Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

What you get when your British Airways Gatwick flight becomes a Titan Airways Boeing 757

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

This wasn’t part of any grand plan, but a trip to Venice yesterday accidentally gave me first hand experience of the Boeing 757 which British Airways has leased from Titan Airways.

Titan joins Iberia Express, Vueling and Finnair in providing fully crewed aircraft to operate British Airways short haul flights this Summer.

Ironically, British Airways isn’t short of aircraft – it is only short of crew. The only way it can get crew is by leasing an entire aircraft (known as a ‘wet lease’ in the industry) together with staff, which must lead to an astonishing £ per hour cost for each crew member BA gains.

Titan Airways Boeing 757

There is a 50% chance that the aircraft above is the one I flew, since Titan Airways only has two Boeing 757 aircraft in its fleet. Titan has provided aircraft to British Airways in the past to cover shortages, although its bread and butter business is charter flights – all those Premier League times have to get to their European games somehow …..

HfP readers in their 20s may never have knowingly flown on a Boeing 757, since the last one was manufactured back in 2004. British Airways retired its final Boeing 757 in 2010.

What was it like to fly?

Here is all you need to know, based on my Club Europe flight yesterday:

You board though the middle set of doors, which is a novelty, although we deplaned via the front as usual. This is the view looking towards the back as you board:

Titan Airways Boeing 757

The legroom by the middle set of doors – which are used for boarding – is ludicrous, well over a metre. See:

Titan Airways Boeing 757

Legroom elsewhere looks acceptable, potentially better than British Airways.

The bulkhead, where I sat, has decent legroom:

Titan Airways Boeing 757

There is no IFE despite the old-style headphone jacks in the arm rests:

Titan Airways Boeing 757

There is a huge galley area – I was in 1D and was probably 15 feet from the cockpit door:

Titan Airways Boeing 757

If you are sat in Row 1, you’re going to be putting your bag above Row 2 or Row 3 as the first couple of bins are taken:

Titan Airways Boeing 757

In terms of food and drink, it was exactly the same as British Airways Club Europe. Standard Club Europe meals are being loaded. I don’t know if Economy passengers were able to order High Life Shop items to be delivered on board, but they did receive the usual drink and snack.

There were some tweaks:

  • a bottle of water was handed out before departure
  • tea and biscuits was served before the meal
  • food orders were taken verbally (there was no printed menu, but you wouldn’t get one on the Venice route normally anyway)
  • food was served from the galley by hand – there was no trolley
  • my English breakfast was the warmest meal I have ever had on a BA flight, which was a good thing
Titan Airways Boeing 757

A standard alcohol service seems to have been available – although I didn’t ask due to the 7.20am departure – because as we were leaving the plane, a man sat a couple of rows behind me was ringing his friend to boast about how drunk he was at 9.45am UK time ….

Overall, I was impressed by the Titan Airways crew (noticeably more experienced than the BA crew I had to Amsterdam recently), the space on the plane (although clearly the seating and interior has seen better days) and the way the crew dealt with heating and serving unfamiliar British Airways meals.

If you find that your Gatwick flight has been swapped to a Titan Airways Boeing 757 (it will show on ba.com if you do a dummy booking for a new ticket) then you absolutely have nothing to be concerned about. You certainly shouldn’t be calling BA to exercise your legal right to change flights.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (91)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Dubious says:
    4 May4 May 06:53

    PS. Premier League times?

  • BJ says:
    4 May4 May 07:05

    Prompted a trip down memory lane for me 🙂 Many moons ago I was pleasantly surprised to find a Titan BAe146 waiting at the gate for my BA flight to Prague. Sadly it remains my solitary experience of both the aircraft and the airline to date, The aircraft was great with very roomy and confortable soft leather seating and the crew were lovely. Definitely a step up from BA.

  • x2000traveller says:
    4 May4 May 07:42

    Would assume you boarded through the 2nd set of doors, this was quite a common arrangement back in the day with the 757s. I always found the BA ones were quite spacious inside and, powered by RR Engines, gave a really smooth ride.

  • Mark says:
    4 May4 May 07:45

    I used to date a member of Titan cabin crew many years ago.

  • Rhonal says:
    4 May4 May 07:48

    Hi I took advantage of the Economist offer for the 15k avios with BA but they haven’t appeared yet in my account after waiting 3 months I contact the economist and they recommended to contact avios.com, any advice?

  • Sam says:
    4 May4 May 08:07

    “You certainly shouldn’t be calling BA to exercise your legal right to change flights.” Why would you have a legal right to change flights?

    • Rob says:
      4 May4 May 09:02

      You booked on BA, you’re not getting BA.

      • Sam says:
        4 May4 May 09:28

        But you get a BA flight number?

        • Rob says:
          4 May4 May 09:41

          That’s not the point. If you buy a pair of Levi jeans online and you receive a pair of Wranglers in a Levi bag then clearly you have the right to a refund, unless you were told at the time you bought that the jeans would be supplied by Wrangler. Same here.

