First review of the new British Airways 787-9 Dreamliner

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• Aspirational Flyer says:

  9 Nov9 November 10:16

  I have just come off the new BA 787-900 in the last three hours or so on a flight from Abu Dhabi. Great new aircraft and a good flight (despite the 2:45am departure!). I was travelling in WTP and to was only half full with the seat next to me empty – one of my best experiences flying longhaul on BA (including in Club World!)

• planeflyer says:

  9 Nov9 November 11:11

  I flew MCT-AUH-LHR last week in WT and thought the experience was pretty good. The IFE was really excellent, especially compared to the 747. The seating I flet was ok. Not as good as the A380 or 77W, but better than the 747. I’ve not flown the 787-8, so can’t compare that.

• Anthony Dunn says:

  9 Nov9 November 12:24

  The Club Kitchen went west (another “customer-related service improvement…”!? Err not) at least a couple of years ago. Yet another manifestation of the bean-counting approach to the hard product at BA/IAG.

  BA will eventually get around to updating the ting-yang arrangement and It’s my understanding that the new A350 will see this rolled out. Altogether odd when you might have thought that BA would wish to implement this across all of their much trumpeted new aircraft entering into service.

  • Mark says:

    9 Nov9 November 12:58

    It was fine on our A380 flight a couple of weeks ago, including ice cream!

    • RK says:

      9 Nov9 November 15:46

      Club kitchen was one of the things I was looking forward to on my first BA J flight. I was disappointed that it was basically a selection of funsize mars bars and small packets of nuts. I am flying AA J soon so am keen to see what their version of club kitchen is like (it looks much better).

• Chris says:

  9 Nov9 November 13:23

  NOT having the herringbone layout as other airlines, is the reason why I prefer to fly WITH BA.
  If you travel alone, the herringbone layout is maybe the better choice.
  But I never travel alone and I like to see and have a conversation with my partner, which is quite impossible with a herringbone layout…

• AndyGWP says:

  9 Nov9 November 14:24

  Off Topic:

  The wife received an email earlier today from BA Executive Club, informing her of the Tesco Clubcard conversion 20% bonus 🙂

  “Now, you can get away even sooner, with 20% bonus Avios for every £10 in Tesco Clubcard vouchers you exchange before midnight 30 November 2015. This means that instead of 2,400 Avios for every £10, you’ll enjoy 2,880 Avios to spend on your next British Airways flight.

  Exchange your Tesco Clubcard points automatically? You’ll still receive 2,880 Avios for every 1,000 Clubcard points exchanged.

  So, whether you fancy catching some winter sun, or enjoying a white Christmas on the slopes, your grocery shop could help take you there.”

• Liz says:

  9 Nov9 November 14:25

  OT: I have just received the “email” from BAEC under my daughters account for the 20% bonus – this email has a link to Tesco clubcard page. Just hope we all still get the bonus even though we have already converted!!!

  • Peter K says:

    9 Nov9 November 22:24

    I’ve got it today as well. I think however that if enough people complain then it will be paid! How many people look at the small terms and conditions accessed by a separate link. Certainly not many I would have thought, compared to those who see the big 20% extra on the main page. HfP readers are the minority in this sort of thing.

• James67 says:

  9 Nov9 November 15:56

  Thanks to Alan for the review. While an aircraft of this size and efficiency seems to be paying off for development of regional secondary routes, I’m not quite comfortable with the possibility that this and similar aircraft may come to dominate the supposedly overcrowded and full to capacity heathrow, in particular on BA for which it is the home airport and controls most of the slots. Why build a third runway with all its environmental and social conseauenies only to see airlines phase out 300+ seat aircraft in favour of 209 seat aircraft? Presumably the environmental footprint per passenger of doing so may also be greater than for larger aircraft despite the increased efficiency of the new planes? I read (but don’t know whether it is true or not) that the a380 has both the smallest operating cost and smallest environmental footprint of any aircraft even with a load of just 80%. Presumably smaller aircraft with less seats also means less competition, less choice and higher fares, and less redemption seats as Raffles points out in the review. It seems odd to me that on a route that they once likely operated with 744s, BA is now content to operate a 209 seat aircraft, particularly given it’s a huge country with a rapidly growing population and has a very sizable community here in the UK. LH, EY, EK and I believe SQ are all already or planning to run a380s to India, so why can’t BA? Heathrow seems to be top choice for other airlines to operate their a380s: i jut cannot imagine why BA with the prime opportunity at the airport is going the opposite direction, particularly given the fact they themselves had one of the largest fleets of 747s.

  • Mark says:

    9 Nov9 November 17:33

    Putting the various pieces together I suspect the plan is to replace 747s on some routes with 3 class 777-200ERs (~270 seats), where an F cabin doesn’t justify itself financially and it doesn’t warrant the Y capacity of the mid-J (~330 seat) 747s. In turn we can then expect to see 787-9s replacing 4 class 777-200(ER)s as is the case on the Delhi, Abu Dhabi and Austin routes with a small drop in F and J capacity.

    A large fleet of A380s to compare with the 747 fleet at its peak was never on the cards. They work well on some routes but in many cases they are simply far too big. It’s not in BAs interests to flood the market with cheap seats, fly with a significant proportion of seats unsold, or reduce frequencies to key business destinations such as New York. In addition many airports can’t accommodate them. Only 8 US airports currently do – BA already flies them to half of those.

    • Tariq says:

      10 Nov10 November 06:31

      The other issue with the 388 is cargo capacity. More frequent single decker aircraft increase the overall cargo capacity and give more flexibility to run with lower pax yields. Unless we are some kind of A380 combi (unlikely due to the safety risk)?

    • Steve says:

      12 Nov12 November 13:32

      The problem with the A380 is not only can the airport handle it, but what are the diversion alternatives. The A380 has to carry a lot of fuel if it needs to divert, that automatically cancels out a lot of routes it can fly and be commercially successful.

      We now go to KEF in Iceland, the alternate of the weather is bad or technical issue is Glasgow!

      • Rob says:

        12 Nov12 November 14:38

        True. When I was with SAS earlier in the year and we were discussing how they select new routes, part of the issue is diversionary airports. There are places where, technically, their planes can reach from Scandinavia with a full tank but (taking into account the maximum possible fuel burn required assuming the least advantageous weather conditions en route) they would not have enough fuel to reach a suitable alternative airport if necessary.

        There are also airports where you can land a plane but from where the same plane cannot take off, because you need more runway length on departure. Do you want to take the risk of finding your very expensive A380 stranded on a runway from which it cannot depart?!

• Paul says:

  9 Nov9 November 17:17

  The club kitchen is exactly the same layout as the 787-8? There is still the fridge!

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