#62 out of 94 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings.
967 reviews
In early 2023, various aviation blogs and new outlets made it public that British Airways had scheduled various flights to Dublin, Frankfurt and Berlin during March and April 2023 would be operated by Boeing 777 and Boeing 787 Dreamliners for a limited run of selected dates. As someone who enjoys the chance to fly long-haul planes on short haul routes, this really perked my ears!
£117 later, I had booked two flights due to be operated by the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner according to the BA Website. It is here that I should mention that British Airways themselves never publicly committed to these flights being operated by wide-body types, and as they rightly do mention in the booking conditions (that most people don't read)- aircraft types can be subject to change due to "operational reasons". This is always a gamble you must take when making these types of trips and bookings.
Across four cabins, the British Airways Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner fleet carry 215 passengers.
I had heard through forums that BA was doing these Boeing 777/Boeing 787 flights to Frankfurt mainly due to increased cargo demand during April 2023, but British Airways apparently "lost the contract" and thus lead to the Boeing flights being very unstable, of the dozen flights that had been marketed as Boeing's- a good half of them were dropped down to Airbus A320-family aircraft.
Two days before my own trip was to commence, British Airways changed my outbound flight from a Boeing 787-9 to an Airbus A321-neo. I will report this flight as well in due course. It was a bit of a personal pain in the backside, but I still had one other flight still standing, and as luck would have it- British Airways committed this flight to the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, much to my pleasure!
British Airways has operated Boeing 777 and Boeing 787 aircraft on a very ad-hoc basis within Europe, the airline retired their European configured Boeing 767-300 fleet way back in September 2018 and their somewhat regular Boeing 777 flights between London Heathrow and Madrid Barajas ended due to the pandemic in 2020, thus far not returning. I would personally love to see British Airways return more regular wide-body aircraft within Europe to some of their more lucrative routes (Madrid, Frankfurt, Edinburgh, Amsterdam), but I don't see this happening, but its a lovely treat when it happens!
Anyway, you came here for a Flight Report- shall we digress?
The Terminal of Frankfurt Airport with an Air Astana Airbus A321-neo departing above.
I found a free Airport bus that took me over to Terminal One from the spotters platform around midday. I left the bus and walked over to the Terminal One facility in order to find the Skylink over to Terminal 2- mainly because I was expecting better views than using another free bus.
Quite a bit of construction work was on going around Frankfurt Airport, but I guess this is the normal for such a big global hub, especially with an airline like Lufthansa operating their main hub here.
After a bit of searching, getting lost and asking for directions, I was able to finally find my way to the Skylink which took me from Terminal One over to Terminal Two, also giving me a solid airport view on the way!!!
Being my first visit to Frankfurt Airport, I'm not surprised I got lost, but I expect I could easily remember where it is again if I made another visit in the future, which is almost certain to happen!
When I was dropped off for Terminal 2, I recognised where I was from the previous afternoon- I was at the Food Plaza where you can enter the Observation Terrace, just behind the McDonald's and Italian restaurant.
However I had to go and get a flight and enjoy a bit of lounge access! I passed under the elevator and headed for the departure signs.
Frankfurt Main does things a little different to most airports (possibly all) I have used before. You clear the departures gate and go to a passport control lane, I was seen within a 10 minute wait at the "All Passport" lane. I hope once the UK is sorted out with the EU over visa travel we can just use the biometric lane- which some other non-EU Countries can use, especially as the majority of UK passports are Biometric themselves.
Getting "airside" I passed through a couple of corridors flanked by shops, cafes and bars either side of me, I trailed back to the lounge I had passed yesterday. I noticed at some gaps there were gates for flights where the security checks were being carried out there. Quite an unusual set up from my travel experience, but I do see some benefits of this.
Pretty cool look into the history of Japan Airlines long-haul operations into Frankfurt Main Airport.
I eventually found my way to the Japan Airlines Sakura Lounge (JAL Lounge) where I was able to access on a British Airways flight with OneWorld Sapphire status (Finnair Plus- Gold). It looked like quite a modern and spacious lounge. It was quite busy with people on and off, making photographing around the lounge quite difficult as I didn't want to unintentionally upset anyone.
During my 2 hours in the JAL Lounge, I charged up my devices and enjoyed the dining offered by the kitchen staff at the Lounge. I opted for a tomato soup, a Japanese chicken curry and finalised with a strawberry panna cotta with a latte coffee. It was all divine and tasty. Some savoury and sweet nibbles and snacks were on offer inside glass jars, a very nice way of presenting things and very easy to reuse and clean- good work there JAL!
There were no airside airport views, but looking out the big window you could see the Skylink monorail running back and forth. I opted to sit back and enjoy some food, as I didn't know when I'd be able to grab dinner in the UK.
As nice as the lounge was, it soon became time to go and catch the main event- a flight on the British Airways Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner!!!
Today's flight from Frankfurt Main to London Heathrow is operated by the Boeing 787-9 wearing the registration G-ZBKI, this aircraft was delivered brand new to British Airways from Boeing in March 2016. The aircraft like the rest of the B787-9 fleet is equipped with 8 First Class seats, 42 Club World (Business Class) seats, 39 World Traveller Plus (Premium Economy) and 127 Economy Class seats.
Passing through the Club World and World Traveller Plus cabins, I made my way over to the World Traveller cabin at the back of the plane and placed myself in Seat 43B. A prime bit of "Real Estate" on the Boeing 787-9.
