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More BA route tweaks: A380 returns to Singapore (no Club Suite), City to Milan and San Sebastian

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Yesterday we covered four new short haul routes that British Airways has just launched from London Heathrow for the winter season, starting in late October.

There is a bit more going on which I want to cover today.

The big one (literally) is that British Airways is bringing the A380 back to the Singapore route.

British Airways BA A380 Singapore

This kicks in from late March 2024, replacing a Boeing 777 on the BA11/BA12 service.

This shouldn’t be a surprise, since this service was operated by an A380 before the pandemic. However, British Airways has been keen to promote the Sydney service as being ‘all Club Suite’ and this won’t be the case for anyone on BA11/BA12.

Whilst BA has committed to putting Club Suite and a new First Class seat on the A380 fleet, the chance of the first one being done by next March must be very slim. The Boeing 787-8 fleet is next up for Club Suite and, with 12 aircraft to complete, this is likely to take a year. The A380 project is far more ambitious, with the need to add the new First Class seat and potentially move the cabins around between the decks.

The upside is that, with a larger aircraft, we may some additional Avios availability opening up at some point.

Milan flights British Airways London City Airport

London City route news

There are two bits of route news from London City Airport which are also worth flagging.

First up is Milan Linate.

There will be a grand total of one flight per week from London City to Milan Linate, starting on Sunday 5th November. The existing Heathrow flights will continue.

The other change is to San Sebastian.

Originally launched as a summer-only route, it will now operate year-round from London City. From the start of the winter season on 29th October it will operate every Thursday and Sunday.

Cash and Avios seats for these flights are available now.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (43)

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

  • Paul says:
    4 Aug4 August 06:26

    Sydney isn’t currently club suite? It’s a 787-9 this summer.

    • Paul-MCY says:
      4 Aug4 August 06:53

      Correct, the ‘all club suite’ to Sydney lasted all of five months, during the last Northern Winter timetable (2022/23).

    • Rhys says:
      4 Aug4 August 07:52

      It is during the winter

      • Paul says:
        4 Aug4 August 07:55

        And the article doesn’t say anything about winter only, and the A380 starts next summer to SIN🤷‍♂️

  • Gordon says:
    4 Aug4 August 06:43

    There are two flights to SIN from LHR, 19:30 and 21:10, i presume both of these will be the A380, The Qatar flight is not an option for me because of a 2-4-1, Also can’t be dealing with a connection….

    • Nick says:
      4 Aug4 August 06:51

      Why presume? Rob makes it very clear that the A380 is only on BA11/12 – the ones that run only to SIN. The other flight (BA15/16) will continue to run through to SYD and will not be an A380. There aren’t enough of them!

      • Gordon says:
        4 Aug4 August 07:15

        Whilst I appreciate your education approach,
        If I could of gleaned that from in the article, I would not have asked the question! As they both stop at SIN irrelevant of the fact the BA15/16 continues to SYD “Yes”

      • Lady London says:
        4 Aug4 August 09:38

        They do indeed both stop in SIN. BA doesn’t have a plane that can get all the way to Australia without stopping.

        However beware if you’re paying a cash ticket and collecting avios. On one of the structures having a stop in Asia en route to Oz, the flight number was the same all the way to Oz and ths resulted in collecting fewer avios. If it’s structured as a proper connection with different flight numbers, you collecr on each different flight number.

  • Phillip says:
    4 Aug4 August 06:44

    Interestingly my HKG flight in February has moved from a 787-9 to a 787-8. It doesn’t feel that they’ll start refitting the -8s by then!

    • Qrfan says:
      4 Aug4 August 07:19

      When h4p announced the 788 club suite rollout, Montreal (our most regular route) was the headline destination. Almost immediately after that, Montreal changed to 789 without first being sold. Talk about disappointment.

  • can2 says:
    4 Aug4 August 06:58

    Is it only the City that serves S Sebastian from London?

    • Erico1875 says:
      4 Aug4 August 07:30

      Apears so.
      It’s on my bucket list. Ryanair fly to Biarritz which isn’t far away, from Stansted

      • GJS says:
        4 Aug4 August 07:47

        Am I right in thinking it will be a few months before the summer 2024 San Seb flights are confirmed and loaded? Going to a concert there in June and currently looking like it’ll be easyjet to Bilbao.

        • Gordon says:
          4 Aug4 August 08:05

          Used to get the Brittany ferry to both ports carting furniture across to my property in Spain. San Sebastián is a favourite of mine especially for the great restaurants.

      • Richie says:
        4 Aug4 August 09:21

        Bilbao airport isn’t that far away.

    • strickers says:
      4 Aug4 August 10:16

      My favourite part of Spain, Santander is another option and rent a car. Gives you the option of a night in the Rioja region. The restaurant and winery at the Marquis de Riscal is spectacular, it was designed by Frank Gehry.

      • can2 says:
        4 Aug4 August 10:39

        Thanks for this. I didn’t know it was the same guy who designed Guggenheim Bilbao and Louis Vuitton Foundation Paris.

      • SBIre says:
        4 Aug4 August 14:23

        And it’s part of Marriott’s Bonvoy – I got an incredible suite using an SNA

  • LD27 says:
    4 Aug4 August 07:10

    I’m soon to travel on on BA11 which in MMB is down as a 77W. Club suite on that.

    • SamG says:
      4 Aug4 August 08:43

      This summer it’s been a CS bird so if you’re travelling before end Oct then you’re all good

      • LD27 says:
        4 Aug4 August 16:05

        Yep. Going in a couple of weeks. Managed to use a 2-4-1 for Singapore and another for Sydney next year when someone posted extra Avios availability about a month ago. Thank you HfP.

  • yonasl says:
    4 Aug4 August 07:45

    I see Avios flights from LCY to San Sebastián all the way to March 2024. Then they seem to restart in July 2024 (Friday to Monday).

    A quick search showed no cash flights in May 2024 from LCY either.

    Any idea when April/May/June May be loaded?

  • Steve says:
    4 Aug4 August 08:14

    There is definitely something going on with Avios seats for LON -> SIN route as I have not seen any (economy/business) being released for T-355 – and I have been looking for them for the last two weeks now!

    • SamG says:
      4 Aug4 August 08:45

      There is a report in the forum that the agent told someone there is an issue with T-355 on some routes Inc SIN

      That person used the extra availability of the Amex voucher and got seats and many dates do seem to be showing I9 in Expertflyer since the A380 swap which likely means it’s available

  • Michael says:
    4 Aug4 August 08:19

    There was a shed loads of both SIN and Sydney around 2 weeks ago. Obviously they cleared out within a couple of days

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

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