Originally Posted by
lost_in_translation
This looks very good, thanks for sharing. Note that LHR-JFK has better catering than a lot of the rest of the network so this is not necessarily representative of the quality you'd get elsewhere, but looks to me that at least on that route BA have come on absolute leaps and bounds in F.
You spend a lot of the time flying CX, right? At the risk of rocking the boat a little here, CX F catering is a very low bar to beat to me. I find it pretty poor (basically it's caviar then a load of stuff you'd get in J on other carriers apart from the Kaiseki service to/from TYO) and would say BA F catering is better on average.
I totally agree with you on this, on two fronts, food and service, with my recent experience on BA and CX F.
Comparing HKG-LHR vs LHR-JFK on BA F, LHR-JFK was significantly better on the food front. Service was very good on all flights, echoing many others comments.
Meanwhile my recent CX F experience was a FRA-HKG flight, so maybe not as prime a route, and resulting in my relatively worse experience.
Comparing CX/BA on the food front, other than the Caviar and the Chinese soup offered by CX, I'd say everything else I had on BA LHR-JFK was at a significantly higher bar, though BA HKG-LHR was a closer comparison. BA plating was significantly better.
On the service front, I felt the service / attitude of the FAs on BA to be at a much higher level than CX as well, across all flights. BA was always smiling and cheerful, and proactive in serving me. They always made sure I was full, gave me more food and wine than I asked for, and my glass was also basically never empty.
Meanwhile, CX took a very passive approach. As an example, after my main course, they would ask me "Sir, are you done with your meal?", almost as if they didn't want me to order Cheese/Dessert (even though I had specifically mentioned I wanted to order these later when ordering my app/main). The IFM also basically seemed like she was uninterested (but forced) to talk to me.
I was really looking forward to my CX flight, after all it is highly reviewed and seems that generally people rate it at a higher level than BA's F offering. So can't help but feel a bit disappointed with CX (and pleasantly surprised with BA).
On a side note, I think the BA JFK terminal is really run down (given its serving the top BA route). Maybe it was just my luck, I arrived at 6pm looking to get some dinner pre-flight, and the Concorde room was shut down for the day due to flooding. We were directed to the Galleries First lounge (where the food offering is a joke), and there was 30-45 minutes where the fire alarm went off across the whole terminal. There were super bright flashing lights, and very loud alarm noises which we couldn't escape from. Gave me a headache for 2 hrs. In the Elemis Spa, the showers were very old with exposed rusty steel (probably the shampoo dispenser fell off or something), and the only spa treatment available was the massage chair offering (how is that an offering.....?) as "the other therapist had something come up". Maybe just my luck?