British Airways is in the process of rolling out wi-fi across the majority of its fleet. According to the BA's wifi on-board page it claims to be aiming for about 90% coverage by the end of 2019 across its entire fleet.

One or two days before your flight you should enter your flight number into Flightradar24 and see which aircraft is likely to be scheduled for your flight. Of course there may be substitutions but you can assess your chances based on this.

There is an excellent, and probably more up-to-date, thread over on Flyertalk which is the primary reference for this post. All errors are mine and please do let me know if there is anything incorrect.

Table of Content:

• • Airbus A318
  • Airbus A350
  • Airbus A380
  • Boeing 747
    • Low J
    • Mid J
    • High J
  • Boeing 777-200 (4 class)
  • Boeing 777-200 (3 class)
  • Boeing 777-300
  • Boeing 787-800
  • Boeing 787-900

Airbus A318

The only aircraft in British Airways' A318 fleet, G-EUNA, does not have wifi. It is currently unknown whether this will be installed at a later date.

Airbus A350

The latest aircraft in its fleet, All A350s have, and future A350s will have, wifi.

Airbus A380

Currently 10 out of 12 A380s have wifi. They are:

• G-XLEA,
• G-XLEB,
• G-XLEC,
• G-XLED,
• G-XLEE
• G-XLEG,
• G-XLEH,
• G-XLEI,
• G-XLEJ,
• G-XLEK

For the remaining two, G-XLEF and G-XLEL will be fitted with WiFi facilities sometime in 2020.

Boeing 747

There are three configurations of the Boeing 747s that British Airways use; the “Low-J” which has 52 Club World seats , “Mid-J” which has 70 Club World seats, and “High-J” which has 86 Club World seats.

A quick rule of thumb is if you are flying out of Heathrow Terminal 3 on a Boeing 747 (those routes being Cape Town, Las Vegas, Miami, Phoenix), then it is Low-J configuration. This is partly because these are not typically business-heavy routes which would require a much larger lounge capacity than possible at Terminal 3.

Compare your seat map in Manage My Booking with the following images in the sub-sections below to know which variant your Boeing 747 is.

Boeing 747 (Low-J)

Below is the seat map for Low-J

You will only be able to see the seat map of the class you are flying (you may struggle in First class!). But if on the lower deck your plane has got:

• First Class rows 1-5
• World Traveller Plus in rows 11-16 (Note World Traveller Plus is in front of Club World)
• Club World in rows 17-20,
• World Traveller in rows 28-37 then 39-55

Then you have a low-J configuration. If your flight is to/from Heathrow Terminal 3 then it is low-J too.

None of the Boeing 747-400 low J aircrafts are, nor will be, fitted with wifi.

The low-J configuration includes the Landor retro livery, G-BNLY,

and also the Negus retro livery, G-CIVB

 

Boeing 747 (Mid-J)

Below is the seat map for Mid-J

You will only be able to see the seat map of the class you are flying (you may struggle in First Class!). But if on the lower deck your plane has got:

• First Class rows 1-5
• Club World in rows 12-14, then rows 17-20
• World Traveller Plus in rows 28-31
• World Traveller in rows 33-36 then 39-55

Then you have a Mid-J configuration.

None of the Boeing 747-400 mid-J aircrafts are, nor will be, fitted with wifi.

Boeing 747 (High-J)

Below is the seat map for High-J

You will only be able to see the seat map of the class you are flying (you may struggle in First Class!). But if on the lower deck your plane has got:

• First Class in rows 1-5, and
• Club World goes from rows 12-14, then 17-22,
• World Traveller Plus in rows 33-36
• World Traveller in Rows 39-55

Then you have a High J configuration.

All but one Boeing 747 “High-J” routes, representing 17 out of 18 of them, have wifi. The only one which does not have wifi is G-CIVG and it will not either.

