[openfly]

Traveworld2……the old First aircraft operate LHR-CPT-LHR-PHX-LHR rotation.

[SimonS1]

Shame that SAA and Virgin both abandoned the route – maybe the locals could bleat to the Cape Times about that.

It’s a temporary situation from mid October until early November – I’m sure life will go on.

As for the sale, why would you have a sale on a route where you are a monopoly operator and can fill flights at regular fares? BA is a business not a charity.

[openfly]

@SimonS1 JNB and CPT will appear next week. BA delayed those due to publicity surrounding the Comair incident….from the horses mouth!

[TominScotland]

I would have thought that CPT would be a prime candidate to transfer to LGW as a leisure route? Probably explains the move to T3 in the first place ……

[BusinessBabble]

There is no way they’d move CPT to LGW.

There’s no competition on the route with SAA and Virgin dropping it and they manage to fill x2 747 flights a day down there (up to x3 over peak season).

If anything I’d imagine it’s a potential A380 route once CPT airport is upgraded to handle it.

[christopheL]

@SimonS1
It seems there is a fourth 747 with old first. I flew LHR to GRU yesterday evening onboard BYGB and my first seat was not new at all !

[SimonS1]

BYGB was fitted with new first in 2011 so sadly you are mistaken.

[cityprofessional]

“However, the compounded lack of care demonstrated towards CPT bound premium passengers does – illustrated by:
1) the move to T3
2) use of the very oldest equipment
3) total lack of Avios seat availability in premium classes
4) exclusion of CPT from the World Premium sale”

Ummm, (a) you don’t have to fly BA and (b) there is the same Avios availability to CPT as on any other flight – at least two CW seats per flight. The fact that more people want to *redeem* to CPT than, errr, JNB or JFK or wherever is by-the-by. Maybe if more people wanted to *pay* to fly to CPT, VS and SA would still be flying there

BA is a business. It doesn’t exist so that your company can send you to JFK and FRA, only for you to redeem Avios to CPT. That would be stupid

And I bet next-to-no full fare paying F pax were inconvenienced by putting Old F on that route, so it is an *ideal* route to send battered old 747s to. You’d do it too if you were running an airline.

[goldaviator]

@ cityprofessional – 30/10/2015 22:05 GMT

You make some fair points re the running of an airline and the availability of redemption seats, however you are wrong about full fare paying passengers not being inconvenienced by not being provided new First. I have paid full fare to travel to Cape Town in Nov in First and its little consolation to be given 50k miles in lieu of having to travel in an inferior product that BA had downgraded to a Club World product.

[SimonS1]

The comments from the “man in ops” about these planes being scheduled to Cape Town and Phoenix are wide of the mark.

Over the last few days they have turned up in Boston, Las Vegas, Delhi, Denver, Accra and Miami. No evidence at all that certain routes are being planned/targeted.

[goldaviator]

I emailed BA First to ask if any of my sectors booked are scheduled on Old First to Cpt and back but they won’t confirm until time of check in.

[openfly]

SimonS1….Thanks for the info. I will inform my mate in ops and manager In SA that they are completely wrong.

[esselle]

Pretty amazing really that BA are still knocking out a 20 ish year old cabin, but it does sound a bit transitional.

What I find more troubling is that they are adding (only slightly) varied versions of “new” F into their latest fleet, given that, even when “new” was “new”, it was a bit old hat.

I still look forward to F on EY, EK, QR and others, yet my upcoming F on BA in a couple of weeks is not making me tingle just yet…………

[esselle]

I have just tried to book the Spa treatments for our trip, which is just over two weeks away. Anything really; toe nails, nose hairs, big toe massage………nothing at all whatsoever during a three hour layover at LHR.

Perhaps it’s just a bit more of the BA marketing guff machine?

[AlexFACT]

More OLD First to and From CPT:
BNLX is used for BA0043 tonight
BNLW is usef for BA0058 tonight
I thought BNLX was retired two days ago…? BA obviously is milking these grand old ladies a little more – and continues to snub the top pound paying First customers!

@cityprofessional – what good is a 50k Avios ‘compensation’ that one then cannot use – considering that I am actually based in CPT.
I seriously doubt the assurrance by BAEC that they offer at least two Avios Club seats on every BA flight – unless there are some under handed dealings going on, as these these two Club seats hardly ever make it to
the public! Trust me – I have tested the BAEC webportal hundreds of times – up to 355 days in advance!

[Author]

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