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It was mentioned a few weeks ago that IB had pulled its MAN-MAD flights from sale from October but I haven’t seen anything official about the route being cancelled. @Rob just mentioned in today’s MAN arrivals article that the route is cancelled from September, so has that now been formally announced? If so it’s a further kick in the teeth from IAG/OW to regular users of the UK’s 3rd busiest airport!
For me anyway, there’s little point in maintaining OW status if yet another international route is going. What does that leave us with – just one route each from QR and Finnair?
Thinking about this some more, maybe they’re making it seasonal, like EDI? Still doesn’t help people planning connections (especially long haul) over the winter months.
Not officially announced, just not bookable.
As noted, it will become clearly in May when Summer 2027 goes on sale.
I was going to be looking at booking Iberia to South America from Man so that’s now not an option other than using a LCC (would have probably used on way out to save tax) to come back with risk of missed connections and added time etc.
That may still be an option depending on alternatives. After recent experience with BA they are bottom of list.
As NL says OW less of a relevance now for those using Man. May have to blow my stash of Avios on a Qatar flight if I can find availability and then consider other alliances.
I’ve got a ticket on MAN-MAD in October. Not heard anything
I’ve got a ticket on MAN-MAD in October. Not heard anything
You might want to be proactive about this! I wouldn’t count on Iberia notifying you anyway, but particularly because it may be operating like Aer Lingus when it pulled its flights, ceasing sales of tickets but not technically cancelling the flights/existing bookings until a later date.
I had AGP-MAD-MAN booked for late October but it was cancelled a few weeks later so I moved to AGP-LHR-MAN on BA. IB does a lot of schedule changes anyway so in itself it may not mean anything.
As @JDB says, I would contact them to ask whether your flight is still going ahead, however, as they will resist rebooking you on another direct service and try to re-route you via LHR if it is cancelled, which might mess up your plans.
My reservation is an Avios flight booked with BA. I’ve got the reservation showing on BA.com and IB app. Both showing no issues at present.
Our plan is to fly into MAD on Saturday 24 October and take the train down to Costa del Sol where we will stay for a week. Half term.
We’ve got AGP-MAD-LHR on Saturday 31 Oct. Also ok (so far).
I’ve got a ticket on MAN-MAD in October. Not heard anything
You might want to be proactive about this! I wouldn’t count on Iberia notifying you anyway, but particularly because it may be operating like Aer Lingus when it pulled its flights, ceasing sales of tickets but not technically cancelling the flights/existing bookings until a later date.
That is currently the case. So I suspect attempting to deal with this now not work as it will look like the flight is operating but full to an agent
What you will be able to do – easy options – to do when (if) it gets cancelled is 1) ask BA to do a change of gateway to Malaga as it is within 300 miles and fly MAN-LHR-Malaga, If that would be preferable. Otherwise 2) MAN-LHR-MAD or 3) a refund.
If you are feeling up to it then ask BA to book you on the Ryanair flight. They’ll refuse. Ask them to leave the ticket without any segments in the reservation and note this refusal in the notes. Book Ryanair. Post travel put the receipt in to Iberia as rerouting expenses onto the next available comparible (same day, direct) itinerary per CAA guidance (my interpretation anyway). The challenge with this approach is actually getting Iberia to pay you will be tough!
But the Ryanair flight isn’t that expensive and you can still get your Avios and cash back if all else fails, so I wouldn’t mind having a go at this personally in this situation.
@Bill, I am also travelling on October 24th, I’m leaving as half term begins, deliberately, lol. Will have started in GIB, then taking in Cadiz, Seville and Cordoba before heading down to Mijas for 10 days, ending up with meeting friends in Benalmadena for the last 4 days.
Thankyou for the suggestions. On first glance, I preferred the first suggestion.
1) ask BA to do a change of gateway to Malaga as it is within 300 miles and fly MAN-LHR-Malaga.
However on review it looks like that would depart MAN at 0645 or 0745 which is too early for us.
I wonder if BA (who are the ticketing agent) would permit LGW-AGP or LHR-MAD. Both of those have almost identical timing to the originally booked service MAN-MAD.
In case it matters, it’s a one way single sector reservation.
I just looked to see if I could find the cancellation notification IB but all I have is the original booking confirmation and then the rebooking email from BA. So I don’t know now if it was the AGP-MAD leg or the MAD-MAN one which was cancelled. Obviously the MAD-MAN sector would have been the same aircraft you would then be taking that day, @Bill.
If the route is binned completely, I will really miss those cheap cash and avios fares. I paid 2800 avios plus £75 for that journey! Cash fare on BA is currently £300.
@NorthernLass I’m sure we’ll have fabulous trips once the itineraries are sorted 🙂
Happily mine is sorted. I vaguely recall now that the AGP-MAD leg was moved so I would have had a long wait at MAD, which is why I must have moved it to the better-timed BA itinerary. Otherwise I would presumably still have a live IB booking, like you.
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