News & offers: new BA First, new Virgin route & Qatar Indian Ocean from £1194, Singapore £1122

British Airways new First

Yesterday I mentioned that I was certain that BA would fit the new first to the B777s that are due to be refitted with the new Club Suites later this year. Up to this point, BA had been denying that this was definitely planned despite CEO Alex Cruz telling us at media event that it would be fitted to the B777s. It has now been apparently released internally to staff that they will, in fact, be retrofitting the two B777s with both the new Club Suite and the new First seats. Hopefully, it won’t be too long until they reveal the new seat.

The First seats will be based on the current B787 First seats which I thought were great when I flew on it a couple of months ago which you can read about here. The question remains as to what BA choose to add to the current design. I am pretty certain that they will upgrade the seats to be comparable to the new Club Suites, so I would expect to see a door. When we chatted with Alex he suggested that several elements of the existing B787 seat would be improved. I can’t see how they can provide enough differentiation between First and the Club Suite if they don’t have a door on the new product.

Fares: Oneworld Indian Ocean from £1194 or  Singapore from £1122

Sri Lanka

The Sri Lanka fare is on Qatar Airways from Bucharest. Although the price is very cheap there are a few things to consider with this fare. Firstly Bucharest is quite a long flight for positioning at around 3 hours and prices can be high. You could, of course, use Avios to position with British Airways to keep costs down. It does also get you an extra 160 tier points though if you booked in Club on a cash ticket. Secondly, the flight from Bucharest to Doha is on a short haul aircraft that does not currently show flatbeds. The Doha to Colombo route has a B777 with flat beds though (not QSuite).

The rules of the fare are:

• Minimum stay: 3 days or a Saturday night
• Maximum stay: 12 months
• Transfers: unlimited
• Stopovers allowed – some free and some at additional cost. You can stop in Doha for free both ways
• Changes or refund for a fee

You can book direct with Qatar Airways.

Singapore

The Singapore fare is from Stockholm via Helsinki to Singapore with Finnair. Finnair use the A350 on this route which has seats in a 1-2-1 reverse herringbone configuration. Availability is pretty limited for the fare so you may have to be flexible on dates. Stockholm is a good airport to start an ex EU from as there are two in airport hotels. You can read more in this article.

The rules of the fare are:

• Minimum stay: 5 days or a Saturday night
• Maximum stay: 1 month
• Transfers: unlimited
• Stopovers allowed – one free and one at €50
• No changes or refunds
• Book by 4 April 2019
• Travel before 31 December 2019

Tickets can be booked through online travel agents (try Skyscanner to find the cheapest) or direct with Finnair.

Virgin announces new route to Brazil & new A350 seats reveal

Virgin Atlantic announced yesterday it will be launching flights between London Heathrow and São Paulo, Brazil in 2020. This will be on a three class B787 aircraft which you can read my review of here.

Flying daily between London Heathrow and São Paulo Guarulhos International Airport, the 11 hr 55 min flight is Virgin Atlantic’s first South American route.

São Paulo is the commercial capital of Brazil and one of the top 20 global economic cities. I was surprised to learn that it’s the largest city in the Americas after New York for multinational companies to have offices!

The spectacular Iguaçu Falls and Amazon rainforest are easily accessible from São Paulo, and convenient connections are available to Rio de Janeiro and the beautiful beaches of Santa Catarina.

In 2019, Virgin Atlantic will welcome the first four of 12 Airbus A350-1000 to its fleet which will have a totally redesigned on board experience for customers. I can now reveal that the new seats will be unveiled to the press on 8 April near Gatwick and TLFL, of course, will be in attendance to bring you all the details!

Virgin Atlantic are definitely one to watch for me. As well as having one of the best non-Amex miles credit cards, their miles are about to become a lot more versatile when they to become the founding member of a new, transatlantic joint venture. This will have over 300 daily transatlantic flights and 96 non-stop transatlantic routes and also comprise of Delta, Air France and KLM airlines.