Your experience of aircraft change? Plus some rambling

[Voyages]

I took a LAN flight SCL-EZE yesterday, having pre-allocated seat 21A on a 767. But ended up on an A320 without any warning.

At SCL airport, first incident of the day. Check-in agent was careless enough to state that I had no right to be at the J/Priority check-in room (at the far left end of the terminal)… after she had already checked my passport etc. Then she read out someone else’ name, and was going to send me to the economy section. I politely asked her to check my OWE status… and things got resolved, although she was clearly unhappy (bad day perhaps)…. Still got 21A, no mention of aircraft change.

We boarded on time. Only then did I realise that we’d be on an A320. I ended up in the very last row of the aircraft (row 21). The oddest thing was that they didn’t bother telling other pax who had been allocated seats from row 22 backwards. There was much confusion and (quiet) locomotion when those pax were told by the FAs that they should just look for any empty seats throughout the cabin and sit down! A lot of people were not impressed though.

Have you experienced anything like this? I remember hearing an announcement at LAX once that they needed to re-issue BPs for all pax due to an aircraft change.

PS: I still can’t get enough of the magnificent Andes….

 

[anat0l]

Had a decent number of times where I was flying QF and expecting a 767 (at least when I booked it) and got a 737 instead.

Luckily for me, most of the time the change occurs before I OLCI so when I select my seat at OLCI (and now at T-80), I know what to (re)select.

It did happen that I was scheduled to fly on a QF 2-class 744 but it was changed to a 4-class 744 instead. The aircraft as still only being sold as 2 classes, however. My row number in my old seat selection was in too high a class for my ticket, but upon reviewing my new allocation I was put in the front row of the new aircraft (which turned out to be a Y+ seat since the Y+ and Y cabins were being used to carry the Y ticketed pax).

 

[harvyk]

I've had two a/c changes, each time I was expecting something else and it's been changed to a B767.

The first time was from RAR-AKL, I didn't click that it was a B767 until I got onboard and thought to myself I though A320's where only single aisle. It wasn't until I had walked through and saw Y in the familiar 2-3-2 config that I realised it was a B767. I was happy about the A/C change as I'm not a fan of the narow bodies. It was also the first time where I got an aisle seat but didn't mind.

The second time was from SYD-PER, where I found out about two days prior when the A/C changed from a A330 to a B767... Not happy as I was looking forwards to seeing the new Dom A330 AVOD...

 

[simongr]

Two recent ac changes:

A380 to 744 - lax-syd not overly happy but very thankful that my upgrade to F came through

Syd-Mel - can't remember the change but all pax reissued bps at the gate

 

[Leumas]

I've had a few, mostly domestic...

Like anat0l, if the aircraft was a 767 at time of booking, but became a 737 at some stage, my row 20-something will become one of the last rows on a 737 as both seats still 'exist' on both aircrafts.

In the other direction (from a 737 to a 767), I've had op-ups or just any random seats somewhere near the front of the cabin...

I've also had 767's changing configuration, and they may result in op-ups or no (or little) change.

 

[mannej]

CX are masters of equipment changes IMO. It isn't a problem most of the time as the seat maps are fairly similar across the board (i.e Row 30=good for Y), where as the only changes on QF I have noticed are sub type changes, eg a 734 instead of a 738, or a 332 instead of a 333.

There are other airlines who don't seem to change at all i.e MH. I guess its each to their own really.

 

[anat0l]

CX are masters of equipment changes IMO. It isn't a problem most of the time as the seat maps are fairly similar across the board (i.e Row 30=good for Y), where as the only changes on QF I have noticed are sub type changes, eg a 734 instead of a 738, or a 332 instead of a 333.

There are other airlines who don't seem to change at all i.e MH. I guess its each to their own really.

Oh yeah I forgot about CX. Sometimes it's a case of subbing a 777 with a 333, or an international config with a regional one.