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Which European routes are British Airways flying with flat beds in Business Class?

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If you are missing your Club World flat bed, there is good news. British Airways is currently rostering its Boeing 787 aircraft on a number of European routes so if you book yourself into Club Europe you are in for a pleasant surprise.

None of the Boeing 787 fleet have the new Club Suite seat yet, but I’m sure you can survive Club World at a push ….

This is where you can find them. These dates are based on the timetable for next week but the dates should remain steady throughout August:

British Airways short haul routes using Boeing 787

The times represent the Heathrow departure time – obviously there will be a matching return flight a few hours later.

Amsterdam

  • Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday (all 08.20)

Larnaca

  • Monday (09.10), Thursday (09.25)

Moscow

  • Wednesday (13.20), Saturday (13.20)

Zurich

  • Wednesday, Sunday (all 09.35)

Athens

  • Friday (09.50)

Paris

  • Wednesday (10.55)

Stockholm

  • Friday (07.10)

Rome (Boeing 777, not a Boeing 787)

  • Friday, Sunday (both 08.20)

In addition, Iberia is still running an A350 on various flights between Heathrow and Madrid.

BA British Airways 787-9

ba.com shows you the aircraft type before you book

When you are booking a flight on ba.com, click on the ‘Flight Details’ link during the booking process. Part of the data that pops up is the aircraft type which is scheduled.

You can use our British Airways Boeing 787-8 ‘best seats’ guide to decide where to sit. If your aircraft seat plan shows a First Class cabin then you need to toggle to our Boeing 787-9 seat guide.

These flights come with a warning

When you book a British Airways flight, you are not contractually booking a certain aircraft type. If British Airways decides to swap the aircraft to a standard short haul plane, you do not have any grounds to change or refund your flight.

That said, you can refund a cash ticket for a Future Travel Voucher, or pay the standard fees to cancel an Avios booking.

If a particular flight is being run for cargo reasons then it is unlikely to switch. It is also possible, however, that BA is running these flights to give some flying hours to their 787 pilots and aircraft, keeping them airworthy, in which case it is easier to swap services about.

If you are planning a trip to any of the destinations on the list above, these are the flights to focus on. It should be easier than usual to get Avios seats given the greater capacity.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (26)

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

  • Alex Sm says:
    4 Aug4 August 06:25

    Just be careful with all this: I booked B787 flights to Moscow twice and on both occasions they swapped the a/c to old A321 or B777 and you only know that when you board. So, no way to jump off…

    • Blair says:
      4 Aug4 August 06:52

      Same. And seat map providers are no help if the seat map goes under airport control 24hrs out and the change happens subsequently.

    • John says:
      4 Aug4 August 06:59

      Aeroflot is much better around this – I’ve not had an equipment change with them yet.
      I highlight them specifically as they’re flying their new A350 to London – really superb business class product, worth a go.

      • Alex Sm says:
        4 Aug4 August 07:51

        Definitely, and even their A330s are decent (incl service and IFE)

      • Muhammad Abdullah says:
        4 Aug4 August 13:42

        But Aeroflot are expensive?

        • Alex Sm says:
          21 Aug21 August 19:36

          Well, I remember I had to go to Moscow mid-week at short notice. Aeroflot was £250 return while BA was £500 (because they still have this stupid archaic Saturday night rule for cheaper tickets)

  • PeterK says:
    4 Aug4 August 06:31

    The 787-10 has the new Club suite but doubt this type is rarely if ever allocated to any European route

  • Stuart says:
    4 Aug4 August 07:27

    Are any of these routes doable as a ‘back 2 back’ right now ?? FCO/LCA particularly ??
    (British passport)

    • Phillip says:
      4 Aug4 August 09:34

      The LCA flights are certainly bookable B2B as they have a 1.5 hour turnaround.

    • John says:
      4 Aug4 August 10:48

      Not sure B2Bs are feasible unless online check in is guaranteed to work – which it may not because of all these vaccines and test things

      • Save East Coast Rewards says:
        4 Aug4 August 13:38

        Not travelled from FCO since COVID but online check-in worked recently in Milan Linate but didn’t work (both times) in Bologna. So online check-in is possible in Italy but it doesn’t always work.
        I would say in current situations a B2B is too risky, but if you give it a go feedback how it went. Hopefully there’s a flight transit route so you don’t have to go through Italian immigration.
        Note the 5 days quarantine in Italy if you decide to stay a while in Rome, although there are loopholes around that (e.g. if you’re on a business trip of up to 5 days)

      • Phillip says:
        4 Aug4 August 18:23

        No issues with online check in in LCA. Vaccine status normally checked at the aircraft door and you’re out straight away. If you go through connections, you might have to wait 5-10 minutes for someone to show up and escort you through because there aren’t that many connections in LCA but otherwise, probably one of your safest bets. I’m not advocating for it, but overall doable. I’d say, even if the entire flight is selected for random testing on arrival, which has happened pre-vaccine rollout on a number of occasions from LHR, it’s usually a speedy process.

  • David Cumming says:
    4 Aug4 August 10:30

    i checked Larnaca and Athens, and only saw A320 or 321neo mentioned as the plane.

    Is this just in August?

  • Nick says:
    4 Aug4 August 11:07

    There’s plenty of work to keep 787 pilots recent, so it’s not to give them extra hours – these are all for Cargo reasons, which is also why they’re planned at short notice (cargo isn’t sold far in advance). Some already have cargo space booked profitably – in which case it definitely won’t be switched back – but a few are for general sale, so if they don’t sell (or sell enough to cover the additional costs), they’ll be changed a few days before. Unfortunately there’s no way publicly of knowing which is which.

  • George K says:
    4 Aug4 August 11:38

    I’ve recently done the ATH-LHR trip on the 787-8. Very pleasant, as you’d expect, in CE. I’ve done this before on the same segment a good few years back, but on a 777. The only difference was that they actually offered Club World service and food at the time, while this time it was the usual CE meal in one tray.

    More of this, please….

  • AJA says:
    4 Aug4 August 13:24

    I know they do this for the cargo but it would be nice if they put wide-body planes on longer routes like Tenerife. Larnaca is a good route to have it on.

    • Russ says:
      4 Aug4 August 14:58

      Air Europa perhaps? Think they do Gran Canaria with a change at Madrid and, wasn’t there a hint of a tie up with IAG at one point?

  • The Lord says:
    4 Aug4 August 14:37

    Nice shout out on the Calder podcast! 👍

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

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