British Airways has just announced their next Airbus A380 destination, which comes as a bit of a surprise. British Airways is one of the more recent airlines to begin taking delivery of the A380, so they’ve been flying it almost exclusively to airports which already receive quite a bit of A380 service — Hong Kong, Johannesburg, Los Angeles, Singapore, etc.
Well, British Airways’ next A380 destination comes as a bit of a surprise, as it will be the first scheduled A380 service this airport ever receives.
British Airways will be launching A380 flights between London Heathrow and Vancouver as of May 1, 2016.
Via airlineroute.net, the new flight will operate with the following frequency:
BA85 London to Vancouver departing 5:15PM arriving 6:40PM
BA84 Vancouver to London departing 8:50PM arriving 2:00PM (+1 day)
The A380 flight will be replacing the 747-400 which presently operates the route.
Not only does this represent a very nice capacity boost for Vancouver, but British Airways also has their best products on the A380. The first class cabin on the A380 is significantly more spacious than on the 747-400, which is quite cramped, and in the nose of the plane.
Business class is split between the lower and upper deck, and while it’s still not great, there’s something to be said for the comfort and quietness of the A380.
On Monday Tiffany wrote a post about the best way to redeem miles between the West Coast and Europe. While it’s quite difficult to find first & business class award space out of Los Angeles and San Francisco, it’s generally quite readily available out of Vancouver.
For example, here’s a look at business class space for the first month the A380 is flying between Vancouver and London:
And here’s first class space for the first month the A380 is flying between London and Vancouver:
Bottom line
This is exciting news for those in Vancouver. Vancouver is one of my favorite cities in North America, and it’s especially popular in summer. So on one hand this route doesn’t come as a surprise.
On the other hand, Virgin Atlantic has given up on the London > Vancouver route, so it’s interesting that British Airways is adding capacity. This is also the first ever regularly scheduled A380 flight to Vancouver, so I do think it’s noteworthy.
Do you plan on flying British Airways’ A380 between Vancouver and London?
I was just in YVR a couple of weeks ago (evening of July 25) and there were TWO British Airways A380s parked on the apron--any idea why??
I've heard BA is looking for another 6 A380's! Wonder where they will go.
We're booked on 84/85 in September and the seat plan is showing the 380 at the moment. Will be our first trip on the 380.
Scratch that. This link implies it is for summers only.
http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2015/07/british-airways-to-fly-airbus-a380-for-vancouver-service/
Ben,
So even though bookings show the 744 right now they will be changed to the 380 after May?
@James - Maybe self promotion but super relevant to the post - no? I doubt it bothered anyone to see a video review of the product lucky is talking about along with some additional info. We get so picky about all this free content we get! :)
@Jan - I've heard the other service will be taken over by a 777.
My parents were booked on BA87 next spring, and have just received email notification that that flight is cancelled and they've been rebooked onto BA85. Excited for them!
@lwunder Since that involves a fair bit of backtracking I'd imagine not. Haven't got a calculator handy, but probably breaks the 25M for New York-London.
My wife and I will be trying to grab two seats in J for 125K Avios each next summer. I don't think the incremental cost of 60,000 off-peak Avios each for F is worth it. The "fees" total $1,231 each.
Funny that peak is 150K vs 200K, so the delta between the two is 'only' 50K Avios.
@jan SHAMELESS promotion of your website/ youtube channel right there.
Can a NYC->LHR award ticket be routed via YVR? it would be nice to do JFK-YVR on CX, and then YVR-LHR on BA all in F
@ Iwunder -- Nope, that would exceed the maximum permitted mileage. Here's a post which explains American's routing rules:
https://onemileatatime.com/how-to-use-american-airlines-miles/
@tjp74
Thanks for the explanation, thought I'd ask just in case AA were handing out "free" First award flights lol
@Kieran says: some days showing available but with 0K
Yes, that's normal. AA.com does that all the time. Click it and you will see the availability.
But what's the all in cost dollar wise?
@ Patrick -- Fuel surcharges are about $300-400 each way for first/business class.
That is cool! While BA doesn't set the world alight with its First product, A380 First to Vancouver is a very positive move and one that helps differentiate this from existing services.
What's with the weirdness of that First redemption availability screenshot - some days showing available but with 0K. Haven't seen that before (although I rarely use the AA redemption engine so perhaps nothing unusual?).
@ Kieran -- The "0K" price is a well known glitch. It prices correctly on the booking page.
Cool! I love British Airways' A380s (I recently flew them from LHR to LAX in business class and made a Youtube clip about the experience: https://youtu.be/1zVh97nE6TE). Currently, BA has two B747 flights a day between Vancouver and London (summer schedule). Will they keep one B747 flight after they replace the other one with the A380? Maybe it is worth mentioning that the B747 business class on the upper deck (I also made a Youtube clip...
Cool! I love British Airways' A380s (I recently flew them from LHR to LAX in business class and made a Youtube clip about the experience: https://youtu.be/1zVh97nE6TE). Currently, BA has two B747 flights a day between Vancouver and London (summer schedule). Will they keep one B747 flight after they replace the other one with the A380? Maybe it is worth mentioning that the B747 business class on the upper deck (I also made a Youtube clip of that one) is superior to the one on the A380 because of being in your own small, semi-private cabin.