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Evelop to fly London Gatwick to New York for British Airways – without fully flat business class

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Whilst British Airways continues to struggle with engine issues on its Boeing 787 fleet, it has chartered an A330 from Spanish airline Evelop to operate the Gatwick to New York flight.

It will cover flights between 27th October and 12th January.

It appears to be an ex-Singapore Airlines regional aircraft.  This aircraft does NOT have flat beds in business class – they are the ‘slope at an angle to the floor’ variety, which most airlines got rid of years ago.

Evelop operating New York flights for British Airways

British Airways is allowing anyone booked onto this service to switch, free of charge, to any British Airways-operated service from New York to Heathrow.  If you are on the day flight outbound then the 2 x 2 x 2 seating should be OK, especially if you are travelling with a partner and so don’t mind being directly next to someone.

If you are on the overnight return, I would be tempted to switch.  If you are smart, of course, you will try to switch to an A350 (although none are currently scheduled on JFK) or Boeing 777 service with Club Suite!

There is a photo below so you can make up your own mind.

There is also no Premium Economy on this Evelop aircraft, so those passengers will need to move to a Heathrow service or accept a downgrade to Economy.  Economy passengers can also switch to a BA service if they prefer.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (96)

  • Liam says:
    22 Oct22 October 15:24

    OT — I’m considering using the Virgin two-for-one voucher next summer for a LAX–LHR round-trip. I have no Virgin status so it will only be economy, but is it possible to ring up and ask Virgin to book this as two separate legs rather than a return and still use the two-for-one? I’ll save a couple of hundred dollars on taxes/charges if I can do that.

  • Chris L says:
    22 Oct22 October 15:34

    OT Flybe news – they now have a 737 simulator. I wonder why?
    https://twitter.com/flybe/status/1186643465813319681?s=21

    • Rob says:
      22 Oct22 October 16:39

      That’s not happening! There were rumours over A220s but the new CEO was not in a hurry when I saw him last week to buy anything.

  • Anna says:
    22 Oct22 October 16:43

    OT – balance transfers, hopefully the finance experts on here can help. If you transfer a balance to a another credit card, are purchases on that card then charged interest, even if the purchase element of the statement balance is paid in full each month? Just looking at Lloyds and IHG MCs and this appears to be the case, which begs the question why would anyone use them?

    • Shoestring says:
      22 Oct22 October 16:47

      it all depends on the card

      for example, you can get a Sainsburys Purchases card where purchases up to your limit are interest free for about 30 months

      the same card allows BTs – you pay a small % fee (3%?) for the BTs – but then they are interest free as well for your 30 months, ie are considered as part of your interest free limit

      • Shoestring says:
        22 Oct22 October 16:56

        sounds like it’s down to 25 months these days
        https://www.sainsburysbank.co.uk/credit-cards/dual-credit-card

        • PaulC says:
          22 Oct22 October 18:33

          Just applied for that card last night.
          Does anyone know if you can use it with Curve at ATM’s without any fee and it will be 0% for the 25months?
          Wasn’t my initial plan so doesn’t matter but would allow me to keep hold of savings untill 0% interest runs out.

          • Shoestring says:
            22 Oct22 October 18:47

            worth considering that whilst we (the points people!) are generally concerned about getting 1% or better on points/ spend – then using said points to get a better outcome

            eg Tesco—>Clubcard—>Avios—>saving vs cash price of ticket
            BAPP (& Avios)—>2-4-1—>saving vs 2x tickets

            the purchases cards/ B/T/ stoozing people can be regularly turning in results such as 3%

    • Nick M says:
      22 Oct22 October 20:58

      I could be mistaken, but I think new rules have been introduced so that the highest cost elements of the balance get paid first… I currently have a 0% BT on my Hilton card for example… If I spend on it, I pay that amount back and the BT element remains the same. If I don’t then I make sure to pay at least the minimum amount and the BT reduces

    • Charlieface says:
      22 Oct22 October 21:56

      I think some of the cards have been getting around recent regulations on most-expensive-balance-first by only paying off transactions on existing statements, not current un-statemented balances. So in those cases only pay off purchases after the statement is generated each month.

    • lumma says:
      22 Oct22 October 23:49

      In my experience if you have a balance transfer on a card then you lose the interest free period on other purchases as you’re not paying the balance due each month. What you would need to do if you buy anything on the card is wait for the purchase to show on the card then pay it off the same day to avoid paying interest.

      Any payment made should pay off the part of the balance that accrues the most interest first however

  • Prins Polo says:
    22 Oct22 October 19:30

    Selling what is effectively premium economy as business class is just dishonest behavior by BA.

    The booking process mentions the LGW flight is operated by Evelop but suggests this is just regular Club World. How is an average traveler supposed to know he’s paying for flat-bed business class on his transatlantic trip but getting the same thing as Norwegian’s premium economy on this route over the past couple of months.

  • Mark says:
    31 Oct31 October 21:02

    Just flew back JFK-LGW in the Evelop business. Wasn’t sure what to expect after some negative reviews however I could not find fault with the journey back. The crew were marvelous, nothing was too much trouble. It was club BA catering and white company bedding etc. OK so the seat wasn’t complete flat but after an express dinner I slept very comfortably until woken for breakfast.

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