[Nickberry]

Having been to New York last month and travelled in the new Club suites the lunch was presented on one tray with all courses together ..Does any one have any information when the old style service will be resumed as off to CPT on 11th ?

[FrDougal]

There have been claims that it will be reinstated by end of March but I think it all depends on whenever BA manage to sort out their staffing crises. The reduced CW service is the only reason they are getting away with under-crewing their flights and they still have a long way to go before they have their numbers right.

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[StephenLondon]

I, too, did a JFK return and was appalled at the Club World all-on-one-tray meal offering.

The ‘starter’ was an avocado and edamame super green salad, which was served in a ramekin with a piece of avocado the size of a thumbnail and six edamame beans. There was no salad, but a watery dressing. It wasn’t enough to nourish a big toe let alone the rest of the body. Mains were also parsimonious with three choices (pork, chicken curry or vegan cottage pie). Desserts (plural on the menu, but only one selection) was a berry trifle and was likewise served in a ramekin. Interestingly, it was exactly the same dessert as I’d had on a recent Club Europe short hop. Cheese was mature cheddar an red Leicester. These are hardly inspirational or tasty cheese choices, it looked and tasted like they were the cheapest offered by catering. At best this was no better than an economy meal served on porcelain.

The second meal was equally poor, with a half a sandwich offered with one slice of tomato with some cole slaw on it, along with a bag of crisps. The latter is such a lazy and cheap offering. Crew were clearly embarrassed at serving this to customers, and I (as well as others) actually left the aircraft hungry.

I’ve done a bit of research since returning, and note that most carriers are back to normal multi-course service on board. Air France are offering two starters plus a salad, main course, cheese and a trio of desserts. Virgin are doing their usual plated offerings. KLM are back to their elegant service with starter/salad, main, dessert and cheese offerings. Lufthansa offers a choice of three decent starters and four main courses.

The crew admitted to working one down to save money, and the one-tray service is accommodate this, but crew use ‘covid’ as an excuse. In reality, is appears to be nothing more than cost saving for BA. Club ticket prices aren’t as low as they were last year…the competition certainly seem to be offering a better food & beverage product by a country mile.

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[GivingupBA]

StephenLondon, thanks for posting.

It’s striking that BA is trying “to save money” with food in Club World, when a ticket costs thousands more than in economy? When are they going to realize that people notice this, people resent this, and people have a choice of carrier.

Sometimes I think that BA still believe they are a superior airline on JFK and other routes, and that people choose them for this reason. No, BA – some people, like me, vote with their feet…. and don’t look back. I used to spend a fortune on BA, but they’ve lost my custom (for now.)

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[EasternPedlar]

I always carry some food when I’m going on a BA longhaul flight and find that more often than not it comes in handy.

I started this practice after an experience many years ago when I slept through the meal service on a flight and received a rather churlish response when I asked for some food after I woke up.

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[red_robbo]

Is it really cost cutting, or simply the need to reduce crew numbers where possible due to Covid isolation that is currently affecting every industry? Reducing crew numbers allows more flights to be operated, rather than cancelled due to staff shortages. Looking at the bigger picture, which option has the greater impact on passengers?

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[IanFromHKG]

Reminds me of the last time I flew BA, which was in F. This was in 2020 as I recall, and the entire meal was served in something looking a bit like a pizza box. Heaven only knows why. The excuse was, of course, Covid, but I couldn’t help but think that since there were both hot and cold items in the box, this meant the box had been handled multiple times and therefore the whole approach actually increased the risk….

I expect that my next long-haul flight will be my retirement flight when we move from HKG (where we have lived for almost thirty years) to a small prosperous British financial centre on a rock in the sea sharing a land border with a much larger country which wants to regain sovereignty over it. It’ll be just like old times!

We’ll have to transit, and since Gibraltar only has flight connections with the UK it’ll probably be London (although Manchester is a possibility). I’m inclined to splash out on a flight in F – and oneworld would be preferred. But which airline????

[K1ngston]

[postquote quote=1198507]

Qatar Ian, if you have to fly OneWorld cant see CX being ready and able to take you on the next stage of your life??

Good luck with the move

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[Craig]

We flew earlier this week from Miami in Club World and the meal offering was terrible. I didn’t mind the fact our dinner was served on a tray but the cod curry I had was completely overcooked and tasteless. There was very little in the way of service either. The crew seemed keen to get the passengers off to sleep by cranking up the heat. Another low was the quality of the breakfast. Whilst the seat is important so is the feeling that you are valued and that you are being cared for.

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Shamsh1

[Shamsh1]

It’s almost a tragidy, how BA is treating its premium pax. If one is willing to pay approx. 4 times the Eco-fare, this must have an equivalent in servie and comfort. BA’s 7 across in 787s business class is a nightmare, with shaking tables and no room around you to store e.g. your laptop or waterbottle.

If anyone of you is travelling eastbound, Qatar ist the airline you want to use. 4 across with a very comfortable seat in a little private cabin, lots of space, excellent food and superb, individual service, anytime you want to dine (not just eat!).

As a pleasant side effect, you earn 50% more status points on QR compared to BA when travelling to BKK, SIN, KUL, HKG, at a significant lower price. I just returned from SIN, BAs fare ex VIE was in 02/22 € 5,570.- with 400 points compared to € 2,960.- and 560 points with QR.
Yes, we have a choice and BA’s behaviour during the past years made me choose another carrier whenever possible.

