Evelop to fly London Gatwick to New York for British Airways – without fully flat business class

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Whilst British Airways continues to struggle with engine issues on its Boeing 787 fleet, it has chartered an A330 from Spanish airline Evelop to operate the Gatwick to New York flight.

It will cover flights between 27th October and 12th January.

It appears to be an ex-Singapore Airlines regional aircraft. This aircraft does NOT have flat beds in business class – they are the ‘slope at an angle to the floor’ variety, which most airlines got rid of years ago.

Evelop operating New York flights for British Airways

British Airways is allowing anyone booked onto this service to switch, free of charge, to any British Airways-operated service from New York to Heathrow. If you are on the day flight outbound then the 2 x 2 x 2 seating should be OK, especially if you are travelling with a partner and so don’t mind being directly next to someone.

If you are on the overnight return, I would be tempted to switch. If you are smart, of course, you will try to switch to an A350 (although none are currently scheduled on JFK) or Boeing 777 service with Club Suite!

There is a photo below so you can make up your own mind.

There is also no Premium Economy on this Evelop aircraft, so those passengers will need to move to a Heathrow service or accept a downgrade to Economy. Economy passengers can also switch to a BA service if they prefer.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

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

ChrisC says:

22 Oct22 October 03:50

This is why I won’t fly BA ex LGW to JFK (and I fly to NYC 2-3 times a year) because they basically put an awful plane – whether their own or now someone elses – on the route so I make the train trip from Brighton to LCY to take the BA1 and fly AA back to LHR to guarentee a good seat.

If BA wants the premium market at LGW then it (a) needs a consistent premium product else people will switch to the DL/VS servive that starts next summer and (b) to not cancel it to the level it seemingly does at present and (c) have an earlier departure ex LGW
- BJ says:
  
  22 Oct22 October 06:06
  
  Isn’t BA1 operated by an awful plane too though? You could fly Norwegian, apparently they use the HiFly a380 from LGW when they have problems.
DavidB says:

22 Oct22 October 04:32

BA doesn’t fly A350s to/from JFK just 777s and 744s. And for me a sloping J seat beats the current J seat on the BA fleet. It flies 787s to/from EWR.
- Sam G says:
  
  22 Oct22 October 04:44
  
  There is 1 x 777 fitted with new Club Suite flying to JFK already – best to check Flyertalk for details
  
  In Y this seat is fine, in fact if you are a couple then the 2x4x2 arrangement is preferable
  
  In J I agree with Rob, for a day flight the seat isn’t bad. Overnight I would probably be looking to swap but I’ve done a few overnights in this seat and I’ve actually slept pretty well, it goes almost flat. So I probably wouldn’t massively inconvenience myself to avoid it depending on my ground arrangements
Robert says:

22 Oct22 October 05:23

I too was a little confused by the comment re the A350. None scheduled to operate the JFK route at the moment.
Anne says:

22 Oct22 October 06:22

Definitely going to boost miles on a Virgin flight we took to Orlando back in May – but does anyone know if the payment would give double miles on the Virgin credit card? Been a while since I last did this and pretty sure I used my BAPP last time.
- Sunny says:
  
  22 Oct22 October 06:49
  
  It doesn’t unfortunately as it is a separate company doing this for Virgin Atlantic.
  - TGLoyalty says:
    
    22 Oct22 October 08:21
    
    That not always an issue it’s up to the card issuer to code it correctly/agree on what qualifies.
    
    SPG Amex gives you double on points purchases via points.com
- SG says:
  
  22 Oct22 October 06:51
  
  No,you’re buying from points.com
  - Anne says:
    
    22 Oct22 October 10:53
    
    Thanks – wasn’t sure if miles booster worked differently to standard points purchase. Will stick to BAPP in that case.
Waribai says:

22 Oct22 October 07:04

“(kids cannot have a stand-alone Avios account)”

and yet my daughter who is 7 does have her own account and has even been BA Silver. I set it up for her when she was born. So for the life of me can’t remember how I bypassed the age restriction!
- Jake says:
  
  22 Oct22 October 07:46
  
  Did you previously have a HH account.
  
