BOOKABLE NOW: British Airways resumes flights to Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur

After a four year hiatus, British Airways is finally bringing back two popular routes to the Far East – Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur.

Both operated pre-covid and will return for the 2024 Winter season, which begins at the end of October.

Tickets will go on sale today and are now available, for cash and Avios, by the time you read this.

Remember that 14 Avios seats will be opened up TODAY for every flight until mid February 2025. Availability will NEVER be as good as it is today.

The announcement was made at a special ‘BA Showcase’ event held in London last night. We have given over all three articles today to covering the key announcements.

The event is being repeated today for elite members of the Executive Club where changes to Gold Guest List, amongst other things, are rumoured to be announced as well.

British Airways returns to Bangkok

By far one of the most popular route requests from Head for Points readers – I swear about half a dozen of you lament the loss of direct flights to Thailand every time British Airways announces new routes – is Bangkok.

According to aviation analytics firm Cirium, British Airways operated daily flights between London Heathrow and Bangkok on a Boeing 777 before covid.

The new service deviates from this slightly and, at least initially, flights will only operate three times a week.

The route will begin on 28th October 2024.

The other big change is that this route will operate from London Gatwick.

None of these changes are surprising. Bangkok has long been more of a leisure destination than a business one, in contrast to Kuala Lumpur. Moving to Gatwick makes perfect sense from that point of view.

In terms of timings:

• BA2231 will depart Gatwick at 9pm arriving in Bangkok at 3:55pm the following day. Flights operate Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

• BA2230 will depart Bangkok at 10:55pm and arrive in Gatwick 5:30am the following morning. Flights will operate Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

As these are from Gatwick, the flights will be operated by a Boeing 777-200ER aircraft with BA’s legacy yin-yang Club World product. These aircraft were refurbished in 2018 and 2019. Whilst the old seats were retained, new in-flight entertainment was fitted and soft furnishings were refreshed. They feature 32 seats in Club World, 48 World Traveller Plus (premium economy), and 252 World Traveller (economy).

When it comes to frequency, I expect to see this increase as the route matures and aircraft availability increases. To be perfectly honest, I was not expecting the return of Bangkok so soon and three flights per week is better than nothing.

Avios redemptions start at 100,000 Avios and £275 one-way in Business Class, although you can use fewer Avios and more £ if you wish.

British Airways returns to Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur is another route that British Airways operated daily before covid, and it’s good to see its return. The flights will operate in competition with oneworld partner Malaysia Airline’s double-daily direct flights which we reviewed here.

Flights to Kuala Lumpur will relaunch on 10th November 2024.

In contrast to the Bangkok route, which will initially operate thrice-weekly, KL is coming straight back with flights seven days a week and will operate from Heathrow, both driven by the needs of the business community.

The flights will operate as follows:

• BA33 departs Heathrow at 20:45, arriving in Kuala Lumpur at 5:30pm the following evening

• BA34 departs Kuala Lumpur at 23:20 and arrives in Heathrow at 5:35am the following morning.

The flights will be operated by a four-class Boeing 787-9, with eight First Class seats, 42 in Club World, 39 in World Traveller Plus (premium economy) and 127 in World Traveller (economy).

Currently, none of the Boeing 787-9 fleet feature the new Club Suite, although they will be next in line and the first 787-8 has just gone in for refurbishment. I wouldn’t expect any future Club Suite-refurbished 787-9s to operate this route, at least initially. This will be prioritised for the most important routes including, I imagine, Sydney.

Avios redemptions start from 110,000 Avios and £300 one-way in Business Class, although you can use fewer Avios and more £ if you wish.

Why have these routes taken so long to return?

The simple answer is aircraft availability. During covid, British Airways retired all 31 of its Boeing 747 fleet.

Recent A350 and Boeing 787-10 arrivals mean that the British Airways longhaul fleet is almost back to where it was in 2019 and should have fully recovered by the end of the year. The airline can now look at bringing back the remainder of its historic pre-covid routes.

Conclusion

Both of these routes offer much-needed capacity into South East Asia, which for past four years has had to make do with just two daily flights to Singapore – and much of that traffic was continuing to Sydney.

Increasing the number of flights to this region is a huge boon and should substantially open up Avios availability. You can now pick from two daily Singapore flights, a daily Kuala Lumpur flight and a three weekly operation into Bangkok.

Flights should be bookable this morning, for cash and Avios, although they may not be available as soon as this article goes up. You can find out more on the British Airways website here.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (September 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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 26th September 2024, sign up for FREE Barclaycard Avios Mastercard and you will receive a sign-up bonus of 10,000 Avios. This is double the usual bonus! You only need to spend £1,000 within 90 days. Our full review is here. Click here to apply.

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

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

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.

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.

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 22nd October 2024, the bonus on American Express Business Platinum is increased to up to 80,000 Membership Rewards points, worth 80,000 Avios. You will receive 8 points per £1 spent for the first three months, on up to £10,000 of spending. Click here to read our full card review. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 22nd October 2024, the bonus on American Express Business Gold is increased to up to 40,000 Membership Rewards points, worth 40,000 Avios. You will receive 4 points per £1 spent for the first three months, on up to £10,000 of spending. The card is FREE for your first year. Click here to read our full card review. Click here to apply.

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