[capetonianm]

Thanks for, as usual, your insight, rferguson, but unfortunately your last line encapsulates the problem.

When I pay a premium fare I expect a premium product, and BA’s, even if it offers flatbed, simply isn’t premium, and however good the bedding might be, if the seat is broken and tatty, and if the stowage bins look so grimy I don’t want to put anything into them, then I’ve lost confidence. I’m watching this forum with interest, and my next couple of trips between CPT and Europe are booked on LX and KL, but I’ll keep an eye on BA as if the fare is low enough I’ll consider using BA one day.

[BrotherJim]

[quote quote=866319]BrotherJim – no. It should launch on SIN/SYD in September.

In regards to the crew setting it up for you – TBH there isn’t really anything to set up. It’s a small mattress protector underneath and a duvet. Most other airlines that offer a similar product do not have crew set it up for the passenger either, unless the design of the seat needs crew assistance (ie some herringbone designs that ‘flip’ over). Airlines like Qantas, Qatar etc that offer mattress pads it’s a DIY service for the passenger. I guess this is down to two main factors – to differentiate between F and J (the crew will offer a turndown service in F). And also just down to crew:passenger ratios in Club/Business.[/quote]

Thanks for replying. I am flying BA next month SYD-LHR, so was hoping it would be on there. It will be my first BA flight since I moved back to Australia in 2011, so will be interesting to see the changes. I am also flying on a Club Europe flight too, that I reckon will be an eye opener having followed the threads on this board.

PS Wilst Qantas’s mattress pad is DYI, my experience is they will happily offer to put it on for you and take away the plastic. And when finished take it off and put it away. And not sure if they still do it, but flights out of Singapore (A330 at least), they used to ask in the lounge if you wanted it set-up ready for when you get on-board.

[MartynSinclair]

Revisited the new bedding last night and not convinced of the benefits. I worked it all out & one very helpful stewardess/cabin crew assisted with the bed make up. it all looked cosy, but it was not long until it was all pushed out of place and there was just a pile of material wrapped around me. I still think it looks out of place in the canvass bag, plonked on the seat and if you don’t have the luxury of the extra side storage, not sure where you will store it before use of…

Despite the bedding and the old dated seat, which desperately needs modernising…. I still slept for around 7 hours, that’s generally longer than I sleep at home…

Where I think there is a BIG improvement, is the food. I will go out on a limb and suggest, it is very close to where 1st class food was a few years back…The presentation and taste of the balik salmon cubes and roasted sea bass was very very improved from the previous club world menus and food some 6 – 12 months ago..

Now work on trying to manage cabin crew chatter in the Galley…

[openfly]

…..”manage cabin crew chatter in the galley”….that will never happen. It is quite appalling on BA Mixed Fleet crews, where they are totally unaware that there are passengers, who have paid a lot of money, attempting to sleep.

[travelworld2]

I must confess a polite “Guys, would you mind keeping the noise down in here please – I’m trying to sleep” with a nice smile always works a treat on any airline…..

[openfly]

@travelworld2 I shouldn’t have to get up from my bed in BA First Class and beg them to be quiet. They should be trained to be quiet the whole time. I have politely told them that they are disturbing the passengers. They go quiet for a few minutes and then it starts all over again. Can I speak to the CSM? No sorry they are asleep on their rest….I wish I was!!

[capetonianm]

Last time I was on a BA LHR CPT upstairs in the business cabin there was so much chatter from the peanut gallery that I went back and said that as I couldn’t sleep perhaps I could join in the conversation, whereupon I was offered a drink and snack, had a lovely chat to them for half an hour, and then went back to my seat and they promised to keep quiet and they did. As I’ve said before with BA, charming, but poorly trained.

[rferguson]

@ BrotherJim – oh jeez, you are in for a surprise when flying ‘Club Europe’ after flying around in QF Domestic, which is a great product. The ‘proper’ business class seats, the excellent domestic Business Class lounges, small touches like pre departure drinks and the crew offering to grind some cracked pepper or grate some fresh cheese on your meal. I guess the market is very different for intra europe flights versus domestic australian ones. The dominant carriers in europe are the locos, and none of the major ones have any affiliation with a legacy carrier. In Australia there are four main airlines – two full service and two loco’s. But both the loco’s are owned by one of the full service carriers. So they are sure not to tread on too many toes of the mother airline. And whilst QF domestic is an amazing product (i’ve never flown Virgin Australia J Class) wow do you pay for it. The fares are very high and you never seem to be offered a cheap optional ‘upgrade’ option although I know you can bid for them (my $190 offer for a one way upgrade on VA on the short MEL-SYD hop was rejected). I find QF J domestic flights excellent Avios value however. Especially the likes of MEL – PER on a widebody 330 with flat beds for 20K avios and £10 which I tend to reduce to 11K avios and pay £85.

