No First Class availability to Narobi even if paying

[noodles6666]

We are flying toNarobi later this year, we are booked in business class, I was hoping to upgrade to first, yet I see no availability on any flight on any day on any available flight on any date. I have eve tried purchasing these flights and the route doesn’t even come up, yet the flights start at row 10 in business, anyone know. By the way seat guru says it has first as well it being the old business class set up

[Metty]

There are, I think, three B777s G-VIIV, VIIW and VIIY that BA class as B77R that were presumably part of the Gatwick fleet when Gatwick used to have routes with First Class (as I see they are refurbished and have the 10 abreast Economy seating). Since Covid, these moved to Heathrow.

They appear to be dedicated to Nairobi, Orlando and Bridgetown, but you can check where they go on Flightradar 24.

Although they have F cabins, their seating config as a 4 class aircraft is not the same as the other Heathrow 777s so presumably BA have chosen to operate this mini-fleet on routes without First class being sold.

From a frequent flyer angle, these routes can be nice for those with status/honeymoon/lucky flying in Business class as if the Business class cabin is full-ish they will re-seat passengers into the First seats that would otherwise be unused (except for crew rest, BA staff and their clingons etc). This is called the Flub cabin as you end up with Club service but First seat and bedding.

I was lucky enough to be Flubbed last week along with a young couple. Very nice experience, strangely, having one’s own (almost) private loo stood out.

[cats_are_best]

Using https://www.britishairways.com/travel/low-price-finder/public/en_gb shows F availability, but when selected these turn into BA/QR in F to DOH, then QR in J on the leg to NBO.

Looks like BA withdrew F from sale for some reason, maybe using limited crew for more lucrative routes, or it doesn’t know which aircraft it’ll be using – if there are F seats some may be sold as J if the J cabin fills up.

Fwiw we flew F LHR-NBO early 2020, the F cabin wasn’t in good condition and the service was poor, especially on the return leg – the experience at NBO is, ahem, lacking.