was likely I saw the layover time in SIN for the pricier trip and thought to myself "hey, that's not long enough to make the connecting flight if there are delays. Better go for the cheaper flight and at least I have an extra hour or so." I didn't cotton on that it's actually the same aircraft - just refueling!
Either that, or my first suspicion that BA15 was already fully booked the entire trip & they needed to bump me onto a different flight for the SIN-SYD leg.

That's the best way to approach it with normal connection. Only when it's a technical / refuel stop you can squeeze the connection to be short because the if the incoming flight is late, you'll be at the gate before the following departure, anyway (especially in SIN).