BA2704 LGW-TFS - Aug 2023
My first time experiencing a wet lease, operated by Avion Express. Pushback was delayed by some 1h15m due to a mismatch between the airport's manifest and the actual number of passengers on board, then once that was resolved a takeoff slot was missed. There were a couple of announcements from the pilot during the course of delay, but aside from that I didn't get much of a sense of the cabin crew feeling or expressing that they were apologetic - they did look frustrated and in fairness did want to get on with the job. But I'd bet that BA FAs would have handled the situation differently.

Service thereon was well-intentioned and efficient - no more than 10-15min after takeoff did the FAs progress swiftly with the F&B service - if lacking the warmth and British manner you'd expect from the experienced BA FAs. No menus were offered and the options were "beef, salad with sal-mon, cannelloni".


“Beef”


Cannelloni

Three of our family of four went for the beef, which I assumed was the (in?)famous beef cheeks. It was fine, flavoursome and the rice better than expected though the beef probably not as tender as it could have been and not piping hot when I got to it. Nonetheless, thumbs up from the Mrs and both my young boys. I didn't taste the cannelloni but the Mrs reported it was "not tasty" and left most of it. The older one did however enjoy the Eton mess.

Both the Mrs and I very much enjoyed the cheeseboard and the a blue cheese paired fantastically well with the fig (?) chutney.

To the FAs' credit they did run the drinks trolley diligently up and down the 8 rows at least twice and the Castelnau was flowing, but disappointingly when I asked for some iced water about halfway into the 4+hr flight I was told the ice had already melted.

The flight didn't feel too long with a meal service, I feel it would have been better with a real BA crew like we had on the return leg, though there wasn't anything really bad about the service.