I am sitting here at home in the deafening silence of Edinburgh at 5:00am yet hopelessly alert having arrived back from SFO on yesterday's BA284. You'd think that over time the body would get used to the time adjustments but no, not today anyways.

Was asked to fill in one of those on board surveys by the CSD, and as ever I am happy to oblige. Most boxes warranted ticks in either the very satisfied or extremely satisfied boxes. Thing is, I felt that the service on board was a little lackluster which reflected in the scoring of that part of the survey. Not that I used the L word, comments more along the lines of service could have been more proactive. Overall, the experience was good: crew friendly, good humoured and laughed at my jokes (which probably goes beyond the call of duty) but there was a number of minor flaws if isolated wouldn't be worthy of comment. Thing is there was several and overall a little less that I have come to expect from service in First. I have listed these below:

• Presented with meat canapes: I returned these to the galley and pleasantly chatted with the purser whilst my VGML trolley was dissected. They couldn't be found but hey, no big deal.
• Total absence of hot towels. Toilets were devoid of towels too.
• Bread wasn't offered with the starter, the hot vegetable selection and subsequently wasn't offered at all.
• Rather than being asked would I like pudding before cheese, the offer was expressed as dessert or cheese. Cheese selection was a bit disappointing for First, more Club Europe standard and probably came from the VGML trolley loaded for me.
• Tray cleared, coffee order taken but no offer of chocolates with coffee. Crew member serving me up to that point disappeared and I didn't see him again until breakfast so I was left to fend for myself and trek to the galley for a refill.
• Similar trek about an hour later for water - one shouldn't be expected to make a special request for a water bottle, right?
• Breakfast: with no info forthing on the VGML hot brekkie I opted for the muesli which was very good, I must add.

So shortly after the CSD passed by to collect the survey, the crew member who looked after me popped by firstly to apologise and secondly to find out why I didn't think the service was up to scratch. I suppose the most critical of comment I made was that I felt the service was not consistent with what I would expect in First rather it was generally of club world standard and I was given the impression that the cabin was understaffed on this flight, so I guess it was appropriate for him to probe deeper.

Up until now, I have held a firm belief that it is the crew's tone that makes or breaks the service. I suppose now, that expectation plays a much larger part. As for the final two questions: likelyhood of recommending BA to a friend or family member and likelyhood of travelling on BA again in the future, I shall leave that to your imagination