An alliance reshuffles — the service keeps its name, the ships change

Alliance and network changes come around on a cycle, and they share a quiet trap: the service name often survives the reshuffle while everything underneath it moves — the vessels deployed, the port rotation, the transit time, even which carriers sell slots on it.

The desk’s take: if you book by service code out of habit, a reshuffle can hand you a different sailing than the one you think you booked — longer transit, an added transshipment, a cut-off that shifted. The label is continuity theatre; the vessel rotation is the truth. When the networks move, re-check the hull and the rotation, not the name on the string.

What to do with it: after any alliance or network announcement on your trade, re-verify the vessels and port rotation on the services you actually use before the next booking — don’t assume last month’s sailing is this month’s.

That’s why SchedulesMCP is vessel-first: one card per physical hull, with the carriers selling slots on it and the rotation it’s actually sailing — so a renamed service can’t quietly change your plan.