BA mystery flights: My wife was scheduled
 

My wife was booked to fly from Newcastle (NCL) to LHR Tuesday morning - 26 July- returning Wed 27 July with BA. When I went to check her in this morning, we got this screen...

Not allowed to show it yet but it said "Your flight is due to depart as planned....."

On further digging, it looked as if it applied to the return flight on the Wednesday. So, having the grey hair and a cynic, dug further to see what the alternative flights might be for her return on Wednesday. NONE. There are no flights inbound from LHR to NCL that day. Or the next. Or the next. So how can the flight be due to depart as planned ? Seems basically BA are quite happy to fly a customer down to London and then basically strand them. So the initial message is an out and out lie. Always been a fan of BA. No longer.

But it gets curiouser. There are several flights outbound from NCL to LHR that day. So if the planes are not incoming from LHR then where have they come from ?

Any input gratefully received.

Short answer. LHR has told all airlines, to stop selling tickets and cap capacity on LHR departures. So if you’re looking to “book” a flight it won’t let you. But it will let you book the inbound leg to LHR, as no capacity restrictions exist inbound that I’m aware of. I’d recommend you check the timetable section on BA.com.

Obviously people already booked will be able to travel, unless advised otherwise, and the aircraft will fly LHR-NCL-LHR as normal.

The OP is complaining of the exact opposite.

Downwind is absolutely correct but as a supplementary reason, would a national rail strike on 27 July have anything to do with UK domestic air tickets becoming difficult to purchase ?

So BA are going to fly an empty plane from LHR to NCL ? So what about passengers who have a ticket for the return. Will the flight not appear on the board? So when my wife turns up to come home, what does the BA check in clerk do ? Shrug their shoulders.

Rail atrike has nothing to do with it...sorry

I think the OP's terminology is confusing people - outbound, as far as the aircraft/flight is concerned, is LHR to NCL, whereas the lady's journey is NCL-LHR-NCL. Obviously it's the LHR-NCL leg that's potentially affected by any restrictions at Heathrow, but of course for every northbound service cancelled, there will be a matching southbound cancellation.

And now the BA website IS listing flights from LHR > NCL tomorrow (Wed 27). But none on Thursday or Friday. At the moment.

Hell BAdoubter and welcome to the Cabin of PPRuNe. You ask a very good question and a problem that we may see more of in the next months.

BA website is currently showing 4 flights LHR-NCL on Wednesday, 2 on Thursday and 2 on Friday. The flight status pages shows flights operating everyday as far forward as it goes (up to 5 Aug). Admittedly, only one flight on some days...

The "mystery flight number" might assist resolution of the OP's quandary.

Jack

My sister rang me up last night. She was thinking of changing to an earlier LHR - GVA flight and was allowed to make free changes but no flights were showing from LHR on the day (only LCY). I assumed that BA had reached their quota on other flights so that they were no selling any tickets outbound from LHR or alowing transfers, but that unless advised her flight was still operating so not to worry. (She has already had her flight changed once). Is my assumption likely to be correct?

This looks rather more honest but then, I'm not travelling from LHR in the near future.
BBC

One of the issues with this is that airline Timetables commonly don't exist any more. Even if they use that name, they are typically just hacks of the booking system, don't show flights that are full, flights scheduled yesterday or in the past, the schedule plan for the coming month, etc. Some of this comes from the sales team, who can't comprehend anyone would want to look at their website and not buy a ticket, while the rest comes from the millennial IT team who, because they no longer have the ability to read a straightforward timetable, think nobody else can either.

Bit like going into a restaurant. "Menu please". "No, we don't do those any more. Tell me when you last ate, how much money in your wallet, etc, then we'll tell you what we have. But whatever it is, there will be only one portion left at that price, so order now".