[Anonymous]

[nevereconomy]

I have flown BA First for many years but it is now pretty much a constant disappointment. Just did US-UK roundtrip – outbound no drink or food order taken until someone noticed I was the only one with no table set-up. Canapes gone and served digusting amuse-bouche instead. Food choices very strange and quality and presentation atrocious. Champagnes on BA now are the cheapest vintage they can find and other wines sliding too – very few decent whites and all heavy New World reds.

Return had new cabin, which is a welcome change, but fit and finish not up to the standard of new CX First for example. Wardrobe is a waste of space and can be an irritation if passenger behind is a door-slammer- same holds true for the video screen mechanism. Once again food was awful (even recent US Airways Envoy catering was better) though crew great. BA still has much work to do to achieve a world class product.

[VintageKrug]

The fizz in F is decidedly average right now, not so much cheap (it’s not that cheap) but too fizzy and not to my taste; but this *is* changing and I am told that an exciting range of new and importantly interesting vintages is coming to the First cellar shortly.

Did you get the L-P Brut Millesime ’99?

http://www.laurent-perrier.fr/commonfr/champagnes/brutmillesime/

I am sticking to Tanq and the pudding wine for the time being.
During a period when F revenues have been limited, and many seats filled with upgrades and redemption seats, it is inevitable that costs have had to be trimmed.

My fave was the Cuvee Louise they had a year or so ago, that was superb. Though it’s not since 2003 that I have seen Krug aboard BA F. 🙁

But I do find the comments about F food strange, as my recent experience especially exLHR has been excellent, with some memorably good dishes, particularly the soups and Loch Fyne fish of the day; I also find the Dorchester afternoon tea superb, which although is pushing the envelope in trying to re-create the Dorchester ambience is definitely delicious and well presented.

I have sampled the new http://www.ba.com/first cabin and I think it’s a huge improvement on the old set-up.

[BABenji]

I recently flew LHR-BKK-SYD in F and had made a point of eating before I boarded so that I could get some sleep (after a couple of Tanq 10’s and Bitter Lemon, of course). However, once presented with the menu I had to reconsider…Beef Wellington can never be passed up, and for a meal served at 38000ft, it was pretty good.

Service was excellent throughout the flight with the one exception of being told in BKK that I would have to wait until after take off for a gin and bitter lemon and that all I could have at that time was water, champagne or orange juice. Cabin crew have always been very accomodating in F and so this “restriction” of service annoyed somewhat.

My return from DXB last week wasn’t as favourable, although that had more to do with being on the worlds oldest 777 with no entertainment on demand.

Food and service were exemplary.

[VintageKrug]

The restriction to Champagne, orange juice and water might seem irritating, but it is rooted in legal protocol, rather than the whim of cabin crew.

Technically, all on board alcohol is served in international airspace, and therefore no Duty is paid.

I understand that there is a modest exemption for champagne served pre-boarding, whereby the duty is either pre-paid on an estimated basis annually, or not charged at all (not sure exactly).

Opening anything other than the ‘poo would require breaking the seals on the beverage carts where the other alcoholic beverages are stored. You don’t just pay duty on the single bottle of whatever, you would be liable to pay duty on the whole cart, which could be a very expensive proposition (possibly £100s/cart) and cause a significant amount of paperwork, especially if the aircraft has to return to the stand before getting airborne (not unknown, this has happened to me twice when in F).

This tax liability always been the case, so in the past crew have either been happy to “fess up” and pay the Duty or waive the rules (and expose the airline to fines etc.) or confident that no-one would ever check up. I would imagine this is not really worth risking (as if caught out, it could lead to Duty having to be paid on ALL onboard booze, possibly £ms) and that there is perhaps more scrutiny of such issues than might have been the case in the past.

The First cabin crew member should be able to deftly pre-empt this situation by giving you a prescriptive list of options, rather than the more open “would you like a drink” which can elicit a range of exotic requests, to which refusal could often offend.

I am always happy with water pre-take off; it’s good to get as hydrated as possible pre-flight (I try and drink at least 3 litres the day before I fly longhaul) so water no privation, and champers (with OJ if enduring the current stuff) is normally suitably celebratory if you want to get things off to a flying start.

And it is rarely that much of an imposition to wait 20 minutes for the post take off drink to be delivered.

Interesting that BA stills serves Campari in F. Who knew?

[Inquisitive]

Pretty explanatory and long winded reply. Question is if BA has to be among the best, then they shall arrange to pay tax etc. to serve hard drinks at stand. I always get Champagne at stand while travelling with SQ – I presume they pay the tax – which is nothing compared to the fare that is charged for F or J class.

[VintageKrug]

And indeed champagne is available at stand on all BA longhaul flights in both FIRST and Club World.

A back of an envelope calculation makes it easy to calculate the cost of fulfilling this “small request”.

Approx 100 longhaul aircraft, with approx 10 (used) seats per flight on average, assume two flights per day at say £100 duty per cart. That’s 2,000 passengers to be served. Or a whopping £20,000 per day in extra duty.

Over the year fulfilling that simple request adds up to £7.3m in extra tax, which will directly affect the bottom line and reduce investment in longer term initiatives (like the new cabin in F) or improving catering.

