Tokyo Narita 787 Route
 

Hi,

I am looking at booking to Tokyo for next year with BA and would prefer the Narita flight to the Haneda one due to the departure time both from Heathrow and Narita. My only concern is the fact that BA use a 787-9 Dreamliner on the route as I am aware of the engine inspection issues.

Last year I flew this route with them and the return flight was cancelled at short notice and BA originally were going to reroute me via Chicago back to London which would have been 24 hour journey and I had to rush to try and get an ESTA sorted. Thankfully in the end they managed to rebook me with JAL on a direct flight from Haneda but I really do not want this stress again especially as I was not eligible for compensation.

Is the engine issue likely to be sorted by next year? Unfortunately JAL & ANA's evening departures are really too expensive to be viable alternatives.

NRT will be switching to the B788 from spring next year, so bear that in mind. Can't remember if it is March or May?

I got caught up in the short notice route suspension last year too, but other than that had no issues since over 6x returns. The route is changing to 788s next spring so likely to be even less chance of any lingering 789 engine problems.

Edit - changes to 788 from 1 June

There won't be any changes to MMB as the 789 is still scheduled for April. In the unlikely event they pull the change forward then there would be no F seats so you'd obviously be looking at a downgrade on that flight, the other option being possibly switching to HND.

By process of elimination across the various TYO threads at the moment I'm trying to figure out which FTer grabbed the 2 F seats I was after for next April - I missed them by a whisker :mad:

I applied a TA GUF2 on LHR-KIX / NRT-LHR in J, was planning to upgrade the return but the seats disappeared just before BA approved my voucher :(

Looks like the 789 has been put back into the Narita route next summer which is good news. Lots of F Avios availability in May/June but then the cabin is completely zeroed out for most of July-August (with the cabin showing as blocked, no seats allocated). Presumably Olympic Games related?

shhhhh, don't tell everyone, I haven't booked yet.

June will also put you in the rainy season. Not quite as dramatic as other parts of the world, but it is far from pleasant and can be very humid. I would not voluntarily go.

I just booked LHR-NRT using my 2-4-1 voucher for October 2020. I booked in a rush at midnight to snag the club world seats and belatedly saw that the NRT route will be a 777 in October- a shame as I was looking forward to the 787 experience- especially as the club world cabin on the 777 looks rather large and dormitory-like. Last time I flew club world on a 777 was to Bangkok and the engine noise at the back of the cabin was very loud.

Chicago.. wow

Checked again today and 787 is back on the LHR-NRT route!

We are travelling in F on BA6 from Narita to Heathrow in December.

I read in another thread something about it being FLUB - that they frequently change the First cabin to be Club service.

Is this something that might happen in December?

If so presumably we would recieve a refund on Avios x 2 (used 241 voucher)

Cheers