While New York to London is the most competitive transatlantic market, Los Angeles to London ranks up there as well. Ordinarily the following airlines operate the following frequencies between Los Angeles and London:
- 1x daily Air New Zealand
- 2x daily American
- 2x daily British Airways
- 1x daily Norwegian
- 2x daily Virgin Atlantic
- 1x daily United
Air New Zealand 777-300ER business class
American and British Airways have a transatlantic joint venture, so ordinarily they have a combined 4x daily flights. In the past they offered 3x daily flights, as American operated one frequency, while British Airways operated two.
It’s great that American has that second daily flight, as it has made upgrades in the market a bit easier. It used to be that Los Angeles to London was one of the single toughest routes for clearing an American systemwide upgrade, while nowadays it’s a bit easier thanks to American metal capacity nearly doubling (it’s still not easy, but at least easier).
American 777-300ER business class
What I hadn’t realized is that oneworld is adding a fifth daily flight between Los Angeles and London this winter — wow!
British Airways will be launching a third daily flight between Los Angeles and London as of October 29, 2017. The flight will be operated by a four class Boeing 787-9 aircraft, featuring eight first class seats, 42 business class seats, 39 premium economy seats, and 127 economy seats. That’s quite a premium heavy configuration, as you can see.
That means in total oneworld will operate once daily flights with A380s, 747-400s, 777-300s, 777-200s, and 787-9s.
British Airways A380 business class
With that many seats in the market this winter, here’s to hoping we see some fare sales to go along with it. Furthermore, this should help make upgrades on American just a bit easier as well, given that passengers will be spread across yet another flight.
Unfortunately I don’t see any additional premium cabin award seats on the 787-9 frequency, even though it was just recently loaded.
Are you surprised to see a fifth daily oneworld flight between Los Angeles and London?
(Tip of the hat to Archer528)
I'm not surprised at all, given that Virgin started a 3rd daily service for the summer season, this is just BA's response.
I found this because I'm booking a flight home to LA for Christmas (from CPH). I prefer Star Alliance (specifically a transfer in ARN on SAS), but the fares via LHR on OneWorld are around 500 USD. That just cannot be beat.
Air NZ1 goes on to Auckland, NZ2 is the return. US makes transit pax on both flights go thru full immigration which causes huge problems sometimes.
I hope prices will drop because BA has sky rocketed their biz fares, so this is good. I had no idea Air New Zealand flew there.
@beachfan the 78-9 is 7 across in J in a staggered formation with front/rear facing. I think they are as nice, if not better, than the other birds in the fleet because of the 787 aspect. Much more comfortable IMO.
How do the J seats on the 787 compare to the rest of BA long haul. Also 8 across?
Between NYC-LON there are 33 daily flights, compared to just 9 from LA.
12x daily British Airways
4x daily American
6x daily Virgin Atlantic
3X daily Delta
6x daily United
1x daily Norwegian
1x daily Air India
A fifth flight is certainly welcome (though is this added capacity, or just BA replacing an AA flight?) More available upgrade capacity would be more so, however.
For those who can't see all 5 flights - use BA.com to view them. For some reason some sites (like ExpertFlyer) aren't showing all 5 flights on some days while BA.com does
I have seen award seats avail in biz (nothing in first) for this new 787-9 flight on BA, searching on AlaskaAir.com for booking with Alaska miles. Was searching for next May and the seats are ther for some days.
Gettin' real nit-picky over semantics there, Jason. Any of the five LAX-LHR non-stops will be bookable through any One World member - paid or in miles - so for the purposes of savvy OMAAT readers, this flexibility is more important than the fact that it's BA metal.
It appears to me that British Airways replaced an American Airlines flight on the LAX to LHR route. I don't see added capacity.
It's worth noting that Virgin Atlantic operates 3x daily flights from LAX to LHR, effective May 1, 2017. That's VS 8, VS 24, and VS 142 (the latest route).
It won't be 2x A380s though as the first flight of the day (283) is a 744 on the winter schedule. So it'll be 1x744, 1x772, 1x789, 1x77W, 1x380
Also, with regards to this being loaded recently, that's not exactly true. It's been on the books since January or February if I recall correctly.
@ Sorin -- Whoops, thank you!
oneworld is a marketing association. It of itself has absolutely no say in what its member airlines do with regards to schedules and flight operations. It does not operate flights. British Airways is adding a flight, not oneworld. The BA/AA JV will operate 5 flights in the market.
Very nice to see a 787-9 on the route from BA. Not only are the First seats much better on the 787-9 , I also really enjoy flying on the aircraft.