Exclusive: British Airways cancels flights to Beijing

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.

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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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (October 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:

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.