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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.

  • Graeme says:

    I ordered an insulated box on the evening of Thursday the 26th and aside from the order confirmation I heard nothing until it arrived at 8am yesterday. It’s exactly as described – with the bonus of a tray in the top, so now I have the perfect shelf for my new desk pedestal (castors arriving today). I’m really pleased with it.

    I appreciate that the wait is annoying people, but we know they’re genuine and we know they’re not going to reply to e-mails, so try to let it go and be patient.

    • Stuart says:

      When they don’t respond to any emails then patience is not going to sort my incorrect and incomplete order, or get me a refund. I am entitled to my money back if they can’t fulfil this. I ordered at 0800 on Monday 23rd and I have given them over 10 days to contact me hence the chargeback through my credit card.

      • Andrew says:

        Whatever happened to “Allow 28 days for delivery”?

        • Stuart says:

          It is not the delivery time that is an issue for me – it is the fact that there is no response whilst I am trying to speak to someone about returning the incorrect items and, at some point receiving the correct order.
          There is no way of communicating – how long am I supposed to let them keep my money without anything being sorted? If they say there is a wait time I am not bothered, but to not respond when I have emailed on numerous occasions is not acceptable to me.
          Why not put a message on their website to assure people that they are aware there have been mistakes but they are working though them?

      • Graeme says:

        Oh no, of course you don’t need to be patient then! I’d be incredibly unhappy. I really just meant us grumbling because of no news or delivery.

  • ND says:

    Received everything ordered within a couple of days of the order. All well-packaged and no missing or damaged items. Beautiful quality and enjoying using them. Interesting how many items are popping up on eBay now at several times the original price paid. It was a great sale, only wish we had found out sooner as some of the things we wanted were out of stock by the time we got onto the site.

  • Chris Heyes says:

    Is this still a story or a “mis story”
    What most seem to believe is that the stuff being sold is from 747s
    and nostalgic and desirable lol
    None of that is actually true its never seen a 747 in its life its been in some warehouse somewhere.
    You maybe lucky and ordered box’s, trolleys ect,
    but if you think they have all been used on 747s how do you know your only presuming that, it could be any unknown aircraft
    If you got something (like me) you wanted or needed well done but don’t think it was necessary anything to do with 747s
    What do you think ?

    • Andrew says:

      Yes I’m pleased the crockery and blankets are all brand new and not actually having been used on a 747.

    • Rob says:

      Don’t think anyone has linked it to the 747. It is true that it has never been used in the air but I think 90% of buyers prefer it that way!

    • Paul says:

      The trolleys and boxes are only compatible with BA’s 747’s and 777’s – so if it was used there was a good change it had a trip on a 747.

  • Andrew says:

    Third most read story on BBC News 😂 BA will want this mess to go away, so I’m sure orders will be sent out in the next day or so.

  • Mattw says:

    Since I’ve been in hiding – a question.

    Are these sales still on?

    I am in need of crockery to re-equip since I lost mum last year, and really need a new start rather than their wedding pottery from about 1960.

  • chef says:

    Pasta bowls and Nut bowls received today in perfect condition having had shipping notice yesterday.
    Very pleased with my purchases.

    • Andrew says:

      The pasta bowls are my favourite – that ultra subtle pattern around the edge. Using a medium dinner plate as a charger below looks good too.

      • Kurt Krsut says:

        Can I ask what size they are? Smallish or proper restaurant main course past size?

        • Andrew says:

          They’re like the size you might get in Carluccios or somewhere like that – not enormous but reasonable size. The concept behind new First was that everything is full size rather than “plane size”.

        • chef says:

          They’re a decent size, plenty big enough for a pasta main course.

        • MKB says:

          The pasta bowls are 211mm diameter and 42mm deep.

    • CH says:

      they are lovely. I thought I had bought 8 but only have 4! but have 18 of the small bowls! :/

  • Tmw says:

    I emailed today to the email on the PayPal confirmation. I later got a letter to apologise for the delay that told me goods were now being shipped

  • AndyS says:

    In case anyone is interested, champagne glasses are back in stock, and “hidden” under general rather than first class.

    • Andrew says:

      That’s where they always were listed and never went out of stock – these aren’t First class champagne classes, they aren’t even Club World – these are Club Europe mini ones, which is why they are listed in the “other“ section.

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

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