Third Time Unlucky - what's with all the aircraft changes

[rdmsmith]

I'm due to travel on the QF127 to HKG tomorrow and just found out it's been swapped from the A380 to a B747, despite being a Thursday service (it's meant to be the A380 Thu-Sun). Had the same issue to LAX last year on the QF11 (A380 also swapped to a B747). The year before I was heading to NRT in Y+ only to lose the seat altogether when the B747 was swapped for an A330 with no Y+ offering. Can't say I'm particularly impressed, am I just incredibly unlucky or are Qantas often shuffling aircraft around? I'm sure they'll still get me there, it's just never seems to be in a manner that I thought I'd booked!

 

[SeatBackForward]

I'm due to travel on the QF127 to HKG tomorrow and just found out it's been swapped from the A380 to a B747, despite being a Thursday service (it's meant to be the A380 Thu-Sun). Had the same issue to LAX last year on the QF11 (A380 also swapped to a B747). The year before I was heading to NRT in Y+ only to lose the seat altogether when the B747 was swapped for an A330 with no Y+ offering. Can't say I'm particularly impressed, am I just incredibly unlucky or are Qantas often shuffling aircraft around? I'm sure they'll still get me there, it's just never seems to be in a manner that I thought I'd booked!

What (if any) was the compensation for being bumped from Y+ to Y? refund equivalent to the fare difference?

 

[NoName]

How often would they switch from A370 to 747? Approx What percentage of the time? I'd be particularly interested in how often if occurr on QF11 & QF93.

 

[Isochronous]

I've got a JASA booked on a Saturday QF127 soon, hope they don't pull the A380 out from under me!

 

[mannej]

How often would they switch from A370 to 747? Approx What percentage of the time? I'd be particularly interested in how often if occurr on QF11 & QF93.

It does happen (more likely on QF11 than 93).
As they have a small fleet of 380's, they don't have an awful lot of slack if any issues popped up with a 380, hence the noticeable affect of the changes.

 

[rdmsmith]

What (if any) was the compensation for being bumped from Y+ to Y? refund equivalent to the fare difference?

They automatically moved the booking to the following day which was still operated by a B747 and had Y+. Unfortunately I didn't have that flexibility in my plans and needed to travel on the original date. It was a redemption ticket so they offered to refund the points difference between Y and Y+. I didn't really want to travel in Y and I offered to use more points to upgrade to J. They refused because although there were plenty of revenue seats available, there wasn't any redemption availability. Interestingly there wasn't any redemption availability in Y either, but 'somehow' they found it.

 

[Awesom Andy]

Swaps happen, but not all that often. Would you kindly post your future planned flights, we would try our best to avoid travelling on the same flights.

 

[FuzzyAUS]

Wow, wow, wow....

i was on QF 127 tomorrow too, but pulled the plug earlier in the week as it was a 3 day relax trip only and with all the travel for the year I decided to stay at home with the family!!!

Glad a did cancel now !!!

 

[Aussie_flyer]

QF11 / QF93 have not been swapped in the past 30 days so I would be fairly confident on those routes.

QF127 is probably the most hit and miss A380 route there is.

 

[Pleb Status]

On a domestic flight earlier this year, I had four aircraft changes (since the original booking) to deal with to get an exit row seat. Flight started as a 332 (row 44), then a 763 (ex BA, row 43), then a different 763 (QF, rows 34/35), then a 333 (row 45) and finally a 763 (QF, rows 34/35).

Unless there is a schedule change, QF do not advise of an aircraft change so you are forced to regularly check all your bookings to find hidden aircraft changes. Sometimes you can end up without any seat at all.

 

[RickyT84]

Unless there is a schedule change, QF do not advise of an aircraft change so you are forced to regularly check all your bookings to find hidden aircraft changes. Sometimes you can end up without any seat at all.

This happens occasionally to me, mainly on flights operated by the 763s. I had 23A allocated on a domestic configured 763 only to see my ability to select another seat disappeared (after T-80 but before OCLI opens) so I figured it must be due to a swap to a international configured 763. Thankfully, I can select another seat once OCLI opens.