British Airways Hints At Big Announcement Coming Tomorrow

Maybe they are leaving the UK to set-up European company prior to Brexit 😛

I suspect they'll announce that they're giving Endre a free ticket in Club World so he can finally fly longhaul premium. Congrats Endre!

Doesn’t that BOAC livery look utterly sublime? Just gorgeous.

I’m going with the wonderful news that they’re finally dumping fuel surcharges.

Relocating to Europe due to Brexit.

Didn't Qatar announce somthing like this last month or so, at the end it was just a boring ad.

BA said on twitter a few days ago that this event would be their 100th anniversary (Daimler Airways formed in 1919 and later formed Imperial Airways which later formed British Airways LTD which later formed BOAC which then turned into modern BA). It also looks like they'll be painting three more aircraft (a grand total of 3 747s and 1 A319) in retro liveries to celebrate the event.

Bringing back free beverages and snacks to main cabin...not in a million years

Feb 1, 2019 is also the 20th anniversary of the formation of Oneworld. I guess BA decided to time whatever they are announcing for their 100th anniversary to coincide with that.

They have another animation on their website for the same date that is flicking through tickets for BA100 with various British celebrities' names on them so I'm thinking it may just be some sort of party honestly. Hopefully not though!

Hmmm...new seats perhaps?

It's just the first airing of their new ad for their centenary media campaign. It's their largest media campaign since the London Olympics.

@ Ben -- All new Avios program, which will be a massive devaluation, marketed as the greatest thing ever.

I just hope they are not announcing QR is leaving Oneworld.

It will be either a BA specific announcement OR an One World announcement but not both.

They are launching a new TV ad, just like Qatar. Staff had preview screenings yesterday.

If BA announces business class suites they would be coming after Lufthansa's 5 star Skytrax rating!

BA renaming their Avios program Blavios, with marketing and logo provided by same company that did Bonvoy.

Departing from the UK and launching an EU base ahead of Brexit?

Weight restricted 789 BA Flight 100 with direct service from LHR to SYD

Wasn't BA100 the flight number of their JFK-LHR Concorde flight way-back-when?

LHR-SYD nonstop... I agree.

LHR-SYD non stop. Dream on. With what aircraft?

Twenty years ago BA's Australian route network looked like this:
LHR-PER via SIN or KUL. LHR-BNE via KUL. LHR-SYD via BKK. LHR-SYD via SIN. LHR-MEL via SIN.

Twelve years ago it looked like this:
LHR-MEL via SIN. LHR-SYD via BKK. LHR-SYD via SIN.

And today:
LHR-SYD via SIN. It has traffic rights to carry passengers LHR-SYD-LHR, LHR-SIN-LHR and SIN-SYD-SIN. Only through that combination of traffic does BA fill its daily 777-300. There would be no benefit for them in flying LHR-SYD non stop.

@ miles the BA JFK Concorde flight numbers were BA001 and BA002 - the same that the LCY-JFK all J class service now uses.

Interesting as there’s an advert for this in the London paper and actress Olivia Coleman’s name features on a mocked up ticket sitting in seat 11C, departing London for “the world”...

Perhaps have finally found 2 engines for the 787 that’s been parked by the threshold of 27L for about a year?

I guess their PR team has concocted a bit of fluffery that will be met with a big yawn by all, other than the assembled bigwigs.
Really, how much lipstick can you possibly put on this pig?

Shame it won't be their new uniform launching.

Or maybe they're helping me & my hubby celebrate our 9th wedding manniversary?

Setting up an EU subsidiary and going back to BOAC and BEA to comply with EU ownership and control regulations post-Brexit? 🙂 Would be a more accurate reflection of their "100th birthday", too (#BA100 is posted everywhere)

Al Baker is actually in London and has been spotted at a hotel yesterday (incl. photo evidence). Just FYI. However, your assumption that it might be underwhelming (similarly to the QR video) appears to be correct, with just a new video ad.

Don’t want to say ‘told you so’ but told you so. The new airing of BA’s ad pertaining to its centenary will air tonight (and is already available online).

Yes it’s an advert a bit like Qatar but look very closely at the seat Olivia Coleman is sitting in right at the end of the adver when she says they serve a lot of tea. Don’t know about you but that looks like a type of suite style of seat.

@ John Reeve

It looks to me like the current CW seat - the stepped channel in which the divider screen raises looks exactly the same as now.

The whole advert was a ghastly, cheesy nonsense, bolstering all of the UK’s tragic self-delusions about how wonderful and exceptional we are.

As an Englishman, the smugly self-satisfied boasting was everything I think we are not about.

The hint about being closet revolutionaries (nicely done with what I guess we are meant to assume was a gay couple) was the only thing I thought perceptive: contrary to our sense of self, Britain’s/England’s histories are littered with examples of our ideological passions driving us to do revolutionary things, from being the first European state to execute our monarch - to replace them with a republic (albeit a failed one) - to our current Brexit insanity. We pretend we are rational and measured but history says otherwise.

See, it’s made me rant now. Typical Englishman.

@The nice Paul
That was an incredibly boring comment. It’s a shame as otherwise I normally like reading your offerings.

So what was the big announcement?

@ Aaron Tan

Sorry you didn’t like that one, though I’m glad you mostly enjoy the others.

Brexit is poisoning everything in the UK at the moment, especially anything that reeks of nostalgia for the Good Old Days when God was an Englishman and spinsters cycled around the village green on their way to Sunday church...

BA, for me, normally gets the emotional content pretty well, which is unsurprising given I’m their target market (“To fly, to serve” was, for me, a brilliantly evocative advert). But this one didn’t do it.

Anyhow, I’ll try harder with my next comment. 😉

And just be grateful I haven’t risen to the bait of the ludicrous NZ safety film, most of which my old ears can’t even understand...