Today is the day that BA’s first retro livery aircraft arrives back at Heathrow. The BOAC livery B747 will go into service tomorrow. Paul and I will be at Heathrow today for its arrival. We will be posting on social media as we go along as well as broadcasting live on YouTube. We expect the aircraft to land about 9.45-10.00am and be in the hangar after 10.30. If you would like to watch the live videos go to our YouTube channel here.
In this post:
British Airways luxury sale
British Airways have a luxury holiday sale now on which must be booked by midnight tonight, Monday 18 February. Some of the deals are excellent value and cheaper than buying the flights by themselves. You, of course, get all the extra advantages when booking a BA holiday such as an extra £1 Avios per £1 spent on top of the usual Avios and the ability to pay a small deposit rather than the full price up front. There is more about booking BA Holidays in this article.
Club Europe holidays
- Venice – includes three nights at the 4* Le Boulevard (Lido) Hotel, from £269 per person, travelling on selected dates from March 6 to March 19. Includes Club Europe return flights from Gatwick and accommodation with breakfast.
- Verona – includes three nights at the 4* Montemezzi Hotel from £269 per person, travelling on selected dates from February 24 to March 31. Includes Club Europe return flights from Gatwick and accommodation with breakfast.
- Amsterdam – includes three nights at the 4* Xo Blue Square Hotel from £289 per person, travelling on selected dates from February 24 to March 18. Includes Club Europe return flights from Heathrow and accommodation.
- Nice – includes three nights at the 4* Villa Bougainville Hotel from £299 per person, travelling on selected dates from February 18 to March 25. Includes Club Europe return flights from Gatwick and accommodation.
- Rome from £299 per person – three nights at the 4* Occidental Aurelia, travelling 24 February – 12 March, with Club Europe return flights from Gatwick
USA holidays
- New York – includes three nights at the 4* DoubleTree by Hilton New York Times Square West from £1599 per person, travelling on selected dates from February 14 to March 31. Includes Club World return flights from Gatwick and accommodation.
- Austin, Texas – includes five nights at the 4* Hyatt Regency Austin from £2259 per person, travelling on selected dates from July 1 to July 31. Includes Club World return flights from Heathrow and accommodation.
- Las Vegas – 7 nights from £1793 Includes Club World return flights from Heathrow and accommodation.
- Boston – 3 nights from £1646. Includes Club World return flights from Heathrow and accommodation.
- Miami – 5 nights from £1880. Includes Club World return flights from Heathrow and accommodation.
South Africa holidays
- Durban holiday includes five nights at the 5* Hilton Durban from £1649 per person, travelling on selected dates from October 7 to October 31. Includes Club World return flights from Heathrow and accommodation with breakfast.
- Cape Town holiday includes five nights at the 5* Hilton Cape Town City Centre from £2349 per person, travelling on selected dates from November 2 to December 8. Includes Club World return flights from Heathrow and accommodation.
You can find the BA Luxury sale page here.
Business class to Brazil from £1129
LATAM generally offer good value sales but today’s offer is excellent value. Being part of Oneworld, you will earn Avios and Tier points when you fly with them. I flew on their long haul business class seats from Frankfurt to Madrid and was impressed with the onboard service. You can read my review here.
The fare starts in Lisbon, and you then fly into another European airport before picking up LATAM. You can fly back to Heathrow on BA to start the flight to Sao Paolo for example.
You can add in stopovers for $100, so you could do a mini break to Lisbon and then pay for the stopover in London and use the Sao Paolo part at a later date. There is no minimum stay, and the ticket is available one way as well if you wanted to combine with a redemption.
You can book on LATAM here.
Qatar reveal new business class seat plans and will retire A380s
Qatar are due to unveil a revolutionary new economy seat at ITB in March, but they also revealed that there would be another new business class product. This will be for their A321neos due to be delivered later this year and also for next year’s A321LRs. Qatar’s CEO revealed that it would be a brand new seat model that’s not in Qatar Airways current fleet. The seat is tipped to be a mini suite although nothing quite as special as the Q Suites. It could be similar to Jet Blue’s Mint seats which have doors in the US.
The aircraft will take over some of the A330 routes as well as flying to Phuket and Krabi for part of the year. New destinations in Europe and Africa are also potential uses of the aircraft.
In the same interview with Aviation Analyst, the CEO also revealed that when Qatar’s A380s reach 10 years of age (from 2024) they will be retired and replaced by the B777X and A350-1000s. This is a real shame as I love Qatar’s A380 and particularly the onboard bar which I view as the best in the sky. It will be interesting to see if that also ends First Class for Qatar as it is only available on the A380 currently on long haul. Given the luxurious QSuites, it hardly seems worth having a separate First class.
2 comments
Real shame about Qatar”s A380’s – as you imply they are about the only airline that seem to have put a perfect cabin in it. Functional and comfortsble with the best bar by far!!
Totally agree: I’ve always enjoyed my flights upstairs on the Qatar A380. Met some interesting fellow travellers and sampled the odd G&T or two. For a daytime flight, give me the spacious A380 cabin over the QSuite “rabbit hutch” any day!
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