British Airways applies to wet lease three Qatar Airways A330 aircraft
Links on Head for Points may pay us an affiliate commission. A list of partners is here.
As cover for its troublesome Boeing 787-9 fleet, British Airways has applied to the CAA for permission to wet lease three Qatar Airways long-haul aircraft for the period of 1st June to 30th September. A ‘wet lease’ is where the aircraft comes with crew.
There is no guarantee that the request will be granted. My understanding is that BA has to show that there are no comparable aircraft available for wet lease within the EU. Clearly BA pilots and cabin crew would only want the airline to use significantly lower-paid Qatar-based crew in exceptional circumstances.
The three aircraft involved are Airbus A330.
It is not clear what BA is getting. Here is the ‘Our Fleet’ page of the Qatar Airways website but if you believe that then you will see that no A330 aircraft have fully flat Business Class seats. That is not true. In reality, most (all?) now have a fully flat seat in a 2 x 2 x 2 forward facing formation.
What IS certain is that there is no Premium Economy on these aircraft so anyone who has booked World Traveller Plus will have to accept a downgrade, a refund or a different flight. As these aircraft will be used on flights departing in as little as three weeks, customers will struggle to find a replacement at a sensible price.
It is not clear at present which routes will use these aircraft. As the Business Class cabin is small (5 rows) I doubt it will be a straight swap for routes currently flying the Boeing 787-9. One option could be that the new aircraft go to Gatwick and are used on leisure routes, freeing up aircraft for use at Heathrow.
There is a little more information on FlightGlobal here.
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 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 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.)
John 
imbruce 
TGLoyalty 
H 
Luthar 
Cate 
Rob 
Genghis 
meta 
ChrisC 
mark2 
Ben 
Anna 
HAM76 
CV3V 
Jovanna 
Anne 
JamesB 
Mzungu 
Mark 
MattP 
Curious 
Lady London 
Ollie 
SamG
Nick
Geoff 1977
blenz101
Comments (127)