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[SimonS1]

I’m surprised they aren’t still knocking out the Covid cold meal and blaming the pandemic.

Time is ticking for Sean Doyle to make some changes, 18 months in, one IT clusterf*ck down and the same tragic premium offering…

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[AlanOrton1]

I had a couple of CW J flight with BA last month. Compared to a flight with AA in J in late November, it was night and day difference:

Taking the food service, BA’s is simply embarrassing. As posters have pointed out, the fares to NYC have if anything increased.
Ex LHR, Short rib of beef was three minuscule slices of meat. While utterly a first world issue, the cheese was two slithers of something I doubt a supermarket would sell in it’s budget range. (StephenLondon, I think you are being too polite in referring to it as mature cheddar. I’d go for a tiny cube of something yellow and something orange). The second ‘meal’ was a sausage roll.
I used to quite like BA’s leisurely meal service in J heading westbound. I seem to recall there used to be a choice of at least one or two French wines out of the four on offer. Not so anymore. Again, matters some might find pointless to bang on about, however it’s more a comment of how far (IMHO) BA have slumped.
Yes, the BA Club Suite is great, however, gimmicky door aside, it really isn’t much different to the J seat CX have offered for donkeys years.

An amusing quote below from an email (proactively sent by BA to be fair):
“Change has started at British Airways, but sadly the big fixes don’t happen overnight. As you were caught up in the recent disruption and you’ve struggled to speak to us, we know it might not feel as though things are happening, but you’ll have to trust us when we tell you they are.”

Er, no – I don’t and I doubt many do!

Though on the bright side, food ex JFK was a step above the ex LHR offering and their newish F lounge in JFK, is on the whole, very, very good.

[SimonS1]

[quote quote=1205602]An amusing quote below from an email (proactively sent by BA to be fair):
“Change has started at British Airways, but sadly the big fixes don’t happen overnight. As you were caught up in the recent disruption and you’ve struggled to speak to us, we know it might not feel as though things are happening, but you’ll have to trust us when we tell you they are.”

Er, no – I don’t and I doubt many do![/quote]

Exactly. The same tosh that they doled out under Alex Cruz. We just need to await Sean Doyle’s dayglo vest fitting.

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[Rupert362]

Has there been any recent talk about re-instating the plated CW food offer? Travelling to SFO in Apr and wishfully hoping for an improved service!

[rferguson]

I just flew BA to JNB and back in Club on the A380 and it’s just incredibly underwhelming.

Thanks to Gold card was through the First Wing at LHR in minutes and straight into the F lounge. With a departure of 21:10 the lounge was lovely and quiet. I for one am not a fan of the new system of ordering food by mobile device. Well I would be if it was it basically replaced the old impossible to find physical menus and was in addition to the self serve items. The choice was very limited. For example – want something as simple as a cheese plate? Not on the menu. A sweet? The option was Victoria sponge. Or Victoria sponge. I would have preferred like pre COVID where I could just pop up and help myself to some cheese and biscuits. But of course, this is being touted as a COVID ‘enhancement’ that will remain for the benefit of customers because it’s so popular. Ermmm ok.

Boarding was delayed by thirty minutes. No biggie, but no reason given nor no acknowledgment of it from the First Officers welcome on board PA.

Club was completely full.

The IFM made his welcome on board PA and advised that the cabin crew were ‘three down’ tonight and there would be some adaptions to the service. I was in Club on the upper deck and well, we all know the ‘normal’ service is an adaption already. The upper deck club section had one less crew member than normal so no drastic further adaptions apart from no pre-dinner drink.

On to the catering. Let’s be real. BA Club meals are basically what World Traveller Plus used to be. Although BA lists a ‘starter’ as far as I am concerned a solitary piece of cauliflower in a smear of hummus in a little side dish is not a starter. The main of beef was decent. Of course everything is served up at once which was not such a bad thing on a flight departing at this hour and with several crew down.

Saying this about the BA catering, BA is not alone here. I recently flew Etihad in Business from Bangkok to Manchester via AUH and their inflight catering was exactly the same as BA’s. All served up at once, no real starter, no choice of dessert or cheese.

Anyway, back to BA. The cabin crew were great although they did let it drop they were receiving an ‘extra payment’ for working crew down so I guess there was some motivation for them to go the extra mile. There were one or two hiccups. I didn’t have breakfast but had to ask two separate crew members three times for a coffee. They were so run off their feet I think they kept on forgetting.

The seat – well, I don’t need to say anything here. And this is where the cookie really crumbles for me. In January I flew to JFK in a Club Suite fitted aircraft. And the glaring omissions in catering or crew numbers were not so apparent purely because they were offset by the amazing seat/suite. The non updated aircraft does not have this benefit and to be honest, even though I was only using AVIOS I just felt Club World ain’t worth it. Let alone if I was forking out thousands of pounds.

The return flight was pretty similar although on time and I believe with a full crew complement.

I was SERIOUSLY impressed with the JNB Lounge. The options available to eat were far far superior and more extensive to the LHR First Class lounge. Which is ironic given that the JNB is a shared F/J lounge. I had my full pre flight cheese and biscuits that would have befitted a Concorde Room offering (i’ve included a snap of a couple samples of the food below).

BA needs to get a grip and if it can’t at the moment at least be open and honest about the reasons behind the ‘enhancements’ which seem to be a severe issue of short staffing that simply would not be able to deliver a pre pandemic service in a timely fashion.

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