Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

British Airways continuing to run Boeing 787 aircraft on European routes

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

A couple of weeks ago we covered BA’s decision to run, for cargo purposes, Boeing 787 long-haul aircraft on European routes. The story was picked up elsewhere including by The Independent.

The sweet spot, of course, was booking Club Europe and getting a flat bed for your European hop.

British Airways has now extended this service until Sunday 19th September, so it might be worth a look for a quiet break once the kids are back in school. I am told that they are likely to continue until the end of year and IAG Cargo is selling the space on that basis. The flights will not be updated in ba.com until nearer the date of travel.

British Airways short haul routes using Boeing 787

Here are the participating routes. 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)

Frankfurt

  • Friday, Sunday (all 08.00)

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.

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.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Comments (30)

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

  • NutJuice69 says:

    On BAPP, spend £5k, get additional 10k bonus Avios. Ends Nov 30.

    • Gothbe says:

      Same here on BAPP. Nothing on business platinum card

    • Paul pogba says:

      I’ve got this, what happens to offers saved to the BAPP card if you downgrade to the free/blue card?

    • Robert says:

      Same. Given I’m holding out on the £1.5k to trigger the 241 as close to mid-December as I can, I definitely won’t be doing £5k by end-November. Someone else can nab my space

      • Paul Pogba says:

        I have £41 to spend after 1 September to trigger the 241, my card year then ends on 5 Sep at which point I was planning to downgrade to the free card until I get close to £9.5k of spend. Trying to decide whether the new increased card fee (~£60 till Nov) is worth the risking 10,000 bonus points.

  • Beardless Hipster says:

    On free BA Amex, spend £2000 anywhere, get 2000 bonus avios

    • John says:

      Mine is £1000 for 1500 avios

      I haven’t used the card that much except for the Hilton offers

    • FFoxSake says:

      I upgraded to BAPP at the weekend and only got the spend £2K for 2K bonus avios today. Bit of a lag on the offers it seems…

  • Goldflyer40 says:

    I’ve done a test booking for the 787 Athens service. When it comes to the seat selection the system offered me rows 1 – 13. Could it be that BA is selling the last 4 rows of Premium Economy as Business Class? I assume it is a 787-8 and not -9 as the latter as 2 rows of First Class and Business Class only starts in row 5.
    So there might be some disappointment when the expected flat bed turns out to be a better economy seat.

    • tony says:

      Yes. There’s an amusing thread on Flyertalk where someone booked CE on a 787, was seated in the premium economy cabin and then wanted to pursue BA for EU261 compensation.

      • Graham says:

        That is hilarious. Self entitlement taken to a whole new level.

        • Paul says:

          No it is not! It was a very sensible question and often BA apologists are made to look silly when the airlines position has been defended to the death and then shown by courts and arbitration to be indefensible.
          One example of this was the airlines position on ticket validity. Flyer talk is awash with comments that a year is reasonable but BA lost a number of arbitration battles and finally changed their policy. WTP, it could be reasonably argued is not club Europe so the posters question on flyer talk was reasonable and he never suggested he was entitled

          • Gary says:

            I personally received compensation when the same thing happened to me on the way back from Athens last October. On the advice of a poster here on HfP I started a money claim and they BA paid 3 weeks later.

  • Hymie says:

    Hi just checked mine premium £5000 spend 10000 points by the end of november so not to shabby plus that will get me my 2 for 1. only changed the card over in august on the back of the other article. Thanks Rob

  • Simon says:

    I’ve got spend £35,000 by 16th November get 35,000 additional bonus points on my Business Platinum card. Seeing as our average spend is about £5,000 up to a maximum ever of about £10,000 this seems a bit steep.

    Is it possible to ask Amex to lower these bonus targets?

    • Graham says:

      Ask via chat and see how it goes. I’m pretty sure you’ll be told no but doesn’t hurt to try.

  • Josh Critchley says:

    Stockholm one is good.
    Take back door into Sweden for it. Fly to Helsinki (just need covid vac), land into schengen. Then no checks in Arlanda on arrivals from Helsinki

    • Chrisasaurus says:

      That’s quite possibly true but the article was about flying in Europe in a 787 and a flight to Helsinki to avoid Covid restrictions doesn’t accomplish that…

      Assuming you mean out Helsinki but return from Stockholm it is a bit fiddly…

  • Mark says:

    No offer on my business platinum. Is it only targeted then? Article says all bus plat?

  • MW says:

    No offer on my Business Platinum but the £5k offer is on my BAPP

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

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.