You're probably wondering why I am at a "middle seat"… Well the last row of the Boeing 787-9 is a 2-abreast seating at the windows, lacking an A-Seat. Which is great for couples and can be beneficial to solo travellers. You get some extra space next to you to put stuff, you get an extra seat back pocket behind Seat 42A, and with only one seat next to you, its easier to leave the window seat if you're row of seats is full.
We incurred a slight delay due to the loading of the extra cargo, we eventually left our stand almost 20 minutes late and began our taxi to the runway. It was quite busy at Frankfurt Airport at this time, so we did have some extra wait time on the taxiways before it was eventually our turn to take off.
The weather in Frankfurt, Germany was amazing that day. As we climbed out of Frankfurt Main there were some amazing views of the city.
The wing of our Boeing 787 Dreamliner flexed like mad as we climbed out. We made the turns put us on a heading for London, shortly after would the pilots turned off the seat belt sign.
The crew began the inflight service, handing out the usual pretzel snack and Harrogate Spring Water. I later added a BA Jetstream Brewdog a little later. I played around with the free Wi-Fi offering from BA as well as following the flight map on my IFE Screen whilst listening to an A-ha Concert that is on the BA IFE system.
We ran into some turbulence during the dishing out of the snacks. It got quite bouncy at times, but I enjoyed it, I can't speak for anyone else though!
Our route took us across the Rhineland of Germany, just south of Dusseldorf & Cologne. We passed over Luxembourg and into the Netherlands before heading across the North Sea for the East of England.
I went to the rear galley to use the loo and I quickly spoke to some of the cabin crew about my trip to Frankfurt to chase a Boeing 787 flight, I also mentioned it was my first BA 787-9 flight (I have already flown the 787-8) and that I was hoping for a short flight deck visit once we landed at London Heathrow.
It was here things got interesting!
One of the crew came up to me a few minutes after I sat back in Seat 43B and asked me to grab my bag and see her in the galley. They had opted for the last 20 minutes of the flight that I could go an sit up in Club World to make it easier to be taken for a flight deck visit once we landed, which I was taken a ghast by, but in a good way!
So I followed the flight attendant up to Seat 6K, a reverse facing seat over looking straight into the front of the wing and the massive Boeing 787 Dreamliner engine!
We managed to make up some pretty good time on the flight, we arrived into London Heathrow only 10 minutes behind schedule. We flew in over Berkshire, passing over my old home town of Burnham as well as some pretty amazing towns including Maidenhead, Windsor and Datchet.
We glided past Terminal 5 as we arrived onto Runway 09L, we finished our landing and taxied off to allow the planes behind us a chance at doing the same. At peak times LHR can see arrivals every 45 seconds to 90 seconds depending on the aircraft.
We left the runway and turned into line for Terminal 5B, somewhere I don't use very often as the European Airbus A320 fleet are 90% of the time dedicated to Terminal 5A.
It looked like we took the impressive spring weather in Germany back to the UK that day.
We arrived on stand at the Terminal 5B, whilst I was waiting for another crew member to come and get me I quickly grabbed some footage of the Club cabin which was now deserted off passengers, other than me. Trying to be respectful, I try not to grab people's faces in shot. But it was nice to see this cabin again as its on the verge of being removed from BA planes in favour of the new Club World Suites.
After a short wait one of the crew came for me, and escorted me over to the cockpit and I was allowed in the main office of the British Airways Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the Dreamliner has one of the most impressive flight decks of modern 21st Century aircraft!
I left the plane after a nice chat with the pilots and wishing the cabin crew a nice afternoon and thanked them for helping me make this flight memorable as it was!
Getting off at Terminal 5B I spotted a chance to snap another one of the Boeing 787s in the BA fleet as well as grabbing the underground monorail that runs between the three buildings that make up Terminal 5, getting through passport control was uneventful and didn't take up much time as I was able to use the automated/biometric gate.
With a good two hour wait before my coach back to Bournemouth from London, I opted to try out a bar that is landside at departures in Terminal 5A, I bagged a half pint of beer and a whiskey, on my way out to find my coach, I also closed the trip finally with this amazing photo of the sunset beaming through the glass and metal structure of Terminal 5!
And with that- thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed the Flight Report, and I'll be back with more to come!
British Airways Boeing 787 was an amazing flight experience. I'm very keen to put one to the test on a long-haul flight in the not to distant future!
Frankfurt Airport was a bit of a challenge to find my way around at times given it was my first trip, but I am confident I'll be better off on future trips as I get accustomed to it. That JAL Lounge was a brilliant way to round off my stay in Frankfurt and start off my flight back to London!
London Heathrow was the usual for me, I've done over 100 flights either arriving in or departing from that its hard to find any major issues with the experience. I had no issue on my arrival and the bar I found offered some nice offerings on the drink front.
2 Comments
Indeed, equipment swaps are very common so it's always best to be mentally prepared to avoid too much disappointment. Very smart to point that out here!
I was more wondering why you were all the way in the back of Y. Being that the W cabin was not being sold on these flights, I believe they were available to select for free with oneworld status or for a higher seat fee. Was that not the case for you, or maybe it was full? Or didn't want to sit there because the wing blocks views?
Well well lucky you! Very kind of the cabin crew!
Indeed, though the old Club World seats will still be around for a while on the 787s since retrofits were delayed and aren't due to begin until later this year or early 2024. It will be interesting to test out the Club Suites on 787s once they have them, I suspect the seats will feel less spacious due to the narrowed fuselage of the 787 vs A350s and 777s with the Club Suites.
Nice AvGeek bonus.
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the comment!
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