Avis is leaving Heathrow Terminal 5 next week

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• lumma says:

  26 Mar26 March 08:23

  Iberia Express has Vueling/Wizzair levels of uncomfortable seats

  • Londonsteve says:

    26 Mar26 March 11:24

    As does BA…..

• AJA says:

  26 Mar26 March 08:23

  I wouldn’t be so sure that your TP and Avios for BA flights on IB Express will automatically credit.

  The last two times I’ve flown on a BA flight number on IB metal I’ve had to chase for TP and Avios and I was unable to select a seat as Silver.

  That said the IB Express business class is actually OK, the food was good and the crew were friendly and generous with the drinks. I found the seat comfortable too.

  • ChrisC says:

    26 Mar26 March 09:05

    These flights have BA prime numbers though not BA codeshares.on IB metal.

    • AJA says:

      26 Mar26 March 09:12

      They ‘should’ post. But knowing BA and IB and their non-integrated IT systems I think it’s safer to assume it won’t work first time and then you won’t be disappointed when they don’t post. Or maybe you’ll be pleasantly surprised when they do 😀

      • ChrisC says:

        26 Mar26 March 09:20

        These flights won’t be using IB systems though!

        • AJA says:

          26 Mar26 March 09:26

          I admire your confidence in BA.

        • John says:

          26 Mar26 March 11:21

          You need to ignore what it says on the plane and the crew uniforms. These flights could be physically operated by Air France or Hawaiian Airlines or RobBurgessAir, nonetheless they are still BA flights sold by BA and for the purposes of BA’s computers they are operated by BA.

• Elt164 says:

  26 Mar26 March 08:41

  Iberia express domestic flights:
  Is bus. section at front or BACK?
  It used to be at back, with entry at rear of plane.
  Thanks

  • Rob says:

    26 Mar26 March 09:02

    Front AFAIK

    • Patrick says:

      26 Mar26 March 09:11

      A320 family, 100% at the front just like BA – only at the back on some Air Nostrum (Iberia) turboprops because you board at the back only on those.

      • Tony says:

        26 Mar26 March 13:03

        Indeed a couple of decades back when BA had that ATR fleet running out of Gatwick, I recall Dublin and Guernsey also had club in the last few rows.

• Nick says:

  26 Mar26 March 09:59

  The wetleases will not be using IB systems, it’ll be BA prime for everything. You’ll check in with BA, in FLY, just as for a BA flight. It’s no different from how it would be if they hired in Titan, Aeroflot or Ryanair to operate for them. So points will post as if it were a BA flight, and there’s no need to be scared.

  The exception will be LGW-MAD, because these are true IB Express flights. For these you’ll be checked in with IB systems and it will have a I2 prime (= operational) flight number.

  • Richie says:

    26 Mar26 March 10:26

    So who is liable under UK261 to passengers under wet lease arrangements, BA or I2?

    • CamFlyer says:

      26 Mar26 March 11:04

      AFAIK, BA. IB as an airline has nothing to do with the passenger experience; they’re just providing aircraft on an ACMI (aircraft, crew, maintenance, insurance) basis. Lots of airlines do this without passengers even being aware, including EZ, LH and in particular the likes of Jet2, Tui and others (where else do they get the aircraft and crew for the summer surge capacity?).

      • Nick says:

        26 Mar26 March 11:21

        Absolutely. In this ACMI scenario it’s BA who is responsible for duty of care and EU261 arrangements.

        It’s actually pretty easy to work out who the prime carrier is – just look at your boarding pass. If it’s a BA code on a I2 prime flight, it’ll have both flight numbers on it. If it’s a wetlease, it’ll only have the BA one.

• Paul Beadsmoore says:

  26 Mar26 March 10:18

  Zipcar is leaving T5 as well. Confirmed by Avis staff when I dropped a car off this week.

  • Rob says:

    26 Mar26 March 11:31

    Thanks

• NvT1115 says:

  26 Mar26 March 10:26

  Not directly impacted but think Club will fill on up on return flight from Malta as second flight 10 mins later is now IB Express and was more heavily booked. Big Club cabins on BA metal likely

• Lady London says:

  26 Mar26 March 11:54

  Is this not reducing competition? Thinking if BA expands this in future. Although ultimately same ownership, currently these airlines compete.

  Think how much this would reduce customer choice if BA regularly offloaded passengers onto other IAG group airlines in future. This would mean BA was always selling its services to the capacity (and therefore price) it wanted, having the right to offload passengers to its own choice of other airline. This encourages BA to deliberately oversell even more, knowingly selling seats on BA flights that however they dress it up, were never going to be the travel on BA the passenger booked.

  If the passenger doesn’t have the right to call this a cancellation as he’s not travelling on the airline he booked and it would be fairly clear BA was deliberately selling over their own capacity with this in mind, then I could see this getting out of control. I would like passenger to be able to choose a non-IAG non-Oneworld airline if they wish instead or to be able to demand a refund rather than be trapped into arrangements that suit BA when that’s not what they bought.

  • Richie says:

    26 Mar26 March 12:37

    Very good point Lady London, I agree that when something changes and becomes different to what was booked, the passenger should have additional rights.

    • Nick says:

      26 Mar26 March 14:06

      @LL I think you’re missing the point. Ignore the fact it’s a sister airline, it’s really just a standard ACMI operation. It’s actually hugely common in the industry – some of the tui/Thomas cook type operators have it every year sharing aircraft with Canadian airlines. Even BA has precedence – remember Air Belgium? Titan? JetTime? In this case the only difference is that the company ‘selling’ the service happens to be a sister airline in the same Group. Your contract as a customer is with BA, but there’s nothing that says they have to put you on an aircraft they actually own, just that it has to be to their standards.

      • meta says:

        26 Mar26 March 14:38

        Just putting this here.

        On 4 July 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union (the CJEU) handed down its ruling in the case regarding Wolfgang Wirth a.o. Vs. Thomson Airways Ltd. (C-532/17). The court ruling verifies what we already know; that the lessor of a wet lease is not the operating carrier and that the carrier stated on the booking / boarding card is not necessarily the actual operating carrier.

        • meta says:

          26 Mar26 March 14:39

          So in this case Iberia Express is the operating carrier no matter what BA says and therefore full right EU261 apply.

  • Doc says:

    26 Mar26 March 15:59

    This all takes me back to my Tour Operating days in the 80’s and 90’s where most your iOS would put on flights at different times- effectively “ghost” flights and expect to consolidate them onto one, often on a non in house carrier. BA are up to something here. They appear to be destroying trust at every opportunity.

    • Doc says:

      26 Mar26 March 16:01

      *Tour Ops

    • Callum says:

      27 Mar27 March 08:13

      Indeed. I can’t think of anything more evil than putting people on a basically identical plane with basically identical service, flying to and from the same airports with the same timing, while giving you the option to change to other services free of charge if you want to. Why don’t we see if we can get the ICC to drop their Putin investigation and get Sean Doyle in the dock ASAP?

• meta says:

  26 Mar26 March 14:04

  If the operating carrier changes, then it’s classed as cancellation under EU261.

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