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Exclusive: British Airways cancels flights to Beijing

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British Airways appears to be dropping its flights to Beijing.

The flight has been removed from the schedule from 27th October, which is the last day of the summer flying season. The last outbound flight is on the 24th.

British Airways previously operated four weekly flights to the new Beijing Daxing Airport (pronounced ‘dashing’), on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The route only restarted in June 2023, following a 3-year covid hiatus.

British Airways pulls out of Beijing

Later on Thursday, British Airways told us in a statement:

“We will be pausing our route to Beijing from 26 October 2024, and we’re contacting any affected customers with rebooking options or to offer them a full refund. We continue to operate daily flights to Shanghai and Hong Kong.”

More info on your rebooking options are below.

At the time, British Airways called it “one of our most important routes”. British Airways was the first international airline to move operations across into the Zaha Hadid-designed Daxing Airport (pictured above) in 2019.

BA is far from alone in scaling down its Chinese operations. A month ago, Virgin Atlantic announced it was pulling out of Shanghai – its only flight to East Asia – whilst Australian airline Qantas has also pulled out of mainland China after suggesting flights were “half full”. When I flew back from Beijing last year, the Club World cabin was sparsely populated.

One of the issues faced by Western airlines is the diversion around Russian airspace, which can add hours to the flight time. This obviously increases costs in terms of fuel but also means crewing and aircraft utilisation also increases. Why bother when you can send the same plane to the US instead, where demand for premium cabins remains sky-high?

It is also well publicised that Chinese tourism has not yet returned en masse post-pandemic. Chinese tourism to the UK has also been disproportionately hit by the removal of VAT reclamation on luxury goods (indeed, all goods) for tourists. Indeed, BA owner IAG had already flagged “weakness in demand from China” in its Q1 2024 earnings call, blaming it for lower unit revenue in Asia Pacific.

China Southern, which continues to fly through Russian airspace, still flies daily to London Heathrow and it appears British Airways will continue to sell these flights on ba.com under the existing joint business agreement. You can earn British Airways Avios and tier points on China Southern services.

BA also continues to fly daily to Shanghai and Hong Kong. According to BA’s own guidance, anyone with a booking on British Airways metal from 28th October can be rebooked onto China Southern or Qatar Airways services for free. BA is also letting you rebook +- 14 days from your original travel dates.

Note that China Southern flights only earn Avios, not tier points, so either choose Qatar or try to retroclaim from BA if that is important. Remember that Qatar Airways would be 560 tier points return in Business.

Although you’d have to accept a stopover, rebooking onto Qatar Airways would likely see you on a Qsuite aircraft for at least one or two sectors. Neither Qatar Airways nor China Southern offer premium economy cabins.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (192)

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

  • ChampagneSocialist says:
    8 Aug8 August 14:12

    Actually it’s more like “dah-sing”.

  • Novice says:
    8 Aug8 August 14:23

    Is HKG route safe for now? My flights are in October and I have everything planned and booked.

    • Novice says:
      8 Aug8 August 14:25

      Ok I was just reacting to the headline. HKG is okay.

    • Tim says:
      8 Aug8 August 14:30

      I think it’s highly unlikely BA would stop a direct service to HK, given its British colonial history. There’s more business travellers on the route than PKX/PVG, as well as leisure travellers given its visa free going either direction. With English widely spoken, it’s also considered a gateway into China.

      In any case, if BA cancels the route, they will re-route on another carrier so you don’t have anything to worry about.

      • BBbetter says:
        8 Aug8 August 20:24

        Colonial history, lol. Like the shareholders care about it. As long as premium cabin subsidises economy, the route will continue.

    • Danny says:
      8 Aug8 August 14:37

      Very very much doubt BA would totally pull out of HKG

      • Rob says:
        8 Aug8 August 14:40

        They’ve cut one flight. Not impossibly they leave it to Cathay.

        • LittleNick says:
          8 Aug8 August 15:16

          That would be frustrating as I like booking open Jaws e.g LHR to SIN and HKG to LHR for example. Would be much more expensive if BA pull out of HKG, hope they don’t

  • Leonidas says:
    8 Aug8 August 14:29

    The outbound flights for my March trip nicely rebooked with QR but the return flights that they were on WTP are downgraded to WT (pity that the BA 781 from DOH to LHR is not offered)
    I guess after my trip i can claim a compensation for this downgrade.

  • Novice says:
    8 Aug8 August 14:38

    Rhys and Rob, I have a question about my upcoming BA flight. BA is booked to HKG but I need onwards to Tokyo which is Cathay Pacific an hour after I land. All other flights are budget which I don’t like so would BA be able to issue me a boarding pass for the CX flight if I booked it and how do I link the flights so that I can make the transit since it’s so tight?

