BA flights switch to Iberia Express

[hs1987]

I’ve had an email from BA informing me that my BA flights from Gatwick to Malaga this summer will be operated by Iberia Express. Looking on the BA website it seems none of the flights that week are being operated by BA on that route. I wonder if the service / experience will be equivalent to BA, and totally surprised they don’t have capacity to run the route

[ChrisC]

Just had a couple of emails regarding some LGW – AMS bookings saying these will be operated by “our sister carrier” Iberia Express.

BA offering a free change to another BA operated flight should I so desire but not explicitly a refund.

Not tested the options for doing this yet so can’t say if this switch is applying to all LGW-AMS flights or just some of them on the schedule or to see if I could switch to LHR or LCY.

I assume others will be getting similar emails and would be interested to see what routes they are using IB Express metal on even if they say it will be BA service standards.

[LB]

I’ve just received similar for our flight to Malta in May. I wonder if their version of Club Europe is the same…

[Lady London]

Is this equivalent to a cancellation? If I believed BA’s publicity I would definitely view Iberia Express as inferior and would consider that BA had effectively cancelled my flight. If I book with a particular airline I don’t see how I should be made to accept a different one.

I’d be wary that there might be only x days after receiving this notice from BA within which I’d have to reject it otherwise being deemed to have accepted it.

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[RobL]

My Mahon flight in May has been switched.
Rob did an article on this inJanuary

https://www.headforpoints.com/2022/01/22/iberia-express-british-airways-euroflyer-gatwick/comment-page-2/#comments

Not fussed. Looking forward to the holiday.

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[ChrisC]

LL the only time I know BA did allow refunds was a few years ago when they used a wet lease that was clearly inferior to BA.

It’s a bit harder here where the same plane tyoes will be used with almost identical seats and layout (though in some cases better seats) and it’ll be BA food and so on.

[tiriavpo]

There’s a comment in today’s article about this which seems to suggest they had been offered a refund or change to another day. I would imagine some routes will be IB Express every day though.

https://www.headforpoints.com/2022/03/26/avis-is-leaving-heathrow-terminal-5-next-week/

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[Grant]

I posted this in the comments on the article but it seems to be stuck in moderation.

Does the offer to rebook at no extra cost also extend to reward bookings? I got the email regarding a LGW – PMI booking for the end of May. Moving it to LHR would actually be more convenient for us and the potential to change dates, thus extending our holiday, would be even better. But I don’t know if either of those things would be available to me on a reward booking.

[Grant]

Just in case it helps anyone else, and as Rob answered in the comments under the Bits article, the policy set out in the email does also apply to rewards bookings.

However, the CS rep I spoke to had to go and check (not surprising I guess) but explained that it is not as flexible as another poster suggested – i.e. move date 3 days either side of original booking. I was only offered the next nearest date where I could travel on BA metal. In my case that meant I couldn’t swap dates but I did manage to swap to LHR from LGW and change flight times to depart earlier and arrive back later in the day. A satisfactory result.