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British Airways adds new A380 routes to the US and Canada with good Avios availability

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British Airways has been tweaking its A380 North America schedule for 2022. This has led to my Easter flight to San Francisco being swapped to a Boeing 777, but on the upside it is showing as Club Suite.

The following routes have seen the A380 added to their schedule:

  • Boston
  • Chicago
  • Dallas Fort Worth
  • Vancouver
  • Washington
British Airways BA A380 Heathrow

The start dates for A380 operation are:

  • 27th March – Washington (one daily flight)
  • 15th May – Boston (one daily flight)
  • 1st June – Chicago
  • 1st June – Vancouver
  • 1st July – Dallas

The existing A380 service to Miami will be continuing.

As I mentioned earlier, it isn’t all good news for A380 fans. The A380 will be removed from the Los Angeles route to allow these new flights to begin, and the start date for San Francisco services on the A380 has been pushed back to 1st May.

Outside the US, A380 service to Singapore will end on 8th May. Johannesburg will be returning to A380 operation from 17th April for a couple of weeks, and then again from 1st August.

Boston on Avios

There is good Avios availability on many routes

Whilst First Class is virtually non-existent, there is a LOT of Club World reward availability on these routes due to the A380 moving across.

Here – courtesy of SeatSpy – are days with at least two Club World seats to Boston, pictured above, between April and November. Outbound flights are on the left, inbound flights are on the right.

Boston with Avios

Yes, every single day has at least two Business Class seats.

There is plenty available outside this period too.

Of course, in Business Class, you will be getting Club World which is not as good as Club Suite by a long way, but you will get to experience the A380. Remember to get an Upper Deck seat if you can. Our comprehensive guide to the new British Airways Club Suite seat is here.

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

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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.

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (45)

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

  • Malcolm MacMillan says:
    16 Dec16 December 13:19

    Had an email from BA to say that our seats had been changed for our LHR -MCO-LHR flights in June. Gutted to discover that the plane had also been changed from an A350 to a B777. Goodbye Club World Suites!! Any clues as to when a refurbished 777 might appear on this route?

  • HughR says:
    16 Dec16 December 15:28

    First Availability has opened up for our summer flight. Am currently on hold to BA. Is there any way to upgrade Avios flight from Club to First online? I can find any way of doing it, so hoping I get through!!!

  • HBommie says:
    16 Dec16 December 16:58

    Thinking of the middle of March to San Antonio but wary of spring breakers, would this be an issue. Data pt, I’m old.

  • Wayne says:
    16 Dec16 December 19:30

    Don’t think there call center knows what’s going on.
    Booked for the 5th Feb Lhr to JNB.
    Originally A350
    New booking says A380
    Call centre says” Top deck on B777″
    Interestingly the article says A380 returning in April.
    Any ideas anyone ????

    • WaynedP says:
      17 Dec17 December 07:25

      Before Covid, there were two daily return flights from LHR to JNB (A380 & 747), and one daily to DUR (787-8).

      Covid effect (since SA closed borders in March 2020) killed all those flights, which were all pretty much replaced since then by one daily freight 777.

      That 777 has opened to passengers in the few intermittent windows that allowed passenger travel to and from SA, but to date it has handled ALL daily passenger traffic previously served by three daily flights to JNB & DUR.

      As the market gradually picks up again, BA will be increasing capacity with a combination of bigger planes and more frequent flights.

      It looks like that is already happening as early as 27 Jan 2022 because the 777 LHR to JNB that I booked last month was replaced yesterday by A380.

      Likewise with my return 10 Feb 2022 flight, which was also moved from 20:00 departure to 22:00 departure, opening up the possibility of a return to pre-Covid times of two overnight return flights from JNB roughly two hours apart.

      I’d guess that when that second return flight is added (8pm departure), it will be a 777 (possibly A350 ?) but there may be some confusion at call centre until all schedules and aircraft are confirmed.

      My A380 seat selections have now been confirmed on both flights. If you have to pay for seat selection, personally I wouldn’t until inevitable changes over the next few months are firmed up, other than to say that I do now fully expect the A380 will actually replace the old 777 between LHR and JNB for Feb 2022.

      I also expect two daily JNB will appear long before the LHR-DUR route is reinstated for DUR-bound pax like me.

  • John Mckillop says:
    16 Dec16 December 23:36

    I’ve just flown to Rio on a BA 787 which is a 12 hr flight, not spacious n service wise, yet I can see that BA has added on the 380 for the year 2022 to Boston , Vancouver and others states were the flying g time is around 7 hrs or so that doesn’t makes sense looking at the hours one spends flying to Brazil using a 787.

  • Paul says:
    17 Dec17 December 06:12

    I am booked on a flight to Vancouver at the end of September. According to BA, my flight will now be operated by a B777 not an A380. It was originally an A350 and I was looking forward to the new club suites. I am not looking forward to my flight any more.

  • Rich the Bailey says:
    17 Dec17 December 17:10

    British Airways is adding a route from London to Portland. Does anyone know which aircraft they will be using?

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

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