[StephenLondon]

Champagne is all you’ll get from SQ (and most others) on the ground – occasionally there are exceptions, but generally is is champagne and soft drinks. JL don’t even do pre-departure drinks…they wait until you’re aloft before a nice glass of fizz arrives.

BA have had cutbacks over the past two years – perhaps cutbacks that were a bit too much, too evident to customers and left the crew with not enough tools to work with. I believe that now more customers are returning to forward cabins, many of the cutbacks are being looked at, indeed reversed, so better quality, quantity and variety could soon be back on the menu.

As for BA F, the new cabins are great – I’ve flown them a few times now. I’ve never had any issue with wardrobe slammers (no more than I have on CX, for example). I found the seat and space to be super comfortable, stylish and certainly an improvement on the regular offering. I believe there are seven or eight aircraft embodied with the new product flying a variety of routes. The new 777-300ER deployed to the Gulf and India is superb – four new products on board show you the way BA is heading. All they need now is to up their catering game a bit, and BA will return to being a superlative air carrier.

[Hippocampus]

The City is expecting good Q2 results from BA this Friday so hopefully if the airline is now back in the black some of the catering cutbacks can be reversed.

[joeadvisory]

can anyone tell me whether BA flights to miami will have new F by december. lately this route has been terrible in F so much so thought about asking for downgrade to upperdeck

[Bucksnet]

Bill, sorry to hear you had such a bad experience in FIRST, but things are getting better so stick with it.

[TravelwaveBerlin]

I had also bad experience with my last flight in F -Class from SFO to LHR .
No welcome drinks offert.( 20 min to offblock).
The food was great, but after 3 hours of flight time was no food, no Snacks, no Peanuts etc available , only the Breakfest i was offered, which is actually should served prior to landing…
also Club Word Citchen was empty after 3 hours flight time. CSD told me “this is the new BA scheme for overnight flights from the US to UK”
Is this true ????? 11h flight time in F class – only Dinner and Breakfest ???
Where is the high service standard of BA gone??

[VintageKrug]

Most odd, travelwave.

I did SFO-LHR in F last month and enjoyed plenty of fresh sandwiches in the F section of the lounge, drinks on boarding (I have NEVER not been offered this) and enjoyed a delicious supper with a colleague in 1K, both pud and cheese (greedy, I know!) and woke up to a full English prior to landing.

There is also a broad range of dine anytime options in F, per the menu.

Club Kitchen can be denuded by WT+ gannets, but the crew normally hold a few things back (the soups are especially good if peckish) but really you should have had plenty from the F snack menu to occupy yourself, so I find that very strange.

Perhaps a bad CSD, or lazy crewmember who couldn’t be bothered?

Always best to escalate to the CSD (as it seems you did) if an issue like this occurs in F; it shouldn’t happen and is certainly not part of any new “BA scheme”.

Suggest a complaint to BA to get to the bottom of this, though with supper and breakfast even the most gluttonous should have been sated; I felt like a blimp after supper.

You could of course have chowed down after landing in the Concorde Arrivals Lounge with a sneaky Eggs Benedict if the old glucose levels were falling below 100%.

[flier74]

Lets be honest here, in a perfect world there should be consistency and all the experiences in FIRST or indeed any other cabin should not vary and be all the same.

However as we do not live in a perfect world there are many issues which can have an impact on all our experiences. Some were mentioned on here and yes while some Aircraft on all carriers feature brand new cabin equipment it always takes a while to roll it out across the fleets, and BA has many aircrafts to refit which will take its toll, so @joeadvisory, it is a gamble whether you gonna have the new PRIME FIrst on your flights, but no one will know until a few days out really.

There is no excuse really for grumpy Crew and the attached human factor, but once again it is a human factor. If I was you and I had a service related issue, let it be the Crew or a shortfall of the standard Product, bite the bullet and write to the Carrier. In a full FIRST cabin if everyone wishes to eat, inevitably some will be let down by not getting their meal choice, and yes this is bad, but if no one tells BA or indeed any other carriers then nothing will ever change. I know it is a pain to do but in the long term it may be worth it.

With regards to consistency- I have it, in good authority, that BA is trying to clamp down on it and a little letter may help, with the exact flight detials, and the Cabin Service Director and Senior Crew working in that cabin will be spoken to, in a nice and polite manner. At the end of the day all Carriers have certain Service levels and Standards and the Crew should follow those. If there is a shortfall of Product, do not take it personal, but the Crew should let you know. Thats how I see it. I hope many agree but am sure others have other views on this.

[jason1976]

Just in regards to pre-departure beverages, what vintagekrug states about the tax-free status of the booze is correct.

Duty paid chanpagne is loaded seperately at all stations to be used for pre-departure. The only exception to this is where some local laws prohibit the serving of it on the ground (some mid-east stations).

All other fizz/spirits/wines are in locked and sealed tax free bars that can only be un-sealed once airborne.

I would always oblige if someone asked for something other that the standard OJ/water/fizz in F or J…..such as another type of juice or a soft drink as there are kept in seperate storage carts which can be opened. But un-sealing the alcohol bars on the ground is a big no-no.

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