Ba Sydney
 

Hi everyone

A friend of mine has just arrived in Sydney and claims he flew on a BA B777.
I think he is going mad, but, just throught I would ask, Have they started flying them all the way down there??

Cheers for any help

No he's going mad.

The BA LHR-SYD is scheduled to be a 747, so I would think your friend is mistaken - unless there was a late aircraft substitution. The other possibility is that he flew on BA LHR-HKG on a 777, then caught a Qantas or Cathay flight from HKG to SYD. I've taken that option once or twice.

crm - your friend has every reason to be confused! Manchester E is probably right - ticket BA, carrier Qantas, code share. I'm sure a 'Nigel' will confirm if you give us the flight number/date.

PS NO reason NOT to tease your friend, though:D

I don't think it could have been either of those possibilities. There are no scheduled BA 777s between LHR and HKG, nor do QF fly any 777s. Nor are there any BA codes on QF metal between HKG and SYD.

A late sub for a sick aircraft might be plausible, but I would have thought that LHR-SIN or LHR-BKK on a 777 would require quite a bit of planning at BA that wouldn't be routinely done as they don't routinely do those routes with a 777 - and it may not be possible to do it quickly.

To add to the speculation, I wonder if he thought it was a 777 because it was laid out 2-4-2 in economy, and that this was actually because he'd got half an upgrade into World Traveller Plus?

Thanks Glob - I sit corrected!:D The timetable does show a variety of a/c for a MEL-SYD leg including a 767 BA17/BA7450 and an A/B 330 17/7452?

PS: Maybe it was a 747 running on two? Tin hat, digs trench, fingers in ears....:D :D

All oz flights 747 operated, including BA17 which is LHR-SIN-MEL (the SYD bit must be a QF domestic) Furthest east the 777 goes is Beijing. Very unlikely to substitute a 777 to OZ as Singapore based cabin crew not 777 trained for starters. Also 777 is substituting for 767's being refurbished so theres not much slack in the system to lose and aircraft for 2 days (would also require 3 sets of Flight crew to be positioned to SIN/SYD at least 2 days prior to leaving LHR.

crm,

Your friend is not going mad; BA are operating B777s on one of the LHR-SYD flights. At least 7 flights have been operated by B777s.

So the answer is your friend may or may not be mad. It seems we can't tell.

*time to join BOAC in the trenches*

Jordan