British Airways to start selling Marks and Spencer's sandwiches on board

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  • Tom Otley
    Keymaster

    [quote quote=759294]So says the Daily Mail

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3794772/BA-faces-budget-airline-backlash-deal-sell-M-S-food-flights-Airline-strikes-supermarket-deal-provide-passengers-upmarket-sandwiches-snacks.html

    Perfect matchup – two overpriced mid range brands, living on past reputation.

    Now let’s wait to see how BA management takes the concept of BoB and improves it – for a typical 90 min A319 flight…..

    12 x Club Europe – choose whatever they want
    19 Gold Card holders – can have a free packet of Crisps and a glass of wine or beer or a glass of mineral water of a tea/coffee
    16 Silver card holders – can have a free choc bar (party size) and a soft drink (but not a diet one) or a glass of water
    20 Bronze card holders – can have a free glass of water
    4 Oneworld Emeralds – can have a free packet of crisps
    2 Oneworld Sapphires – can have a glass of water
    3 Oneworld Rubies – can have a laugh, cos they’re payihng with the rest
    42 non status pax – can pay for the lot

    [/quote]


    MrMichael
    Participant

    I can see why BA have chosen M&S. From a perspective of food hygiene M&S have a reputation in the industry for the most stringent controls. Take a bog standard prawn sandwich and a lot can go wrong from purchase of raw ingredients, preparation of the product through someone eating it. With M&S that supply chain is so stringent that food poisoning from an M&S product while following the storage/heating/eating instructions is unheard of. So while BOB is not welcomed by many, at least it is a quality product being served, even if as FDOS states a little unadventurous.


    Henryp1
    Participant

    Gosh I am very surprised, I really thought it wouldn’t happen, potentially there will be upset when the Sparks card is not accepted. I wonder what will happen for CE customers.


    Edski777
    Participant

    BA has hereby confirmed they left the ranks of “full service” airlines. In the future just check whether Easyjet or Ryanair have a better price and travel with them.

    It’s apparent that shareholders are more valued than paying customers.

    What’s next: M&S Airways?


    openfly
    Participant

    On a LON-AMS only the first three rows of economy will get served!
    Easy answer…short-haul BA becomes Veuling. After all, Snr Cruz is ex-Veuling…
    Easyjet and a Ryanair have won the short-haul battle.
    What happens with long-haul to short-haul connectors or vv. Passengers with no sterling and only credit cards…it will take at least 5 minutes to buy a coffee while the pax has to go into their hand-baggage to find a credit card. Easyjet and Ryanair don’t have connectors. Warning…don’t sit further back than the third row in Y.
    Came back from FAO to LGW ( mandatory 1hour late) yesterday and it took the crew nearly an hour to complete the service…and that was free! Can only imagine that they will put extra crew on the flights to sell the grossly over-priced MnS products. Can’t wait to take my very smelly Big Mac on board.
    Of course, with the latest ruse “we have a person on board with a severe nut allergy, please don’t eat your own food”, we will hear this warning even more.
    We are witnessing the end on BA short-haul. Congratulations to the 18 year old work experience person who came up with this plan!

    As has been said…shareholders before passengers.


    openfly
    Participant

    ….if I don’t like the MnS sandwich…can I get a refund??!!


    WillieWelsh
    Participant

    The original rumour was that it would be Waitrose but IIRC many thought they would not want to cheapen their brand by associating it with BA and that has clearly proved right.

    M&S just like BA are on a race to the bottom and I’m sure they will learn from each other about how to get there more quickly. I wonder how long it will be until the food in all classes on long haul is an M&S ready meal that you can pick in advance and pay the M&S price + 200% for to have it served in its M&S container in flight together with some plastic cutlery.

    BoB won’t be limited to short haul and unlike say Austrian who offer Do&Co meals in Y for purchase this will be the height of naff.


    747foreverforus
    Participant

    Cruz said he was not going to ‘Ryanairise’ BA – well he just has, the man can’t be trusted trusted the sooner that both he and Walsh are removed the better, and that’s for the sake of the shareholders as well as the passengers. The status of flag carrier should also be removed from them, because now they are no more than a Spanish LCC


    MartynSinclair
    Participant

    I really don’t see the need for any food / drink service for a flight of around 1 to 1.30 hour. If someone is in need of a bit of nosh in flight, what’s the big deal about buying a sandwich/bar of chocolate at the airport before you board. The food offering on the trolley is quite derisory anyway…. personally, I think the flight would be far smoother, if there was no service on a very shorthaul…

    Even if I fly in Club over lunchtime, I will always try and grab a snack from Pret or some where in T5.. Most other airports all sell food to go as well….

    1 user thanked author for this post.

    Tom Otley
    Keymaster

    AMcWhirter
    Participant

    I can see all of the main European national airlines adopting BOB in one form or another.

    Remember it was Swiss (I believe it was Swiss and not Swissair in its dying days) which started the BOB concept some 12 years ago. It was only when Lufthansa took over that the Swiss BOB was scrapped.

    Bmi also adopted BOB. SAS offers it.

    Both Aer Lingus and Iberia (Oneworld members) have BOB.

    Last year we reported that Austrian Airlines was poised to adopt BOB. But nothing happened at the time …probably because there was a change of CEO.


    Edski777
    Participant

    Alex, isn’t it about time that BT starts making a list with full service and BOB airlines? In order to help us travellers make a choice based on information that might be relevant to us.
    I would be more than pleased to have an independent source that will bring me back to the days I had to make a choice based on scheduled times and price.
    The current schemes with luggage, hand luggage, frequent flyer arrangements, business class that is actually economy with the middle seat kept free, food or no food, BOB, crisps or cake, alcohol or no alcohol, etc. make it nearly impossible for the common road/air warrior to compare the offerings.

    Somewhere we have gone wrong from the days when travel was fun.


    rferguson
    Participant

    The details are still sketchy. All that’s been said is that BA will be offering food for sale on short haul flights, as I said was in the pipeline some time ago.

    A LOT will depend on just how far BOB at BA will go. Will all drinks still be free? Nothing has been said about charging for drinks. Or will booze be chargeable (like on QF domestic or domestic US airlines) and soft drinks free? Perhaps they will go the SAS way ‘tea and coffee always free’ but pay for everything else. Or Ryanair/EasyJet – pay for absolutely everything.

    The reality is that BA have not been providing ‘meals’ in economy on most intra-European flights for some time now anyway. The sandwiches disappeared from many a route to be replaced with a ‘basket pass’ of a biscuit or tiny pack of crisps. In my eye that’s no meal and i’d welcome the opportunity to pay to have more choice of what I could eat should I want to. I’d be miffed at having to cough up for my coke or coffee though.


    rferguson
    Participant

    Edski ‘full service’ airlines that currently charge for food and drink in some guise on short haul European flights I can think of:

    Air Berlin
    Iberia
    Aer Lingus
    SAS
    LOT
    Brussels Airlines
    Finnair
    Czech Airlines
    Air Malta

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