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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.

  • Andrew says:

    Glad in a way to find this page and see Im not the only one waiting for 3 orders made over a 2 day period right at the start, but when you see notes from some who ordered after the 23rd/24th and have received stuff and Im still is a little concerning as to how they are running the logistics behind this for ‘in stock’ stuff!

  • Graham D says:

    From the K+N website:

    “ Every day, we go above and beyond to meet the needs of our customers. By anticipating challenges and applying our visionary mindset, we advance global trade and bring communities together”

    Right ho…

  • CE says:

    Received a tracking code yesterday – which did not track – and received part of the related order against a different DPD code today. Assuming the rest will come soon – still waiting on one other separate order that was done later in the week. It will come, they have just been overwhelmed – just patience is needed.

    The stuff I have received is brand new and fantastic quality (all tableware/china and was very well protected in the box) – so look forward to getting the rest.

    • CE says:

      The other half arrived this morning around 2h later, so things are getting to people, slowly.

    • Andrew says:

      Yes BA confirmed at the start that only the galley boxes were used, everything else such as crockery, glasses and blankets were all brand new. I’m really pleased with my new dining set, like you say, great quality and worth the wait.

  • Emma says:

    I placed 2 orders on the 25 Nov and 6 working days later I am still waiting for delivery or even a notification of a delivery. The 2 Contact Numbers on the bottom of the invoice are permanently engaged. I’m beginning to wonder if I’ve been scammed! Has anyone actually received their items from the BA yet?

    • Andrew says:

      Yes I’ve had my 4 deliveries made across the week last week arrive now. It seems luck of the draw when and what you get but seems orders are now getting through.

  • WG says:

    Has anyone experienced more mishaps with the packing? I have received one side plate (Club) less and wrong set of casserole dishes – emailed whatabuy and no response? (The phone still appears engaged).

    • Andrew says:

      Did you pay by PayPal? The email that’s in the PayPal confirmation is responsive.

      • WG says:

        No, debit card.
        Unfortunately no response back from them still. My friend got a box with 2/6 bowls broken, so simila contact issues

    • Jane says:

      Still no response to any of my emails, and no answer on the phones. Got 2 items, both wrong and missing the other 3. I have just done a chargeback through my credit card as they haven’t the courtesy to even send a generic email. It is not the wait I am bothered about but the fact that there is no way to contact anyone.

      • JMadrid says:

        I have now raised this as a dispute with Paypal. I still have not received my original order and neither Whatabuy or the Kuehne-Nagel emails are responding. I hope that they will resend me what I ordered, it is really starting to get on my nerve as well.

  • Neil says:

    Recieved a dispatch email this afternoon for an order placed on the 23rd in the morning.

  • planeconcorde says:

    Now the BBC News web site has an article about the problems with the sale, referring to HFP.
    Does Rob know that the BBC thinks the HeadforPoints Web site is Rhys’s? As the caption to one of the photos says “Rhys Jones, from Head for Points, says that despite criticism of BA, most of his website’s readers are happy”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55160584

    • Rhys says:

      “From”, not “owner”! That’s how we quoted them since I’ve been doing all the media for this particular story 🙂 would be odd to have Rob with a photo of me!

      • planeconcorde says:

        “his website’s” was the bit which caught my eye. 😉

        • Rob says:

          ‘His’ as in ‘the business he represents’ 🙂

          Most readers know that I have never had any interest in being well known or recognised and I am more than happy to pass the baton on this story to Rhys, who in any event was the one who first picked up on it and wrote the original article.

          • Chris Heyes says:

            Rob, I’ve seen you a few times disguised as Rhys “are you sure your not Rhys” lol

      • Mike P says:

        Nice work! Did you buy all the F crockery in your photo?!

        I’m counting myself lucky to have all my stuff within a reasonable amount of time, with the exception of the coasters where I was one of the people only to get 3 of them! Probably should complain, but it sounds as if my complaint probably will be at the back of a long list!

        • Rhys says:

          No, most of it is for a competition we are going to run soon 🙂

        • Andrew says:

          I too got just the 3 singular coasters – I emailed the contact on the PayPal receipt and 3 rolls arrived the next day. So it’s worth getting in touch.

  • Doc says:

    Rhys is getting famous. You might need to give him a pay rise to retain him Rob.😀
    Good PR for your team.

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

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