First let me begin with the lunch, when is it served?
ARN-LHR scheduled 11.40 AM. After takeoff an extended breakfast was served 12.30 I don't want breakfast 12.30pm.
LHR-ARN 2.05pm. Afternoon tea with sandwiches.
So when is the slot for an actual lunch? Ok, nevermind I just find it strange.
A 3pm flight ARN-LHR. After takeoff a drink with nuts offered. After that afternoon tea. No drink runs but crew patrolled the cabin and refilled drinks for those of us thirsty
A 2.05 pm flight LHR-ARN. No drinks offered before the meal. Afternoon tea served after takeoff. After the meal, crew refilled drinks as necessary. 40 minutes before landing a proper drink run with carts which I found a bit unusual.
Let me be clear. I don't mind some variations in the service. It is just something I have noticed.
As for CE. Yes it's always worth the price even on an 2h flight. You get personal space, something to eat and drinks. My latest ticket in CE cost me £250 return which frankly is a bit worrying. Is CE so unattractive that the ticket price must be so low?
On the LHR-ARN flight, the purser walked with the iPad and introduced herself to all Gold members in the cabin. First time that has happened for me in CE It's a small gesture but I felt recognised however childish it can sound
My mum flew in Club Europe and I flew in Euro Traveller.
In Club Europe, my mum got missed for the breakfast service (and wasn't noticed for a good 15 minutes), in order to get orange juice had to get up and ask and there wasn't a single extra offer of extra drinks or indeed anything else. Despite only 10 passengers or so in club they had 2 crew members and that was all they could apparently manage.
Back in Euro Traveller, I got a croissant with cheese, muesli and orange juice offered to me.
Needless to say, she wasn't too impressed with the apparently superior levels of service in economy than in club.
I suggested we swapped seats on the flight home but for some reason she wasn't for having it...
LGW-AMS 09:10am
Hot towel offered, hot breakfast offered + drinks, bread baskets brought around, tea then coffee offered.
About 18 CE passangers and 2-3 cabin crew. Had some champagne to drink.
AMS-LGW 21:05
No hot towels, salmon salad + drinks offered, bread basket, tea + coffee offered.
LGW-JER 08:20
Same as LGW-AMS but choice of hot or continental breakfast. 9 rows of CE, 18 passengers.
Programs: Mucci de la Cuisine Aérienne du Réseau Courte Durée de British Airways
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The laid down service for afternoon tea and breakfast is to serve the meal and offer drinks with it. A pre drinks round is not laid down in the service standard for breakfast or afternoon tea.
On a Band 2 flight there is no drinks round first laid down, the drinks are served with the food in the service standards.
On Band 3 flights we do offer a drinks round before lunch and dinner (with the exception of, if it is a high club load and a short flight time, then it can be combined if the SCCM feels it would be hard to achieve both).
On a Band 4 flight you should always receive a separate drinks round first except on a breakfast flight.
If a flight is long, particularly if the initial service was breakfast, a bar round would be done later in the flight.
Please do feed back to BA that you are unhappy with the meal timings. The window for lunch is 12.00 - 13.59. As you point out the new Brunch service is served right up until 11.59 and this does mean that by the time it is served it is actually lunch time. Likewise afternoon tea goes on until 16.59 which is a time people are expecting a meal. Please feed back your upset because BA do react to feedback.
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(All my opinions are my own personal opinions and I do not speak for or on behalf of British Airways)
I've flown LUX-LHR several times recently in CE and was never offered a drink before food was served, which seemed odd. There've also been horrendous waits for the crew to emerge from the galley with anything at all, at one time 30(!) minutes into flight. LUX-LHR is not a long flight.
Considering that years ago hot meals were served quite efficiently on shorthaul flights with comparatively ancient equipment, I wonder if there has been some change in crew training etc. that might explain what appears quite frankly at times to be laziness on the part of crew.
No Fast Track vouchers are another issue.
Others complain there are no newspapers.
BA has to make these flights worth the money. I won't even begin my rant about CE check-in at BRU...
Programs: Mucci de la Cuisine Aérienne du Réseau Courte Durée de British Airways
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Action Man
I've flown LUX-LHR several times recently in CE and was never offered a drink before food was served, which seemed odd. There've also been horrendous waits for the crew to emerge from the galley with anything at all, at one time 30(!) minutes into flight. LUX-LHR is not a long flight.
Considering that years ago hot meals were served quite efficiently on shorthaul flights with comparatively ancient equipment, I wonder if there has been some change in crew training etc. that might explain what appears quite frankly at times to be laziness on the part of crew.
No Fast Track vouchers are another issue.
Others complain there are no newspapers.
BA has to make these flights worth the money. I won't even begin my rant about CE check-in at BRU...
LUX - LHR is a Band 1 flight and a drinks round before the meal is not part of the laid down service.
I know the loads in CE on these LUX flights are not that high but quite honestly it would be very hard to do a seperate drinks round on a flight of this length with the crewing levels that we operate with.
In fact with a flight this short it would be hard for the passengers to have time to eat their meal if a bar round first was attempted. I actually was wondering if your post was a wind up!
