Vietnam Airlines' Inaugural 787-9 Flight to London-Heathrow on June 29

The inaugural international service for Vietnam Airlines' (VNA's) new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner (B789) is currently scheduled to be on June 29, 2015, flying from Hanoi (HAN) to London's Heathrow Airport (LHR).

This replaces service currently flown on VNA's Boeing 777-200ER (B772).

Flight VN055 will depart HAN at 12:30am for an overnight flight, arriving at LHR at 6:40am.

Read more: Vietnam Airlines' Boeing 787: New Lie-Flat Seats in Business, 2 Different Economy Configurations

The first return flight, VN054, will depart from LHR at 2:45pm on June 29, and arrive back at HAN the next day at 7:50am.

Then on June 30, the B789 will operate a revenue domestic flight for repositioning, Flight VN237 from HAN to Saigon (SGN), departing at 10:00am and landing at 12:05pm.

The first B789 flight out of SGN will depart early on July 1 at 12:05am and arrive at LHR at 6:40am the same day.

Read more: Vietnam Airlines: In-Flight Wi-Fi to be Available on New 787, A350 Aircraft

It seems that while the equipment information has been loaded, VNA is using their B772 seatmaps as placeholders, so if while one can select a seat on a flight scheduled to be on a B789, it's very likely to change.

A screenshot of the seatmap that appears on the LHR routes operated by the B789,
though it's clearly the configuration for the B772. Image source: Reader Andrew R.

A blog reader reports that he was able to select a business class seat on the map, even though he is currently booked in a premium economy seat. I cautioned him to:

• Recheck for new seat assignments when VNA loads the final B789 seatmap into the system; and,
• Prepare to ask for a refund, since the first 4 B789s are slated to arrive with no deluxe economy seating.

(H/T: Andrew R.)