British Airways Will Restart One Of Its Routes To California

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As has been the case with most airlines, the pandemic caused British Airways to take an ax to large parts of its route network and even though a lot of those routes have been restored in recent months, the airline still isn’t flying to all of the US destinations that it served before the coronavirus changed the world. Starting next month, however, one more route to California will be back in the airline’s schedules.

British Airways Will Return To San Diego

Pre pandemic, British Airways operated services to four California destinations (San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, and San Diego) out of its home at London Heathrow but while frequencies to LA and San Francisco have been back to their old selves for a number of months, flights to San Diego and San Jose have, up until now, remained suspended.

Fortunately, in San Diego’s case, that suspension is nearly over.

From 13 October 2021, British Airways is bringing back its London Heathrow – San Diego route with a 3x/week service on the following schedule:

BA273 LHR 13:45 – 16:55 SAN (Wed, Fri & Sun)
BA272 SAN 19:00 – 13:25+1 day LHR (Wed, Fri & Sun)

From 8 December 2021, the route will operate daily (as it did before the pandemic) and as this will then be winter season, the flight times will be a little different too*:

BA273 LHR 13:10 – 16:25 SAN (Daily)
BA272 SAN 18:20 – 12:55+1 day LHR (Daily)

*The flight times change on 31 October while the route is still operating 3x/week

Initially, the route will be operated by a British Airways Boeing 777, but a 787-9 Dreamliner takes over the route from 31 October and appears to keep its place on the route for the rest of the winter season.

Interestingly, despite the fact that all British Airways 787-9 Dreamliners come with an 8-seat First Class cabin…

…the airline doesn’t appear to be selling First Class on this route. At least, not yet.

ExpertFlyer is showing the First Class seats blocked out and forming part of the Business Class (Club World) cabin…

…and a dummy booking on British Airways doesn’t offer First Class as an option.

What’s also interesting is that the First Class seats are visible on the British Airways seat map when making a dummy Business Class booking…

…but they’re not selectable by anyone with Gold Elite Status or below. Perhaps someone with Gold Guest List Status (GGL) will be able to reserve these seats as an added bonus?

Bottom Line

British Airways will restart its London to San Diego route on 13 October with a thrice-weekly service using a Boeing 777 aircraft. From 31 October a 787-9 Dreamliner takes over the route and from 8 December the route will be operated daily. First Class is currently not bookable on this route despite the aircraft offering a First Class cabin, although there’s a chance that BA’s GGL Elites may be able to select First Class seats when they book a Business Class fare (if anyone reading this has GGL status, please would you attempt a dummy booking and let me know if this is the case?)

Featured image courtesy of Lucas Davies via Unsplashed