EDITED as I somehow originally quoted the wrong response!
Originally Posted by
KeaneJohn
I can’t remember how long it took for the service to bed in on the 787 and A380 when they went into normal service but the A 350 has been around for 3 months now and a recent review on The Points Guy UK of WT service to Dubai was pretty scathing with the first meal service taking over half the flight and trays not collected for over an hour after passengers had finished eating. Pretty sure this isn’t down to poor crews reading between the lines the galley space appears to be not great and I thought there were mumblings about something similar on the Madrid familiarisation flights.
BA also hasn’t over densified other aircraft have they squeezing in more seats, removing duty free, reducing bathroom sizes to the extent that 2 rows need to be blocked off on flights and/or passengers asked to remain seated until the cargo is unloaded to prevent the plane from tipping up because of a weight and balance issue. ����
They’ve also not reduced tray sizes in Club Europe either...... ����
Given how fuel efficient the A350 is over other aircraft I personally can’t see them only being used for 7-8 hour hops only and not longerFlights.
Like them or loathe them bloggers wouldn’t do anything to jeopardise their livelihood. It’s not reasonable for them to reveal their sources as we don’t challenge people here when they give a valuable insight to new routes etc. Clearly here a few feathers have been ruffled at BA for them to deny it.
The only thing I would criticise Gilbert for is that he accused BA staff here of being plants which isn’t the case and he apologised for that.
As has been pointed out there’s been no definite evidence in this claim and people have been hostile for someone daring to have a different view.
The proof of the pudding as they say is in the eating... so we will see if either service standards are changed or a redesign is forthcoming.
With regards to sources on the matter of long haul going back to Manchester Gilbert has offered a charity bet that this WILL happen so he is confident in his BA sources or has a good poker face.
A balanced response. The only thing is, I think we have to distinguish between two things:-
1) Is there physically the space to stow two hot services? MFCC has confirmed there is. I read the blog as saying there wasn’t and citing removal of ice cream as an example, but MFCC has told us where it is stored, so, to me, the blog post was potentially inaccurate there.
That said, I’d be interested to hear whether any cutbacks have been made on return catered items to make stuff fit. For instance, my understanding is there are ‘main bars’ and ‘back up’ bars - I wonder how the 350 compares to other long haul a/c on this and whether we will see ‘rationing’ going on.
2) Can the service be properly delivered? I think everyone sane accepts the galleys are small. I believe cabin crew have to prep & set up the second service on long haul (ie build the different parts of the tray). I wonder whether crew are internally feeding back on how cramped it is & how this is slowing down their service - especially given when trying to clear in from second service you often get passengers queuing for washrooms etc so could get in the way. In extremis I could see BA putting in extra space but they would be loathe to do so I’m sure!
There’s also some confusion about ‘long haul’ and ‘mid haul’. Basically BA has two versions of long haul service - one to places such as the Middle East & East Coast America, where there is a hot meal followed by a lighter pre arrival service (or the other way around) - then on other long haul services they offer two full hot meals.
Long haul food catering on BA has definitely now got back to where it was (and in some ways been improved) in 2008 in all cabins except for F.