[Anonymous]

[tonikris]

It is many years since I last flew with BA and was looking forward to the flight thinking it would be an improvement on the usual Thomson flights that we usually travel with.

The flight was to the Maldives, 10 hours out and 11 hours back a long time to be be on any aircraft.

The boarding going out was very well organised, and we took off about 15 minutes late.

We we were in Economy, and not over impressed with the leg room, luckily we had chosen to sit at the rear of the plane and there were plenty of spaces to stretch out and as it was a night flight it was easier to sleep.

I was very disappointed with food quality it was unbelievably bad. I had cottage pie which was completely dried up, with some, I presume vegetables but I was not only passenger who had trouble identifying exactly what they were.

The food on the Thomson flights was a hundred times better. The food did remind me of the early Airtours cuisine, if any reader is old enough to remember how awful that was.

The drink service was very poor, one drink offered and wine with the meal.

On the return flight we did take off on time, but at Male airport you are not allowed to bring water onto the plane even after going through security, as I have to drink at least 2 litres I asked the flight attendant if I could buy a bottle of water but was told ‘No, I should have bought some at the airport’, on a Thomson flight you are all given a bottle of water. I would have thought that the crew would have known about this. As a result I was forever having to get up and go to the galley to get very small glasses of water.

The flight was slightly fuller on the return journey but there were rows of empty seats, at the last minute before they closed the doors 1 passenger boarded, and yes you might of guessed they were allocated the window seat in our row, so we spent a very cramped flight while many other passengers stretched out in luxury. I would have thought at check in that they would have spread the passengers out over the cabin.

We never ate the meal on the return journey.

No, I was not very impressed at all with the flight and service – I think next time we will be returning to the Charter flights – such a shame.

[HonestCrew]

Sorry ToniKris you did not enjoy your experience. As BA crew I’d like to offer some insight to the service.

Due to our company department heads being made up of classic ‘yes men’, the unrealistic budget cuts pushed onto them by our dear leader Willie Walsh a few years ago led to the murdering our of onboard service, product and reputation, something, whilst unable to be stated as an official reason, we as crew held industrial action over the year before last. (There were several unofficial reasons)
This has led to a drastic decrease in the quality of food served. This thankfully is being addressed and improvements are being made. Maybe however those improvements have not filtered down to Gatwick yet explaining your comments on the meal you received there.

Also, the meal tray in World Traveller used to include a bottle of water. This was reduced to a small cuplet, again to save money.
The water bottle was always appreciated as customers could keep it for the flight and/or have it refilled.

As for just one drinks service, this is standard on all BA long haul flights. The crew should come through the cabin occasionally with cups of water and juice of if you would like something stronger the crew will serve it on request.
Having alcohol served ‘on request’ I believe is a good policy as on flights such as yours to the Maldives, the vast majority of passengers are British and something you learn as crew is how different nationalities react to service. British customers will take anything that is offered to them whether they really want it or not, whereas Middle Eastern folk (apart from on Tel Aviv flights) will decline something that is free if they do not really want it. Therefore BA would be mad to do more bar services giving out drinks to people who didn’t really want them in the first place.
On charter flights, the crew work non-stop, several drink services because the more they sell, the more commission they receive and the more profit for the airline.

BA does not sell drinks hence why you were unable to buy water.
The local laws forbidding you from taking your own water on to the plane is unusual, not something we would know about and not something I have ever experienced at any airport, but in these far flung places who knows why they stop you?

On your return flight, it sounds as if the flight was ‘trimmed’, ie due to the location and amount of cargo/baggage, attention had to be made to where passengers are sat for take off. If the aircraft is not balanced correctly it may have trouble getting off the ground and the rest is not worth thinking about!
Check-in staff are informed of this and must seat passengers accordingly. In this situation it is perfectly ok to change seats AFTER take-off.

Overall there are definitely things BA can do better with regards to the catering but a scheduled airline won’t throw free drinks at people time and time again especially on holiday routes where general consumption is much higher than say on a Vancouver or Dallas flight.

BA need to watch out on some of these routes. Some charter companies have really upped their game with regards to seat comfort, entertainment and catering. ToniKris’s post highlights this.

[Author]

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