For completeness, all of the following aircraft do have wifi:

• G-BYGA, G-BYGB, G-BYGC, G-BYGD, G-BYGE, G-BYGF, G-BYGG
• G-CIVF, G-CIVH, G-CIVI, G-CIVR, G-CIVS, G-CIVV, G-CIVW, G-CIVX, G-CIVY, G-CIVZ

Also note if you are flying the G-BOAC retro livery, G-BYGC, then you will have wifi.

 

Boeing 777-200 (4 Class)

Currently 27 out of 30 Boeing 777-200 (four class) have wifi. They are:

• G-RAES
• ​​​​​​G-VIIA, G-VIIB, G-VIIC, G-VIID, G-VIIE, G-VIIF, G-VIIG, G-VIIH, G-VIIJ, G-VIIK, G-VIIL, G-VIIM, G-VIIN, G-VIIS, G-VIIV, G-VIIW, G-VIIY
• G-YMMG, G-YMMH, G-YMMI, G-YMMJ, G-YMMK, G-YMML, G-YMMN, G-YMMO, G-YMMP

The ones which will not be fitted, due to being retired in the near future, are:

• G-ZZZA, G-ZZZB, G-ZZZC

Boeing ​​​​​​777-200 (3 Class)

Currently 15 out of 16 Boeing B777-200 (three class) have wifi, they are:

• G-VIIO, G-VIIP, G-VIIR, G-VIIU, G-VIIX
• G-YMMA, G-YMMB, G-YMMC, G-YMMD, G-YMME, G-YMMF, G-YMMR, G-YMMS, G-YMMT, G-YMMU

The final one, G-VIIT, is scheduled to receive wifi by the end of October 2019, after which the entire Boeing 777-200 fleet will have wifi.

Boeing 777-300

Currently 9 out of 12 Boeing 777-300 are fitted with wifi. They are:

• G-STBA,
• G-STBB,
• G-STBC,
• G-STBD,
• G-STBE,
• G-STBG,
• G-STBI,
• G-STBK,
• G-STBL

Of the remaining three,

• G-STBH should receive wifi by end of November 2019.
• G-STBF and G-STBJ should receive wifi sometime in 2020.

Boeing 787-8

If you are unsure which type of Boeing 787 Dreamliner you are flying, load up Manage My Booking and compare your seat map with the one below.

You will only be able to see the seat map of the class you are flying, so if your plane has got:

• No First Class
• Club World goes from rows 1-3, then 6-7,
• World Traveller Plus in rows 10-13
• World Traveller in Rows 20-27, then 30-41

Currently 0 of the 12 Boeing 787-800s have wifi.

All of them, registrations G-ZBJA to G-ZBJM, are due to receive wifi in 2020. (And for those realising M is the 13th letter of the alphabet, that is because there is no G-ZBJL because it shares the same two final letters as G-BGJL which was involved in a fatal accident. Thanks to Tyke's Aero Blog for this trivia.)

Boeing 787-9

If you are unsure which type of Boeing 787 Dreamliner you are flying, load up Manage My Booking and compare your seat map with the one below.

Quick rule of thumb: If you are flying First Class on a Dreamliner then it is a B787-9

 

You will only be able to see the seat map of the class you are flying, so if your plane has got:

• First Class in rows 1-2, and
• Club World goes from rows 6-7, then 10-13,
• World Traveller Plus in rows 16-21
• World Traveller in Rows 30-44

Currently 10 out of 18 Boeing 787-9 aircrafts are fitted with wifi. They are:

• G-ZBKG,
• G-ZBKH,
• G-ZBKI,
• G-ZBKJ,
• G-ZBKK,
• G-ZBKL,
• G-ZBKM,
• G-ZBKN,
• G-ZBKO,
• G-ZBKP

The following are due for 2020:

• G-ZBKA
• G-ZBKB
• G-ZBKC
• G-ZBKD
• G-ZBKE
• G-ZBKF
• G-ZBKR
• G-ZBKS

Boeing 787-10

The first B787-10 will be delivered in January 2020 with its first services to Atlanta starting in February 2020. These are almost certainly going to be fitted with Wifi.

We will cover short haul aircrafts in a later post!