[JohnHarper]

Perhaps BA will have an arrangement like the Austrian one with Do&Co where you can buy a better meal to eat in short haul economy than the one you will be served if you are in business class!

[EU_Flyer]

For shorter flights under 2 hours, so long as they still give everyone a free glass of water, I don’t mind. But is it logistically possible together with BOB? Maybe not.

Over 2 hours and I’d prefer a free snack of sorts plus drink was made available, like at the moment.

The BOB strategy relies on the BA’s most lucrative customers eating in the lounge before hand (which they may already do) and the rest either Buying On Board or purchasing food beforehand or bringing from home (BFH).

If someone BFH a stinking day old warm tuna sandwich the consequences won’t be pretty as far as I’m concerned.

I hereby reserve the right to open that emergency exit at 36,000FT for some fresh air and complimentary blow dry.

Thanks.

[rferguson]

Alex_fly some airlines offer some freebies whilst charging for the other things.

SAS and LOT are BOB in Y now but still offer free water, tea and coffee.

The U.S legacy carriers offer free soft drinks but charge for meals and booze. Although it seems that given their increasing profits and competition from JetBlue and the likes they are offering more freebies in Y on certain routes.

Iberia is obviously BOB, Finnair is on some routes. Others like Swiss and Austrian have introduced it before reverting to free catering.

If BA does introduce some kind of enhanced BOB catering and start service ‘bundles’of Plane Food-esque meals with a quarter bottle of vino it will sideline Club Europe even more.

[EU_Flyer]

Thanks rferguson

I’ve personally experienced it on SAS but didn’t realise it was as widespread on other carriers.

Personally I can see the benefits of BOB and the ancillary revenue (and higher margin) it generates, one thing I like about flying full service is that the whole travel process is cleaner and more predictable. If BA don’t prohibit bring your own food, I wonder what exotic smells may permeate the cabin. I love exotic and/or pungent food, but not in enclosed spaces. I guess, most avoid bringing their own as they know the airline will provide a nice meal (or cookie) but if that doesn’t exist, it may make for some interesting smells on board.

[ba747fan1]

We can become like the States and have people bringing on their smelly BK and supersize soft drinks!

[AnthonyDunn]

All of this discussion simply serves to remind me just how very good was the BOB offering provided by BA’s erstwhile LoCo GoFly! With excellent fresh cafetière coffee and Costa sourced sandwiches, this was considerably better than the apology of an offering now experienced in Y on BA’s short-haul services.

[FDOS_UK]

As I said on another thread, I started, if BoB is done well, it works for me.

I don’t have a bias that service on board should be free in economy cabins and the food offerings on most ET sectors are frankly not great, anyway.

My concern, IF BA goes down this route, is that it will not be done well. BoB is rather more labour intensive than a free service and if the crew complement is not increased, there will be disappointed people on shorter flights. On longer flights, the crews will be working harder and that probably won’t be a joyous experience for them, which will no doubt be transmitted to the pax. BA also has not done BoB on mainline flights, so the management expertise in doing it is not there, either and words to the effect that 80% of quality problems are due to management have been said in the past.

In conclusion, BA has not yet announced BoB, so if and when this happens, further assessment will be needed as to whether it is a good or bad thing.

[AMcWhirter]

The story has now made The Independent. This piece appeared online a few mins ago.

“Airline sources suggested that Alex Cruz may bring in Waitrose to supply high-quality snacks at premium prices.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/ba-to-start-charging-for-food-on-short-haul-economy-flights-a7030791.html

[747foreverforus]

If the reports are correct, then this is typical BA style over substance, why Waitrose snacks – surely a sandwich is a sandwich (nothing against Waitrose) If BA are that concerned about the passengers wanting a “premium product” why don’t they provide it now rather than the miserable offering they currently give? Also, will be interesting to see how much the prices fall when this starts, let’s face it how much is a bag of crisps?

[Speedbird1994]

747foreverforus I was thinking the same thing, if they are so excited of providing a ‘premium’ product, what does that say of the current offering?

But for me, I agree with everyone else who has said how does this differentiate from Easyjet?

-Pay for seats
-Pay for food and maybe drinks
-Pay for baggage

I am far from a BA hater, in fact I like the airline, and go out my way to fly them when price/route works, as I like the service, and crew, and the ability to earn airmiles, but as someone who lives in Suffolk, I am finding it increasingly difficult to justify going down to Heathrow or Gatwick for shorthaul routes.