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(All my opinions are my own personal opinions and I do not speak for or on behalf of British Airways)
Last edited by Littlegirl; Dec 16, 12 at 4:11 pm..
LUX - LHR is a Band 1 flight and a drinks round before the meal is not part of the laid down service.
I know the loads in CE on these LUX flights are not that high but quite honestly it would be very hard to do a seperate drinks round on a flight of this length with the crewing levels that we operate with.
In fact with a flight this short it would be hard for the passengers to have time to eat their meal if a bar round first was attempted. I actually was wondering if your post was a wind up!
I think it's important to bear in mind that other airlines with similar flight times really do provide more brisk service than this. SN for example has pre-departure champagne. For someone normal, unfamiliar with Band X/Y/Z etc. serving a drink after the meal simply doesn't make sense. Overall I am happy with the service on that route but there is much room for improvement.
Programs: Mucci de la Cuisine Aérienne du Réseau Courte Durée de British Airways
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Action Man
I think it's important to bear in mind that other airlines with similar flight times really do provide more brisk service than this. SN for example has pre-departure champagne. For someone normal, unfamiliar with Band X/Y/Z etc. serving a drink after the meal simply doesn't make sense. Overall I am happy with the service on that route but there is much room for improvement.
I think the problem is that to be competitive in the European market with all the Low cost airline competition it is not possible to operate with high cabin crew numbers.
These short Band 1 flights are operated with just three cabin crew when the CE load is 15 or less. So that means you can have 15 CE passengers and 107 ET passengers on a very short flight with just 3 cabin crew.
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I just got back from a weekend in Dubrovnik in CE. Our outbound was scheduled at 1110-1450, so also hit the "brunch" slot. Options were "croissant or cold meat dish"....er, seriously? Not impressed by that at all (but thankfully thanks to FT, I knew about this so could eat accordingly in the lounge). I'm sure most pax would be expecting a proper meal.
Return catering in the evening was much better (beef stroganoff or salmon salad). Crew on both flights were excellent, constantly attending to requests, with barely time to eat their own meals. Club was full both ways stretching down to row 9.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Action Man
I think it's important to bear in mind that other airlines with similar flight times really do provide more brisk service than this. SN for example has pre-departure champagne.
I flew SN Business LHR-BRU in June and the service was awful. Two mean women who rolled their eyes when I asked for water AND orange juice with the sad looking breakfast . No preflight drinks, despite being on the ground for over an hour.
Location: All over the place often South Wales and Lake District
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Service standards are inconsistent, and poor on CE flights. Why should I have a dry mouth because I have nothing to drink with my meal? There used to be a small pot of water at least with the tray, but that's gone now. Instead we get that horrible 'sweet treat'. I'd much rather have a drink.
I don't want to have food, then a drink, I want a drink with my meal. I don't think it is too much to ask. I have fed it back a number of times through CR and GGL, but all I got was an email where the CR rep seemed to press too many standard reply buttons and it didn't deal with anything.
Extended Breakfast is a travesty. I was travelling with a colleague recently and they ran out of cold cuts and my colleague was given a small plate of fruit. Hang on a minute, didn't EB used to come with fruit? I had no fruit on my tray - which is getting smaller and smaller.
BA - stop p£££$$££ about with the tray sizes. Putting a few bits of fruit on a tiny tray does not make it look more substantial. Surely having 3 different tray sizes must be costing BA more money. Have one tray size and be done with it. Business class? Are you kidding me?
I had been wondering about the spring water, it used to always be there in the tea cup!
I'm sure that most of us appreciate that cabin crew are not responsible for BA catering mishaps. But equally, those of us that buy CE tickets are not responsible for the 107 people in ET who paid a fraction of the price of our tickets. For up to £400 for a 1hr flight, crew should show a bit more spark. Meal issues are one thing, but mineral water? In business class? Why not take drink orders on the ground?
I hope people take these comments on board, most of us fly BA and have the same interests of the company at heart...
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Action Man
I had been wondering about the spring water, it used to always be there in the tea cup!
I'm sure that most of us appreciate that cabin crew are not responsible for BA catering mishaps. But equally, those of us that buy CE tickets are not responsible for the 107 people in ET who paid a fraction of the price of our tickets. For up to £400 for a 1hr flight, crew should show a bit more spark. Meal issues are one thing, but mineral water? In business class? Why not take drink orders on the ground?
I hope people take these comments on board, most of us fly BA and have the same interests of the company at heart...
Unfortunately you seem to have unrealistic expectations of what is possible to achieve on a short flight.
Everyone that regularily posts on here knows that I always put the customer first in all that I do and I already have on other threads and do agree with many points about the new Brunch service and the new timings that have recently been brought in and mentioned in this thread.
However taking a drinks order on a LUX and doing a drinks round prior to serving the food on a Band 1 flight is just not achievable.
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(All my opinions are my own personal opinions and I do not speak for or on behalf of British Airways)
I don't want breakfast 12.30pm.
. No preflight drinks, despite being on the ground for over an hour.
