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British Airways to refresh World Traveller and World Traveller Plus on Boeing 747 fleet

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British Airways has announced a ‘soft’ refurbishment of the World Traveller and World Traveller Plus seats on 18 of its remaining Boeing 747 aircraft.  This reflects the fact that some of these aircraft are still seen as having a good few years of service in them.

You shouldn’t get excited about any hopes for a new seat.  The work on the seats is purely cosmetic, with new carpets, seat foam and seat covers.

BA 747 retirement

In World Traveller Plus, every seat will also have access to a power point – accepting UK, US and European plugs – and a USB socket.

Of potentially more interest is the installation of a new in-flight entertainment system from Panasonic.  This will be fitted across all cabins on the aircraft.  Comments on Flyertalk from people who understand these things suggest that this is the best system currently on the market, with high resolution and touch sensitive screens and the capacity to store vast amounts of content.

The work is not due to start until August 2015 and will take 12 months to complete.  Even then, the staggered retirement plan for the Boeing 747’s means that you will only have a 50% chance of getting a refurbished aircraft.

You can read more at www.aircraftinteriorsinternational.com.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

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

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

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

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

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

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable 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

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 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

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year 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.

Comments (13)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Mr Bridge says:

    what is this world traveller of which you speak.

  • Matt says:

    Rob, highly OT but I just got a letter from Cathay offering me a 6 month extension on my Gold card – any idea if this is normal policy? I cancelled Amex Platinum a few months ago. Certainly not complaining!

    • Damien says:

      Same happened to me.

    • Rob says:

      Yes, everyone is getting this

      • Mark says:

        Just those that are about to expire? Mine runs until March but haven’t received anything yet.

    • CV3V says:

      Yes, an extra 6 months of BA Lounge sandwiches, chilli con carne and thai green curry (mildly warm food served after 6pm only, the curry may contain chicken but only if your fast enough).

  • Lady London says:

    I haven’t understood for the past couple of years why any airline has continued to invest in IFE.
    Surely the way forward is passengers bringing their own devices and only wanting power? And maybe like OpenSkies, with an ipad or similar handed out for the flight to those who don’t bring their own device?

    • Mark says:

      The London City flights to JFK do offer exactly that I believe, and similar was also offered to F passengers for a while on aircraft with the old loop IFE system until they were upgraded. As a general rule though I would rather have something built into the seat which I don’t have to hold or find somewhere to place. It would also be difficult to offer the moving map on a hand held device.

      I doubt the majority of people fly with tablets preloaded with content; assuming/expecting people to do that is unlikely to do any airline any favours. I find it is a good opportunity to watch/listen to new stuff that I wouldn’t necessarily have bought before hand anyway.

    • Tim says:

      Ba would still need to upgdade the power supplies. As I rwmber the 747 and old 777 200s have empower outlets in wtp which I have NEVER managed to get go work

      • Mark2 says:

        I have only tried once on an elderly 747 from Toronto in First (via Avios but not worth the extra). I suspected the adaptor (empower to cigarette lighter) but since I have no idea where I could test it (other than in an elderly BA 747) I was stumped. The cabin crew were very helpful but since I use a CPAP machine I was not pleased.

    • callum says:

      Not at all, no. Next time you take a long haul flight, look around. Virtually everyone is watching the IFE and hardly anyone their own tablet.

      There’s no way I could store the range of options available on my tablet, and for the same reason TV exists, sometimes I don’t want to go through the hassle of finding a reliable internet connection and preplanning what I will watch later.

      • Alan says:

        Although interestingly some systems (is it maybe Air Canda Rouge?) let you stream the video from an onboard server – that way you still have access to a wide range of content but the company saves on a lot of the cabling, etc. that’s required for a fitted system.

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