British Airways continuing to run Boeing 787 aircraft on European routes

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A couple of weeks ago we covered BA’s decision to run, for cargo purposes, Boeing 787 long-haul aircraft on European routes. The story was picked up elsewhere including by The Independent.

The sweet spot, of course, was booking Club Europe and getting a flat bed for your European hop.

British Airways has now extended this service until Sunday 19th September, so it might be worth a look for a quiet break once the kids are back in school. I am told that they are likely to continue until the end of year and IAG Cargo is selling the space on that basis. The flights will not be updated in ba.com until nearer the date of travel.

British Airways short haul routes using Boeing 787

Here are the participating routes. The times represent the Heathrow departure time – obviously there will be a matching return flight a few hours later.

Amsterdam

Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday (all 08.20)

Frankfurt

Friday, Sunday (all 08.00)

Larnaca

Monday (09.10), Thursday (09.25)

Moscow

Wednesday (13.20), Saturday (13.20)

Zurich

Wednesday, Sunday (all 09.35)

Athens

Friday (09.50)

Paris

Wednesday (10.55)

Stockholm

Friday (07.10)

Rome (Boeing 777, not a Boeing 787)

Friday, Sunday (both 08.20)

In addition, Iberia is still running an A350 on various flights between Heathrow and Madrid.

When you are booking a flight on ba.com, click on the ‘Flight Details’ link during the booking process. Part of the data that pops up is the aircraft type which is scheduled.

You can use our British Airways Boeing 787-8 ‘best seats’ guide to decide where to sit. If your aircraft seat plan shows a First Class cabin then you need to toggle to our Boeing 787-9 seat guide.

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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:

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Category

British Airways and Avios

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

NutJuice69 says:

23 Aug23 August 04:20

On BAPP, spend £5k, get additional 10k bonus Avios. Ends Nov 30.
- Gothbe says:
  
  23 Aug23 August 04:58
  
  Same here on BAPP. Nothing on business platinum card
- Paul pogba says:
  
  23 Aug23 August 06:22
  
  I’ve got this, what happens to offers saved to the BAPP card if you downgrade to the free/blue card?
- Robert says:
  
  23 Aug23 August 07:16
  
  Same. Given I’m holding out on the £1.5k to trigger the 241 as close to mid-December as I can, I definitely won’t be doing £5k by end-November. Someone else can nab my space
  - Paul Pogba says:
    
    23 Aug23 August 10:55
    
    I have £41 to spend after 1 September to trigger the 241, my card year then ends on 5 Sep at which point I was planning to downgrade to the free card until I get close to £9.5k of spend. Trying to decide whether the new increased card fee (~£60 till Nov) is worth the risking 10,000 bonus points.
Beardless Hipster says:

23 Aug23 August 05:08

On free BA Amex, spend £2000 anywhere, get 2000 bonus avios
- John says:
  
  23 Aug23 August 05:16
  
  Mine is £1000 for 1500 avios
  
  I haven’t used the card that much except for the Hilton offers
- FFoxSake says:
  
  23 Aug23 August 09:46
  
  I upgraded to BAPP at the weekend and only got the spend £2K for 2K bonus avios today. Bit of a lag on the offers it seems…
Goldflyer40 says:

23 Aug23 August 05:50

I’ve done a test booking for the 787 Athens service. When it comes to the seat selection the system offered me rows 1 – 13. Could it be that BA is selling the last 4 rows of Premium Economy as Business Class? I assume it is a 787-8 and not -9 as the latter as 2 rows of First Class and Business Class only starts in row 5.
So there might be some disappointment when the expected flat bed turns out to be a better economy seat.
- tony says:
  
  23 Aug23 August 06:55
  
  Yes. There’s an amusing thread on Flyertalk where someone booked CE on a 787, was seated in the premium economy cabin and then wanted to pursue BA for EU261 compensation.
  - Graham says:
    
    23 Aug23 August 08:19
    
    That is hilarious. Self entitlement taken to a whole new level.
    - Paul says:
      
      24 Aug24 August 13:37
      
      No it is not! It was a very sensible question and often BA apologists are made to look silly when the airlines position has been defended to the death and then shown by courts and arbitration to be indefensible.
      One example of this was the airlines position on ticket validity. Flyer talk is awash with comments that a year is reasonable but BA lost a number of arbitration battles and finally changed their policy. WTP, it could be reasonably argued is not club Europe so the posters question on flyer talk was reasonable and he never suggested he was entitled
      - Gary says:
        
        24 Aug24 August 15:36
        
        I personally received compensation when the same thing happened to me on the way back from Athens last October. On the advice of a poster here on HfP I started a money claim and they BA paid 3 weeks later.
Hymie says:

23 Aug23 August 06:08

Hi just checked mine premium £5000 spend 10000 points by the end of november so not to shabby plus that will get me my 2 for 1. only changed the card over in august on the back of the other article. Thanks Rob
Simon says:

23 Aug23 August 06:50

I’ve got spend £35,000 by 16th November get 35,000 additional bonus points on my Business Platinum card. Seeing as our average spend is about £5,000 up to a maximum ever of about £10,000 this seems a bit steep.

Is it possible to ask Amex to lower these bonus targets?
- Graham says:
  
  23 Aug23 August 08:21
  
  Ask via chat and see how it goes. I’m pretty sure you’ll be told no but doesn’t hurt to try.
Josh Critchley says:

23 Aug23 August 08:09

Stockholm one is good.
Take back door into Sweden for it. Fly to Helsinki (just need covid vac), land into schengen. Then no checks in Arlanda on arrivals from Helsinki
- Chrisasaurus says:
  
  23 Aug23 August 09:41
  
  That’s quite possibly true but the article was about flying in Europe in a 787 and a flight to Helsinki to avoid Covid restrictions doesn’t accomplish that…
  
  Assuming you mean out Helsinki but return from Stockholm it is a bit fiddly…
Mark says:

23 Aug23 August 08:25

No offer on my business platinum. Is it only targeted then? Article says all bus plat?
- BLT says:
  
  23 Aug23 August 08:47
  
  No offer on my business amex play either. Did get the BAPP one though
- Rob says:
  
  23 Aug23 August 08:48
  
  Seemed to be all based on my sample but clearly not.
  - Tony1 says:
    
    23 Aug23 August 09:57
    
    Nothing on mine either. Only putting 2k£ month through, is this why ?
MW says:

23 Aug23 August 09:31

No offer on my Business Platinum but the £5k offer is on my BAPP