[canucklad]

I find the £35 budget almost incomprehensible….I agree with VK…..economies of scale should dictate that a decent breakfast box should cost no more than a £10

An Asda breakfast sandwich £2
A fresh Asda croissant 50p
A large bottle of fresh orange juice £1
Cost of an empty box 10 p

And this is retail cost—The BA buying and sourcing team should be sacked !

The box seems to be more of an exercise in reducing the cabin crew workload ! i.e surely the box can be handed out and then people can be asked if they prefer marmalade or jam !

[BeckyBoop]

ASDA?? Its bad enough that BA now supply supermaket branded food in the Club Kitchen but that really would be a slap in the face to flyers. At least the APOA is at least Michellin Standard. I cant believe how cheap everyone is being this morning!

[peterraven]

BeckyBoop : I think you are wrong here – most people would be quite satisfied with orange marmalade for breakfast or strawberry jam and wouldn’t complain – we are talking about Economy Class here, right?

This thread was about a breakfast box in Economy – and £35 is way too much to budget. I still believe that an airline catered hot breakfast is preferable to a cardboard box meal and is normal in other airlines – SQ, LH, CX, LX etc etc

Don’t know what you mean about “APOA cater mostly for private jets. So their breakfast boxes are probably catered for more than one person” – are you suggesting on private jets people share the breakfast box? Hmmm… Strange!

Emirates may be a state run airline but it is also profitable and has been so every year since 1997 – maybe longer than that, but I don’t have the figures. So it doesn’t have unlimited funds nor does it employ cheap labour – it pays a commercial rate to cabin crew otherwise who would work there?

As I said, we were discussing the poor quality breakfast box and BA needs to pull its socks up and serve a decent breakfast – that’s all!

[BigDog.]

Well meant point Canucklad, unfortunately “mamalade” and “jam” are a couple of those nouns that don’t readily cross cultures, especially into US english, whilst retaining the same meaning. (Forgetting the with seeds v seedless/jelly problem.)

I could see merely posing the question would result in a fair amount of explanation being required. Some passengers find even the Tea or Coffee conundrum problematic.

[IanFromHKG]

BigDog, the difference between marmalade and jam is nothing to do with seeds – it’s to do with rind.

As I understand it – jelly is made with fruit juices, jam also contains cut or crushed fruit (and may contain seeds), preserves are similar but contain more fruit and sometimes whole fruit (so will nearly always contain seeds), marmalade is made with citrus fruit and contains pieces of rind.

In the UK – generalising and simplifying somewhat – “jelly” is primarily used with main courses (cranberry jelly with poultry, mint jelly with lamb, and so forth) whereas jam is used for breakfast or afternoon tea, and marmalade just for breakfast

[SimonS1]

BeckyBoop – 25/07/2012 07:41 GMT

“Perhaps if BA what a permanent change to the on board product IAG should sell it of to a Gulf or Asian country. Who have the investment to put in to the airline?”

Your posts really do get more and more bizarre! IAG is a listed company and the directors responsibility is to maximise profits for shareholders. This is not an easy challenge in the current environment but they do this by managing costs. If they followed your advice and started spending £35 a pop on breakfast boxes there would be no BA.

Investments need to generate some form of return, even an extra £2 on a meal budget would cost millions and I doubt make any difference to passenger numbers.

Savior_Monk – 25/07/2012 07:10 GMT

“So how do Emirates provide attractive/pleasant food in Y class and yet make a profit for 24 years in a row?

Could it be that they can manage their sub £35 budget more effectively than British Airways?”

Comparing like for like length trips I don’t think their catering is that sensational (I use them at least twice a month). On London trips in Y it is an average hot meal and then a biscuit/coffee before landing. In business a bit better but not incredible.

Also I am sure you are aware that in Dubai (where their biggest catering operation is) a typical flight catering worker would be on Dh2,000 – Dh2500 per month (up to £400) so if they are using the same cost/head for meals then they are clearly able to spend far more on the ingredients.

[canucklad]

That is very true Big Dog….what i would say is that clever use of visuals or a bit ofyanklish training would resolve that….

BeckyBoop….I deliberately used ASDA because they source surprisingly good food and for value for money, i’m afraid to say i would much rather tuck into my £5 box than a posh £35 box…if you where spending your own money what would you buy ?

Remember BMI lost the plot trying to sell sandwiches of inferior quality to a lot of the stuff that you can find on our high streets !

