BA British Airways Club Suite
Guides

New British Airways Club Suites – which routes fly them?

It’s been a couple of months since British Airways introduced the Club Suites seat to their fleet, and it seems the reception from travellers has been overwhelmingly positive by media and travellers alike. It’s certainly a marked improvement from their old Club World seat where you had to jump over someone’s legs to get to the aisle!

Below is our first ever glimpse of the Club Suite when BA invited media representatives along:

And you can also see our review here of the inaugural flight, between London and Madrid.

Airbus A350

British Airways received their first of 18 A350-1000s on order in July 2019, and their second just last month. All the A350-1000s will be fitted with the newer Club Suites seats.

In true BA fashion they unofficially nicknamed the aircrafts “eXtra Wide Body” and so all the A350s have registrations which start XWB.

  • Dubai – Flight numbers BA106 and BA107. Usually operated by aircraft G-XWBA
  • Toronto – Flight numbers BA92 and BA93. Usually operated by aircraft G-XWBB
  • Tel Aviv – Flight numbers BA162 (starting 2nd December 2019) and BA163 (starting 1st December 2019). Due to be operated by aircraft G-XWBC
  • Bangalore – Flight numbers BA118 (starting 1st January 2020) and BA119 (Starting 2nd January 2020). Due to be operated by aircraft G-XWBD.

a man and woman in an office

Boeing 777

As the Boeing 777s are being refurbished with Club Suites rather than having them installed outright, it is even more important to try and keep track of the aircraft’s registration in addition to the flight numbers.

It is important to note that flights can undergo aircraft swaps due to operational reasons and so don’t hedge all your bets on getting any particular aircraft.

The bulk of the refurbishment programme until late 2020 will focus on the B777-200ER to give 8 First class Seats, 49 Club Suites, 40 World Traveller Plus and 138 World Traveller seats. The current schedule is to refurbish around two aircrafts per month, so the Club Suites routes will rotate around different cities once the second or third aircraft has been completed.

a row of monitors in an airplane

Current situation

There is currently one active B777-200ER that has already been refurbished:

  • G-RAES – currently operating back-and-forth between New York JFK until end of March 2020:
    • BA173 Departing LHR 11:20 Arriving JFK 14:05
    • BA112 Departing JFK 18:30 Arriving LHR 06:30+1

Future plans

The B772ER aircrafts with registrations G-VIIA, G-VIIB…. G-VIIN should all be refurbished by late summer 2020.

As we currently understand the situation, unofficially collated from FlyerTalk, our conversations with cabin crew, God Save the Points and routesonline.com, the following routes will start to see Club Suites on selected flights:

  • Seattle – Starting 2nd January 2020.
  • Bahrain-Dammam – Starting 8th January 2020.
  • Nairobi – Starting 14th January 2020.
  • Nairobi – Starting 14th January 2020.
  • Chicago – Starting 28th January 2020
  • Riyadh – Starting 29th January 2020.
  • Tel Aviv – Starting 30th January 2020.
  • Abuja – Starting 30th January 2020.
  • Kuwait – Starting 1st February 2020.
  • Boston – Starting 2nd February 2020.
  • Dubai – Starting 13th February 2020.
  • Jeddah – Starting 20th February 2020.
  • Philadelphia – Starting 11th March 2020.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.