[yardie]

The crew haven't been trained on it yet so I don't think it was in service.

If anything it was probably a meet and greet where the executives (and staff) can walk around the cabin to get a feel for it. They run their entire operation out of T5 now so getting a an unused gate for a 787 wouldn't be impossible. Other airlines are still jockeying for gate space at T1-T4.

[rit]

And it was Terminal 5, so that makes sense. It looks like they're not getting their 787s (and an order of 'superjumbo' A380s) until this year.

A training/demo aircraft makes sense. Not to mention free advertising people like me, sitting in a window seat, seeing that beautiful new aircraft with "DREAMLINER" painted across her body.

Granted, BA is the only Airline besides Virgin Atlantic/America where I have felt like I was treated like a human being... so convincing me to fly on them isn't that difficult.