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4000 Avios Wine offer
An easy way to collect Avios is to buy wine through The Wine Flyer. I tried them at Christmas and was happy with the purchase and delivery. You can buy mixed cases, but they also have some good wines and spirits available individually. While with offers, there may be other places where you can buy the wine cheaper, for me, it is an easy way to get Avios for a little extra cost.
The latest offer is spend-based, so it is perfect if you prefer to make your own choices rather than have to buy a mixed case. That’s in addition to the standard Avios rate of earning of at least 5 Avios per pound £1. You can collect 4,000 bonus Avios when you spend over £149.99. Or, collect 2,500 Avios when you spend £129.99.
Simply use the code MAYBOOST at checkout to get the bonus.
You can find the official Wine Flyer offer page here.
Emirates to retrofit more A380s and B777s
Emirates has today unveiled that it will be completely refurbishing another 43 A380s and 28 Boeing 777 aircraft, expanding its retrofit programme to 191 aircraft. One of the reasons I tend not to fly with Emirates is the wide range of business class seats which range from 2-3-2 layouts to all aisle access. So it is good news that they will be updating the A380s with the new Premium economy and giving the existing aisle access business class seats a bit of an update.
The original plan called for 120 aircraft – 67 A380s and 53 777s to undergo full refurbishment.
Sir Tim Clark, President Emirates Airline said: “We’re topping up our multi-billion dollar investment in the retrofit programme to introduce cutting-edge cabin products on more of our A380s and Boeing 777s, demonstrating a clear commitment to elevating the customer experience with a best-in-class suite of products across every cabin. The addition of more aircraft fitted with our newest generation seats, updated cabin finishings and a contemporary colour palette also marks a significant step in ensuring more customers can consistently experience our premium products across both aircraft types.”
Emirates has retrofitted 22 A380 aircraft so far, and in July of this year, the first Boeing 777 will undergo an interior refresh. The B777 have very outdated business class seats so I am really pleased to see that they will be finally getting modern business class seats. This is alongside the A350 new business class seats, which are yet to be revealed and will fly on the newly revived Edinburgh-Dubai route.
Each Boeing 777 aircraft will take approximately two weeks to refurbish before entering service. Plans include the refurbishment of the First-Class cabin, all new Business Class seats making a debut on the aircraft in an updated 1-2-1 seating configuration, in addition to 24 of the latest Premium Economy seats, giving customers more premium options to choose from.
Along with the addition of the Premium Economy cabin, the Emirates Boeing 777 will be configured with 332 seats in four classes, featuring eight First Class suites, 40 Business Class seats, and 260 Economy Class seats. To make room for the new Premium Economy cabin, 50 Economy seats will be removed.
Once the last aircraft rolls out of the retrofit programme and the project is fully complete, the airline will have installed 8,104 next-generation Premium Economy seats, 1,894 refreshed First Class suites, 11,182 upgraded Business Class seats and 21,814 Economy Class seats.
Emirates currently operates its refurbished A380 aircraft fitted with Premium Economy to New York JFK, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, London Heathrow, Sydney, Auckland, Christchurch, Melbourne, Singapore, Mumbai, Bangalore, Sao Paulo and Dubai. The airline will be boosting services with the new cabin to Osaka in early June. The airline will be serving 42 cities with Premium Economy by February 2025, with the A350 entering its fleet in September of this year, in addition to the newly refurbished Boeing 777s also slated to begin serving more cities with the highly sought-after cabin later this summer.
What’s new onboard for summer on BA?
British Airways first new aircraft with its refreshed Euro Traveller and Club Europe seats is now flying. The first one is an A321neo aircraft with 8 A321 and A320neos to be delivered in total. These aircraft feature mood lighting, a centre console in Club Europe, and USB-A and USB-C 60W charging. There are also the larger Airbus luggage bins, which allow you to store cases on their side, which means more can be stored.
The free Wi-Fi messaging pass now allows British Airways Executive Club members to use messaging-type online applications, such as WhatsApp, iMessage, Facebook Messenger, and Teams Chat – without images, videos, or attachments, text only. WiFi is available on all of the airline’s Gatwick fleet and more than 80 per cent of British Airways’ Heathrow fleet, rolling out to 100 per cent by the end of 2025. Free messaging will be available on all BA connected aircraft for the full duration of the flight on a single device.
There are also some new drinks to try on board. Johnnie Walker’s Blue Label Elusive Umami Scotch Whiskey which was created with Johnnie Walker Master Blender Emma Walker and Japanese chef Kei Kobayashi to capture the taste of umami. Only one in 25,000 casks succeed in bringing this limited edition blend to life and it retails for £300 a bottle. This will be available in First during May. There will also be some new single malts oin Clyb World with Dalwhinnie 15 years old and Talisker 10 year old.
Fever Tree Elderflower tonic will be available for customers in First, Club World and Club Europe too.
Highlife Entertainment has new additions from Disney+, including movies and box sets.
Finally, there is a new Highlife Cafe menu on short-haul in economy. There are some tasty-sounding new options including Pollen and Grace salad bowls such as Hummus and rainbow veg bowl as well as the usual Tom Kerridge sandwiches including a new spicy mango chickpea wrap. There are also some new ciabattas, including chicken and chorizo and a vegan one.
For drinks, there is Foxdenton English Garden Gin and Pink Gin, Captain Morgan Spiced Rum, When In Rome Pecorino white wine (can), Vithit Pink Grapefruit and Lime, and Lost and Grounded Keller Pils Lager are among the new offerings.
You can see the full selection here.
4 comments
Hi Michele, it is nice to see BA making some moves forward with WIFI/Messaging access, and the 380 Bins will be a definite improvement. Re the Drinks though it is fine adding/upgrading the whisky if you are a whisky drinker, but I do not suppose there is any information forthcoming about at least 1 Brandy being made available ????
That’s a good point Tommy. I really miss having brandy on BA and can’t understand how it can be so hard to source it when they can manage to source single malt whisky!
I second the above comment. Poor show BA. I remember watching an interview you had with the wine master of BA. He said it’s coming, sadly so is Christmas. This has been a joke for months. It’s one of the only airlines I fly that fails to offer it. 🤷🏼♂️
I agree. I suspect it’s down to cost but it’s not acceptable to not have brandy on long haul business class in my opinion.
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