REVEALED: Here is the new British Airways A380 First Class seat!

After five years of development, British Airways has unveiled its new First Class seat which will initially be installed on the A380 fleet and, if Boeing ever delivers them, the 777X fleet.

We don’t have a lot of information to date – we haven’t got a seat map yet – but we’ll tell you what we know.

The seat is from Collins Aerospace and manufactured in Northern Ireland. It is apparently the first time that this factory has been used for a First Class product.

To quote BA:

“Our new First has been designed with ultimate customer comfort in mind and pays tribute to the iconic British Airways brand and heritage, including a number of elements taking inspiration from Concorde and its one-of-a-kind wing.”

Features include:

• an ultra-wide seat (36.5 inches) with a bed length of 79 inches

• multi-purpose ottoman and elegant stowable table

• a 32-inch 4K TV screen

• cocooned five foot (152cm) curved wall

• window blinds, activated by buttons on the internal control panel for all three windows per seat

• adjustable mood lighting including scenes such as ‘relax’, ‘dine’ and ‘cinema’

• luggage storage (‘customers can now simply wheel their luggage into their personal luggage space’)

• ”do not disturb’ functionality

As you can from the second photograph down, the centre seats (like the Qatar Airways Qsuite) can be combined into a two-person space.

It will be either a 12 or 14 seat cabin. The full layout, we believe, is 12 or 14 x First, 110 x Club Suite, 84 x World Traveller Plus and 215 x World Traveller.

We are still hearing different stories about whether First will be upstairs or downstairs on the A380.

Due to the slippage of the A380 refurbishment programme, the first aircraft with new seat is not expected until ‘early 2026’.

More to follow!

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

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Run your own business?

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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.

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