[rferguson]

Just wait til the breakfast box comes to CW. :-))

[LPPSKrisflyer]

rferguson: surely it’s in the next round of enhancements for F 😉

[BeckyBoop]

Peter, Yes I am talking about economy and premium economy meals. NTarrant said earlier that BA could offer the same for considerably less. The En Route ones are just cheap and nasty. BA could make there own variant which could surely be more cost-effective. However serving the APOR box in FIRST or CW would certainly be a fast improvement. As for private jets, I would guess that once it was delivered on board the crew would then serve portions up individually.

Vintage Krug would you like an APOA box served to you on board regardless of what cabin you flew in?

Mr Binman surely you agree the APOA breakfast box would be better served on BA?

canucklad, ok I see what you mean in regards to your reference to ASDA, thanks.

RFerguson, what is BA’s budget per meal in economy?

[rferguson]

Haha. Well this time the box actually IS an enhancement of sorts.

It is one of the new products to be launched in Club World on Dubai – London and Chicago-London for the second (breakfast) service into London. And will then be rolled out onto other routes. Don’t all get too excited, it is hardly industry leading….but DEFINITELY a huge improvement over the current product (the plastic tub of fruit and a bacon sarnie).

Customes will now be given a breakfast card with three choices. The options:
1. Full breakfast – You will be woken no longer than 1hr20min before landing. You tick the boxes for what you would like served:
Choice of drinks
Fresh Fruit or Birchermuseili with honey, almonds and raisons.

Warm option of Niman Ranch bacon with Gruyere cheese sandwich or
apple and Cheddar cheese (??) panini.

Bakery Items: Apple lattice danish or Croissant.

2) Continental Breakfast Box
Served 40minutes before landing.
Containing fruit smoothie, museli bar, fresh fruit pot and your selection from the bakery basket.

3) I do not want to be woken and wish to sleep.

BB really sorry I have no idea what the budget is per tray in Economy. Or any other class to be honest.

[millionsofmiles]

@ VK

I said it before, the question whether BA is profitable or not, is not of a travellers concern.

ALL airlines have to try to live with their budgets, why not BA? And, as mentioned by other posters, such other airlines manage to serve something edible in Eco+.

And your concern about the sacrosanct BA going bankrupt….who cares….someone will immediately jump into the bracket.

[SimonS1]

…however looking at it the other way around, shareholders are interested whether BA is profitable, even if it means they lose some customers along the way.

That’s the great thing about competition. If you like their offer, great. If not, then by all means chose another airline.

[canucklad]

If i was a BA shareholder i would be flabber ghasted that they were purchasing an unpopular product at an over the top price!

I would also be questioning where else in the business are they in-effeciently spending money?

As i’ve mentioned in earlier threads……small in-expensive unexpected little things that a company can do to differentiate it from a competitor could turn it from making a loss to making a profit !

[JohnHarper]

canuklad: You are right, I express my concerns about the conduct of BA as both a shareholder and a gold card holder and their behaviour concerns me greatly.

As a shareholder the absence of dividend payments is astounding at a time when Walsh et al have their snouts ever deeper in the trough. I think dividends ought to be paid before bonuses in any company but especially one like BA where corporate greed and disregard for all but the few in what is after all a company focussed on customer satisfaction and service is supposed to be the aim.

Secondly the lack of ambition of the current greedy managers is astounding. They’ve managed to transform the world’s favourite airline into something of a joke that is trying to win the race to the bottom and emulate Ryanair in terms of offering. That they still have the gaul to refer to New Club World when it is a tired and aged product is stunning. As for new First, well, I’ve said enough on that before, it is overcrowded, cramped and on a par with a third world carrier.

The soft products are abysmal. The food offering in all classes is an insult for the fare paid and pays no regard to the nutritional needs of traveller. Lots of cheap carbs and a little protien. Then they have the gaul to dress it up as ‘Height Cuisine’. It doesn’t even begin to rate next to AF or LH offerings.

Then there is the treatment of the staff. In any customer focussed company the staff are the biggest asset and to be most productive, they must be valued. BA have shafted many of its staff in recent years and no doubt the managers responsible got to dig their snouts even deeper in the trough for doing it. As a shareholder, I mind how people who work for me are treated and I believe in taking the pain at the top, not passing it down or at least only once juniors can see the effects. That said, I am not excusing some of the bad and petulant behaviour some crew choose to exhibit, I would quite cheerfully dismiss them.

They are just some of the reasons why BA have it so wrong.

Cue one or more apolgists with a BA sob story, an allegation that I am not who I say I am and am someone else or an account of how they flew with any other carrier and BA is superior in every regard even though they only flew another carrier once twenty years ago and have probably never flown BA at all or that BA need to consider their costs and the price of a grain of sugar on each tray in economy for a day would add £500 billion to BA’s annual costs.

[Author]

Posts