Back in March British Airways announced their inaugural longhaul A380 destinations, which are Los Angeles and then Hong Kong. Initially the Los Angeles service was going to launch on October 15, but I guess things are moving along ahead of schedule (“shed-jewel,” for my friends residing in the Kingdom). The A380 service to Los Angeles will now launch on September 24, a full three weeks early.
In other news, over the coming weeks British Airways will be doing training flights within Europe on both the Airbus A380 and Boeing 787. It’s pretty common for airlines to operate new aircraft types on short-haul routes for the purposes of crew familiarization.
While they haven’t published a specific schedule, this FlyerTalk thread has some pretty interesting info, which suggests the following:
- Supposedly the A380 will operate turns between London Heathrow and Frankfurt August 2 through 31 on BA902/903/910/911.
- Supposedly the 787 will operate turns between London Heathrow and Stockholm from August 9 through 31 on BA780/781 (which is usually operated by a 767),
The inaugural A380 passenger flight already occurred between London and Frankfurt, and a FlyerTalk member made a video of the experience:
Anyway, I wouldn’t totally count on the rumored schedule being 100% accurate, but if these routes are already in your travel plans it may be worth switching around your flights.
suprised the A380 will be used for a flight as short as LHR-FRA. can't be much longer than 1 hour? I have flown regularly from MAN-MUN and thats only 2 hours
Saw the BA A380 making final approach over the City of London at 11.50am, today Monday 5 Aug. Those planes are not as elegant as the 747 but they're still pretty cool.
@ Mike S. -- Sadly there's not really a way to "trick" the fuel surcharges. Best I can recommend is not originating in London so you avoid the fuel surcharges, but other than that you'll get hit with them more or less equally.
Looking to do a longhaul route
@ Mike S. -- Which route are you trying to fly them on? One of the longhaul routes or one of these potential short test flights?
@ Frequent Flyer University: Only because you guys have this funny pronunciation of 'sked-jewel'! :P
Awesome! I'll be in Europe next week and may do some rerouting to see if I can try out this baby. Thanks for sharing!
Thinking of trying the BA A389 - What is the best way to minimize fuel surcharges when making a redemption using AA miles ?
“shed-jewel” haha
Absolutely the correct approach to book these 'surprise and delight' A380/B787 flights to Frankfurt & Stockholm with fingers crossed and a realistic attitude that the schedules are NOT locked in stone - if you turn up at the gate and it's not the auperjumbo or Dreamliner you'd hoped for, well, such is life.
But if anybody does score one of these I hope they can share some real-world 'bum on seat' reports on the revamped...
Absolutely the correct approach to book these 'surprise and delight' A380/B787 flights to Frankfurt & Stockholm with fingers crossed and a realistic attitude that the schedules are NOT locked in stone - if you turn up at the gate and it's not the auperjumbo or Dreamliner you'd hoped for, well, such is life.
But if anybody does score one of these I hope they can share some real-world 'bum on seat' reports on the revamped first class seats (A380 only, http://www.ausbt.com.au/inside-british-airways-new-a380-first-class-cabin) and the middle business class seat (A380 & B787, http://www.ausbt.com.au/ba-s-airbus-380-boeing-787-business-class-refresh). We've had a close-up look at them on the ground in AusBT but there's nothing like spending hours in the real thing!
I am happy to avoid the 787 for the foreseeable future