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DME food service "enhancement"; no more hot meals

DME food service "enhancement"; no more hot meals

Old Apr 23, 2014, 12:17 pm
  #16  
 
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Oh forgot to say at British Business Club tonight the BA Rep was informed about peed off people and both they and the RBCC are making complaints on behalf of their members.

World Traveller is not a stale cheese sarnie product!... Er yet as it may be enhanced soon
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Old Apr 23, 2014, 12:22 pm
  #17  
 
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Originally Posted by Behindthecurtain
It actually is worse, as the overnight is a mix as well. Tge 767 runs 6 nights and the 321 on tuesday night. I got it and the crew were actively making the point that due to having to carry both in and out there was no room for hot food and stating that they had made the point that a club world / world traveller service should not get a worse package than Euro Traveller / Club Europe and should not differ on one night a week as well as one flight a day. They confofmed this is a may-oct thing and reverts back to 2 x 767 and a 747 from October and were handing out complaints cards and asking everyone who made a comment or chatted to them to get on to BA and complain as its us they listen to and not crew.
Take the "confirmation" from the crew around reverting back to 2 x 767 and a 747 from October with a large pinch of salt.
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Old Apr 23, 2014, 12:23 pm
  #18  
 
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Originally Posted by rxfleming
Well I call BS on the excuse given by the CSD. The A321 with bmi was more than capable of giving all customers a hot meal in Y and J.
I did 6 years with these exact aircraft too and from DME when BMI were able to do it, so that answer does not compute, though this is what the staff said. Anyways if you want to avoid this dont fly tuesday evening.
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Old Apr 23, 2014, 12:27 pm
  #19  
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Originally Posted by Behindthecurtain
I did 6 years with these exact aircraft too and from DME when BMI were able to do it, so that answer does not compute, though this is what the staff said. Anyways if you want to avoid this dont fly tuesday evening.
Cheese toasties take up less space
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Old Apr 23, 2014, 12:48 pm
  #20  
 
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Originally Posted by Behindthecurtain
It actually is worse, as the overnight is a mix as well. Tge 767 runs 6 nights and the 321 on tuesday night. I got it and the crew were actively making the point that due to having to carry both in and out there was no room for hot food and stating that they had made the point that a club world / world traveller service should not get a worse package than Euro Traveller / Club Europe and should not differ on one night a week as well as one flight a day. They confofmed this is a may-oct thing and reverts back to 2 x 767 and a 747 from October and were handing out complaints cards and asking everyone who made a comment or chatted to them to get on to BA and complain as its us they listen to and not crew.
It should only be a sandwich on a 321 flight to Moscow and in WT. The 767 and 747 rotations are round catered with the normal long-haul catering.

Obviously the cabin crew are not happy with this situation either.

Can I ask, were you not advised about this ahead of time as we have been told that customers will be aware of the catering change on these 321 flights?
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Old Apr 23, 2014, 1:22 pm
  #21  
 
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A reminder that current fleet plans see the departure of ALL 767s next year.

As a lot of us know, 767s operate a lot of B4 routes too (lunch and dinner return)
I.e IST, ATH, LCA ... And these flights will be operated by Airbus too.......
A cold sandwich on a flight that can take four hours on the return is just shabby..... But a similar enhanced B3 catering also operates on one of the canary island flights that is return catered from LHR too.....
Amazing that BMI used to be able to offer a full service on these aircraft and BA are claiming they can't....
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Old Apr 23, 2014, 1:37 pm
  #22  
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Originally Posted by Skipcool3
A reminder that current fleet plans see the departure of ALL 767s next year.

