[Tom Otley]

Story here

British Airways is making changes to its new Club World meal service

[capetonianm]

Hmmmm, so they won’t have Trolley Dollies any more. What will they call them?
Alex’s Angels?
Cost Cutters?
Penny Pinchers?
Cheap and Cheerless?

[Tom Otley]

Well… I don’t think it’s their fault.

I felt sorry for them trying to do all these new things in the same amount of time when it involved so much extra leg work up and down the aisle.

Anyway, I think if the main criticism of the new service was how long it took to deliver, then this is a positive thing. Either BA listens to the criticism and acts, or it ignores it and annoys passengers.

[MartynSinclair]

[quote quote=894919]Either BA listens to the criticism and acts[/quote]

As well you know Tom, the biggest comment, criticism, observation (however you wish to describe it) is the dated CW seat….. and the airline hasn’t listened or rather acted thus far….

[AlanOrton1]

I’m not sure all routes even got to experience the trolley service – am I right in thinking LGW never had this initiative rolled out?

Last time I flew on a route with this service was to ORD. I felt it worked well, however, I received the food courses before the other pax around me (GCH perk?), so there was little in the way of waiting. That said, I can see how those waiting a longer amount of time would find it slow.

[FaroFlyer]

[quote quote=894914]Hmmmm, so they won’t have Trolley Dollies any more. What will they call them?

Alex’s Angels?

Cost Cutters?

Penny Pinchers?

Cheap and Cheerless?[/quote]

A BA stewardess once told me that she would rather be called the Dolly with the Trolley than the Tart with the Cart

[FDOS_UK]

I’m not surprised they have dropped the trolley approach – the concept was clearly unworkable and one would have thought an airline with 100 years of operations might have worked that out before launching it.

I got invol ‘upgraded’ to CW a few weeks ago and wished I hadn’t. It took nearly 2 hours for miffed fleet to get the starters out and that didn’t include a drink – ‘my colleague will give you one’, well she didn’t manage it by the time I’d finished the starter, so I gave up and wandered down to the Y galley, got some vins and snacks and sent the tray back. The guy next to me, who was also invol upgraded, said words to the effect that he was very pleased he hadn’t paid for the privilege – they finally cleared his desert plate at over 3h15 from take off.

Mind, you it ain’t all plain sailing in WTP, today’s star effort was to serve lunch (meat or fish) without an offer of any drinks – not even soft drinks. Judging by the lack of mini wine bottles, this seemed to have been done in WT, too. Way to go, for a premium airline.

But I’ll save the best for a dedicated thread, as it deserves one.

[rferguson]

It just did not work for the bulk of our customers who want a swift, efficient, well presented good quality F&B service without unnecessary faff. Those tasked with rolling out this new service deemed a 3 hour meal service ‘normal’ – on a seven hour flight I think that’s mad. The biggest problem, I felt, was that we had basically copied and pasted the service from another airline Do&Co worked with. But that airline had much smaller business class cabins and higher crew:passenger ratios.

The frustrating part for us, the crew, was that we flagged it up from day one that it was not going to work. We have too many premium seats and too few crew and the service was taking far too long. And we were dismissed and being ‘negative’ and resistant to change. Which was incredibly annoying for us because we were DESPERATE for change. Most of us were fed up to the back teeth of delivering a way under par meal service to disappointed customers and were delighted with the investment. But it was poorly executed.

No one wanted a tray sat in front of them with a piece of bread for 40 minutes before seeing their starter. I never experienced the ‘WOW factor’ BA was harping on about with the service display trolley. And with the current seats we have it is impossible for a customer to say work on their laptop and have a tray in front of them for three hours. Many competitors seats it perhaps wouldn’t be too bad – you could pop your laptop on a side table and continue working.

It wasn’t until customers started complaining (obviously in large numbers) that things finally began to change.

I believe many things about the new CW service have been a great genuine improvement – the bedding. The increased choices of starters and desserts. The quality of the food. A proper cheese plate! The new linen, glassware, crockery, cutlery.

Anyway, thankfully things will be changing. But all that money wasted on expensive equipment – food siplay trolleys, wine bowls and holders etc. I’d love to see BA sell it it all in exchange for donations to our Flying Start charity.

The new seat cannot come soon enough, next year woohoo. And from what i’ve heard from those close to the project it is quite superb and no longer an ‘evolution’ of CW but will be a genuine revolution.

**Personal opinions only**

1 user thanked author for this post.

GivingupBA

[MartynSinclair]

[quote quote=895210]The new seat cannot come soon enough, next year woohoo. And from what i’ve heard from those close to the project it is quite superb and no longer an ‘evolution’ of CW but will be a genuine revolution.[/quote]

But is it only being installed on the 350 or the entire longhaul fleet…. eventually?

I wonder how the new seat will be marketed – quietly and without fanfare or in a blaze of glory.

I remember when VS launched their new business seat (perhaps mid to late 90’s). A fanfare of marketing and the Gold card holders were invited to events to see the seat well in advance….

Mind you, the VS business product is in just the same need as BA for a change….

[rferguson]

Martyn I believe it will be retrofitted on most aircraft although not the 747.

I was present at a staff event when AC was talking about the seat launch and he said BA was determined to not ‘fall into the Polaris trap’. He was referring to the way United media hyped their new seat while for a long time they were only flying around two aircraft with those seats and many customers had their expectations dashed.

So I’d assume the priority is to roll it out quickly.

[FDOS_UK]

[quote quote=895237]I was present at a staff event when AC was talking about the seat launch and he said BA was determined to not ‘fall into the Polaris trap’. He was referring to the way United media hyped their new seat while for a long time they were only flying around two aircraft with those seats and many customers had their expectations dashed.[/quote]

Anyone remember New First?

It used to amuse me when Voldemort defended that roll out on here.

[MartynSinclair]

[quote quote=895247]I believe it will be retrofitted on most aircraft although not the 747.[/quote]

Many thanks from the ‘inside reports’ RF. Clearly BA have spent an inordinate amount of time on ‘project new seat’ & once launched it will take presumably well over 18 months for the entire long haul fleet to be converted (except for the 747)… Why wait for the introduction of the 350 to launch the product. From a marketing point of view, surely its better to report to customers/investors, 2 launches rather than 1 combined launch (of new products).

Or is it just a case of the bean counters planning the investment to be made at a certain point in the future… and not a day before hand…?

[Author]

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