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You can buy British Airways First Class crockery and bedding: the sale is now live

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And now, from Waterside …. it’s the Sale of the Century!*

Over the course of the last few months lots of airlines have been selling off their excess stock of amenity kits, snacks and even entire (stocked) bar carts.

Whilst some of BA’s catering partners have sold off their stock (such as the Speedbird IPA by Brewdog and Pickering’s Centenary Gin) British Airways has not sold anything directly ……. until now.

BA First Afternoon Tea William Edwards crockery
BA First afternoon tea on William Edwards crockery

British Airways is selling a number of items from the First Class service including a range of bedding and crockery. In the press release it said:

“Although the at-home experience is no match for the real thing, customers or collectors can pick up items such as William Edwards plates, soup bowls, cups, saucers and even a butter dish for reasonable prices, allowing them to create an authentic First Class dining experience at home.”

Bread baskets, hot towels (which arrive cold!), hot towel plates, champagne flutes, coasters and the Club World casserole dish are also be available, as will the First Class slippers and day blanket.

All of the crockery and bedding is brand new, for clarity!

William Edwards crockery British Airways First class
The BA First William Edwards crockery

Why is BA selling First Class stock?

Given none of the items listed are perishable, you would think that BA would be happy to hold on to them rather than sell them.

It would not be the first time BA sells off excess stock. Staff sales are a semi-regular occurrence at HQ; Covid-19 may just have pushed this online.

There are a few reasons why BA might have chosen to liquidate its stock:

BA thinks it can raise some cash from the sale of the items, which can only be positive given the flying outlook for the winter;

The retirement of the 747 fleet and the significant reduction in available First Class seats means BA now has an abundance of crockery and bedding, more than it can realistically make use of in the coming years;

The lack of flying in the past months means that breakage has significantly reduced, leaving BA with a mountain of items;

It plans to introduce a new service in the near future (this is, I accept, very unlikely given the current situation and the fact that the William Edwards crockery is only 18 months old!)

The First bedding has a thread count of 400….

Anything off the trolley dears?

The sale is now live and it turns out that the range of items is far more eclectic than we first expected …..

In addition to the family china, British Airways is also selling a range of general items, where you can buy stuff such as aircraft catering boxes or a waste top loader trolley for £150!

Notably absent, however, are amenity kits or first pyjamas.

The bargain of the day? You could get a set of 6 larger (28cm) dinner plates for £5! However, it turned out that this was a BA IT error and it should have read £50 ….!

How to buy

Looking at stock sales by other airlines, these items are likely to sell out fast.

The link to buy is here, and is now live. Click on ‘British Airways’ in the menu bar.

Let us know what you manage to pick up! If you want to use your British Airways American Express to pay, select PayPal as your payment option as Amex is not accepted directly.

We have bought a few items which we intend to give away in a reader competition in a few weeks.

*We know this is a misquote. You can see the Sale of the Century title sequence here, featuring a brief glimpse of a BA aircraft in Negus livery.


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Comments (445)

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

  • Neil says:

    The following message appears on the checkout page when making a new order

    “Following unprecedented levels of demand for British Airways stock we regretfully inform that some customers may find some minor delays to deliveries.
    We thank you for your understanding and want you to know that we are doing our upmost to fulfil all orders as soon as possible.”

    They must have had close to 10,000 orders based on the difference in order numbers between now and Last Monday when they started selling.

  • TFC says:

    To be fair I’ve got a whole brand new posh dinner service for about £300 – which is about 8-10x less than it would have cost based on the pricing on the William Edwards website had I bought the Spiro range, which is the same. Plus I get a little smile for lots of happy memories in 1/2A when I stick them in the dishwasher.

  • Alex Sm says:

    Why on Earth would one buy these bulky metal boxes? What are the realistic options for their use at home? Any ideas?

    • Graeme says:

      Mine will be a desk pedestal of sorts.

      • Alex Sm says:

        I guess until someone hits it with their little toe… be careful about using things for something they are not meant for

    • Neil says:

      Full ones , I will attempt to attach some castor wheels and make a small coffee table with storage inside , and the half ones will be for my pending paperwork at home.

      • Andrew says:

        The Club World black trays for sale on the site for £10 for 5, slide into the grooves of the boxes and carts to form shelves. I can confirm the trays are all brand new.

  • pking says:

    wow, some crazy entitled buyers on this thread.

  • Stuart B says:

    Those suggesting the comments of the distressed are unwarranted and entitled should bear the following in mind:
    – we have spent many hundreds of pounds with an unknown retailer;
    – we have been lured in by a “once only” deal and with no competition, and with an enormous brand giving their tacit endorsement
    – the website offers sales terms which include delivery in 3 working days, and many of us got no information about dispatch until the fifth working day;
    – various indications have shown that these clowns have got in way over their heads, with delivery errors and basic pricing mistakes – this does not inspire confidence;
    – we have had no opportunity to make communication when mistakes have been made, with important contact sources like the telephone numbers on invoices being simply Ignored.

    Perhaps some of the readers of this blog can afford to have a few hundred pounds missing at such a difficult time with none of the normal expectations of professionalism to suggest you haven’t just been scammed. Not all of us.

    We do not believe instant next day delivery is necessary, but some measure of efficiency, some customer service, and some means reassurance is not too much to ask. It was whatAJoke themselves who set unrealistic expectations. Do not chastise those of us who would ask them to simply meet those obligations, the same way we would expect an airline to meet our reasonable expectations too.

    • Dubious says:

      With respect, no one forced anyone to buy anything; everyone made their own choice and is responsble for doing their own due diligence. If people rush into over leveraging themselves without thinking, perhaps an evaluation of their own self-control is in order?

      Delivery terms were 3 working days; that’s the speed of the delivery, not of the despatch.

      If you don’t want to deal with clowns don’t expect bargin prices; instead expect to pay higher margins or just buy at full price from an establish retailer. Everything in life is a trade-off.

      The real issue here as I see it is the lack of communications; everything else is par for course.

      • Andrew says:

        Dubious – please do link to the website where the BA First crockery is available full price from an established retailer so we can buy them from there.

    • pking says:

      unknown retailer – their website is 8 years old, a 9 year old eBay account with 100% positive feedback, promoted directly by British Airways, you’re right, it just screams SCAM!

      And you ordered during the biggest online shopping week of the year, in the middle of a panademic, from a sale that was the most read story on bbc.co.uk on Monday and yet you wonder why they seem a bit busy?

      If you can’t afford to have a few hundred pounds ‘missing’ for a few days, maybe don’t spend hundreds of pounds on BA tat ?

    • Chris Heyes says:

      Is this all Rhys “FAULT” lol my 30 Dinner plates for £25 arrived quickly and safely ordered first half hour, awaiting rest though
      so they did honor their error of 6 dinner plates for £5

  • JMadrid says:

    Has anyone been able to get their orders corrected? Mine arrived yesterday and they gave me the wrong order. I wrote to Whatabuy and the Khuehne-Nagel email and it seems like they went through. I did not get a bounce back email.

    I’m just curious if anyone was able to get theirs corrected yet.

    • Andrew says:

      Yes they’ve corrected my order and were very apologetic.

    • Carol says:

      Not yet. I had acknowledgement from the contact from – that was Thursday. I assume once all the orders have dried up they can remedy the mistakes!

  • Nigel W says:

    Good news finally, got my dispatch notification for my order! Of course the DPD number doesn’t work.

  • richard says:

    whatabuy says A+ does that mean the BA cups etc are second hand?

    • Andrew says:

      All brand new. Only used items are the galley boxes/trolleys. Can confirm all crockery arrives in factory packaging.

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