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Cobalt Air to launch Heathrow to Larnaca flights with a new business class seat

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Cobalt Air has announced daily flights between London Heathrow and Larnaca, Cyprus from 27th March 2018.

This adds a further daily flight to Cobalt’s current flights from London Gatwick and Stansted.

The outbound flight will leave London Heathrow’s Terminal 3 at 17:20 arriving in Larnaca at 23:50 and the inbound flight will leave Larnaca at 12:45 arriving in Heathrow at 15:45.

Cobalt Air Business Seat

The Terminal 3 departure means that there are two good lounges for economy passengers if they have the right card – No 1 Lounge, reviewed here, and the new Club Aspire, reviewed here.  Cobalt will almost certainly do a deal with one of these for its business class passengers.

Flights will be operated by an A320 with 12 business class seats and 144 economy seats featuring Cobalt’s new business product as shown in the picture below.

Larnaca is one of the longest BA short-haul routes and there are occasional rumours, increasing recently, of it switching to a long-haul aircraft.  The Club Europe seat on a Boeing 767 really is not acceptable for a flight of 4 hours and 40 minutes.

I think this looks like an impressive alternative to BA on this route.  You can find out more on the Cobalt website here.

Category

General

Comments (134)

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

  • Tom Cook says:
    25 Jan25 January 08:29

    Thanks Genghis.

    • Stu N says:
      25 Jan25 January 09:48

      I’m a hold on this. Off the top of my head, of things I would have lost had I cancelled I’ve had:
      – one FHR booking with big upgrade to a vast corner suite from a standard room plus and €100 free spend and free breakfast on what were already competitive rates
      – 2 referrals = 30ish MRs and I may slip in a third before the year is up. Plus bonus points for supplementary card and taking out the Companion credit card
      – about £400 of statement credit on things I would have spent money on anyway
      – 2 visits to Delta lounges and 1 to Amex Centurion lounges in US
      – half a dozen lounge visits in Europe via PP
      – ability to keep MRs as convertible currency

      So overall pretty good value. The referral changes are potentially very valuable too – 18k to any card will quickly add up.

    • Stu N says:
      25 Jan25 January 09:50

      Plus travel insurance and car hire insurance which has saved probably £150-200 vs stand-alone policies

  • Joan says:
    25 Jan25 January 08:57

    I really hope they change the BA planes to Larnaca before May . I booked using my companion voucher as I hadn’t used it and it was due to expire . Thought it would be a nice trip for some early sun for my partner’s birthday . And I thought £100 got two business class flights wasn’t bad …. until I realised it was the same seating as short haul for flights of nearly 5 hours ☹️. He is 6ft 3 …. he’s not going to like it

    • Chris L says:
      25 Jan25 January 09:12

      I’ve done the same, Joan. Actually one advantage of the 767 which is normally used is they still have the old CE seats which are a bit more roomy than the economy seats (and especially more so than those on the A320s!). If you book the middle section of a 767 you get a blocked out middle seat as well, so slightly more space that the window sections in 2s. If you’re on the earlier flight it’s normally an A320, but the later departure (BA0662) has normally been a 767, though these are being retired this year and things are therefore uncertain.

      • Joan says:
        25 Jan25 January 09:14

        Thanks Chris – I’ve booked middle for the outward journey . Looks like 2 / 2 configuration for the return so I guess that’s a different plane

        • Chris L says:
          25 Jan25 January 09:21

          Probably an A320 on the way back, which means in Club Europe you’ll still get a blocked out middle seat with a little table on it. OK it’s not the most comfortable way to travel in the world, but you’ll be more comfortable than those in Economy!! Bear in mind you’ll also have lounge access, priority boarding, a 3-course meal with champagne and wine, and 4 x 32kg bags of luggage between you for your souvenirs. You could do worse for £100!

      • Joan says:
        25 Jan25 January 09:31

        Yes we went to Valencia club Europe last week ( obviously a much shorter flight ) and I was surprised at how tasty the food was – we had a lovely lunch coming back of four courses ! And on the way out I had to have champagne at 6.30am in the lounge … well it was my birthday!

        • Anna says:
          25 Jan25 January 09:45

          Well of course, and it’s the absolute best way to wash down a bacon roll!

    • Leo says:
      25 Jan25 January 12:57

      The business seats on the 767 are fine for legroom – 6’1 here and had loads of room coming back from ARN this month.

  • Louise says:
    25 Jan25 January 09:06

    I just cancelled my Plat, as I was approaching my original gold anniversary and didn’t want to be charged the fee, however because my husband now has the platinum it was an easier decision. It may not be if Amex do change the rules re sign up bonus

    • Steve says:
      25 Jan25 January 10:28

      So, if I have the gold Amex (first year without charge) and I upgrade to Plat, I will be charged £450 on the Gold anniversary? I thought I will be charged straight away.

  • Andrew says:
    25 Jan25 January 09:19

    I dithered between Virgin and BA…

    But then once I added the mental filters for points, lounge and so forth and focussed on the economy product to get me from London to New York, I went for United.

    It surprised me too.

  • Geoff says:
    25 Jan25 January 09:36

    OT re Curve card: anyone understand the waitlist system? Applied for a consumer card a few days ago and my place was about 50000. Next day it dropped to 7000ish, but no movement at all after that. Did they really issue a batch of 43000 cards in one go and then stop?
    Not sure if I should expect a card in days, weeks, months, or years.
    (I know you can improve your position by referring – haven’t tried that yet.)
    Thanks for any enlightenment.

    • FlyingChris says:
      25 Jan25 January 09:41

      Exactly the same. Used Rob’s link, jumped to 7000ish from 49,000ish overnight. Referred the other half. She got instantly through and I haven’t moved any further! How bizarre. Hoping she hasn’t actually got the business version by mistake.

    • Anna says:
      25 Jan25 January 09:59

      +1, it now seems to be dropping slowly day on day. I don’t need mine until my Lloyds MasterCard earning year restarts next month so I’ll just keep an eye on it.

  • Nigel says:
    25 Jan25 January 09:48

    Arriving in Larnaca at 23.50…….very useful. Clearly stealing a trick from Lyin’ Air.

  • meta says:
    25 Jan25 January 09:57

    O/T I’m reading in some foreign press that all licensed Amex cards in the EU must end by 31 Dec 2019.

    • Rob says:
      25 Jan25 January 10:04

      Thanks. Got a link?

      • meta says:
        25 Jan25 January 12:52

        It’s Croatian actually. I tried posting the links earlier, but it didn’t work. Maybe I pressed something wrongz Actually there is a link in that article to official Amex website in English which says that all licence agreements in the EU have been terminated on 12 January.

      • meta says:
        25 Jan25 January 12:58

        “Statement on the Revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) in the European Union
        January 12, 2018 – The combined impact of the EU Payments Package – including price caps, separation of payment scheme and processing operations, pan-European licensing, and network access requirement – impose a regulatory burden on the American Express licensing business that renders it no longer viable. American Express has, therefore, taken the decision to exit all of its licensing arrangements in the EU. As a result of this, American Express will no longer be operating a licensing business within the EU and no new licenses will be issued. The company has terminated its licenses with its existing partners, and is in the process of winding down those operations.”

  • Stuart_f says:
    25 Jan25 January 10:10

    Also bear in mind the £450 is refunded pro-rata if you cancel so there’s no major loss if you hang on for another month to see what changes with sign up bonuses before cancelling.

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