TravelingForMiles.com may receive commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on TravelingForMiles.com are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. TravelingForMiles.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers.
Some links to products and travel providers on this website will earn Traveling For Miles a commission which helps contribute to the running of the site – I’m very grateful to anyone who uses these links but their use is entirely optional. The compensation does not impact how and where products appear on this site and does not impact reviews that are published. For more details please see the advertising disclosure found at the bottom of every page
British Airways has announced that it will be increasing the number of flights it offers to both Washington D.C. and Santiago (Chile) for the winter 2018/19 season. The bigger increase in capacity will be to Washington D.C. but considering the Santiago route only launched last year it’s impressive that it will be seeing a capacity increase at all.
More British Airways Flights To Washington D.C.
From 29 October 2018 British Airways will increase the number of weekly flights it offers between London and Washington D.C. from 14 to 17 and the new schedule looks like this:
BA217 LHR 11:25 – 14:50 IAD (Daily)
BA231 LHR 16:00 – 19:25 IAD (Mon, Thu & Sat) **new service**
BA293 LHR 17:00 – 20:30 IAD (Daily)
BA216 IAD 18:25 – 06:30+1 day LHR (Daily)
BA230 IAD 21:40 – 09:50+1 day LHR (Mon, Thu & Sat) **new service**
BA292 IAD 22:30 – 10:40+1 day LHR (Daily)
The new flights will be operated by Boeing 787-8 aircraft offering the following seating:
- 35 Business Class seats
- 25 Premium Economy seats
- 154 Economy Class seats
These flights are now bookable via britishairways.com.
Santiago Gets An Extra Weekly Flight
From 28 October 2018 British Airways will add an extra flight to its London – Santiago route meaning that the airline will offer 5 weekly flights to the Chilean capital.
The extra flight is being added in on Sundays and this is what the winter schedule will look like:
BA251 LHR 22:00 – 09:35+1 day SCL
BA250 SCL 17:00 – 10:20+1 day LHR
All British Airways flights to Santiago will continue to be served by the airline’s 4-cabin 787-9 Dreamliners offering the following seating:
- 8 First Class seats
- 42 Business Class seats
- 39 Premium Economy seats
- 127 Economy Class seats
These flights are now bookable via britishairways.com.
Thoughts
Extra capacity is always good news for travelers because it can help to keep prices in check and it can make finding premium cabin award space easier….although that’s not always the case.
It looks like award availability for both routes has been loaded (as evidenced by the screenshots below)…..
…but while Business Class award availability for 2 people to/from Washington D.C. is excellent during winter 2018/19….
…the same definitely cannot be said for the Santiago route:
On the basis that British Airways has committed to opening up 2 Business Class award seats on every flight (and because the new Santiago flights have only been newly added to the schedule) it’s possible that BA hasn’t finished adding all the award inventory to its systems yet.
If you’re looking to travel on this route I would keep a very close eye on award availability over the next few days – if BA releases more seats they won’t hang around for long.
