BA164 TLV-LHR 747 Classic?

[Pax Vobiscum]

A colleague who was on the above flight last week (either Thu/Fri 27/28 March), was surprised to find the scheduled 777 replaced by a 747, and he was pretty confident it wasn't a 744 (no winglets). I know BA have only 744s in their fleet, so can anyone enlighten me as to what was going on? (No ulterior motive, just overdeveloped curiosity!)

[TightSlot, apologies if this is the wrong forum, but I know plenty of BA crew visit here and I thought this might be an easy one for them to answer.]

[Hand Solo]

Might have been leased in to cover the service. Quite a few cancellations at the moment due to a shortage of long haul cabin crew. Either that or he mistakenly flew El Al!

[TSR2]

Heathrow movements website shows the following B777's operating the BA164 in the last few days.
26th March - G-ZZZC
27th March - G-VIIL
28th March - G-VIIU
29th March - G-VIIY
30th March - G-VIIM

Could your colleague have been on the earlier BA162 flight which is operated by B763 aircraft.

[VS-LHRCSA]

Definately not a classic 747. They haven't been flown by BA since 9/11.

Some went to EAAC and were used around 2003/4 for subcharters for BA but they were to TPA, MCO and ATL from memory. Others went to Air Atlanta for their charters.

As far as I know, none of these are still used for pax ops. If the TLV was subbed out, it wouldn't be on any of these.

[Pax Vobiscum]

Well, he told me he was upstairs and his ticket was definitely BA :confused:

Thanks for your help - I'll speak to him next week to see if I can pry any more details. Like I said, just curious/nosey.

[apaddyinuk]

Was it a twisty stairs with a tiny Upper Deck?

Best question is to ask what terminal he was using in LHR, that could solve this non-mystery.

Me thinks your friend may have been hitting the whisky before hand!!! LOL!

[Pax Vobiscum]

Under close cross-examination he has admitted that it 'might' have been a 777: "One tin can looks the same as another to me."

Sorry for the waste of bandwidth :\