What to Do During an Aircraft Swap

What is an aircraft swap?

An aircraft swap is when the airline substitutes a different aircraft for your scheduled flight — usually because the planned plane is delayed, broken, or needed elsewhere. The flight number stays the same, but the seat map, cabin layout, and sometimes the cabin classes change.

What to do

1. Recheck your seat. It may be different — sometimes meaningfully worse. Move proactively in the airline app.
2. Recheck cabin amenities. A 787 swap to a 757 means no more lie-flat business; you may be entitled to a refund of the fare differential.
3. Watch for time changes. Swap aircraft sometimes have different range or speed and the schedule may shift.

Track swap events

FlightyFlow detects aircraft swaps and flags the seat-map change before the airline app pushes it.