I think Qantas has done an amazing job at turning itself around. I can remember flying to Australia via Singapore about 18/19 years ago on a 747 and they were just appalling. Old cabins, sparse food, surly cabin crew. I guess QF’s biggest competitors in their home market are a lot of very superb airlines – SQ, CX, ME3 whereas with BA’s biggest market being transatlantic they’ve been a little less exposed in this case (all though most of the US legacy carriers now offer a far better hard product than BA).

Instead of sinking QF completely turned themselves around and IMHO probably offers the best overall experience of the ‘western’ carriers (well maybe a joint ‘best’ with Air NZ). They have been very innovative as well. As you mention the ability to elect in Manage My Booking or OLCI that you do not want to eat and have your ‘bed’ prepared. They were the first airline to launch pre-order choice of meal in Y. They have great IFE service on short haul flights via streaming to a personal device. Their First class lounge in Sydney is definitely one of my favourites and they’ve at least announced their intention to replace their older J class seating on the 380 (which admittedly is a bit old generation now). One area i’ve noticed a deterioration though has been their catering in Business on longhaul. Specifically their ‘cafe breakfast’ on the overnight flights from Asia to Australia and also the second meal on the longer flights (on my SYD-HKG flight I was served my meal in a plain white cardboard box). But on the plus side at least they plate their main meals.

[BrotherJim]

Well I have made it to Europe on BA. Interesting trip and in some ways better than I was expecting.

The flight out of Sydney had the new bedding but not new catering. The bedding I am not so sure about. I found it rather silly that they plonk it on your seat and you have to put it in the overhead for take off and landing. Why not just leave it up there in the first place.

And rather oddly out of Sydney crew were telling people to put it up, but on the second leg, different crew of course if someone had it down they would put it up for the passenger.

And when it came to fitting it I opened the bag and say 3 or 4 plastic bags inside and couldn’t work out what was what so just used the duvet. The pillow was good.

My CE flight was kinda ok. First time ever I have used the Galleries lounge in T5 (when I lived in London I was emerald so always used the first class loUnge). Not bad but nothing special.

As for the flight first time I’ve seen the zoo of carry on fares and people being asked to check in bags for free because the flight was full.

On board new seats in CE (compared to 7 years when I last flew CE) were good except lack of leg room. And meal same as I remember. I was on a 15 year old A320 and the refurb looked nice and modern, really like the CE bulkhead. Reminds me of what Qantas have done with their 717’s

And speaking of Qantas and their business class. I agree with the comments about about how good it is for domestic. But go to an Aussie frequent flyer forum and see the number of people complaining they don’t have a lie flat direct isle bed on a 2 hour flight. Some ways I can see why they complain because Qantas does operate A330’s (and at present 789’s) domestically that have that config.

Anyway another week and time to head back to the cold, flying BA again.

[rferguson]

So in the sea of negative press around BA this past week a small positive article and genuine enhancement – Do&Co will be catering ALL long haul BA flights ex LHR from 2020.

When they launched their new catering concept last year on the JFK route it was a genuine big improvement. The catering was superb which is what Do&Co are well known for (they also cater for TK and OS among others) and there generally was a huge increase in ‘that was delicious’ comments when clearing in the plates. BA made a huge deal of their collaboration with Do&Co in the internal and external media so we all just assumed when the new concept rolled out to other routes it would also be Do&Co. Wrong. Do&Co continued to cater only the JFK route and the others were catered by the incumbent Gate Gourmet so basically the same medicore slop presented differently.

So great to hear Do&Co will be catering all BA flights eventually. I believe the delay in this starting is due to Do&Co’s LHR kitchen needing significant expanding to cope with the increased workload.

6 users thanked author for this post.

travelsforfun, FrDougal, Swissdiver, Alex McWhirter, Tom Otley, DavidArnold

[rferguson]

Sorry, it’s actually ALL onboard catering ex LHR. Not just CW.

1 user thanked author for this post.

FrDougal

[Alex McWhirter]

Hello referguson – I believe Do&Co will also be doing the onboard catering for Iberia.

For BA you did mention LHR but the obvious question is what will happen at LGW ? It seems LGW, at least for the time being, will not be getting Do&Co.

[rferguson]

[quote quote=887992]Hello referguson – I believe Do&Co will also be doing the onboard catering for Iberia.

For BA you did mention LHR but the obvious question is what will happen at LGW ? It seems LGW, at least for the time being, will not be getting Do&Co.[/quote]

Hi Alex, LGW will be changing supplier to a company called Newrest. They already cater the LCY flights.

I imagine this will be a big blow for Gate Gourmet at LHR.

1 user thanked author for this post.

AMcWhirter

[Mark Caswell]

BA has just confirmed to me that the Do&Co catering will begin (albeit in a phased rollout) from next month, and is expected to be on all outbound LHR services by early 2020:

British Airways to use Do&Co catering for all flights from Heathrow

1 user thanked author for this post.

FrDougal

[capetonianm]

This is rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.

[Author]

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