BA LHR-BKK

[Brown1950 67]

As from 30JUN20 the old 777-200ER will be replaced with B787-9 Dreamliner.

[Gus 97]

Probably long overdue, although I do not fly BA. I know that BA are refurbishing their Gatwick based 777-200s and did intend to then start their  refurb on the LHR ones.

[jacko 8,813]

As stated I did this BA flight a year ago, round trip. That old equipment made for a pretty crappy flight...but that wasn't the complete reason. And I flew up front. Their shuttles between London and Manchester let them down too. 

Edited November 7, 2019 by jacko

[Butch 3,456]

On 11/7/2019 at 11:47 AM, Brown1950 said:

As from 30JUN20 the old 777-200ER will be replaced with B787-9 Dreamliner.

Do you know if the 787 is currently in service on a route or is it part of a fleet upgrade and going to be brand new?.

I'm currently deciding whether to book now for May 20, if this was going to be put into service earlier it might have been an option, given that the BA PE product on the 787 seems to be pretty good (or at least better than the 777 equivalent from the online reviews).

[neilri2001 42]

On 11/9/2019 at 10:45 AM, Butch said:

Do you know if the 787 is currently in service on a route or is it part of a fleet upgrade and going to be brand new?.

I'm currently deciding whether to book now for May 20, if this was going to be put into service earlier it might have been an option, given that the BA PE product on the 787 seems to be pretty good (or at least better than the 777 equivalent from the online reviews).

PE on the 787-9 tends to be 2-3-2 rather than 2-4-2 . I think the dreamliner will be switched from an existing route as if it was brand new it would probably be a 787-10. For whatever reason BA doesn't tend to put the better equipment on the BKK route even though load factors tend to be fairly high.

[Butch 3,456]

Ahh OK, Cheers Neil, I've since looked at BA's PE on the 787 and it is actually very good indeed.  When I was making a comparison between EVA and BA for my dates, BA was around £100 more expensive.

[Gottsy 46]

Do NOT fly BA for gods sake. They are now so bad. Their delay and cancellation rate is horrendous and their in flight food etc is appalling

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/dec/19/british-airways-slumps-near-bottom-passenger-survey-airlines

The only good thing about flying to BKK on BA is the return will probably be delayed and the compensation is more than you pay for the flight !

[Butch 3,456]

On 12/20/2019 at 3:57 PM, Gottsy said:

Do NOT fly BA for gods sake. They are now so bad. Their delay and cancellation rate is horrendous and their in flight food etc is appalling

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/dec/19/british-airways-slumps-near-bottom-passenger-survey-airlines

The only good thing about flying to BKK on BA is the return will probably be delayed and the compensation is more than you pay for the flight !

Just on our return leg to the UK from the RP , having flown out alone in econ on BA on BA031 before Xmas, the flight itself wasn't too shabby, mostly because I slept most of the way, it pretty much left on schedule. The food was awful though, they give you these cardboard boxes with food inside like you might get in a bloody cinema. Shocking. IFE was OK, but otherwise it was what you might expect on economy from BA, worse than EVA and Cathay but just a bit better than say, Air India. Just. Seemed more cramped than EVA econ, and a whole lot more uncomfortable than Cathay.

I had an aisle seat, and if it wasn't for a decent dose of Xanax, I would probably have cried most of the way, so I heartily concur with your statement.

 

[Rawhide2 1,340]

I'll defend BA if only because I used to get staff tickets incredibly cheap (via brother). Not flown them since 2001 on the ID90 tickets as he left their employ but I always had a good time no flights cancelled or delayed from memory but seating was always a bit tight.

One point though. If you were at 35,000 feet and an aircraft had a serious technical issue what airline would you want to be on to give you the best chance of getting on the ground. For me simply BA

Can you imagine Somchai in the same situation on his motor......"well we cant tell the passengers that 3 of the 4 engines have stopped because we'll lose face"

[jacko 8,813]

16 hours ago, Rawhide2 said:

One point though. If you were at 35,000 feet and an aircraft had a serious technical issue what airline would you want to be on to give you the best chance of getting on the ground. For me simply BA

Well when I boarded that ancient 777 BA used to  use I was wondering if bits falling off might be the technical issue.

Maybe Lufthansa would be safe too!

[Gus 97]

Rawhide, how very true. I was recently on a cruise and one of the guest speakers was an ex air accident investigator and he pretty much said what you have said. He indicated that he had very little confidence in Air France.

When I used to go to the USA a lot I flew Virgin Atlantic, many ex RAF pilots with VS.

Nowadays I take pot luck, I had Eva and Thai but my next trip is Emirates, I am sorry but I couldn't fly BA in spite of them having the best flight crews in the world..

[Butch 3,456]

Right, back in blighty now. Damn this infernal cold weather.

Rawhide, you are , of course, correct. I don't think there are many pilots who can get a 747 with all 4 engines failed landed with zero injuries although perhaps very probably a strong smell of shit coming from the cabin:

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. I trust you are not in too much distress ".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_9

Our return out of Hong Kong was pretty decent. Left on time, a 777 which to be fair was in good order and no better or worse than anything else I've flown on (I thought we were going on the 380 - we weren't) but again, decent IFE, 2 small bottles of wine and a well poured G&T handed over with a smile and that was that. We opted for a 24 hour layover in HK to break the journey up a bit. Back to work tomorrow but back out to the RP again in April and again in May. We're heading out on the PAL A350 direct next time, thank fuck.

Edited January 7, 2020 by Butch