New flights to Tbilisi from 30th March 2025

[Ian]

BA890
LHR -> TBS
21:25 -> 05:30 Tue, Thur, Sat & Sun

BA891
TBS -> LHR
07.10 -> 09:40 Wed
07.30 -> 10:00 Fri, Sat, Sun

5 1/2 flights in a A320neo

Not sure if I would be happy with such a long flight in a A320neo?

[AndrewT]

Seriously? I wouldn’t fancy Club Europe for that long with a minimally reclining seat on an overnight flight, and probably moronically following the standard pattern of serving a meal after departure, i.e. very late at night, and nothing for breakfast in the morning.

As for Economy, with the slimline Recaro seats and no food or drink included – forget it!

[Richie]

easyJet are also launching flights.

[TGLoyalty]

What horrible flight times on an A320

140 TP or 80?

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

TGLoyalty wrote:

What horrible flight times on an A320

140 TP or 80?

The very handy tool – https://www.britishairways.com/travel/flight-calculator/public/en_gb

Says it’s 140 in club

[Londonsteve]

Truly horrid flight times but could be a way to almost get to Silver in one hit if booked as a 5 night BA Holiday? I guess, for some people the flight times can work as it minimises time away but most of us would largely useless on arrival day while the return necessitates a short night in a hotel. Clearly a way to put the short haul fleet to work at a time when they’d otherwise be parked back at Heathrow or at an outstation in Europe.

[Londonsteve]

Interestingly, the Tibilisi flight has taken the old SOF flight numbers. I wonder what’s the reason for that? SOF has been shunted along from BA890 to BA892. You’d have thought the new service would have acquired the new numbers!

[Ian]

Just not sure I would want to have an overnight flight in even Club Europe!

Would need to be in row 1 to have any chance!

[HampshireHog]

EasyJet have far far better flight timings

[Londonsteve]

The timings are more about offering connections to passengers departing Tibilisi, with these arrival times they can fly on to near enough anywhere and come in from anywhere in time to make the Tibilisi flight. The middle of the night aspect is of less concern to someone flying in from North America destination Georgia, their bodyclock will be haywire anyway while Georgia-bound UK holidaymakers will be more likely to choose another option.

[HampshireHog]

Booked the orange jet

[PeteM]

Wonder to what extent this is designed to pick up Russians connecting via Tbilisi? The number of flights from Moscow has exploded now they’ve realigned themselves politically…

[NigelHamilton]

I nearly always fly BA and this has been a place on my bucket list for ages but with those flight times I can’t see much benefit. There’s certainly none to going in club as it’s too late to want to eat on the plane and not enough time to sleep. On the basis Luton is also closer than Heathrow I’ll be doing Easyjet for this one!

[PeteM]

NigelHamilton wrote:

I nearly always fly BA and this has been a place on my bucket list for ages but with those flight times I can’t see much benefit. There’s certainly none to going in club as it’s too late to want to eat on the plane and not enough time to sleep. On the basis Luton is also closer than Heathrow I’ll be doing Easyjet for this one!

Many European airlines (LOT, AirBaltic, Austrian and AF) fly into Tbilisi at these horrible times as the airport is open 24/7 and it’s great for aircraft utilisation. Interesting EZ have gone for more useful times!

[HampshireHog]

I reckon someone at U2 is confused. Outbound From Luton 1125 arrive 2025, inbound 2055 arrive 2215.
Outbound sector time 6 hours but going supersonic on return with a sector time of 4 hours 20 minutes?

[davefl]

HampshireHog wrote:

I reckon someone at U2 is confused. Outbound From Luton 1125 arrive 2025, inbound 2055 arrive 2215.
Outbound sector time 6 hours but going supersonic on return with a sector time of 4 hours 20 minutes?

That’s not right either, it’s a 6-6.5 hour flight, 11.25-20.25 is 7 hours (GMT+2), so correct with padding.

Inbound with a 30 min turnaround (optimistic) 20.55 should arrive 1.25 if on time. Is Luton open at that hour?

[The Streets]

I would love to go back to this city for the wine and dumplings

Shame the flights aren’t RFS… taxes for business starting at £102

[HampshireHog]

Georgia is GMT +4, with no daylight saving time. UK will be on BST then ie GMT +1. So three hour time difference, hence my remarks

[HampshireHog]

@TheStreets this with your beer goggles?!

[HampshireHog]

HampshireHog wrote:

I reckon someone at U2 is confused. Outbound From Luton 1125 arrive 2025, inbound 2055 arrive 2215.
Outbound sector time 6 hours but going supersonic on return with a sector time of 4 hours 20 minutes?

EasyJet now showing correct arrival and departure time in Tbilisi, one hour earlier

[Bervios]

The Streets wrote:

I would love to go back to this city for the wine and dumplings

Shame the flights aren’t RFS… taxes for business starting at £102

Interestingly the quoted taxes aren’t what BA took , they were substantially lower……

[Londonsteve]

This could suggest it’s going to be an RFS destination with 80 TPs but they haven’t flicked the switch for this to show in the booking engine. Were the taxes equivalent to an RFS flight to, say, Cyprus?

It’ll take a while for BA IT to catch up, TBS is unavailable to the lowest fare finder tool and isn’t recognised as a destination by BA Holidays.

[Bervios]

Londonsteve wrote:

This could suggest it’s going to be an RFS destination with 80 TPs but they haven’t flicked the switch for this to show in the booking engine. Were the taxes equivalent to an RFS flight to, say, Cyprus?

It’ll take a while for BA IT to catch up, TBS is unavailable to the lowest fare finder tool and isn’t recognised as a destination by BA Holidays.

£12.50 pp charge instead of the quoted £102.50 – it showed as pending but then reduced to the lower amount when taken. Anyway best to keep Shhh in these circumstances.

[C2K77]

Londonsteve wrote:

It’ll take a while for BA IT to catch up, TBS is unavailable to the lowest fare finder tool and isn’t recognised as a destination by BA Holidays.

I was searching BAH with availability up to the 9th of September ’25 3 days ago.

Slim pickings with just one page of results. Several of them being Ibis. There is a Pullman and a Marriott but I think it’s a destination that you’d be wise to assess which part of the city you plan to base yourself in.

Whilst not her area I did send a screenshot to my niece who works in BAH Marketing after I found a very amusing boutique hotel which priced at £64,836 ( after a high £18k discount apparently) for 9 nights mid august & mentioned that maybe somebody hadn’t programmed the pricing matrix for said property correctly

[Metty]

@Bervios thanks for the tip, very odd to find the taxes and charges reduce so much after payment clears!