How to see what aircraft type is operating your British Airways flight

This article outlines how you can find out what model of aircraft is operating your British Airways flight. Knowing which aircraft you will be on is important if you want to choose the best seats.

What aircraft is operating my British Airways flight?

To see which plane is operating your flight start by going to ‘Mange My Booking’ at ba.com and clicking on the detailed flight information:

When you expand the flight you will see this, which includes the aircraft type:

Whilst ‘Manage My Booking’ tells you the aircraft family, it doesn’t tell you the exact type that will operate your flight. In this example, my flight is being operated by a Boeing 787 aircraft. However, British Airways operates different models of this aircraft, both of which have different seating configurations.

Unfortunately there is no way to see the exact aircraft type on ba.com. You can, however, go into the seat map and compare it with those published on aeroLOPA, which is the best source of BA seating plans.

How to see the aircraft type before booking a BA flight

There is another way of seeing the operating aircraft on ba.com that does not involve having an existing booking.

This is useful if you are looking at flights but want to avoid or target a particular aircraft.  For example:

• economy passengers may want to avoid aircraft which are 10-abreast instead of 9-abreast

• business class passengers may want to avoid the Boeing 777 which can have up to 78 seats in one huge sub-cabin

• business class passengers may want to target an aircraft which is likely to have the brand new Club Suite business class seat – this article explains where to look

• all passengers may want to target the newest Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 aircraft which are made of composites, allowing for larger windows and better cabin pressurisation, meaning you generally feel fresher on arrival

All you have to do is create a dummy booking – eg. start the booking process. Once you have searched for your destination and dates, you can select your flight and click on ‘Flight details’:

Clicking on ‘Flight details’ will trigger a pop-up:

….. where you can clearly see the operating aircraft. Again, ba.com won’t specify the exact model, simply the aircraft family. In this case it is a Boeing 777.

To find out whether your Boeing 777 has the new Club Suite seat, you need to do a dummy booking.  Proceed to the seat selection page and look at the seat map.  If it is four-across in Business Class, you are getting Club Suite.  If it is eight-across, it is the old-style Club World. As this example is a London Gatwick departure, it is highly likely to feature the old-style seat.

(This article is part of our ‘BA Q&A’ series which explains how British Airways Executive Club works.  You can see all of our ‘BA Q&A’ articles here. )

(Head for Points is the UK’s biggest frequent flyer website with 2.5 million monthly page views.  Want to learn more about earning and spending Avios?  Click here to read our latest news stories and click here to join the mailing list for our weekly or daily email newsletters.)

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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:

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

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.

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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.

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.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.