British Airways long-haul route changes at Gatwick for Winter 2014 (and Singapore ex-LHR goes A380)

Links on Head for Points may pay us an affiliate commission. A list of partners is here.

British Airways has published its first raft of service changes for London Gatwick for the Winter season, which starts on 26th October. All in all, it looks positive and reiterates BA’s commitment to the airport.

Here are the highlights:

Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic (photo above) to get its own dedicated service twice a week. At present, it is an ‘add on’ to the Antigua service on three days a week.

Antigua will see an increase in capacity because of the removal of passengers travelling on to Punta Cana

Tampa increases to a daily service from the current six per week

Orlando increases to 10 flights per week from the current seven during November and March

Kingston increases to four per week between December and February

Barbados increases to 12 per week between December and February

St Kitts and Las Vegas see timing changes but the number of flights is unchanged

These changes have been made possible by the addition of a 10th Boeing 777 to the Gatwick fleet. As far as I know, no services have been dropped to make way for these additions.

Flights should be available for booking, both for cash and Avios, at ba.com.

In a separate announcement, Singapore will be the next destination to use an Airbus A380. Starting on October 28th, three services a week will use the new ‘super jumbo’. The other flights will remain a mix of Boeing 747 and 777 aircraft.

If you have a Singapore flight booked, you can check your aircraft by doing a dummy booking on ba.com – the aircraft type will show when you click on the flight number on the pricing pages.

Singapore becomes the 5th A380 destination, behind Los Angeles, Johannesburg, Hong Kong and Washington. Four aircraft are currently in service with a further four due for delivery later in 2014.

How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios? Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)

Category

British Airways and Avios

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

John says:

24 Feb24 February 06:37

Do you get commission for just clicking the BA link?
- Oliver says:
  
  24 Feb24 February 07:12
  
  Is that seriously the first question you ask?! In any case, glad the ANU route may be sharing less, it always seemed to be overcrowded.
- Rob says:
  
  24 Feb24 February 09:40
  
  No
CV says:

24 Feb24 February 09:05

The chance of increased (or any) availability on the SIN route would be welcomed. Now if they could just start a new route to KUL I would be a happy man.
Worzel says:

24 Feb24 February 09:11

CV-agreed!
- James67 says:
  
  24 Feb24 February 21:09
  
  Why do you want BA to KUL?? The MH a380 is so much nicer, operates twice daily and can be had ow J foe 52 5k AA miles.
  - CV says:
    
    24 Feb24 February 21:49
    
    Not much use with the BA companion voucher.
  - CV says:
    
    24 Feb24 February 21:51
    
    however, thanks for the reminder, i need to hold on to amex mr points and send to AA and not avios!
    - Worzel says:
      
      25 Feb25 February 06:03
      
      I’m in the same position-with a 2-4-1(expires May 2015). I already feel that time is running out for SIN- so KUL would be useful.
      
      Likewise, thanks for the reminder James.
      - James67 says:
        
        25 Feb25 February 23:06
        
        You’re both welcome. I just snapped up BKK-KUL-LHR in J for next January for 55.5k plus £12!!! tax plus £5 telephone fee using AA. Long may it continue but I suspect we will see an AA devaluation later this year. Great value but not quite as great as the F redemption I got for my flight originating in Phuket last December. Managed to get that in first few days after MH joined ow but unfortunately have not found F availability since. Now my headache is the return journey to BKK, need to rely on avios but no direct flights for 4 months with BA LHR-BKK so it’s looking like a bit less cash but a bit more avios unless I sit tight to see what opens up. The bottom has dropped out of BA availability to BKK since they switched to a 777. Might give Virgin a try to HKG in UC.
TrollBasher says:

24 Feb24 February 10:14

Any improvement at LGW remains no good for those originating in MAN.
- richie says:
  
  24 Feb24 February 13:27
  
  likewise any improvement at man would have no benefits to those living in the london area.!
  - TrollBasher says:
    
    1 Mar1 March 10:02
    
    The flow of LGW-MAN-XXX was always truly negligible compared to the other way round.
    
    With expansion of BA at LGW, an ever increasing number of destinations on the BA network become unavailable to anyone in the Northwest unless they are prepared to either drive down or take the M25 coach tour.
John says:

24 Feb24 February 10:58

Any more A380 destinations in the pipeline?
- Mark says:
  
  24 Feb24 February 11:29
  
  None announced. San Francisco and Miami are often speculated; the latter would enable BA to consolidate down to two daily services (from 18 a week) during the winter, which I strongly suspect would be attractive, and I believe work is underway to develop an A380 capable gate which could be used if they so decide.
Mark says:

24 Feb24 February 11:24

Singapore will also be getting the A380 daily from February 2015, replacing the current 747 service entirely. Not a surprise given that the per seat fuel costs are disproportionately higher than more modern aircraft on the longer routes, and Singapore is the longest operated by a 747, probably by some considerable margin these days.

I would imagine the withdrawal of Qantas from the LHR-SIN route as well as the forthcoming cessation of Virgin’s Australia flights probably help demand on the LHR-SIN (and onward to SYD) services.
Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

24 Feb24 February 20:05

On the downside, it’s one less fifth freedom route (PUJ-ANU)
- Mark says:
  
  24 Feb24 February 20:54
  
  I’m not sure that really helps unless you’re particularly looking to do a two centre holiday in Antigua and Punta Cana, in which case the withdrawal of that option is probably going to make you think again. I did happen to look at prices a while back and it wasn’t cheap considering the short distance, circa £150 economy or £300 club one way.
  
  Given it’s the only direct flight and is a particularly niche market, I doubt there is much incentive for BA to try to sell more seats by selling them cheap – you either want to fly it or you don’t and for the small minority that do, you either pay the price or opt for a 2+ multi stop alternative with horrendous flight timings.
shadowfixer says:

24 Feb24 February 23:25

How far out can you book with BA, the additional MCO flights might come in handy for next Easter… can you book earlier if you use a flightcar combination or avioscash over just flightcash?

Thanks…
SF…
- Rob says:
  
  25 Feb25 February 08:41
  
  No, the usual 12 months (minus 5-10 days)