Well I have to disagree there - twice in the last few weeks I have had my flights changed from a J booked 737 to a bloody Fokker. Thankfully the last one I flew on March 14 magically changed back to a 737 so I was able to keep my seat up the front. However, today I got a text and email asking me to call VA "ASAP" due to a flight reschedule regarding a return J flight I only booked last Friday . Just got off the phone with VA. The flight times are barely different but all planes that day between ROK - BNE (and back) have changed from 737s to Fokkers. I actually already knew of the plane downgrade by a notification from Award Wallet - who always seem to let me know things before VA does. But due to what happened with the change back last time I was going to leave it in case the Fokker became a 737 again. Looks like it's possible it won't happen as I've already had the price difference of Business to Economy refunded to Travel Bank (that's how I paid).
But I do get what you mean regarding the A330s. Before the Covid Apocalypse I took a flight from ROK - PER via BNE. The BNE - PER flight was an A330. Fantastic plane even in economy. Hardly anyone on it so everyone stretched out in their own row once the door was closed (I had nobody sitting next to me anyway). On the way off the plane I saw those Business class pods and thought oh wow if I get an offer of "bid for an upgrade" on the way back I am going for it. I'd never flown J before. I was still a n00b to all the lessons to be learned on this site too. The flight back - was a 737
![Oops! :oops: :oops:](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
![Er... what? o_O o_O](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
![Loudly crying face :sob: 😭](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f62d.png)
I was still a lowly VA red and being able to spend hours in the lounge was a Godsend (checked out of motel by 12 noon - flight not until 10 something later that night) - everything else about the experience - including "Priority" check in was disappointing. Priority check in - the computers were down - my first time lining up in the fancy line and yeah I would have gotten through bag drop etc faster by lining up in the regular line - even with 100 people there
![Grinning face with smiling eyes :smile: 😄](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f604.png)
It was a lesson learned - always check the type of aircraft first. Then Covid hit and no more A330s for VA