    • john says:
      8 Aug8 August 14:41

      Print the boarding pass before you leave for BA flight. Or you can get a mobile boarding pass from Cathay

      • john says:
        8 Aug8 August 14:42

        To quote their website:
        “What are the earliest and latest times for collecting my boarding pass?

        Self Print and Mobile Boarding Passes are available from 48 hours up to 90 minutes before departure. You can collect your boarding pass at the Hong Kong International Airport from 1 day up to 40 minutes before departure.”

    • Bob says:
      8 Aug8 August 14:49

      they wont through check baggage unfortunately

    • Dubious says:
      8 Aug8 August 14:49

      That’s still quite tight! Not much wiggle room for delays or long transit security queues.

      • Novice says:
        8 Aug8 August 14:54

        I have chatted to CX and they are saying if BA had booked the flight it was possible otherwise it isn’t possible. If only there was an evening flight to Tokyo unless there was and I left the booking till last minute.

        • Novice says:
          8 Aug8 August 15:06

          Has anyone here flown Hk express? Seems cheap but reviews are pretty bad but it’s the only flight that is suitable for my timing now.

          I trust you all so if someone has flown it pls let me know how bad is it?

          • Sam says:
            8 Aug8 August 16:03

            I’ve flown them several times and they were fine. I mean it’s a flight, and hk to Tokyo is only four hours. How bad can it be?

          • Mark says:
            8 Aug8 August 19:33

            Yes, right at the start of COVID, from HKG to Vietnam. It was a lovely flight, with 14 of us on an A320 🙂

            Unfortunately we never got to experience the return flight as it was cancelled, unsurprisingly!

          • John says:
            8 Aug8 August 22:52

            You can’t bring your own food on board and they do check and confiscate

            Paid seating isn’t guaranteed

          • Novice says:
            9 Aug9 August 10:57

            Thanks for all the answers. I have no choice but to use them now. Probably my own fault, made a last minute decision to add Tokyo. I can live without food for 4/5 hours since I will be wearing a mask anyway in such close proximity to other people.

  • barry cutters says:
    8 Aug8 August 14:58

    My Newcastle- Beijing companion voucher avio flight was cancelled and i called to look at options today.

    Was offered;

    – Refund
    – Re Routing on China southern
    – Re routing on QATAR via LHR
    – Re Routing on QATAR but starting at alternative airport (EdI/MAN) to save the need for a connection down to heathrow)

    The flight time is much better for me anyway on return with QATAR, on the way there its a bit annoying it gets there later but will just add another day to the trip (full flex in rebooking different stay lengths )

    Moving the flight over Easter as it suits us better (full flex on dates , 14 days as previously said in comments doesn’t apply )

    Going to call back and book now .
    Does anyone have any opinion on best airport for QATAR departure? MAN vs Edinburgh. Both are same distance for us and both are a non Qsuite a350900, The doha to beijing is a q suite both ways so will get to try that anyway.

    • sigma421 says:
      8 Aug8 August 15:14

      EDI is probably the nicer airport and you have the BA lounge there if you want it. Fairly easy journey too especially if you can get one of the LNER trains that go straight to Haymarket.

      QR does have one of its premium lounges at LHR though and by all accounts it’s very good. Might be worth considering if you’re into lounge crawls.

    • Luke says:
      8 Aug8 August 15:32

      Interesting you got those options. My flight was starting and ending in Edinburgh (also with a companion voucher), but was advised that I’d still need to fly back to London with Qatar (then on to Edinburgh), despite there being a direct route to Edinburgh from Doha at the same time.

      I might phone them back as the option provided essentially adds 6 hours on to the journey home, an extra flight, and an additional risk with any flight delays.

      • Barry cutters says:
        8 Aug8 August 18:59

        I take it back – when I called back to book they wouldn’t let me –

  • Nigierian Prince says:
    8 Aug8 August 15:18

    BA with old seat flight to beijing usually cost 4000gbp while air china new seat usually costs half

  • DanATC says:
    8 Aug8 August 15:36

    Any chance they’ll reallocate the aircraft to PVG? Booked on old-style CW for Jan 1st next year, and I remember PKX was Club Suite last year!

    • Rhys says:
      8 Aug8 August 15:43

      It’s possible they up-gauge Shanghai to the 777 but certainly not been announced.

  • TW says:
    8 Aug8 August 16:25

    Thank you Rhys, bit of shock. What would you say the best points option is for Beijing going forward?

    • Jonathan says:
      9 Aug9 August 09:41

      The only options left (direct) are CA856, CA938 (both PEK, not PKX) and CZ674.

      These are simply direct flight options alone for travelling London to Beijing, and doesn’t look at points earning / redemption options.

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

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