Originally Posted by
WHBM
Unfortunately an 0600 local time departure from London meant zero (that I saw) media publicity here. Journalists don't get up that early !
So I didn't see it go either. But I did see its predecessor 747 some 30 years ago, which passed right over our office at a much more civil time just before 0900 a few miles into its run, notably low actually. The track of the 747 was quite different, over the Middle East and (I think) south of Singapore. The 787 seems to have gone south of Moscow and overhead Hong Kong. Wonder what the mileage difference was. Shame the captain of the 747 passed away not long ago, and couldn't be on board today. There was an interesting account on the Web (can't find it now) by the steward of the 747 flight, with details of all the catering they provided.
It's not neccessarily mileage that determines, it'can be en-route winds, get a favourable wind then some additional miles don't matter.