          • Callum says:
            4 May4 May 12:15

            But you haven’t received a pair of Levi jeans in that scenario… In this scenario, you’ve bought a BA flight from London to Venice and you’ve received a BA flight from London to Venice.

            I have no idea whether you have a right to refund or not (though I’d be quite surprised if you do), but your example just isn’t correct. What specific legislation do you think gives you this right?

          • Rob says:
            4 May4 May 13:27

            What element of a BA flight did you receive? Not a BA aircraft, not BA crew, not even in BA uniform.

            Trust me, this is your legal right and BA stressed it was my right when they emailed me about the change.

          • meta says:
            4 May4 May 18:05

            Operated by Finnair/Titan Airways is crucial here. Under EC/UK261, your rights are with the operating airline. So if that flight was cancelled, you would have to pursue legal rights with Titan/Finnair. Essentially this is a cancellation of BA service and you have an option of refund/re-route/re-book at a later date which BA, to be fair, for once offers.

          • Nick says:
            4 May4 May 18:17

            Errr no. EU261 is the carrier responsible for the flight’s operation, rather than strictly speaking ‘operating carrier’. A subtle but important difference, because it means that in a wetlease scenario it’s the chartering carrier who pays. Finnair/Titan are off the hook. There may well be something in their contract about delays under their control, but BA would claim from them, not the customer.

          • meta says:
            4 May4 May 21:12

            @Nick no, just checked again the relevant ECJ case law. At least partially the responsibility lies with Finnair/Titan. If Finnair crew falls ill or the aircraft has a technical failure, they are responsible. If something else, it’s BA. In any case, you’ll probably have to claim from both as you wouldn’t be privy to their contracts.

            You can well envisage BA trying to blame Finnair/Titan and vice versa.

          • Matt says:
            4 May4 May 21:49

            Is it a legal right? I always thought it was, but looking into it I cannot see anything online about this. Airlines have a legal obligation to communicate the operating carrier and if that changes they must tell you ASAP. However, I can see nothing about them having to offer a refund alternative. Most articles suggest it is a grey area depending on if it is regarded a significant change to the schedule and that is down to the carrier’s contract. Most legacy airlines appear to give the option, but would easyJet or Ryanair? And will BA in the future given they have Cityflyer and Euroflyer which are all different operating airlines.

          • meta says:
            4 May4 May 21:58

            BA clearly does not think that they are operating the flight entirely given that they found it necessary to inform the passengers and offer all of the options. And this is the main issue.

          • Callum says:
            4 May4 May 22:02

            Rob – Your received every element of a BA flight that was advertised. You checked in at the same desks, at the same airport, at the same time, flew the same times, received the same onboard service, sat in the same style seats. Other forms of transport do this all the time, I see no reason why an airline would be a special exception.

            I’m afraid I don’t trust people who make incorrect sounding claims and refuse to give evidence. No one can pretend you aren’t knowledgeable in airline operations, but you certainly aren’t infallible.

          • meta says:
            4 May4 May 22:55

            @Callum he didn’t seat in same style seat (note the comment about legroom, IFE you can’t claim that B757 and A320/1 have the same seat) and didn’t receive entirely same service given that the crew was from another airline. BA also does not think that they operated the flight entirely given that they have given the option of a refund or rebook on a BA operated flight. Are you telling us you know more than BA?

  • froggitt says:
    4 May4 May 08:14

    Years since I’ve been on a 757. It’s basically a heavier 787 isn’t it?

    • dougzz99 says:
      4 May4 May 08:28

      It’s a long 737 more than a 787.

      • S says:
        4 May4 May 08:42

        Or a narrow 767!

        • CamFlyer says:
          4 May4 May 09:13

          The last poster is correct. The 757 and 767 were sister aircraft, IIRC with a common type rating. The 757 was always a favourite of mine, with good interior space and rocket like takeoffs.

          • Speedbird676 says:
            4 May4 May 09:53

            My first ever flight was on a 757 (not BA), but my first ever BA flight was also a 757. Fond memories 🙂

  • jkay86 says:
    4 May4 May 08:18

    Speaking of 757s, flew DUB-KEF on FI in the not-too-distant past in one that has been previously in the service of Air Niugini and Cabo Verde Airlines. Aside from the very 1990s overhead panels it was a comfortable flight

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Get 25,000 Avios with the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

GET A SIGN-UP BONUS OF 18,000 VIRGIN POINTS!

Latest Forum Posts

Get 80,000 bonus points (worth 80,000 Avios) and £400 of dining credit with The Platinum Card (Offer ends 27th May)

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get up to 10,000 bonus Hilton Honors points

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? GET THE ONLY FREE SMALL BUSINESS CREDIT CARD WHICH CAN EARN AVIOS

Get points worth 30,000 Avios with 'first year free' American Express Gold (ends 27th May)

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!