BA173
LHR-JFK
November 2024

My first experience of the dreaded brunch service, although being seated in the first row of Club World on a 77W helped secure my first choices for each course. Service commenced with a pre-departure drink choice of pre-poured champagne or orange juice from a tray. My request for sparkling water was tended to promptly. Menus were distributed and brunch orders were taken before pushback. Hilariously, the menu's introductory write-up (and design) promised to showcase 'the best of Indian culture', despite there being precisely no Indian-inspired options available to order.







After takeoff, hot towels were offered before service commenced. In the first obvious brunch cost-cutting measure, there was no pre-meal bar service, with post-takeoff drinks delivered at the same time as starters. The Loch Fyne smoked salmon was fine, if quite an uninteresting and insubstantial dish when compared to the usual starters offered for lunch. There was no soup option. The tray was delivered with particularly un-fresh looking 'fresh seasonal fruit' as an accompaniment, which sat on the tray through both of the first two courses before being sent back.



For my main course, I'd secured the only non-breakfast option to enjoy at 12:55; the imaginatively titled Cornish chicken breast. This was quite decent, even if it wasn't a looker and won't win any award for creativity or premium ingredients. My Reisling was kept topped up, although between brunch and afternoon tea only one drink was proactively offered as the crew were largely absent.



With no choice of dessert, I took the vanilla panna cotta and enjoyed it as much as I had done on my last Club World flight in August. Unsurprisingly few people had chosen the artisan cheese plate as a starter per the menu, meaning there were enough for me to have one at the proper time at the conclusion of the meal.



Afternoon tea was served around 90 minutes before landing; I went for the non-vegetarian sandwiches, which were all perfectly adequate. Fruit scones appear to have been enhanced away. I would like BA to offer an alternative to afternoon tea for those with less of a sweet tooth.



BA offered 15,000 Avios as compensation for the debacle of brunch on this sector. The sooner it's consigned to the history books the better.