747 RTW
 

Hiya FTers,
747 godfather Joe Sutter died this year, and this year is quickly ending. Who's up for a RTW on 747s only? Bonus for upper deck only. Doesn't have to be pretty; the Queen of the Skies has enough vavavoom to go around.

Step 1 is obviously to figure out which operator-routes still feature 747s. Time is against us.

I've got this handy site to start with, showing the 747 distribution at the beginning of 2016.

FT has this for DL and this for UA, and probably a whole lot more. I'll try to pin down more and post the options here, but speak up if your 747 Routes kung fu is strong.

:p

PS: obviously 747-8 counts. ^

PPS: wicked cheating you get mad bonus points if you manage this on combi jets or all cargo legs.

Carriers:
BA
UA
KL
LH
KE
QF
TG
VS
CI
DL
CA

Enter this magical line ("/aircraft t:744 t:748" minus the ") into the ITA matrix

KL flies the Combi on several long routes (we did LAX-AMS in Sep; I think it still shows up 1x or 2x a week on AMS-ICN)

Here's one:

JFK - ICN - BKK (KE 748/744)

BKK - FRA - JFK (LH 744/748)

Another good one:

LAX - SYD - JNB (QF 744)

JNB - LHR - LAX (BA 744* - note 744 is only at LAX certain times of the year)

Challenge accepted. Since you're HNL based, here's the best I could come up with:

CI1 HNL-TPE (operated on Wednesdays)
CI162 TPE-ICN
KL657 ICN-BKK
LH773 BKK-FRA
LH492 FRA-YVR
BR9 YVR-TPE
CI2 TPE-HNL

just for grins I looked this one up for ability to redeem Alaska Airlines miles ... found JFK-LAX-BNE in PE for 47.5k and JNB-LHR-IAD in F for 80k (late June 2017) ... $551 in BA surcharges, but a definite possibility esp if the SYD-JNB segment isn't unreasonable (I'll need to call AS Partner Redemption desk)

JNB and SYD have the added brilliance of being southern hemisphere. These are brilliant finds; glad for the experts chiming in.

BA recently introduced their winter schedule which I believe coincided with the the change from daylight to standard time in the U.K.

What this meant for BA's DFW-LHR nonstop was a change from a B777-300ER on the route to a B747-400.

So on the first of this month we boarded BA 192 at DFW for a trip to London in first class. The 744 cabin up in the nose of the old girl had been upgraded to a version of BA's new First and was quite elegant. The service was excellent as well.

It was absolutely great to be back on board a 747 for the first time in many years (my first 747 flight was in 1971 on board an AA operated series 100 aircraft from SFO to ORD and the airplane had a coach lounge in the back complete with an electric piano).

Looks like BA will be keeping the 744 in their fleet for awhile so I hope to fly on board one their aircraft once again one of these fine days.

I second, JNB and SYD and GRU, GIG.

I was having trouble putting together our Christmas trip to SE Asia (usually we leave from IAH but reward seats are scarce) until I stumbled on a service I was unaware of -- LH 747-400 nonstop flight from MCO to FRA on Dec 12 (then on to BKK on an A380) and was able to book business class on the upper deck -- that will bring back good memories for my wife and I!

excellent score!