Interesting substitution of 744 instead of 787 on BA279 [LHR-SJC]
 

I received an email notifying me that my seat on BA279 on 3.April.2020 was being changed from row 2 to row 3. Was a bit surprised, and I looked at the BA iPhone app and found out my seat ws on a 744. That seems like a pretty unusual substitution. Anyone know if BA has ever flown a 744 into SJC before?

Noticed that too
 

For my flights in June. Is it a downgrade to go from 789 to 747? What I remember of the ba 747s was that they were very old.... Is that the case for the plane they'll use sjc lhr?

They've done a good job of the refurbished B747s IMO.

What class are you in?

A check of Expertflyer for the OP’s travel dates shows a seat map for a high-j B747. Therefore it will have been refurbished, have new IFE and most likely be WIFI enabled.

In economy this this sub is arguably an upgrade from the B789.

It seems to have been changed to a 744 for the whole of the summer season.

At the same time BA seemed to have loaded significant amounts of J and F redemption availability. This could be very helpful as F in particular can be hard to find to California, especially in summer. I switched over from an SFO departure in J yesterday (but didn’t realise what had triggered seats appearing).

There is a comment by @Boeing77W in this thread, about how SJC is going to need to do a few modifications to handle their first ever (?) passenger 747. A bit like SAN and PHX, the aircraft's landing starts being a bit of a statement compared to everything else at the airport. When this has happened before, the issue of cargo is often a contributory factor in the equipment change - the 747 handles cargo better than anything similar.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/31811559-post26.html

Especially the all cargo version^

While cargo could be a driver for SJC, as it's convenient to a decent freeway net and rail. San Jose is also the third largest city in California, ahead of San Francisco. SFO is also not as easy to get to as SJC. Anyways, there are many more people around SJC than SFO, so I would expect that the PAX load is going up as well. SJC is also a major hub for AS.

But for me, it gets me within a 15 minute drive of my final destination. However, I do admit I'm pretty disappointed that I'm not going to get to try out the 787's F cabin.

BTW, turns out UA has flown the 744 into SJC on passenger flights before, but as Superbowl charters.

Looks like the move to the 744 is accompanied by plenty of Avios availability in J&F from about late May onward.
Done the route twice and it has been super quick to get through immigration and get bags. About 40 mins from landing and you can be in your hire car and away

We are in CW, sounds like the refurbished are in good shape. Haven't taken BA for 7+ years and don't have a great memory of the 747s from SFO.

I am traveling with spouse at 3 kids, so perhaps the middle 4 will actually be desirable!

Beginning of June is WWDC, Apple’s main conference in SJC. If they had spare equipment, they could fill an A380 that week!

Dates aren’t confirmed till much closer to the time, but it is generally early June. Makes sense to temporarily up-gauge flights to the Bay Area around then.

The only 747s I’ve seen at SJC have been charter flights, and none of them have ever been parked at the gate. There is a charter ramp area down past terminal B that is used often for the charter planes of teams playing either the Sharks or 49ers. My guess would be they’ll park in that area and the passengers will have to get bussed over from the terminal.

This is actually a problem for me. I am 6'8" and booked LHR-SJC in June in World Traveller. I purchased exit row seats for three of us on the 787, now there are no exit rows in Y on this aircraft. Called and asked to be put on A380 to SFO instead, was told no since different city but they will be kind and offer me a refund of the seat purchase. Do you think I could convince them to change routing (via LAX) as long as my destination is still SJC? If not, best contingency if I have no choice but to stay on the 747 to SJC?

I'm really happy to see the extra reward availability; I got the seats on my return trip I wanted in F and the coveted 64J/K on the outbound. Happy dance!

No, with ba an equipment change does not give a right to a change of flight, let alone routing or destination. The refund of the seat fees is the correct answer unfortunately. You can always hope for a later significant timetable change later which would open more rights.