  I don’t think BAs IT system is good enough to “spot” a stand-alone child account once a HH has been dissolved?
  - Rob says:
    
    22 Oct22 October 08:19
    
    It is. In fact, it used to be a cunning plan until they wised up. It used to be that, on dissolving a HHA, kids Avios went to the head of the HHA. You could therefore deliberately break it up after each holiday to get the Avios transferred to the parent, and reopen a kids account next time. That is no longer how it works – child Avios are lost if the HHA is broken.
- Genghis says:
  
  22 Oct22 October 07:46
  
  Also worth a reminder that new babies get 1k avios on their new BAEC acct and parents can extend their status. I did it when my son was born and as promised my status was extended when my new BAEC year came around.
  - Jake says:
    
    22 Oct22 October 07:54
    
    The scary thing is that BA rates the cost of 1k Avios higher than child care allowance for a week!
- Robert says:
  
  22 Oct22 October 08:21
  
  My son (now 10 months old) has got an BAEC account but on bookings it says “You cannot add infant Frequent Flyer details on ba.com”. I’m not worried about Avios/Tier points as the only trips we’ve done with him to date have been Rewards Flights, but I am a little sad that none of the trips make it into his “FlightPath” on his BA account page… Unless anyone knows a way to correct this?
- Waribai says:
  
  24 Oct24 October 08:14
  
  Ah ok…good to know. We won’t be breaking it up then hopefully!
tony says:

22 Oct22 October 07:31

Style over substance from BA then with the family section. A page on partner hotels which offer rooms that sleep 4/5/6 or guarantee interconnecting rooms would have been a huge win on a (the only?) high margin part of the business.
- Genghis says:
  
  22 Oct22 October 07:48
  
  I think HfP running a series on how to travel as a family and use points, especially for hotels (obviously I’m self interested) would be v good.
  - Rob says:
    
    22 Oct22 October 08:17
    
    The issue with family travel is that it isn’t a ‘thing’ – it is six or more things: pregnancy travel, newborn travel, toddler travel, 5-6 year old travel, tween travel, teenager travel. As the parents on here know, something that applies to one stage rarely matters at the next stage.
    
    I am sat in the LH Lounge at T2 as I type this with an 11-year old and an 8-year old. My wife is following us on Friday, but technically you could also run a series on single parent travel etc.
    
    My current moan article would be ‘how come when you buy a child ticket you don’t get a child meal by default?’. Only realised last night, too late to swap, that my kids will be getting 3 adult meals each today. Less on an issue at 8 and 11, but still.
    - Optimus Prime says:
      
      22 Oct22 October 08:35
      
      That explains why The Points Guy has articles on travelling when pregnant/with a newborn/with toddlers etc.
      - Rob says:
        
        22 Oct22 October 08:43
        
        familytraveller.com does all this stuff far better than we can anyway (except for the bit on booking seats with points for a family)
    - ankomonkey says:
      
      22 Oct22 October 09:09
      
      My wife flew with our kids (aged 7 and 9) on two JAL flights (BKK-HND and HND-LHR). She called to order child meals for both flights and was told JAL had already set them for child meals by default. Could get awkward if you have a hungry child who would welcome an adult-sized portion, only to find JAL have pre-assigned them a kids meal!
  - tony says:
    
    22 Oct22 October 18:40
    
    No. When a service provider has the data at their fingertips that can make money. it makes far more sense for them to be presenting it, rather than relying on the good will of someone who doesn’t have chapter and verse at their disposal. I mean, knowing which hotels will guarantee interconnecting rooms is as valuable to me as knowing how to get a gold (ok silver) card for under £1k is to the next person. But BA can make a shed load on curating hotel rooms for me whereas there’s limited incentive to giving a thrifty traveller lounge access….
Ed says:

22 Oct22 October 07:49

Looks ok for a day flight. I was on an Evelop plane a while back between JFK and LGW, but it was an ex-Air Berlin plane and that genuinely felt like an upgrade over regular CW seats. So if it ever changes to one of those instead I wouldn’t worry!
- MattB says:
  
  22 Oct22 October 07:57
  
  My wife is a member of a Facebook NYC travel group. Lots of moaning there about these supposed inferior planes even though most are probably better of if flying economy. It’s a good laugh reading the posts such as ‘im flying tomorrow what’s an esta?’ or ‘is anyone on the same plane as us?’
xcalx says:

22 Oct22 October 08:01

Bits OT

Anyone who has recently received the Plat Business card. How long did it take for the PP card to arrive.

Thanks.
- The Savage Squirrel says:
  
  22 Oct22 October 13:05
  
  About 1 week after the Amex card itself for me recently.
  - xcalx says:
    
    22 Oct22 October 13:42
    
    Thanks.