As a lot of us know, 767s operate a lot of B4 routes too (lunch and dinner return)
I.e IST, ATH, LCA ... And these flights will be operated by Airbus too.......
I indeed did not think of that, and it feels scary! But I believe that those (definitely IST and I think also ATH and LCA?) are catered locally for return flights at the moment so hopefully that will remain so (I hope....)
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Old Apr 23, 2014, 2:08 pm
  #23  
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Originally Posted by orbitmic
I indeed did not think of that, and it feels scary! But I believe that those (definitely IST and I think also ATH and LCA?) are catered locally for return flights at the moment so hopefully that will remain so (I hope....)
Hmm. I'm sure no-one at BA is watching to see if the grumbling leads to a tangible reduction in the number of bums on seats, or reluctant acceptance of the new catering arrangements which could be fiscally rewarding for BA if adopted elsewhere...
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Old Apr 23, 2014, 2:13 pm
  #24  
 
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It is only fiscally rewarding for the airline if it maintains custom and more importantly, yield.

If you are flying easyjet and can grab either the front row or exit seats -then it is fine, and at least you at least have the option to buy something, cold or hot, and prices can be half what BA want to charge for DME.

Last edited by Skipcool3; Apr 23, 2014 at 2:39 pm
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Old Apr 23, 2014, 2:28 pm
  #25  
 
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Wow.....just wait til they try to return cater a LHR-SIN-SYD!
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Old Apr 23, 2014, 6:41 pm
  #26  
 
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Originally Posted by Littlegirl

Can I ask, were you not advised about this ahead of time as we have been told that customers will be aware of the catering change on these 321 flights?
I'm not sure how this could work in practice?

Should BA be proactively calling all customers booked on these services? In English and Russian?? I've just done a dummy booking on ba.com on these specific A321 services in WT in both directions and nothing is mentioned.

In decades of flying BA in all classes, with all levels of status (except Premier!) during these years, the only comms I have had from BA in advance of my flights has been one SMS informing me of a delay and one SMS informing me of a cancellation... never anything about the service offered on my flights..

Last edited by ThatT1Feeling; Apr 23, 2014 at 6:53 pm
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Old Apr 23, 2014, 9:59 pm
  #27  
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Originally Posted by Skipcool3
It is only fiscally rewarding for the airline if it maintains custom and more importantly, yield.

If you are flying easyjet and can grab either the front row or exit seats -then it is fine, and at least you at least have the option to buy something, cold or hot, and prices can be half what BA want to charge for DME.
BA only listen to the big corporate accounts in my experience. The big accounts can and have forced a change of approach. I am not sure if there are many big accounts flying heavily to DME but individual feedback is pissing in the wind I feel.
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Old Apr 24, 2014, 12:09 am
  #28  
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Originally Posted by ThatT1Feeling
I'm not sure how this could work in practice?
Minimum step would be a written warning when booking on the BA website along the lines of the "sleeper service" warning.

I tend to agree with Land-of-Miles though that only corporate customers or 'voting with one's feet' matter.
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Old Apr 24, 2014, 1:17 am
  #29  
 
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How do Aeroflot compare? They often fly the A321 into LHR. How also AF/KLM and the likes if LH? I know AF offer hot meals on their A320/1 services having used them in the past on the CDG-DME route.
When BA fails to listen to former BMI staff with such expertise as packing a galley efficiently, it only goes to show what an ancient corporate dinosaur they still are.
Somehow I doubt a poxy Avios offering is going to fix this problem for BA.

How do charter airlines operating a321 with an all Y config cope with offering a round trip meal product, full paid bar service and gift rounds? BA have no excuses to pull out of the bag other than cost control.
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Old Apr 28, 2014, 7:04 am
  #30  
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I did post a detailed complaint to BA, in which I asked a number of specific questions about their decision to offer this as a meal, and to use the A321 on this route, and just received the following very underwhelming response:

Thank you for your email dated 22 April 2014. I apologise for the delay
in our response. We are sorry we were unable to provide you with the meal
service you would expect on your flight to London Heathrow due to
operational reasons. I can understand how disappointing this must have
been for you. Please accept our apologies.
This was followed by a couple of standard paragraphs about how seriously they take customer feedback.

Looks like I'll need to think twice before flying an A321 anywhere on BA again.
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