[summerfly]

I like waitrose. This could turn out to be ok. The recent snack offering on ba shorthaul is hardly worth saving. There’s a need for convenient payment by iPhone etc if ba does go down that road.

[IanFromHKG]

rferguson (as usual) makes a good point. If one can pay a modest premium for CE-quality (or better) food and drink, then as a status flyer (with access to lounges and premium check-in and boarding) what is the point of paying for CE?

As to Waitrose – I assume BA are using this as a way to glamourise the offering by appealing to customer’s expectations of premium brand value. Which is extremely ironic, when you put it in context….

I am struggling, personally (as someone who travels long-haul exclusively in business class, at my own cost, so I am no stranger to the idea of paying for a premium experience), to think of any reason why I would pay for CE. As a oneworld FF, I get all the bells and whistles when I am not on the aircraft. There is nothing – apart from the possibility of getting the first-row seat with the extra legroom – that I can think of to justify paying to fly CE apart from the marginally better service and the marginally better food on board – everything else that CE offers (apart from priority baggage handling, which BA have specifically contracted out of despite it being a benefit on every other oneworld airline) I get from my oneworld FF status. If I can get the better food option by paying on board (or ordering in advance) then the chances of my paying the CE premium diminish to the negligible, since I cannot imagine that the premium I would pay for better food would be anything but a fraction of the premium I would pay for CE.

This, I think, encapsulates the problems that the legacy European airlines have. They have diminished the distinction between economy and business class to such an extent that it is primarily the pre-flight experience which makes a difference. If you have access to all the pre-flight experiences through FF status – what is the point?

So what to do? They are in a position where reducing FF benefits is not much of an option because of alliance obligations. Surely they should be encouraging FFs, more than any others, to be paying for business class – and yet they seem to be working towards the opposite goal. I continue to be deeply confused by the reasoning behind these constant efforts to (a) diminish the distinction between basic and economy travel and (b) to enable passengers to access the advantages they want on a pay-per-use basis, while still trying to maintain the image of a full-service, premium airline offering premium services. I just don’t get it.

[BusinessTraveller]

We’ve spoken to BA this morning, and the carrier has provided us with the following statement – it doesn’t add much to this discussion, but that’s because there is nothing to report as yet.

“We are constantly reviewing every element of the experience our customers receive, including the in-flight catering, to ensure we’re delivering what they want.

“We’re always innovating, for example, our new ‘pre-paid’ meal option for customers travelling on our long-haul economy flights is proving enormously popular. The meals are an alternative to the normal complimentary menu, which remains on-board.

“Customers can instead choose to pre-order and pre-pay via ba.com for one of six enhanced meals, including ‘Gourmet Dining’, ‘Great British Breakfast’ and ‘Taste of the East’.

“Everything we do is with our customers in mind and we will make changes that reflect their feedback.”

[JohnHarper]

BusinessTraveller – 16/05/2016 10:55 BST

This is obviously the press release – word for word with The Times this morning.

I really like the last sentence:

“Everything we do is with our customers in mind and we will make changes that reflect their feedback.”

So, the reduction of the seat pitch on short haul business class reflected the feedback of customers who said they wanted less leg room while paying a premium fare?

Now short haul economy class passengers have said they don’t want complimentary food on flights? I wonder who and how many they surveyed.

What would be really laughable would be if Waitrose declined to be associated with the BA brand, after all Waitrose are a premium food retailer and have their reputation to protect and may not want their products in front of the unwashed masses of BA economy class travelers.

What planet are BA wired to?

[canucklad]

This latest development re-enforces my belief that the top brass at IAG are indeed morphing BA’s short haul operation into a Vueling operation
I predict that A320 tailfins with the stylised union flag will ultimately disappear, and be repainted with Vueling.

And as an ex BMI gold card member, I can confidently say that the BD B-O-B was as welcome as a fart in a space suit, and in my opinion contributed to the decline of the airline. The primary reason, is that they managed to confuse their loyal customer base, diluted their quality airline status and put simply made them look and feel cheap…..

BA needs to decide whether what their brand stands for…….And attaching themselves to Waitrose is a pathetic attempt to mask the introduction of something that is associated with Ryanscare and not an airline that proclaims that it fly’s to serve.

Short term thinking, by limited thinking management. Designed to show a further increase in profits when the next results are announced.

Tipping point getting closer and closer!!

[Author]

Posts